ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books The Twelve of the Holy Prophet Bewildering Interpretations The scholars of the school of Caliphate are at pains to explain the traditions that mention the Twelve . We present herewith, in brief, their contradictory explanations. Ibn al-'Arabi says in his "Sharh Sunan al-Tirmidhi" : We have counted the Amirs after the Holy Prophet (S) as twelve.

We found them as follows: Abu Bakr, 'Umar, 'Uthman, ‘Ali, Hasan, Mu'awiyah, Yazid, Mu'awiyah ibn Yazid, Marwan, 'Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, Yazid bin 'Abd al-Malik, Marwan bin Muhammad bin Marwan, As-Saffah... After this there were twenty-seven caliphs from the Bani Abbas. Now if we consider twelve of them we can reach only till Sulayman. If we take the literal meaning we have only five of them and to these we add the four Righteous Caliphs, and 'Umar bin 'Abd al-'Aziz...

I cannot understand the meaning of this Hadith.[^1] Qadi 'Iyad, says in reply to the claim that there shall be only twelve Caliphs; "The number of Caliphs are more than that. To limit their number to twelve is incorrect. The Holy Prophet (S) did not say that there will be only twelve and there is no scope for more. Hence it is possible that there can be more.[^2] Al-Suyuti says: There are only twelve Caliphs until Qiyamat.

And they will continue to act on truth, even if they are not continuous.[^3] It is mentioned in Fath al-Bari that: Four of them (the Righteous Caliphs) have passed.

The rest also must pass before Qiyamat.[^4] Ibn al-Jawzi says: "It can be concluded that the phrase "then there will be discord" implies the disturbing events like the coming of Dajjal and whatever will come after it."[^5] Al-Suyuti has explained as follows: We see that from the twelve, four are the Righteous Caliphs, then Hasan, then Mu'awiyah, then Ibn Zubayr, and finally 'Umar bin 'Abd al-'Aziz. They are eight. Four of them remain.

Maybe Mahdi, the Abbasid could be included as he is an Abbasid like 'Umar bin 'Abd al-'Aziz was an Umayyad. And Tahir 'Abbasi will also be included because he was a just ruler. Thus two more are yet to come. One of them is Mahdi, because he is from the Ahlul Bayt (a.s.).[^6] It is also said: It could also mean that the twelve Imams will remain during the period of Islam's supremacy. The time when Islam will be a dominant religion. These Caliphs will, during their tenure, glorify the religion.