The Prophet (SAW) said: "Prophethood will remain among you as long as Allah wills. Then Allah will remove it, and there will be a Khilafah upon the Prophetic method for as long as Alaah wills then He will remove it, and there will be biting kingship for as long as Allah wills. Then He will remove it, and there will be tyrannical rule for as long as Allah wills then He will remove it. and there will be a Khilafah upon the Prophetic method."' (In Iman Albani's silsilah as saheehah, Ahmad 18406 and others...)

= the prophet muhammad ruled as a caliph till his death, then there was a caliphate from abu bakr till hassan RA, Then there has been kingship such as umayyads/abbasids etc all the way up to the ottomans who fell in 1924, then we have had tyranical rule i.e the muslims country leaders till today (in another sahih hadith he described the leaders to be like donkeys fighting ovef power), then after this we will have a caliphate again.

- this hadith is also a miracle as the prophet SAW accurately predicted how the muslim world will transition in each stage. SubhanAllaah.

2. Proof that there will be caliphs before the mahdi.

" Saeed ibn jubair narrated " they mentioned 12 caliphs and then the commander, so ibn abbas said " by Allaah after that from our family there will be the generous one (As-Saffah), the victorious one (al-mansur), and the Guided one (al-mahdi) who will give the rule to jesus son of mary"... abu dawud (sahih by al-albani)

From point 1, we know the prophet SAW only called the 2nd stage and 5th stage of governance as a caliphate (the others as kingship or tyranical rule), and this hadith tells us that this ummah will have a total of 12 caliphs. During the 2nd stage (caliphate) we only had 5 caliphs (abu bakr, umar, uthman, Ali, Hassan RA), which means in the 5th stage there will be the the remaining 7 to make the 12 caliphs. Now we know from various hadith that the mahdi is only 1 out of 7 and will pass the caliphate to ISA who will then rule till the end.

3. The fact that the caliphate will be in palestine and before the Mahdi.

"...Then there will be the king of the Holy Land (Jerusalem) and his son .... Then there wil be Saffah, then there will be Mansur. then there will be Jabir, then there will be al-Mahdi..." Al-azhari authenticated it. In other hadith more caliphs are mentioned...

" the flourishing of jerusalem will be the ruin of yathrib (medina)"

= this hadith mentions caliphs who are other than abu bakr, umar, uthaman, ali, hassan (RAA), so they are caliphs from stage 5, and that these caliphs will be BEFORE al mahdi, hence it is certain that there will be a caliphate in palestine and caliphs before the mahdi.

4. The coming caliphate

" the first nation to perish is Persia (modern Iran) then the arabs except for a remanant here (meaning the levant i.e. greater syria) Albani authenticated it

My view = this current war will see the end of iran, then the aran nation states i.e the leaders will no longer have power, and so called 'Israel' and its allies will suffer greatly, creating the opportunity for an armed sunni group (their leader being qurayshi) to liberate palestine and form the khilafah. Once israel burns, many of the jews will migrate to isfahan (in iran) and they will later march with the dajjal (70,000) as the famous hadith says.

Some other hadith hint at shia led armies fighting the caliphate later on... perhaps as they believe they essentially did the hard work to liberate it but the sunnis managed to liberate palestine instead. However the hadith prove the sunnis will remain in power till the mahdi, and will fight and win great wars and face the army of dajjal.

...

“What are you saying, O Abu Umamah?”

I said: I am remembering Allah, O Messenger of Allah.

He said: “Shall I not tell you of something better or greater than your dhikr of night and day, or of day and night?

You should say:

شبحان الله عدد ما خلق ، سبحان الله ملء ما خلق ، شبحان الله عدد ما في الأرض ، شبحان الله ملء ما في الأرض والشقاء ، سبحان الله عدد ما أخصى كتابه ،شبحان لله ملء ما أخصى كتابه، سبحان الله عدد كل شيء ، سبحان الله ملء كلشيء

(Subhan'Allahi 'adada ma khalaqa, Subhan'Allahi mil'a ma khalaqa, Subhan'Allahi 'adada ma fi'l-ardi, Subhan'Allahi mil'a ma fi'l-ardi wa's-sama', Subhan'Allahi ‘adada ma ahsa kitaabuhu, Subhan'Allahi mil'a ma ahsa kitabuhu, Subhan'Allahi adada kulli shay'in, Subhan'Allahi mil'a kulli shay'in)

(Glory be to Allah the number of what He has created, Glory be to Allah filling what He has created, Glory be to Allah the number of what is in earth, Glory be to Allah filling what is in earth and heaven, Glory be to Allah amount of what is enumerated in His Book [The Presevered Tablet], Glory be to Allah to what fills his book, Glory be to Allah to the amount of everything, Glory be to Allah to that which fills everything)...

“Young man, if you are able every morning and evening to remove any malice in your heart towards anyone, do so.”

Then, the Prophet said to me, “Young man, that is my Sunnah. Whoever revives my Sunnah has loved me, and whoever loves me will be with me in Paradise...”

“Learn knowledge, understand it and benefit from it (live by it); and do not study it in order to decorate yourself with it, for if you live long you will likely see a time when knowledge will be used for beautification like a man beautifies himself with his garments.”

So the Man put the Boy on the Donkey and they went on their way. But soon they passed a group of men who said: “See that lazy youngster, he lets his father walk while he rides.”

So the Man ordered his Boy to get off, and got on himself. But they hadn’t gone far when they passed two women, one of whom said to the other: “Shame on that lazy man, to let his poor little son walk along.”

Well, the Man didn’t know what to do, but at last he and his son both got on the donkey, They passed by people who scoffed and said: “Aren’t you ashamed of yourself for overloading that poor donkey of yours and your hulking son?”

The Man and Boy got off and tried to think what to do. They thought and they thought, till at last they decided to carry the donkey on their backs They went along amid the laughter of all who saw them carrying their donkey...

“That will teach you,” said an old man who had followed them:

اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنْ عَذَابِ القَبْر، وَمِنْ عَذَابِ جَهَنَّمَ، وَمِنْ فِتْنَةِ الْمَحْيَا وَالْمَمَاتِ، وَمِنْ شَرِّ فِتْنَةِ الْمَسيحِ الدَّجَّالِ

“You strive for longer and you perform more prayers than the companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ yet they are better than you.”

They said, “Why is that?”

Ibn Mas’ud said, “They were less interested in the world, and more desirous of the Hereafter than you.”

“It is makrooh for a man to stand up to pray with laziness; rather he should stand up to pray cheerfully, with eagerness and joy, for he is conversing with Allāh ﷻ and Allāh is before him, forgiving him, answering him when he calls upon Him.

“Thinking about the world is a veil over the Hereafter and a punishment for people. Thinking about the Hereafter produces wisdom and life in the heart. Whoever looks to the world as his protector will come to accept its delusions."

A man was dying and he was being prompted to say Laa ilaaha ill-Allaah, but the last words he said were, “He does not believe in what you are saying” (referring to himself), and he died like that!

He said: I asked about him, and found that he was addicted to alcohol!