Abū Dāwūd also recorded it (2/207) through the route of Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Khālid from his father from Jābir with the wording: "This religion will continue to stand until there are twelve caliphs over you, all of whom the community will agree upon, all of them from Quraysh." This is a weak chain; all its narrators are trustworthy except for Abū Khālid. Al-Dhahabī said: No one narrated from him except his son, and al-Tirmidhī authenticated it for him. In "Taqrīb," it is mentioned that he is acceptable, meaning his ḥadīth is lenient. I said: He is unique in this phrase: "all of whom the community will agree upon." The ḥadīth also comes through other routes similar to what was previously mentioned in Muslim and al-Tirmidhī and "al-Musnad" (5/107). There is a corroborating narration from Ibn Masʿūd, narrated by Mujālid from al-Shaʿbī from Masrūq, who said: "We were sitting with ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd while he was teaching us the Qurʾān. A man said to him: O Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, did you ask the Messenger of Allāh (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) how many caliphs this community will have? ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd replied: No one has asked me about this since I came to Iraq before you, then he said: Yes, indeed we asked the Messenger of Allāh (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) and he said: Twelve, like the number of the chiefs of the Children of Israel."