Tradition

لا يَزَالُ هذَا الدِّينُ عَزِيزاً مَنِيعاً إِلَى إثْنى عَشَرَ كُلُّهُمْ مِنْ قُرَيْش

The Prophet (S) is narrated to have said: “This religion will always be eminent and safe from the hands of the enemies until twelve individuals have ruled and all of them will be from the Quraysh.”1

Brief Commentary

Many of the most accepted books of the Ahl al-Sunnah have mentioned similar traditions in regards to the twelve leaders. These books include: Sahih Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, Sahih Tirmidhi, Sahih Abu Dawud, Masnad Ahmad, as well as many others. These narrations number around 271 when we count all of the Shia and Sunni sources through which they have been narrated. What is even more interesting is that these twelve rulers cannot correspond to anything other than the twelve Shia Imams when we look at the entirety of Islamic history.

When we look at the first three caliphs or the caliphs of the Ummayads and Abbasids, none of them can be found to be amongst these twelve who have been mentioned. Due to this reason, the scholars of the Ahl al-Sunnah have faced great difficulty in trying to decipher and categorize who these twelve actually are. Yet, at the same time, the Shias have easily understood who these traditions are referring to and have clearly identified these twelve rulers.

• 1. Taken from the book: Taysir al-Wusul, written by Zubaydi Shafi’i.