Hadith of the twelve successors

The hadith of the twelve successors (Arabic: حَدِيْث ٱلْإِثْنَي عَشَر خَلِيْفَة, romanized: ḥadīth al-ithnā ʿashar khalīfa) is a widely-reported prophecy, attributed to the Islamic prophet Muhammad, predicting that there would be twelve successors after him. As there were many more rulers after Muhammad, Sunni authors have variously identified these twelve successors with some of these rulers.