بسم الله
الرحمن الرحيم
والصلاة
والسلام على رسوله الكريم
وعلى اهل بيته
الطيبين الطاهرين المظلومين
والعاقبة للمتقين
The Ithna Ashari or Twelver sect of Shiism point
to the Hadith of the Twelve Caliphs narrated by sayyidina Jabir bin Samurah ؓ to justify
their doctrine of there being twelve infallible Imams, beginning with Amir
ul-Muminin Ali bin Abi Talib ؓ and ending with their supposed “Mahdi”, Muhammad bin Hasan
al-Askari. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said:
لاَ يَزَالُ الإِسْلاَمُ عَزِيزًا
إِلَى اثْنَىْ عَشَرَ خَلِيفَةً
“Islam will not cease to be mighty until there have
been twelve caliphs”
كُلُّهُمْ مِنْ قُرَيْشٍ
“Each of them will be of Quraysh” (Sahih Muslim)
In another version:
لاَ يَزَالُ الدِّينُ قَائِمًا
حَتَّى تَقُومَ السَّاعَةُ أَوْ يَكُونَ عَلَيْكُمُ اثْنَا عَشَرَ خَلِيفَةً كُلُّهُمْ
مِنْ قُرَيْشٍ
“The Religion will not cease to be established until
the establishment of the Hour or until there have been over you twelve caliphs,
each of them of Quraysh” (Sahih Muslim)
The Twelver Shiah naturally assert that this prophecy
is a reference to their twelve Imams. However, this is impossible because the
Hadith describes them as being khalifah which necessitates that they are
individuals who will actually rule over the Muslims. None of the twelve Imams
of the Shiah, with the exception of the first, Amir ul-Muminin Ali bin Abi
Talib and his son sayyidina
Hasan , wielded political
authority over the Muslim community or were caliphs. Secondly, if the Prophet ﷺ was
referring to the twelve Imams of the Shiah, he would have said that each of
them will be from my ahl al-Bayt, or at the very least, from among Banu
Hashim or Banu Abd ul-Muttalib. Instead, the Prophet ﷺ said each of
them will be from Quraysh, a broader category which includes other clans that
are not from the ahl al-Bayt. Likewise, it would make more sense for him to say
that with the exception of sayyidina Ali himself, each of them would be from the progeny of sayyidatuna FatimahAS,
or he could have said that they are sayyidina Ali and eleven others from his children, or he could have
said they are all Talibids, from the children of Abu Talib. Rather, he said
they are all from Quraysh. Imagine a group of tourists, each and every one
being from China, visit New York City. A curious local asks them: “where are
you all from?”, and in response they say “we are all from Asia”, instead of “we
are all from China”! It would only make sense for them to say “we are all from
Asia”, if they were from different countries within Asia, but since they are
all from the same country, China, they should say “we are from China” instead
of “we are from Asia”. In summary, these are some of the compelling reasons to
reject the Shiite interpretation of the Hadith of Jabir bin SamurahRA
that it is a reference to their twelve Imams.
But from our perspective, if not the twelve Imams, then
who are the twelve Caliphs of Quraysh, under whose rule Islam shall not cease
to be mighty and established, referring to? The first thing the reader should
keep in mind is that this Hadith is not necessarily a commendation of the
twelve caliphs. It is only a prophecy that declares that Islam will continue to
be strong and established in the time of these twelve individuals, who are
described as “caliphs”. Secondly, it should also be noted that according to the
wording of this Hadith, it is not necessary that these twelve caliphs of
Quraysh come one after another consecutively. From the orthodox and mainstream
Sunni perspective, the Prophet’s first four rightly-guided successors, namely, sayyidina
Abi Bakr al-Siddiq ؓ, sayyidina Umar al-Faruq ؓ, sayyidina Uthman bin Affan ؓ, and sayyidina Ali al-Murtada ؓ are obviously the first four of these twelve caliphs of
Quraysh. There is a very strong case to say that sayyidina Hasan al-Mujtaba ؓ is the fifth
of the twelve caliphs of Quraysh, although his caliphate lasted for only six
months before he abdicated for the noble purpose of putting an end to the civil
war that had split the Muslims in his time. Now in my view, which is perfectly
in tune with the wording of the prophecy, the sixth of the twelve caliphs of Quraysh
was Umar bin Abd ul-Aziz, an Umayyad ruler who was a Mujaddid that revived the Sunnah
and the system of the Khilafat al-Rashidah. I believe that another one
of these twelve caliphs is yet to come, but the Prophet ﷺ has described him:
يَكُونُ فِي آخِرِ الزَّمَانِ
خَلِيفَةٌ يَقْسِمُ الْمَالَ وَلاَ يَعُدُّهُ
“There will be, in the end of time, a Caliph who will
distribute wealth without counting it” (Sahih Muslim)
This is regarded as a reference to the Imam al-Mahdi , a man from the ahl al-Bayt and progeny of FatimahAS,
who will establish justice in the land after it was filled with tyranny and
oppression. Now we know that the system of Khilafat ala Minhaj an-Nubuwwah
will in the future be revived, perhaps in connection with the advent of Imam
al-Mahdi, and its restoration proceeds a period of coercive, dictatorial rule:
ثُمَّ تَكُونُ مُلْكًا جَبْرِيَّةً
، فَتَكُونُ مَا شَاءَ اللَّهُ أَنْ تَكُونَ ، ثُمَّ يَرْفَعُهَا إِذَا شَاءَ أَنْ
يَرْفَعَهَا ، ثُمَّ تَكُونُ خِلَافَةً عَلَى مِنْهَاجِ النُّبُوَّةِ ثُمَّ سَكَتَ
“Then there shall be coercive kingship, so it shall be
as long as Allah wills it to be, then He will obliterate it when He wills to
obliterate it, then there shall be Caliphate upon the methodology of
Prophethood. Then he ﷺ was silent.” (Musnad
Ahmad) The caliphs of that restorative period, if they are of Quraysh, are
certainly elligible for being described as being among those twelve caliphs
regarding whom the Prophet ﷺ said that they are those through whom Islam shall not cease to
be mighty and established. According to a version of the Hadith of Jabir bin
SamurahRA:
كُلُّهُمْ تَجْتَمِعُ عَلَيْهِ
الأُمَّةُ
“The Ummah will be in concensus regarding each
of them” (Sunan Abi Dawud #4279)
However, these words are not authentically established
from the Prophet ﷺ.
