God knows best what is right, one interpretation of these various narrations is this:

The Great Mahdi will have numerous functions. He will carry out duties in the world of politics, the world of religion, the world of government, and in the many spheres of the world of jihad.

Similarly, since every century at a time of despair people are in need of a sort of Mahdi to strengthen their morale or for the possibility of a Mahdi appearing at that time to assist them, through Divine mercy, every age or perhaps every century a sort of Mahdi has appeared from among the Prophet’s (PBUH) descendants, and preserved his forefather’s Sharia and revived his Sunna.

The narrations about the Mahdi are various because Muhammad (Peace and blessings be upon him) saw persons who would perform some of the Great Mahdi’s works; for example, the Abbasid Mahdi in the world of politics, and Gawth al-Azam (Shaykh AbdulQadir Gilani), Shah Naqshband, the four spiritual poles (Ahmad al Rufai, Ahmad al Badawi, Ibrahim al Dassuqi, Abul Hasan al Shazali), and Twelve Imams in the world of religion. For this reason some of the people of reality said that he had already appeared.. Anyway, since this matter has been explained in the Risale-i Nur, we refer discussion of it to that and here only say this: