Shia believes that Imam al-Mahdi was born in the year 869 A.D (255 A.H) in Samara and went into the hiding soon after. Since then, the Imam is still alive and will appear, when Allah decides, to save the world from oppression and injustice. Our Sunni brothers mostly believe that the Imam’s father Imam al-Hassan al-‘Askarī (the Shia’s eleventh Imam) did not have a son and that Imam has not yet been born. We, the Shia, claim that Sunni sources are replete with narrations proving our claim which is that the Imam was born centuries ago and is now alive. These narrations are so much remarkably narrated in Sunni sources that no one can dismiss them or misinterpret them. We, the Shias, beleve that Sunni sources are replete with narrations proving our claim which is that the Imam was born centuries ago and is now alive. These narrations are so much remarkably narrated in Sunni sources that no one can dismiss them or misinterpret them. Hence, we are going to study a set of narrations which is famous as “the twelve caliphs”.
The sources of this narration
- Muslim narrates in his Sahīh from Jābir bin Samurah saying,
«سمعت رسول الله صلى الله عليه و سلم يقول: لَا يَزَالُ الْإِسْلَامُ عَزِيزاً إِلَى اثْنَيْ عَشَرَ خَلِيفَةً ثُمَّ قَالَ كَلِمَةً لَمْ أَفْهَمْهَا فقلت لأبي ما قال فقال كُلُّهُمْ مِنْ قُرَيْش».[1]
“I heard the Prophet to have said, ‘Islam will remain respectful as far as twelve caliphs rule over people.’ Jābir adds, ‘Then the Prophet said something that I could not hear. Therefore I asked my father (who was present and was closer to the Prophet), ‘What did the Prophet say?’ And he replied ‘The Prophet said, ‘All of them are from the Quraysh tribe.’”
This narration is mentioned in Sahīh Muslim through some different chain of narrations.
- Muslim also narrates in his Sahīh saying,
عَامِرِ بْنِ سَعْدٍ بنِ أبی وقّاص قَالَ: «كَتَبْتُ إِلَى جَابِرِ بْنِ سَمُرَةَ مَعَ غُلَامِي نَافِعٍ أن أَخْبِرْنِي بِشَيْءٍ سَمِعْتَهُ مِنْ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ قال: فَكَتَبَ إلیَّ سَمِعْتُ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ ص يَوْمَ جُمُعَةٍ ... یَقُولُ: لَا يَزَالُ الدِّينُ قَائِماً حَتَّى تَقُومَ السَّاعَةُ أو يَكُونَ عَلَيْكُمُ اثْنَا عَشَرَ خَلِيفَةً كُلُّهُمْ مِنْ قُرَيْش».[2]
“‘Āmer bin Sa‘d bin Abī Waqqās says, ‘I wrote to Jābir bin Samurah to write to me something that he heard from the Messenger of Allah and I sent the letter to him with my slave Nāfe`. Jābir wrote to me, ‘I heard the Messenger of Allah on Friday… to have said, ‘The religion of Islam will remain strong till the Day of Judgment, or if there are twelve caliphs who rule over you and all of them are from the Quraysh tribe.’”
- Al-Termezī narrates from Jābir bin Samurah saying,
قال رسول الله صلى الله عليه و سلم: «يَكُونُ مِنْ بَعْدِي اثْنَا عَشَرَ أَمِیراً. قال: ثُمَّ تَكَلَّمَ بِشَيْءٍ لَمْ أَفْهَمْهُ. فَسَأَلْتُ الَّذِي يَلِينِي فَقَالَ: قَالَ كُلُّهُمْ مِنْ قُرَيْشٍ».[3]
“The Messenger of Allah said, ‘After me there are twelve emirs.’ Then the Prophet said something that I could not hear, therefore, I asked a person who was next to me about it and he said, ‘The prophet said, ‘all of them are from the Quraysh tribe,’”
Then al-Tirmizī adds, “This narration is accepted (meaning it possesses a healthy chain of transmitters).”
