501 H)...

501 H): والخليفة يقال للواحد والجمع ، وهاهنا [هو] جمع ، فإن الخليفة لم يرد به آدم عليه السلام فقط ، بل أريد هو وصالحو أولاده ، فهم خلفاؤه The word Khalifah is used to refer to a single person or to a group. Here(4), it is plural. This is because the word Khalifah (there) does not refer to Adam, (PBUHH), alone. Rather, it refers to him and the righteous ones among his offspring. So, they are His (i.e. Allah’s) Khalifahs .

(5) Therefore, it was linguistically permissible for the Prophet to refer to his bloodline as his Khalifah , to indicate that each of them was his Khalifah individually. Secondly, like in the case of Adam, the word Khalifah in the ahadith is not a reference to all the members of the bloodline indiscriminately. Rather, as stated in the other ahadith , the khalifahs among them are only twelve of their righteous ones.

Each of these khalifahs stands in the Messenger’s position as the amir of the Ummah and substitutes for the latter in his command roles. So, each of them is also our amir , the amir of our Prophet over us. The big questions then rise here: 1. How many are the khalifahs of Sunni Muslims? 2. What percentage of them were from the Prophet’s bloodline, his ? 3. What percentage of them remained eternally inseparable from the Qur’an, as stipulated by the ahadith ? 4.

And what percentage of them acted for the Messenger of Allah? Without a doubt, the Sunni khalifahs were in their dozens. Meanwhile, the khalifahs for this Ummah , according to its Prophet, are only twelve. So, it is either none of them was a Khalifah for the Ummah , or only twelve of them were. Perhaps, the worst part of it all is that none of the dozens of Sunni khalifahs – apart from Amir al-Muminin and Imam al-Hasan – was from the Prophet’s bloodline.

In particular, Abu Bakr, ‘Umar, ‘Uthman, Mu’awiyah and Yazid – the primary Sunni khalifahs – were all from outside the bloodline of the Messenger. This fact singlehandedly kicks them out of the scope of the legitimate Khilafah ! Apparently, Sunni Islam itself survives upon the legitimacy of the Khilafah of Abu Bakr, ‘Umar, ‘Uthman, Mu’awiyah and Yazid at the least. Should their Khilafah – or that of any of them – collapse, the Sunni religion as a whole die with it.

So, the Sunni ulama make all the desperate efforts they can and go to all desperate lengths to deny the legitimate Khilafah of the and uphold the patently illegitimate Khilafah of the others. It is a survival tactic for them.