What mission did Muhammad Ahmad al-Mahdi say that God had given him?

Muhammad Ahmad al-Mahdi proclaimed that God had appointed him to a divine mission to purify Islam and to destroy all governments that defiled it.3

He viewed himself as a mujaddid, or a "renewer" of the Muslim faith, with the specific goal of reforming the religion and returning it to the pristine form practiced by the Prophet Muhammad. By lashing out against the existing administration, he was addressing both secular maladministration and what he perceived as theological heresy. In March 1881, he revealed this mission to his closest followers, and by June of that year, he publicly assumed the title of al-Mahdi, a figure expected to restore the faith and herald an era of light and righteousness.123