The Sufyani (Arabic: السفیاني) is a figure in Islamic eschatology who is usually portrayed in hadiths as a tyrant who will spread corruption and mischief.
[5] However, some mostly Sunni sources claim Hadith describing the Sufyani are unreliable,[6][7] based on a "garbled version" of a legend "fabricated by traditionists with Shia and pro- 'Abbasid sentiments".
[9] Before the Sufyani appears, a sedition will arise in the Maghreb and spread in every direction such that no party or group could protect itself from it.
A man from my family will appear in the Haram, the news of his advent will reach the Sufyani and he will send to him one of his armies.
At the Gate of Istakhr, Shu'ayb bin Salih and the Hashimites will join forces and engage his army.
On some of the details of the Sufyani tale, scholar Muhammad Benshili casts doubt, stating, it is not possible to determine whether he will send two armies against the Mahdi or only one, or if he himself will be swallowed up with his troops or remain in Baghdad.
[7] Scholar Wilferd Madelung writes that the prophesy of the Sufyani "as the rival and opponent of the Mahdi, has repeatedly attracted the attention of modern scholars", who trace it not to divine revelation but to enemies of the Abbasid dynasty and their various hopes that some "member of the Sufyinid branch of the house of Umayy" would lead an overthrow of the Abbasids and restore the Umayyad dynasty.
Supporters of Abbasid dynasty then turned this into a prophesy of an AntiChrist figure who would kill good Muslims.
Some of these are still recognizable in the garbled version fabricated by traditionists with Shi'ite and pro- 'Abbasid sentiments in which he was transformed from a Syrian hero into a figure resembling the Dajjal.
"[8]William McCants also finds a connection between Shia historical anger and the prophecy of an apocalyptic enemy named Sufyani.
He writes that the Sufyani is alleged in-hadith to descend from Abu Sufyan, whose son fought Muhammad's son-in-law, Ali, for control of the Islamic empire.
Ibn Abu Sufyan eventually became caliph and established the Umayyad dynasty, but followers of "the losing side", who thought Ali should be Caliph Shia and "began circulating words of the Prophet prophesying the new dynasty's downfall at the hands of the Mahdi", quoting one prophecy as saying: "When the Sufyani reaches Kufa [a city in Iraq] and kills the supporters of the family of Muhammad, the Mahdi will come,"[9] In contrast, McCants writes that while Sunnis also have prophecies about a Sufyani, some include him in a heroic mode, "fighting on the side of the Mahdi against his enemies: 'The Sufyani and the Mahdi will come forth like two race horses.
McCants quotes Adnan al-Aroor, a "popular Syrian Salafi cleric", hoping for the appearance of the Sufyani to lead the Sunni rebels to victory in the Syrian civil war: "God willing, all of us will be in the army of the Sufyani, who will appear in (Syria) by the permission of God," prayed Adnan al-Arur, a popular Syrian Salafi cleric and supporter of the rebellion who currently lives in Saudi Arabia.