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[Edited from Wiki.]
Hadith of the Twelve Successors
The Hadith of the Twelve Successors is a famous hadith in Islam, in which the Islamic prophet Muhammad speaks about twelve Muslim rulers succeeding him. It is found in both Sunni and Shi'a hadith books.
THE HADITH
"There will be twelve Muslim rulers. All of them (those rulers) will be from Quraish."
"The (Islamic) religion will continue until the Hour (day of resurrection), having twelve Caliphs for you, all of them will be from Quraysh."
"This religion remains standing until there are twelve vicegerents over you, all of them agreeable to the nation, all of them from Quraysh."
"There will be after me twelve Amir (Prince/Ruler), all of them from Quraysh."
Masrooq says that someone asked Abdullah Ibn Masood, "Did you ask the Messenger of Allah how many caliphs will rule this nation?". He replied, "Yes, we did ask the Messenger of Allah and he replied, "Twelve, like the number of chiefs of Bani Israel"."
SHIA VIEW
Shias see the 'Hadith of the Twelve Successors' as a basis for their belief in a succession of Imams. Shi'a argue that the "Twelve Successors" must have come in succession, arguing from the term "Successors" (Arabic: Caliph). Twelver Shiites in particular identify the "twelve rulers" with their twelve Imams from Ali to Muhammad al-Mahdi.
Musnad Ahmad ibn Hanbal : Prophet said, “Don't try to find faults with ‘Alī, he is indeed from me and I am from him, he is your leader after me.”
Musnad Ahmad ibn Hanbal : When the āyah "And warn your relatives of nearest kin" (26:214) was revealed, the Prophet gathered his family around him and treated 30 of them to a meal and then said: "Who is willing to guarantee my debts and commitments so that he should be with me in paradise and should be my successor from among my family." A person whom Shurayk did not name, answered: O Messenger of Allah you are like a sea, who can take charge of this responsibility. The Prophet repeated his statement to his relatives, and (Imam) 'Alī [('a)] replied: "I will undertake this responsibility."
Sheikh Sulayman Balkhi Hanafi in his Yanabiu'l-Mawadda, ch.76, reports from Fara'idu's-Simtain of Hamwaini, who reports from Mujahid, who reports from Ibn Abbas : that a Jew named Na'thal came to Muhammad and asked him questions about Tawhid (Unity of Allah). Muhammad answered his questions and the Jew embraced Islam. Then he said: "O Holy Prophet, every prophet had a wasi (vicegerent). Our Prophet, Moses Bin Imran, made a will for Yusha Bin Nun. Please tell me who is your wasi?" The Holy Prophet said: "My vicegerent is Ali Bin Abi Talib; after him are Hasan, and Husain and after them are nine Imams, who are the successive descendants of Husain."
Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Tha'labi in his Manaqib and Tafsir, Ibn Maghazili Faqih Shafi'i in his Manaqib and Mir Seyyed Ali Hamadani in his Mawaddatu'l-Qurba (Mawadda VI) : narrate from the Second Rightly-Guided Caliph, Umar bin Khattab, who, when the Muhammed established fraternal and brotherly ties between the companions, said, 'This Ali is my brother in this world and in the hereafter. Among my descendants he is my caliph; he is my successor (vicegerent) in my community. He is the heir to my knowledge; he is the payer of my debt. What belongs to him belongs to me; what belongs to me belongs to him; his benefit is my benefit and his loss is my loss. He who is a friend of his is really a friend of mine and he who is an enemy of his is really an enemy of mine."
LINKS TO THE BIBLE
Various Muslim authors link the 'Hadith of the Twelve Successors' to verses in the Biblical Book of Genesis, which relates God speaking to Abraham:
Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, "Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?" And Abraham said to God, "If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!"
Then God said, "Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation. But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you by this time next year." Genesis 17:17-21
The twelve rulers are commonly understood to refer to the twelve sons of Ishmael:
These are the names of the sons of Ishmael, listed in the order of their birth: Nebaioth the firstborn of Ishmael, Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, Mishma, Dumah, Massa, Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish and Kedemah. These were the sons of Ishmael, and these are the names of the twelve tribal rulers according to their settlements and camps. Genesis 25:13-16
Some Muslims reject this identification, identifying Gen. 25:17-20 as a direct quotation of God and Gen. 25:13-16 as the fallible narration of a human author. Further, they argue that 25:16 contains the specifier "tribal" not contained in 17:20, "twelve rulers".
The Shi'a draw a further distinction, arguing that God is not in interested in secular power and refers to the religious authority of prophets or Imams when using the words "rulers" or "kings". According to this argument, the Biblical authors refer to kings or others with secular power when using the same words. Proponents of this view identify the words "great nation" with the Muslim community and not with kingdom. Note however that Twelver Shias consider the Imams not only as religious leaders but also as princes and the rulers.
Muslims identify the "twelve rulers" mentioned in Genesis with the Twelve Successors of the Hadith. For instance, the 14th century Sunni scholar Ibn Kathir stated:
"We see the following prophecy in the Taurat which is in the hands of the Jews and the Christians: "Indeed Allah, the Exalted, has given Ibrahim (a.s.) the glad tidings of Isma'il, and he has bestowed a favour and multiplied it and placed in his progeny twelve mighty (personalities)"." ...
Ibn Taymiyya said: "And these are the same, regarding whom the Prophet (s.a.w.s.) has given the glad tidings in the tradition of Jabir ibn Samurah and stated their number; indeed this is with regard to the Imams and the Hour will not come till they last."
Since these successors, whether Caliph or Imam, originate from the tribe of the Quraish, from which Muhammad sprang, they are considered descendants of Ishmael.
A quote from the Shia Imam Muhammad al-Baqir refers to Abraham's prayer narrated above:
"We are the remnant of progeny. And that was the prayer of Ibrahim (a.s.) regarding us."
Several sources also link the Hadith of the Twelve Successors to Twelve tribes of Israel with the words
"Twelve Caliphs, (like) the number of the Chiefs of Bani Israel."
A few sources also draw a link to Moses:
"There will be Caliphs after me, whose number is like those of the companions of Musa."
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[Source: Wikipedia. July 2012.]
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