We have now seen, then, the way that the inheritor of the Prophet (s) is to be appointed: by explicit, Divine injunction. In our aricles on Wilayah and Imamate we evidenced that Imam ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib, the Prince of the Believers, was appointed by such a Divine injunction. The choice of the people did not enter into this, and in fact the judgment of Allah (swt) offended a large number of so-called Muslims at the time. We may now ask: if it was so important that an Imam be appointed after the Prophet (s), does this not indicate that there would also be more Imams, more successors, after Imam ‘Ali (as)? From the Holy Book of Allah (swt), we have learned that there must be an Imam of our time, and that situation cannot be otherwise. For every people there is a single guide, witness, and Imam, and even if we cannot see him we know that he must be there, or otherwise we must dispense with the Qur’an in its entirety and reject Islam as the true religion.
Now the question comes to who the Imam is in this time. Only the Shi’a of the Ahl al-Bayt (as) can answer this question, because they are the only ones who know who he is. As we have seen, it is impossible for the Sunnis to specify who the Imam, witness (shahid), and guide (hadi) of our time is, and it is impossible for them to specify whom Allah (swt) has raised up from amongst ourselves in order to teach us and purify us in the cause of Islam. What we have studied so far definitively establishes that there will always be an Imam; now we will once again turn to mutwatir narrations in the Sunni hadeeth literature that state that the final Imam, the Imam of our time, will be the twelfth grandson of the Holy Prophet (s).
Abu Muhammad al Afriqi stated:
So when the Shi‘ah commemorate the birth of their twelfth Imam on the 15th night of Sha‘ban, or when they seek to apply ahadith in Sunni sources which speak of twelve khalifas to their twelve Imams, then let us ask them on what basis do they accept the existence of the twelfth one?
This is a rather bizarre statement, for by making it the author has already proved the point which we seek to prove. It is a bit like saying: “You believe that there are nine single digits, but what makes you believe in number nine?” We believe in the Twelfth Imam because the Prophet (s) said there would be Twelve Imams, and Eleven Imams (as) already passed before Imam al-Mahdi (as), each Imam clearly designated by the one before him in line with the verse of the Qur’an:
So when you have finished your task, then nominate (fansab).
(94:7)
Furthermore, there is, according to the Qur’an, always an Imam and a guide, and as such there must have been another Imam after Imam al-‘Askari (as). To believe otherwise is to contradict the Holy Qur’an and to reject Islam, as these enemies of the Ahl al-Bayt (as) have done.
As far as there being Twelve Imams, this is firmly established by the mutawatir i.e. hadeeth is one that has been narrated so many times, by so many different people, that it would be impossible to have been made up and no doubt can be cast upon its authenticity. We read in Bukhari and Muslim:
Narrated Jabir ibn Samura: I heard the Prophet (s) saying:
“There will be Twelve Commanders.” He then said a sentence which I did not hear. My father said, the Prophet added, “All of them will be from Quraysh.”
1. Sahih al-Bukhari (English ver.) Hadith: 9.329. Sahih al-Bukhari, (Arabic), 4:165, Kitabul Ahkam. This hadeeth is narrated in many other sources as well, including:
2. Musnad Ahmad bin Hanbal, Vol 5 p97 and 101
3. Umadathl Qari- page 271
4. Tafseer ibn Kathir Vol7 page 110
5. Jami Usul Volume 4 page 440 (Egypt)
6. Al Bidaya al Nihaya Volume 2 page 248
7. Sawaiqh al Muhriqa page 187
8. Hilayathul Awliya Volume 333
9. Tarkeeh Kabeer Volume 1 446
The Prophet (s) said: “The Religion (Islam) will continue until the Hour (Day of Resurrection), having Twelve Caliphs for you, all of them will be from Quraysh.”
Sahih Muslim. (English ver.), Chapter DCCLIV, v3, p1010, Tradition #4483; Sahih Muslim (Arabic), Kitab al-Imaara, 1980 Saudi Arabian Edition, v3, p1453, Tradition #10
Al-Juwayni, in his Farai’d as-Simtayn, reports these hadeeths:
The Prophet (s) said: “I and Ali and Hasan and Husayn and nine of the descendants of Husayn are the purified ones and the inerrant.”
The Prophet (s) said: “Certainly my Caliphs and my legatees and the Proofs of Allah upon his creatures after me are twelve. The first of them is my brother and the last of them is my (grand) son.” He was asked: “O Messenger of Allah, who is your brother?” He said, “Ali ibn Abi Talib” Then they asked, “And who is your son?” The Holy Prophet (s) replied, “Al Mahdi, the one who will fill the earth with justice and equity like it would be brimming with injustice and tyranny. And by the One Who has raised me as a warner and a give of good tidings, even if a day remains for the life of this world, the Almighty Allah will prolong this day to an extent till he sends my son Mahdi, then he will make Ruhullah ‘Isa ibn Maryam (a) to descend and pray behind him (Mahdi). And the earth will be illuminated by his radiance. And his power will reach to the east and the west.”
The Prophet (s) said: “I am the chief of the Prophets and Ali ibn Abi Talib is the chief of successors, and after me my successors shall be twelve, the first of them being Ali ibn Abi Talib and the last of them being Al Mahdi.”
Fara’id al-Simtayn, Beirut 1978, p. 160.
