Abū al-Qāsim ʿĪsā ibn ʿAlī, the Vizier; Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Shurayḥ al-Harawī; Abū Ḥafṣ al-Kattānī; Abū Ṭāhir al-Mukhlis; Abū Bakr ibn al-Muqriʾ al-Iṣbahānī; Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl al-Warrāq; Abū Sulaymān ibn Zabr; Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn ʿAbdān al-Shīrāzī—the ḥadith scholar of Ahwāz; al-Muʿāfā ibn Zakariyā al-Jarīrī; Abū Muslim Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad, the scribe of Egypt—the last of his students—and a multitude beyond reckoning.

His ḥadith remained available with an uninterrupted high chain until 635 AH in the hands of Abū al-Munajjā ibn al-Lattī. Thereafter it was preserved through a lofty ijāza transmitted by Abū al-Ḥasan ibn al-Muqayyar. In the next generation the exceptionally long-lived Shihāb al-Dīn Aḥmad ibn Abī Ṭālib al-Ḥajjār became the final person to relay his report with a high isnād by direct audition—and even by ijāza—with only four transmitters between him and the original narrator. Indeed, even after him it is still possible today to obtain the ḥadith with an elevated chain through three successive ijāzas, or rather through just two, for ʿAjība al-Bāqadāriyya (1) holds an ijāza from Hibat Allāh ibn al-Shiblī. And Allah knows best.

We were informed by Abū al-Maʿālī Aḥmad ibn Isḥāq in Egypt, who said: we were informed by al-Fatḥ ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Kātib; who said: we were informed by Hibat Allāh ibn Abī Sharīk; who said: we were informed by Abū al-Ḥusayn Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Naqqūr, who said:

ʿĪsā ibn ʿAlī the Vizier dictated to us, saying: Abū al-Qāsim al-Baghawī narrated to us, saying: ʿAlī ibn al-Jaʿd narrated to us, saying: Zuhayr—meaning Ibn Muʿāwiya—told us, from Simāk, from Ziyād (2) ibn ʿIlāqa, and Ḥuṣayn, all of them from Jābir ibn Samura (may Allah be pleased with him):

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “There will be after me twelve leaders.”