Hadith of the Twelve Successors Hadith of the Twelve Successors The hadith of the twelve successors, or twelve caliphs () is an Islamic prophecy, attributed to Muhammad. It is most popular among Twelver Shiites, as they interpret the prophecy was fulfilled by The Twelve Imams. The hadith (classified as Sahih) is widely accepted by all Muslim groups but its interpretation varies heavily. According to the prophecy there will reign twelve caliphs—presumably the first being crowned upon the Prophet's death—and after which the caliphate would cease to exist and mark the beginning of the judgement day or armageddon. It is stated that all twelve caliphs will
Criticism of Hadith to be obsessed with isr’iliyyat, i.e. tales from Jewish lore about earlier prophets. According to author Israr Ahmed Khan, traditional methods used to establish authenticity of hadith rely almost entirely on the personal characters of the reported narrators, and fail to pay enough attention to the actual content of the hadith being evaluated. Among the problems he sees in the traditional hadith analysis are: the inability of some narrators to maintain preciseness of the report, textual conflicts among reports, ignoring textual analysis when the hadith was reported by a narrator of good character, and probability of fabrication of hadith. Related