Descendants of Prophet Ibraaheem

14-8-2005 | IslamWeb

Question:

Are the following 12 caliphs all descendents of Prophet Ibraaheem, may Allaah exalt his mention:
Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthmaan, Ali, Mu'awiya , Yazeed bin Mu'awiya, Abdul Malik bin Marwaan, Waleed bin Abdul Malik bin Marwaan, Sulaymaan bin Abdul Malik bin Marwan, Umar bin Abdul Azeez, Yazeed bin Abdul Malik bin Marwaan, Hasham bin Abdul Malik bin Marwaan, may Allaah be pleased with them. If so, could you please cite me some authentic sources?
Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds.  I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger.

The four righteous guided caliphs and the others, whose names are mentioned in the question, are from the tribe of Quraysh. The scholars have no disagreement that the tribe of Quraysh is from the descendants of Prophet Ismaa'eel may Allaah exalt his mention who was himself the son of Prophet Ibraaheem may Allaah exalt his mention. The Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, said: “Verily Allaah granted eminence to Kinaanah from amongst the descendants of Ismaa'eel and He granted eminence to the Quraysh tribe amongst Kinaanah and He granted eminence to Banu Haashim amongst Quraysh and He granted me eminence from the tribe of Banu Haashim.” [Muslim] The narration explicitly proves that the tribe of Quraysh is from the descendants of Ismaa'eel may Allaah exalt his mention.

If the questioner means by his saying 'twelve caliphs' that these mentioned caliphs are intended in the Prophetic narration: “There shall be twelve Caliphs, all of them from Quraysh" [Al- Bukhari], then we inform him that deciding the names of caliphs other than the four rightly guided caliphs is not advisable.

The Muslim scholars may Allaah have mercy upon them have different opinions concerning the identity of the twelve caliphs. Imaam Ibn Battaal may Allaah have mercy upon him said, “I never met any scholar who declares the caliphs mentioned in the narration with certainty. Some are of the opinion that the caliphs are according to their succession in the position of caliphate, some others say that they all will be in one period and every one will be claiming caliphate…” [Fat-hul Baari]

Ibn Al-Jawzi may Allaah have mercy upon him said, “I made a long search to conclude the meaning of the narration and asked the scholars about it but in the end concluded that I cannot decide its meaning for the differences in the wording.”

We refer you to the book Fat-hul Baari by Imaam Ibn Hajar may Allaah have mercy upon him who mentioned the sayings of scholars about the twelve caliphs.

Allaah Knows best.

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