The Definitive Fixing of the Number of the Twelve Imams
Tweets by Sayed Mahmoud Al-Mosawi on the Twitter page @mmosawy
On the occasion of the birth of the Commander of the Faithful (a)
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We congratulate you on the birth of Imam ʿAli ibn Abi Talib (a), the Master of those who affirm Allah's oneness and the Imam of the Godwary, the father of the twelve infallible, purified Imams.
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Wilāyah is the greatest subject in Islam; a person ought to define his position on it clearly, in faith in its concept and its limits, and in the duties it imposes upon him.
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Concerning the importance of the subject of wilayah and the necessity of holding fast to it in order to join the confederates of Allah, the Qurʾan states: “Your guardian (wali) is only Allah, His Apostle, and the faithful who maintain the prayer and give the zakat while bowing down. Whoever takes for his guardians Allah, His Apostle and the faithful [should know that] the confederates of Allah are indeed the victorious.” (Qurʾan 5:55–56).
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And in the context of the verse of wilayah came the warning against taking those who deviate from religion as friends: “O you who have faith! Do not take those who take your religion in derision and play, from among those who were given the Book before you, and the infidels, as friends (awliyaʾ), and be wary of Allah, should you be faithful.” (Qurʾan 5:57)
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And from Imam al-Baqir, on the necessity of holding fast to wilayah as the most important of the pillars of a person's religion: (Islam is built on five: on prayer, zakat, fasting, hajj and wilayah, and nothing was proclaimed as wilayah was proclaimed; yet the people took up four and abandoned this one.. meaning wilayah.
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The divine wilayah to which the Holy Qurʾan referred, and to which it confined faith, belongs to the Twelve Imams after the Messenger of Allah (s), not one fewer and not one more. This is the circle of faith closed by Allah and His Messenger, and this is what the Prophet (s) proclaimed openly in the community throughout his life.
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The books of the Muslims of all sects are filled with the Twelver wilaʾi truth, so the number came to be definitively fixed in a way that admits no doubt at all. This numerical definitiveness is the beginning of guidance for whoever holds fast to it, and the beginning of deviation for whoever neglects it and ignores it.
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The books of the Sunnis agree on the numerical definitiveness in the necessity of believing in the twelve Imams as a closed divine circle that admits neither decrease nor increase; thus came the statement from the Prophet (s): (After me there will be twelve caliphs, all of them from Quraysh).
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Among the Sunnis, this truth of the twelve after the Prophet (s) has been narrated, in numerous narrations, by Sahih al-Bukhari, Muslim, Musnad Ahmad, Musnad al-Tayalisi, Kitab al-Fitan, Sunan al-Tirmidhi, al-Muʿjam al-Kabir, al-Awsat and al-Saghir, Sunan Abi Dawud, al-Malahim, al-Yanabiʿ and others.
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In the books of the Shiʿa this truth is considered one of the axioms of faith and the essentials of the true school. The narrations have added mention of their names, their attributes and their divine characteristics that are unique to them and to no one else; indeed, they have placed the finality in the awaited Imam al-Mahdi (aj).
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It is narrated from the Prophet, concerning the Miʿraj, after the necessity of appointing ʿAli as successor (wasi) had been mentioned to the Prophet (s), that he said: Then I raised my head, and there I was before the lights of the Imams after me, twelve lights. I said: O Lord, whose lights are these? He said: The lights of the Imams after you, trustworthy and infallible.
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Numerous narrations have come, in several styles, definitively fixing the Imamate in the twelve alone, without increase or decrease. Among them is what is reported in al-Kafi from the Commander of the Faithful (a): (I and eleven from my loins are Imams who are spoken to).
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Among the narrations that definitively fix the circle of the twelve Imams is this, from the Messenger of Allah (s): O ʿAli, when eleven Imams from your descendants are complete, the eleventh of them is al-Mahdi from my Household.
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For further numerical definitiveness of the twelve, to show that it is a divine number that admits no change, and so that no one might try to tamper with it through sick interpretations, it was definitively fixed by verses of the Holy Qurʾan. The Prophet (s) said: The Imams after me are the number of the chiefs of the Children of Israel: twelve. “and We raised among them twelve chiefs” (Qurʾan 5:12)
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Among the ways the Imamate of the twelve is definitively fixed by the Holy Qurʾan is its linking to the words of Allah the Exalted: “Thereat twelve fountains gushed forth from it” (Qurʾan 2:60).. Eleven from the loins of ʿAli, who together with ʿAli will be twelve Imams, all of them guides for your community.. as the Messenger of Allah (s) said
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“We split them up into twelve tribal communities (asbat)” (Qurʾan 7:160). Among the Qurʾanic definitive fixings for the twelve Imams is linking them to the number of the tribes (asbat). From ʿAli ibn al-Husayn (a): The Imams after the Messenger of Allah (s) are twelve, the number of the tribes: three of those who have passed, and I am the fourth, and eight of my descendants, righteous Imams.
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“Indeed the number of months with Allah is twelve months in Allah’s Book” (Qurʾan 9:36). From Imam al-Hasan, about the number of the Imams, he said: The number of the months of the year. And in other narrations: Their number is the number of the months of the year.
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The Messenger of Allah (s) said about their attributes: The Imams are twelve from my Household; Allah the Exalted has given them my understanding, my knowledge and my wisdom, and created them from my clay. So woe to those who are arrogant toward them after me, who sever my bond in them. What is the matter with them? May Allah not grant them my intercession.
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And about the attributes of the twelve Imams the Prophet (s) said: .. he pointed to ʿAli and said: To this one, for he is with the truth and the truth is with him; then after him there will be eleven Imams obedience to whom is made obligatory, like obedience to me.
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Once the foundation of the divine wilayah has been laid, definitively established by the sound, mass-transmitted (mutawatir) body of the many narrations, any other narration ought to be understood within its givens and according to its guidance, for this is the path of salvation. So the narrations that use the expression “the Mahdis” refer to the Imams themselves, as is reported from al-Sadiq (a): From us are twelve Mahdis; six have passed and six remain.
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From the Messenger of Allah (s) to ʿAli (a): And indeed, those who love you, your Shiʿa, and those who love your sons, the Imams after you, will be gathered with you, and you will be with me in the highest ranks; and you are the divider of Paradise and Hell: you admit those who love you into Paradise and those who hate you into Hell.
