and threatening the ones who avoid it!
The reason for the disagreement concerning the Great Imam, Zayd bin „Ali bin al-Hussein bin „Ali bin Abi Tālib5, Allah‟s peace be on them, related to when he came forth and called people to pledge their allegiance and become his Shiites. There were many other people who stopped him and told him: “You are not an Imam!”
He replied: “Well, then who is he [i.e. the Imam]?”
They said: “Your nephew, Ja‟far6.”
He said: “Verily, Ja‟far said: „He [i.e. Zayd] is the only true Imam. Why don‟t you write to him to ask him?”
They said: “The road is severed and we cannot find a messenger except for 40 dinars!”
He said: “Here‟s 40 dinars.”
So, they wrote and sent it to him…Then the next day came.
They said: “Verily he has engaged in dissimulation with you!”
He said: “Woe be unto you! How can an imam engage in dissimilation, hide the truth, or be in fear when there is no problem?! You now vow that you will fight with me? I urge that you give the oath of allegiance to me like the oaths of allegiance to „Ali, al-Hassan, and al-Hussein, upon them be peace. I urge you to give the oath of allegiance to me with your weapons or, at least, your tongues!”
They said: “We will do nothing!”
He said: “Allah is the Greatest! I swear by Allah, you all are the Rafidites7 mentioned by the Messenger of Allah in his statement:
((After me there will be a people who will reject (yurfađun) the jihad with the good of the People of my House and they will say that there is no commanding the good or forbidding the evil! They will mimic in the religion and follow their whims…)).”
Al-Hādi8, upon him be peace, narrated this. Also, in some of the narrations, they had reneged after the oath of allegiance from fear of the Umayyad authority, and they claim these explanations to justify their position. There was no disagreement between Ja‟far and Zayd, peace be upon them both. We don‟t dispute.
The books of the Zaydis include overwhelming narrations on the authorities of „Ali ar-Riža, Musa al-Kādhim, Ja‟far as-Šadiq, Muhammad al-Bāqir, Zayn al-„Abidīn, [this also includes] the sons of the two Hassans [i.e. al-Hassan and al-Hussein] and their ancestors. The Zaydis believe in all of them. We follow them all and make no distinction between any of them and unto Him we have surrendered. If it is a dispute between us and them, we do not make them take from our predecessors and what fills our books with their narrations which are well-known. The community narrated it, and history highlights it.
They narrated on the authority of Ja‟far that he claimed that he was Imam. However, we deny this. We actually narrated the opposite view on his authority. This is narrated by the great Imam of Yemen, al-Hādi ila al-Haqq, Yahya bin Hussein bin Qāsim bin Ibrāhīm bin Isma‟il bin Ibrāhīm bin al-Hassan bin
5 He is Imam ash-Shahīd Zayd bin „Ali (d. 740 AD). He was killed during a revolt he led against the Umayyads.
6 He is Imam as-Sādiq Ja‟far bin Muhammad (d. 765 AD). He is considered the 6th of the 12 divinely ordained imams.
7 The Arabic term for “Rafidites” translates into “Rejectors”; however, since the followers of the 12er school are commonly known as “Rafidites”, we have maintained the term.
8 He is Imam al-Hādi ila al-Haqq Yahya bin al-Hussein (d. 911 AD). He is a Zaydi imam that is one of the central figures in Zaydi theology, law, and thought.
