Salam I am reading about Imamate and it is very interesting intellectually but here are some questions I have: If we have a divinely appointed imam to guide us on the way of the Prophet (s.a.w.) why only stop after 12? Why not continue with one imam after another till Imam Mahdi? I would like you to answer this without referring to the Sunni hadith books about the hadith of 12 caliphs or similar narrations in your own books but only using intellect and logic. See, I am almost convinced that the idea of a divinely appointed ruler for the Muslim Ummah, who is protected from sin is a good one and it makes sense to my intellect but since we do not know when the Day of Judgement will be and when the world will end, shouldn't there be a continuous line of imams, one after the other, until the last one (whom we can call Imam Mahdi (a.s.) ? I am a Sunni Muslim and a member of a Sufi tariqah but have recently been reading about Shi'ism as well and this question came to me.