Hadith of the Twelve Successors

Several similar variants of the tradition exists in Sunni sources, usually related on the authority of Muhammad's companion[1] Jabir ibn Samura (d. 66/686),[2] but also by other companions, such as Abd Allah ibn Mas'ud (d. c. 653), Anas ibn Malik (d. 93/712), Umar (d. 24/644), Wa'ila ibn Asqa', Abd Allah ibn Umar (d. 74/693), Abu Huraira (d. 680),[1] Salman the Persian (d. c. 32/652), Aisha (d. 678), and Uthman (d. 35/656).[2] The version in the canonical Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim quotes Muhammad,[3]

There will be twelve successors (khalifas) after my death, all of them from the Quraysh.[2]

This version is also cited by Na'im ibn Hammad (d. 228/844), al-Tirmidhi (d. 279/892), Ibn Asakir (d. 571/1176), to name a few.[3] In particular, Ahmad ibn Hanbal (d. 241/855) narrates it with thirty-four chains of transmitters, all of which are on the authority of Jabir ibn Samura.[4]

In some versions, amir (lit. 'commander') or qayyim (lit. 'guardian') or Imam appear instead of kalipha.[4][3] The version cited by Abu Dawud (d. 275/889) adds that the Islamic community would be united during the reign of these twelve successors.[3] Another version predicts that anarchy and turmoil would prevail after their reign.[3][5] Another version compares these twelve successors to the twelve leaders (al-nuqaba) of Banu Israil.[1] Modarressi argues that this hadith was in circulation during the reign of the Umayyad Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik (r. 724–743), long before the reported occultation (ghayba) of the twelfth and final Shia Imam Muhammad al-Mahdi in 260/874.[6]

In his commentary on Sahih al-Bukhari, al-Qastallani (d. 923/1517) suggests that the hadith refers to twelve (non-consecutive) Muslim rulers, whose relatively stable reign was followed by the unstable rule of al-Walid II (r. 743–744). Though he does not name them, he is likely referring to the four Rashidun caliphs (r. 632–661), Mu'awiya I (r. 661–680) and his son Yazid I (r. 680–683), Abd al-Malik (r. 685–705) and his four sons, and Umar II (r. 717–720), according to Kohlberg. His second proposal is that the hadith refers to twelve concurrent claimants to the caliphate who, he claims, competed in the fifth/eleventh century. His third proposal is that the hadith refers to the golden age of Islam that ended with the death of Umar II in 101/720. This means fourteen rulers, rather than twelve. So al-Qastallani removes Mu'awiya II (r. November 683 – June 684) and Marwan I (r. June 684 – April 685), saying that their reigns were too short. He does, however, retain Hasan ibn Ali (r. January 661 – August 661).[7]

Al-Nawawi (d. 676/1278) gives a similar explanation in his commentary on Sahih Muslim. With an anti-Umayyad attitude, al-Fadl ibn Ruzbihan (tenth/sixteenth century) instead identifies the twelve successors as the "five" (rather than four) Rashidun caliphs, Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr, Umar II, and five Abbasid caliphs whom he does not name.[7]

Perhaps the earliest Shia versions of this hadith appear in the Kitab Sulaym ibn Qays, attributed to Sulaym ibn Qays, who might have been a companion of Ali.[8][9] One version therein is related on the authority of Ali, Abd Allah ibn Ja'far (d. c. 699), and Salman the Persian, among others. Shortly before he died in 11/632, Muhammad is reported to have told his companions at Ghadir Khumm,[8]

Oh people, the legal power (al-wilaya) 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 Allah.[10]

Sulaym's statement did not garner much attraction until the late third/ninth century among Imamites,[9] who went on to form the Twelver community after the occultation of their twelfth Imam in 260/874.[11] In particular, this hadith is absent from the works of the contemporary Imamite Muhammad ibn al-Haan al-Saffar (d. 290/903), Sa'd ibn Abd Allah al-Ash'ari, and Ibn Qiba. This was the case, Modarressi argues, because the Imamite community in the first decades of the occultation likely expected their twelfth Imam to reemerge soon and the line of the Imams to continue as before. It was probably sometime after 295/908 that the community realized that there might not be a manifest Imam for the foreseeable future, Modarressi writes. Only then the number of Imams became a central issue.[9]

Al-Kulayni (d. 329/941) and Ibn Babawahy (d. 310/923) are among the first Imamite traditionists who include in their works such hadiths that set the number of the Imams at twelve. In particular, al-Kulayni has a chapter in his canonical Kitab al-Kafi about the number of Imams.[12] As for Sulaym's hadith above, al-Kulayni, al-Nu'mani, and al-Tusi (d. 460/1067) all cite it while al-Mas'udi questions its authenticity.[13]

Another version of the hadith, cited by Ibn Babawahy on the authority of Ali, identifies the twelfth successor as Muhammad al-Mahdi, who is often referred to as al-Qa'im (lit. 'he who will rise') in the Twelver hadith literature.[14][15] This version ascribes to Muhammad,

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

Noting that there have been many more (temporal) rulers after Muhammad, the Twelver authors identify the twelve successors in this hadith with their Twelve Imams.[2] The Twelver Sobhani adds that the dignity of Islam rests on these twelve successors, and this alone disqualifies the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphs, in his view.[16] As for Mahdi, the belief in this eschatological figure remains popular among all Muslims, possibly owing to numerous traditions to this effect in canonical Sunni and Shia sources.[17]