4- Abū Dāvūd narrates from Jābir bin Samurah saying,
«سمعت رسول الله صلى الله عليه و سلم يقول: لَا يَزَالُ هَذَا الدِّينُ عَزِيزاً إِلَى اثْنَيْ عَشَرَ خَلِيفَةً قَالَ فَكَبَّرَ النَّاسُ وَ ضَجُّوا ثُمَّ قَالَ كَلِمَةً خَفِيَّةً فَقُلْتُ لِأَبِي: یا أَبَةِ مَا قَالَ؟ قَالَ: كُلُّهُمْ مِنْ قُرَيْش».
“I heard the Messenger of Allah to have said, ‘This religion will still remain honorable (and impenetrable by the enemy) as so far as there are twelve caliphs (among them)’ Here people said ‘Allah is the Great’ and the voice of excitement raised among them. Then the Prophet said something in a lower voice (that I could not hear) and asked my father, ‘My dear father! What did he say?’ And he replied, ‘The Prophet said, ‘All of them are from the Quraysh.’”
5- Hākim al-Haskānī narrates from Abū Juhayfah saying,
«كنت مع عمى عند النبي صلى الله عليه و آله فقال: لَا يَزَالُ أَمْرُ أُمَّتِي صَالِحاً حَتَّى يَمْضِيَ اثْنَا عَشَرَ خَلِيفَةً ثم قال كلمة و خفض بها صوته فقلت لعمى و كان امامي: ما قال يا عم؟ قال: قال: يا بَنِيَّ كُلُّهُمْ مِنْ قُرَيْش».
“I along with my uncle were in the presence of the Prophet and he said, ‘My nation will still remain righteous as long as there is twelve caliphs among them.’ Then the Prophet lowered his voice and said something. I told my uncle who was in front of me, ‘O my uncle! What did the Prophet say?’ and he replied, ‘O my dear son! He said that all of them are from the Quraysh.’”
6- Al-Muttaqī al-Hindī narrates from Jābir bin Samurah saying,
«لا يزال هذا الامر ظاهرا على من ناواه، لا يضره مخالف ولا مفارق حتى يمضي منهم اثنا عشر خليفة من قريش».
“This religion will remain always victorious over its enemies and no one who opposes it nor someone who leave this religion will do any harm to it as long as there is twelve caliphs, who are from the Quraysh, are among them.”
7- Al-Muttaqī al-Hindī narrates from the Prophet to have said,
«يكون لهذه الأمة اثنا عشر قيما لا يضرهم من خذلهم، كلهم من قريش».
“There will be twelve guardians for this nation then those who want to make them despicable cannot do any harm to them. All of them are from the Quraysh.”
8- Al-Muttaqī al-Hindī relates another narration from the Prophet to have said,
«لن يزال هذا الدين قائما إلى اثني عشر من قريش، فإذا هلكوا ماجت الأرض بأهلها».
“This religion will remain strong as long as there are twelve (Caliphs), who are from the Quraysh, among them. When these people pass away the earth will not remain steady for its inhabitants.”
9- Ahmad narrates in his Musnad from Masrūq saying,
«كُنَّا جُلُوساً عِنْدَ عَبْدِ اللَّهِ بْنِ مَسْعُودٍ يُقْرِئُنَا الْقُرْآنَ فَقَالَ رَجُلٌ يَا أَبَا عَبْدِ الرَّحْمَنِ هَلْ سَأَلْتُمْ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ صلی الله علیه و سلم كَمْ يَمْلِكُ هَذِهِ الْأُمَّةَ مِنْ خَلِيفَة؟ فَقَالَ عبد الله بن مسعود: مَا سَأَلَنِي عَنْهَا أَحَدٌ مُنْذُ قَدِمْتُ الْعِرَاق قبلك ثم قال: َ نَعَمْ سَأَلْنَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ صلی الله علیه و سلم فَقَالَ: اثْنَا عَشَرَ عِدَّةُ نُقَبَاءِ بَنِي إِسْرَائِيل».
