Hadith of the twelve successors

Template:Short description The hadith of the twelve successors (Template:Langx) is a widely-reported prophecy, attributed to the Islamic prophet Muhammad, predicting that there would be twelve successors after him. As there were many more rulers after Muhammad, Sunni authors have variously identified these twelve successors with some of these rulers. In Twelver Shia, these successors are instead identified with their Twelve Imams. Their last imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi, is believed to miraculously remain in occultation since 874 CE, and is expected to return in the end of times to eradicate injustice and evil.

Sunni sources

Several variants of the hadith of twelve successors appear in Sunni sources, usually related on the authority of Jabir ibn Samura (Template:Died in), a companion of the Islamic prophet Muhammad,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn but also narrated from other companions, such as Abd Allah ibn Mas'ud (Template:Died in), Anas ibn Malik (Template:Died in), Umar (Template:Died in), Wasila ibn Asqa', Abd Allah ibn Umar (Template:Died in), Abu Huraira (Template:Died in),Template:Sfn Salman the Persian (Template:Died in), Aisha (Template:Died in), and Uthman (Template:Died in).Template:Sfn In particular, the Sunni jurist Ahmad ibn Hanbal (Template:Died in) furnishes this hadith with thirty-four chains of transmission, all of which lead to Jabir ibn Samura.Template:Sfn A version of this hadith in the canonical Sunni compilations and quotes Muhammad,Template:Sfn

There will be twelve successors (Template:Singular ) after my death, all of them from the [tribe of] Quraysh.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

In fact, dedicates a whole section to variants of this hadith,Template:Sfn and such statements are also cited by Sunni scholars Na'im ibn Hammad (Template:Died in), al-Tirmidhi (Template:Died in), al-Tabarani (Template:Died in), al-Hakim al-Nishapuri (Template:Died in), and Ibn Asakir (Template:Died in).Template:Sfn A version of the hadith cited by the Sunni traditionist Abu Dawud (Template:Died in) adds that the Islamic community would be united during the reign of these twelve successors.Template:Sfn Another version in reads similarly, "People's affairs will be properly conducted as long as twelve men will lead them."Template:Sfn Therein another close variant is, "This religion [Islam] will be exalted as long as there are twelve successors."Template:Sfn Yet another version of the hadith predicts that anarchy and turmoil would prevail after the reign of these twelve successors.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Some versions even imply that the world will end after these twelve successors. For instance, a version of the hadith quoted by Abu Dawud reads, "This religion [Islam] will exist as long as there exist twelve successors from the Quraysh," which implies that the total lifespan of these twelve successors extends to the end of time.Template:Sfn In some versions of this hadith, (Template:Lit) or (Template:Lit) or appear instead of .Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn In another version, these twelve successors are compared to the twelve leaders () of the Bani Isra'il.Template:Sfn In favor of its authenticity, the Islamicist Hossein Modarressi argues that the hadith of twelve successors must have been in circulation during the reign of the Umayyad caliph Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik (Template:Reign), long before the reported occultation () of the twelfth and final Shia imam Muhammad al-Mahdi in 874 CE.Template:Sfn

Identification with the caliphs

Some have argued that these twelve successors cannot be the first twelve caliphs after Muhammad because that list includes Yazid I (Template:Reign) who killed Husayn ibn Ali, the grandson of Muhammad, and assaulted Medina, a city held sacred in Islam.Template:Sfn Alternatively, in his commentary on , the Sunni theologian al-Qastallani (Template:Died in) suggests that this hadith may refer to twelve (non-consecutive) Muslim rulers, whose relatively stable reign was followed by the unstable rule of the Umayyad caliph al-Walid II (Template:Reign). Even though he does not name them, he is probably referring to the four Rashidun caliphs (Template:Reign), Mu'awiya I (Template:Reign) and his son Yazid I, Abd al-Malik (Template:Reign) and his four sons, and Umar II (Template:Reign). The second proposal of al-Qastallani is that the hadith may refer to twelve concurrent claimants to the caliphate who supposedly competed for power in the eleventh century. His third proposal is that the hadith may refer to the golden age of Islam that ended with the death of Umar II in 720. This means fourteen rulers, however, rather than twelve. So, al-Qastallani removes Mu'awiya II (Template:Reign) and Marwan I (Template:Reign), saying that their reigns were too short. He does, however, retain Hasan ibn Ali (Template:Reign).Template:Sfn The Sunni jurist al-Nawawi (Template:Died in) interprets this hadith similarly in his commentary on .Template:Sfn By contrast, with an anti-Umayyad attitude, the Sunni author al-Fadl ibn Ruzbihan (sixteenth century) identifies the twelve successors in the hadith as the "five" (rather than four) Rashidun caliphs, followed by Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr, Umar II, and five unnamed Abbasid caliphs.Template:Sfn Such interpretations have been criticized for the absence of a clear distinction between the proposed twelfth successor and the next caliph.Template:Sfn

