Firstly the authentic narrations:
From Sahih Bukhari
9:329 Narrated Jabir bin Samura: I heard the Prophet (saw) saying, “There will be twelve Muslim rulers (who will rule the Islamic world)”. He then said a sentence which I did not hear. My father said, “All of them (those rulers) will be from Quraish.”
From Sahih Muslim
4477 It has been narrated on the authority of Jabir bin Samura who said: I joined the company of the Holy Prophet (saw) with my father and I heard him say: This Caliphate will not end until there have been twelve Caliphs among them. The narrator said: Then he (the Holy Prophet) said something that I could not follow. I said to my father: What did he say? He said: He has said: All of them will be from the Quraish.
4478 It has been reported on the authority of Jabir bin Samura who said: I heard the Messenger of Allah (saw) say: The affairs of the people will continue to be conducted (well) as long as they are governed by twelve men. Then the Holy Prophet (saw) said words which were obscure to me. I asked my father: What did the Messenger of Allah (saw) say? He said: All of the (twelve men) will be from the Quraish.
4480 It has been narrated on the authority of Jabir bin Samura who said: I heard the Messenger of Allah (saw) say: Islam will continue to be triumphant until there have been twelve Caliphs. Then the Holy Prophet (saw) said something which I could not understand. I asked my father: What did he say? He said: He said that all of them (twelve Caliphs) will be from the Quraish.
4481 It has been narrated on the authority of Jabir bin Samura that the Holy Prophet (saw) said: This order will continue to be dominant until there have been twelve Caliphs, The narrator says: Then he said something which I could not understand, and I said to my father: What did he say? My father told me that he said that all of them (Caliphs) would be from the Quraish.
4482 It has been narrated on the authority of Jabir bin Samura who said: I went with my father to the Messenger of Allah (saw) and I heard him say: This religion would continue to remain powerful and dominant until there have been twelve Caliphs. Then he added something which I couldn’t catch on the account of the noise of the people. I asked my father: What did he say? My father said: He said that all of them will be from the Quraish.
4483: It has been narrated on the authority of Amir bin Sad bin Abu Waqqas who said: I wrote (a letter) to Jabir bin Samura and sent it to him through my servant Nafi, asking him to inform me of something he had heard from the Messenger of Allah (saw). He wrote to me (in reply): I heard the Messenger of Allah (saw) say on Friday evening, the day on which al-Aslami was stoned to death (for committing adultery): The Islamic religion will continue until the hour is established, or you have been ruled over by twelve Caliphs, all of them being from the Quraish. I also heard him say: A small force of the Muslims will capture the white palace, the palace of the Persian Emperor or his descendants. I also heard him say: Before the day of judgement there will appear (a number of) impostors. You are to guard against them. I also heard him say: When God grants wealth to any one of you, he should first spend it on himself and his family (and then give it in charity to the poor). I heard him (also) say: I will be your forerunner at the Cistern (expecting your arrival).
These are the narrations that I have to hand. Let me stipulate at the outset the following:
- That I believe each and every one of the above narrations to be the true sayings of the Messenger of Allah, sallAllahu alihi wa salam as related to us by his trusted companions without any omission.
- That whatever Allah’s Nabi tells us suffices for us as guidance.
- Nowhere is it mentioned above that the twelve Caliphs will be in power till the end of time, nowhere.
- Our Nabi states clearly that during the time of these twelve Caliphs there will be prosperity in terms of the Deen. It is not stated that the existence of time or the existence of the Deen is dependant upon the existence of the twelve Caliphs.
- The twelve Caliph do not equate to the twelve Imams of the Ithna Athar ul Ashariya / Rafidah Shia.
And finally, in terms of who these Caliph’s were, then consider the following narration:
Sahih Bukhari
9:325 Narrated ‘Abdullah bin Umar (may Allah be pleased with him): It was said to ‘Umar, “Will you appoint your successor?” ‘Umar said, “If I appoint a caliph (as my successor) it is true that somebody who was better than I (i.e. Abu Bakr) did so, and if I leave the matter undecided, it is true that somebody who was better than I (i.e. Allah’s Messenger (saw)) did so.”
I believe that Allah truly knows who the twelve are, although it should not be left in any doubt that the foremost of he twelve are the first four rightly guided Calipha-e-Rashidoon, may Allah be pleased with them all as they are pleased with Allah. Just as Allah’s Nabi (saw) was content in telling us about the twelve Caliphs without mentioning their names, so we as Muslims should also be content with this.