“We were sitting in the presence of ‘Abd al-Allah bin Mas‘ūd and he was reciting the Quran for us when a man asked him saying, ‘O Abā ‘Abd al-Rahmān! (the cognomen of Abduallah bin Mas‘ūd) did you asked the Messenger of Allah that how many of caliphs his nation will have.’ ‘Abd al-Allah bin Mas‘ūd replied, ‘Since I came to Iraq no one ever asked me about it.’ Then he said, ‘Yes. We asked it from the Messenger of Allah and he replied, ‘They will be twelve like the twelve headmen of the Children of Israel.’”
10- Ibn Kathīr narrates from Jābir bin Samurah saying,
«قال رسول الله صلى الله عليه و سلم: لَا تَزَالُ هَذِهِ الْأُمَّةُ مُسْتَقِيماً أَمْرُهَا ظَاهِرَةً عَلَى عَدُوِّهَا حَتَّى يَمْضِيَ اثْنَا عَشَرَ خَلِيفَةً كُلُّهُمْ مِنْ قُرَيْشٍ فَلَمَّا رَجَعَ إِلَى مَنْزِلِهِ أَتَتْهُ وُفُودُ قُرَيْشٍ فَقَالُوا لَهُ: ثُمَّ يَكُونُ مَا ذَا؟ قَالَ: يَكُونُ الْهَرْج»
“The Messenger of Allah said, ‘The affairs of this nation will not be twisted and it will be victorious over its adversaries up until the twelve caliphs who are from the Qurysh exist among them.’ When the Prophet returned back to his home, the Quraysh came to him asking, ‘Then, what would happen after that?’ The Prophet replied, ‘After that (the earth) would be in chaos.’ (It may mean that the Day of Judgment will begin.)”
Ahmad bin Hanbal relates this narration in his Musnad from Jābir bin Samurah through thirty four different chain of transmitters (with little differences in wordings).[4]
The sources of this set of narrations are much more in Sunni books than what we mentioned. Moreover, in Shia books, this narration is narrated so much that have reached the level of certainty and many of them are authentic.
Sheikh Hurr al-‘Āmilī gathered the different versions of this narration from various books and they equal nine hundred and twenty seven ones all of which points to the twelve Imams (caliphs). In some of them the name of these Imams are clearly mentioned that leaves no dark points with regard to what the Shia believe.[5]
If we study these narrations, we can conclude that the Prophet should utter them in various occasions and in different places since many people have narrated them. The result is that it is impossible to claim that these narrations are all forged, especially when a considerable part of these narrations possesses a healthy chain of transmitters.
Some points with regard to these narrations:
- The number of these caliphs is twelve and they consecutively come one after each other and after the twelfth one, the life of the next world will begin. Some of the mentioned narrations say that they are equal to the number of headmen of the Children of Israel as Allah says in the Quran:
﴿وَ لَقَدْ أَخَذَ اللَّهُ ميثاقَ بَني إِسْرائيلَ وَ بَعَثْنا مِنْهُمُ اثْنَيْ عَشَرَ نَقيبا﴾[6]
“And verily, Allah took the covenant from the Children of Israel; and We appointed twelve chieftains from among them.”
- As long as these caliphs are among people, the earth will remain clam. But after the twelfth one, the earth would become an unsteady place and no one can live on it (meaning that the Day of Judgment will begin then).
- All of these Imams are just and rightful to the degree that Islam will become consolidated by them and the adversaries could not harm it. Consequently, no oppressor ruler like Mu’āwiyah who opposed Imam Ali in different battles or Yazīd who killed Imam al-Hussain, or Walīd and Mutiwakkil are not included in this list.
- After the Prophet up to the Day of Judgment, there will be no time that the earth is vacant of one of these caliphs.
- All of these twelve caliphs are from the Quraysh tribe.
- After the twelve caliphs there will be chaos on the earth that would mean the Day of Judgment would begin and the earth would not be a steady place for its inhabitants.