Based on the Qur’an and these narrations, the import of which is mutawatir and cannot be doubted, we are now faced with the following results:
The narrations that insist upon the existence of Twelve Successors, and only Twelve, remove any doubts one might have that the Imam of the time might be the Imam of one of the other Shi’a sects, such as the Ismailis. The Ismaili lines of Imamate do not accord with the number twelve, and in fact do not even accord with their own sacred number of seven. The Ismailis believed that there would be seven Imams after the Prophet (s), yet all of the Ismaili lines have had many more Imams than seven. As such, there should not be any question about whether or not the current Imam (whom the Qur’an states must exist) is one of the Ismaili Imams. As for the Zaidis, they do not have an Imamate currently (being abolished in the sixties), and do not believe that Imamate is an office of necessity or appointed by God. As such, even if they had an Imam now, he would not be the type of witness, guide, and Imam foretold by the Holy Qur’an.
This leaves us only with the Twelver Shi’as. The author at Ansar.org who is seeking to disprove the coming of Imam al-Mahdi (as) argues that there were many Shi’a sects at the time of Imam al-‘Askari (as)’s death, something which is true. The question which he seeks to pose is why modern-day Shi’as believe in the idea of a Hidden Imam, and did not follow one of these other Shi’a sects that emerged after Imam al-‘Askari (as)’s death?
The reasons for this our obvious: that these other sects contradict the Qur’an and the teachings of the Prophet. These other sects died out because they could not prove their claims based upon Qur’an and hadeeths: only those who believed in a living but occulted Twelfth Imam were able to do so. We see that some believed Imam al-‘Askari (as) left no child; this would mean that Imamate ceased with him. As such, such people are not Twelver Shi’as at all but are Eleveners, something for which there is no evidence for and contradicts what the Prophet (s) taught. Others believed that the Imamate went to the brother of Imam al-‘Askari (as), but as he never did anything to prove that he was endowed with the knowledge or wisdom of an Imam, and then later died for all to see, it is impossible to believe that he was an Imam. Others believed that Imam al-Mahdi (as) died during ghaybah, but then this would mean no Imam which, in accordance with the Qur’an, is an impossibility. Others said he had yet to be born but would come in the future, which also contradicts with the Qur’anic evidences discussed above. Finally, we are left with only one possibility: that there is an Imam living amongst us, as the Qur’an has said, and that since we cannot see Him he must be hidden and not visible to physical senses.
Abu Muhammad al Afriqi stated:
History bears witness to the existence of eleven persons in that specific line of descent, but when we come to the twelfth one, all we have is claims made by persons whose activities in the name of their Hidden Imam give us all the reason in the world to suspect their honesty and integrity. In Islam, issues of faith can never be based upon evidence of this kind.
We have shown the invalidity of such an argument. It is not the Four Representatives, nor anybody else, who establishes the existence of Imam al-Mahdi (as) except the Holy Qur’an and the mutwatir narrations of the Prophet (s). This statement is no different than saying that we cannot see God, but since we know through reason that He has to exist we must assume that He is a God that transcends physical sight. A reading of the Qur’anic proofs establishes that he must exist, a reading of the hadeeths discussed above establishes that he must be the Twelfth Imam, the son of Imam al-‘Askari (as) who was the Eleventh Imam, and the fact that he must exist and yet we do not see him on a daily basis means that he must be in an Occultation. This is also proved without any doubt. Once we have realized this, then how can we have any doubt about those hadeeths that prophesize the coming of a Hidden Imam, and that Imam al-Mahdi (as) will live with us wile being in ghaybah? This fact has already been proved by the Qur’an and the mutawatir traditions of the Prophet (s) before we even have to start making recourse to the specific hadeeths about Imam al-Mahdi (as).
There are numerous hadeeths in this regard, which can be found in the authoritative Sunni works. Abul Juldh in Fath al-Bari narrates the hadeeth that:
This Ummat will not end and the Day of Judgment will not come, till the coming of 12 Khalifas, they will be guided, on the Deen of Truth.
Fathul Bari Volume 13 page 79
Allamah Badradaen Aini in Ummdthul Qari Sharah Sahih Bukhari narrates:
‘This Ummah will not end until the passing of the twelve, they will all be true guides from the Ahlulbayt.’
Ummdthul Qari Volume 2 page 282 and Volume 9 page 8
We read in Ya Nabi al-Muwaddat:
The Prophet of Allah said that I am the Chief of Prophets, Ali is the Chief of Wasi, after me there will be 12 Wasi, 1st of them is Ali (as), last of them is Mahdi.
Faslul khitab page 423
Ya Nabi al Muwaddat page 105 (Beirut)
We read in Fasl al-Khitab:
The Prophet of Allah said, that “after me will be 12 Khalifas O Ali you are the first and Mahdi will be the last, East and West will be conquered at his hands.”
Fasl al-khitab page 463 Tashkent Publishers
On the very page we also read:
Imam Hussain (as) said ” The 12 Imams are from us, 1st one is Ali, and the last is Mahdi (as), who is the living truth, Allah will awaken the earth through him, his religion will rule over all other religions.”
Sunni narrations prove that Imam Mahdi (as) will be from the Ahlulbayt (as):
The Prophet said, “Mahdi is from us Ahlulbayt.”
1. Iqd al-Durar Fi Akhbar al-Mahdi al-Muntadhar page 21 Beirut Edition.
2. Musnad Ahmad bin Hanbal, volume 1, page 84
3. Al-Mustadrak, voume 4, page 557 (al-Hakem said Sahih according to Muslim’s condition)
4. Al-Musanaf, by ibn Abi Shayba, volume 8, page 678
5. Al-Albani decalred it ‘Sahih’ in Silsila Sahiha, volume 5, page 486
Ali (as) said, “When a voice will come from skies that Truth is in the Family of Muhammad Imam Madhi will come”
1. Iqd al-Durar Fi Akhbar al-Mahdi al-Muntadhar page 106
2. Kanz al-umal, volume 14, page 588
3. Al-Urf al-Wardi, page 93
4. Al-Fetan, by al-Maroozi, page 334