Twelver Shia sources

File:ShiaImamsNames (cropped).jpg

Names of Muhammad, his daughter Fatima, and the Twelve Imams, inscribed on the tilework of the shrine of Ali al-Rida, the eighth of the Twelve Imams, Mashhad, Iran

Before the occultation

Perhaps the earliest Shia versions of the hadith of twelve successors appear in , attributed to Sulaym ibn Qays (Template:Died in), who might have been a companion of Ali ibn Abi Talib, the first Shia imam.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn One version therein is related on the authority of Ali and some other Shia figures, including Abd Allah ibn Ja'far (Template:Died in) and Salman the Persian. According to this version, shortly before his death in 632, Muhammad told his companions at the Ghadir Khumm,Template:Sfn

Oh people, the legal power () is granted only to Ali ibn Abi Talib and the trustees from my progeny, the descendants of my brother Ali. He will be the first, and his two sons, al-Hasan and al-Husayn, will succeed him consecutively. They will not separate themselves from the Quran until they return to God.Template:Sfn

Until the late ninth century, however, such statements in did not garner much attention among the Imamite Shias,Template:Sfn the antecedents of the Twelver Shias.Template:Sfn In particular, the hadith of twelve successors is absent from the works of the Imamite scholars of that time, including Muhammad ibn al-Haan al-Saffar (Template:Died in), Sa'd ibn Abd Allah al-Ash'ari (Template:Died in), and Ibn Qiba (died before 930).Template:Sfn It was probably some decades after the occultation of their twelfth imam in 874 that the Imamites realized that their line of imams may not continue as before and identified their twelfth imam with the eschatological Mahdi.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Only then the number of Shia imams became a central issue for the community.Template:Sfn

After the occultation

The Shia traditionists al-Kulayni (Template:Died in) and Ibn Babawahy (Template:Died in) were among the first who reported hadiths that set the number of Shia imams at twelve. In particular, al-Kulayni dedicates a chapter in his hadith collection to the number of imams.Template:Sfn Sulaym's version of the hadith is also cited by the Shia authors al-Kulayni, al-Nu'mani (tenth century), and al-Tusi (Template:Died in), while the Shia-leaning historian al-Mas'udi (Template:Died in) questions its authenticity.Template:Sfn Another version of the hadith, cited by Ibn Babawahy on the authority of Ibn Abbas (Template:Died in), youngest cousin of Muhammad, explicitly identifies the twelfth successor as the twelfth Shia imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi, who is often referred to as al-Qa'im (Template:Lit) in the Twelver hadith literature.

I [Muhammad] am the master of the prophets and Ali is the master of my trustees, of whom there will be twelve; the first one is Ali, and the last is al-Qa'im.Template:Sfn

Identification with the Twelve Imams

Noting that there have been many more (temporal) rulers after Muhammad, Twelver authors readily identify the twelve successors in this hadith with their Twelve Imams.Template:Sfn For instance, the Twelver cleric Ja'far Sobhani argues that the dignity of Islam rests on these twelve successors, and this alone disqualifies the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphs, in his view.Template:Sfn The last of these imams, Muhammad al-Mahdi, is believed to miraculously remain in occultation since 874, and is expected to return in the end of times to eradicate injustice and evil.Template:Sfn Even beyond Twelver Shias, the belief in the eschatological figure of Mahdi is popular among all Muslims, possibly owing to numerous traditions to this effect in canonical Sunni and Shia sources.Template:Sfn Mohammad Ali Shomali, a Shia scholar and an academic, links the occultation of the twelfth Shia imam to those Sunni versions of the hadith of twelve successors that imply the continuation of their reign until the end of times.Template:Sfn

Zaydi sources

Variants of this hadith also appear in Zaydi Shia sources. The Zaydi scholar Abu Sa'id Abbad al-Asfari (Template:Died in) quotes Muhammad in his ,

I and eleven of my descendants and you, O Ali, are the axis of the earth, that is, its tent pegs and its mountains. By us, God has secured the world so that it will not sink with its people. For when the eleventh of my descendants has died the world shall sink with its people without warning.Template:Sfn