It is totally interesting to see that Abū Dāwūd in his Sunan when relating this narration places it under the title of “the narrations pertaining to al-Mahdi” it shows that he realized these narration just can be in agreement with the twelve Imams of the Shia whose final Imam is Imam al-Mahdi.[7]
Conclusion:
The claim is that these narrations just include the twelve Imams of the Shia, the first of which is Imam Ali bin Abī Tālib and the last of them is Imam al-Mahdi. These people are exactly twelve and all of them are from the Quraysh tribe and each of them succeeded the previous one without a gap.
Sunni brothers put themselves into severe difficulties to find out who these twelve people are but they failed to find them.
For instance, Ibn ‘Arabī in his explanation on the book of Sunan written by al-Tirmezī states, “We listed the caliphs who came after the Prophet and witnessed that the first of them is Abū bakr then ‘Umar, ‘Uthmān, Ali, al-Hassan, Mu‘āwiyah…” then he enumerates twenty seven of them. When he wanted to come to the conclusion adds that either we have to stop to the twelfth of them while the number is much more, or have to count the most important of them which does not goes beyond the number five who are the four Sunni caliphs and ‘Umar bin ‘Abd al-‘Azīz. Therefore, no clear meaning is understood from these narrations.[8]
We can also add that why the Prophet, in all of these numerous narrations, just insisted on this fixed number while Sunni caliphs were more than that. The Prophet did not know the exact number of them or he purposefully wanted to offer a wrong number?
Then Bin Hajar al-‘Asqalānī in one of his books quotes from Bin Jūzī who says “I really spent time to understand the meaning of these narrations, but could not actually understand its real meaning.”
Then Bin Hajar who apparently could not solve the problem adds that in some traditions a man with the name al-Mahdi will come and it is probable that these twelve people come after him since, all of them are from the Quraysh.
If what Bin Hajar says is true, then why did the Prophet say that “after him” there are twelve caliphs?
Moreover, why should the Prophet talk so much about twelve caliphs after the Mahdi while there is no single talk about them in other narrations? Also, why the Prophet should ignore his immediate caliph like Abū bakr and never regard him as his caliph even in a single narration, but talk so much about twelve caliphs after al-Mahdi who are totally unknown and unnamed and there is no sign of them in other narrations?
Al-Sīyūtī is another example of those who explained away these narrations, the man is one of the famous Sunni scholar, and says, “The Prophet just said that after him till the Day of Judgment there will be twelve just caliphs and never said that they will consecutively come after each other.”[9]
This explanation of al-Sīyūtī is irrelevant to these narration and is so far-fetched that Mahmūd Abū Rayyāh says about it in his book, “al-Sīyūtī here is like a man who wants to collect firewood at night (who in darkness sees nothing and would make his hands wounded by touching sharp things like the thistles and the thorns)”[10]
The multiple strange justifications that Sunni brothers tried to offer is never relevant with the easy meaning of these narrations. However, we the Shia are at ease with those intricate explanations and believe that the Prophet has pointed to the twelve Imams of the Shia who are all from the Quraysh and they consecutively followed one after the other without any interruptions and the last one of them is Imam Mahdi who is bestowed with a long age.
Source: The Final Hope, April 2016, Issue no. 16.
Smtavakol@gmail.com
[1] Sahīh Muslim, vol. 3, p. 6, Dār al-Fikr Publication.
[2] Sahīh Muslim, vol. 3, p. 8, Dār al-Fikr Publication.
[3] Sunan al-Termezī, vol. 3, p. 340, Dār al-Fikr Publication.
[4] Mosnad Ahmad, vol. 5, pages 86 to 108.
[5] Isbāt al-Hudā, vol. 2.
[6] The Quran, 5:12.
[7] Sonan, Abū Dāwūd, vol. 2, p. 309, Hadith 4279.
[8] Sharh Inb ‘Arabī, vol. 9, p. 68.
[9] Tārīkh al-Khulafā. P. 12.
[10] Adwā ʻAlā al-Sunnah al-Muhammadīyyah, p. 212, printed in Egypt.
