Criteria of Recognizing True Imams from Unjust Ones based on Prophetic Traditions about " Twelve Imams"

There are plenty of hadiths, recorded in canonical Sunni sources, regarding the emergence of two groups of Imams. The first group are true or righteous Imams or Caliphs and, the second type are unjust Imams and rulers. Holy Prophet have described different characteristics of both groups, which helps to distinguish them from each other. The theme of prophetic hadiths concerning the first group is a promising one, whereas it turns to deterrent when it comes to the second group. This study tries to demonstrate that the characteristics of the righteous Imams described by the Prophet are historically applicable to the Twelve Imams of Shīʿite Islam and are clearly inconsistent with the known characteristics of most Umayyad and ‘Abbasid caliphs.