Twelve rulers of Ishmael ; Genesis 17:19-20

“Then God said, “Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation”

This 12 people might point to 12 rulers or Imams from Prophet Ishmael as his children or maybe pointed to Shia’s 12 Imams. In a tradition Prophet Muhammad(S) said: “There are twelve successors after me until the Day of Judgment, and all of them are from Quraysh”. This hadith has been narrated in various Sunni Books and these are twelve infallible Shiite Imams, the first of whom is Amir Al-Mu’minin Ali(A) and the last of whom is promised Imam Mahdi(A).

Mohammad Mahdi Me’marian