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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books The Role of Holy Imams in Revival of Religion The Interpretation of This Hadith and the Perplexity of Its Commentators In reference to this type of Hadith, the Sunnite schools commentators and experts arrived at a dead end. They couldn't find a meaning for them in the narrow gulf of the Caliphate schools accepted beliefs.

They also could not precisely pinpoint the identity of these twelve persons, or say how a group of twelve consecutive leaders could endure and remain until resurrection day, or what special characteristics this group possessed seeing that Islams' honour and dignity was linked to them. Can anyone, with any type of personality hold this position, or is it necessary for him to be a just righteous Caliph?

First: The famous canonist Ibn Al-Araby in his commentary on Tirmidhis book "Sunan" says: "We will count the Caliphs after the Holy Prophet. We find them as such: Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, Ali, Hassan, Muavieh, Yazid ibn Muavieh, Muavieh ibn Yazid, Marwan, Valid, Suaiman, Uman ibn Abdul Aziz, Yaiz ibn Abdul Malik, Marwan ibn Mohammad ibn Marwan, Saffah, Mansour........

He continues in this manner the listing and counting of the Caliphs and counts up to twenty-seven more of them upto his lifetime (543 A.H). He then says: "If we were to count twelve of them from the beginning of the Caliphate, having in mind those who possessed the Caliphate of the Prophet in appearance, we find that this twelve ends with Sulaiman Ibn Abdul Malek.

However, if we count them keeping in mind those who in reality and in its true meaning possessed the Caliphate of the Prophet [meaning that they were righteous and just], we will only have five members in this group; the first four Caliphs and Umar ibn Abdul Aziz. Because of this I find no meaning for this Hadith". 133 Qazi Aiyaz the reputable sunnite traditionalist says in answer to the question: Haven't a much larger number of persons reached the Caliphate than twelve?!

(That is a futile protest because the Holy Prophet has not said: Other than twelve there will be no other Caliphs. No, he has said that there will be such a number; which there was. This statement of the Prophet does not prevent there being a greater number) 134 Another scholar has said: The Prophets intention is that there will be twelve Imams throughout Islams existence until resurrection day who will act righteously.