Hadith of the twelve successors

Their last imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi, is believed to miraculously remain in occultation since 874 CE, and is expected to return in the end of times to eradicate injustice and evil.

[4] A version of the hadith cited by the Sunni traditionist Abu Dawud (d. 889) adds that the Islamic community would be united during the reign of these twelve successors.

[4] Another version in Sahih Muslim reads similarly, "People's affairs will be properly conducted as long as twelve men will lead them.

[2] In favor of its authenticity, the Islamicist Hossein Modarressi argues that the hadith of twelve successors must have been in circulation during the reign of the Umayyad caliph 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 874 CE.

[8] Alternatively, in his commentary on Sahih al-Bukhari, the Sunni theologian al-Qastallani (d. 1517) suggests that this hadith may refer to twelve (non-consecutive) Muslim rulers, whose relatively stable reign was followed by the unstable rule of the Umayyad caliph al-Walid II (r. 743–744).

The second proposal of al-Qastallani is that the hadith may refer to twelve concurrent claimants to the caliphate who supposedly competed for power in the eleventh century.

[13][14] One version therein is related on the authority of Ali and some other Shia figures, including Abd Allah ibn Ja'far (d. c. 699) and Salman the Persian.

[19] Sulaym's version of the hadith is also cited by the Shia authors al-Kulayni, al-Nu'mani (tenth century), and al-Tusi (d. 1067), while the Shia-leaning historian al-Mas'udi (d. 956) questions its authenticity.

[1] For instance, the Twelver cleric Ja'far Sobhani argues that the dignity of Islam rests on these twelve successors, and this alone disqualifies the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphs, in his view.

[21] The last of these imams, Muhammad al-Mahdi, is believed to miraculously remain in occultation since 874, and is expected to return in the end of times to eradicate injustice and evil.

The Zaydi scholar Abu Sa'id Abbad al-Asfari (d. 864) quotes Muhammad in his Kitab Akhbar al-Mahdi, I and eleven of my descendants and you, O Ali, are the axis of the earth, that is, its tent pegs and its mountains.