al-Mahdi, who is often referred to as al-Qa'im () in the Twelver hadith literature. This version ascribes to Muhammad, Identification with the Twelve Imams Noting that there have been many more (temporal) rulers after Muhammad, the Twelver authors identify the twelve successors in this hadith with their Twelve Imams. The Twelver Sobhani adds that the dignity of Islam rests on these twelve successors, and this alone disqualifies the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphs, in his view. As for Mahdi, the belief in this eschatological figure remains popular among all Muslims, possibly owing to numerous traditions to this effect in canonical Sunni and Shia sources. Zaydi sources Variants of this hadith also appear in Zaydi Shia sources. Abu Sa'id Abbad al-Asfari () quotes Muhammad in his Kitab Akhbar al- Mahdi, See also List of hadiths Mahdi Muhammad al-Mahdi At-Tayyib Abu'l-Qasim References Sources Hadith