And Allah—exalted is He—knows best. All that has just been stated rests on the assumption that these ḥadiths are sound; otherwise, not a single one of their chains is free from criticism. Allah knows best what is correct.

A notice concerning the report of the twelve leaders, all of them from Quraysh

They are not the twelve whose imamate is claimed by the Rāfiḍah, for among the persons they allege, none ever held authority over the people except ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib and his son al-Ḥasan; the last of them, they assert, is the Awaited Mahdī whom they imagine to be in the subterranean chamber of Sāmarrāʾ—yet he has no existence, no reality, and no trace. Rather, the twelve spoken of in the ḥadith include the four Caliphs—Abū Bakr, ʿUmar, ʿUthmān, and ʿAlī, may Allah be pleased with them—and among them is ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz. On this point there is unanimous agreement among the scholars, according to both Sunni explanations of the “twelve,” as we shall clarify after citing the ḥadith.

It is recorded in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī in the version of Shuʿbah, and in Muslim in the version of Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah—both through ʿAbd al-Malik ibn ʿUmayr—from Jābir ibn Samurah, who said:

“I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say, ‘There will be twelve caliphs.’ He then said a word I did not catch, so I asked my father, ‘What did he say?’ He replied, ‘All of them are from Quraysh.’” (1)

Nuʿaym ibn Ḥammād relates in his Kitāb al-Fitān wa’l-Malāḥim (2): ʿĪsā ibn Yūnus narrated to us; Mujālid, from al-Shaʿbī, from Masrūq, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd, who said:

“The Messenger of Allah ﷺ declared, ‘After me there will be as many caliphs as the chiefs among the companions of Moses.’”

A similar statement has been transmitted from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar, Ḥudhayfah, Ibn ʿAbbās, and Kaʿb al-Aḥbār in their own words.

Abū Dāwūd narrated: ʿAmr ibn ʿUthmān related to us; Marwān ibn Muʿāwiyah, from Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Khālid, from his father, from Jābir ibn Samurah, who said:

“I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say, ‘This affair will remain in force until twelve caliphs—or, he said, twelve amirs—have ruled over it, all of whom the community will unanimously support.’ I then heard a statement from the Prophet ﷺ that I did not understand, so I asked my father, ‘What is he saying?’ He replied, ‘He is saying: All of them are from Quraysh.’” (3)

Abū Dāwūd also reported: Ibn Nufayl told us; Zuhayr ibn Muʿāwiyah narrated; Ziyād ibn Khaythamah narrated; al-Aswad ibn Saʿīd al-Hamadanī narrated, from Jābir ibn Samurah, who said:

“The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, ‘This Ummah will keep its affairs upright and will be manifest over its enemy until twelve caliphs have passed, all of them from Quraysh.’” He added: “When—” [the text cuts off here].