Moreover, his constant companionship with them and their eagerness to emulate him in deed were the chief factors that transformed their emotional attachment into an intellectual, heartfelt love—love that reached its peak when the Helpers declared, “By Allah, O Messenger of Allah, were you to lead us into this sea, we would plunge into it with you.”

The covenants they concluded with him required that they protect him just as they protected themselves and their own families… and they spilled their blood as a truthful expression of love for Allah and His Messenger, and of obedience to Allah and His Messenger.

“Whoever obeys the Messenger has indeed obeyed Allah.” 1

They voiced their love by acting in accordance with his sunnah and with the Quran, wavering neither to one side nor growing lax.

They knew that love means conformity in word, deed, bearing, and character; therefore, in order to act upon it they trampled underfoot every glittering ornament the soul, in its deceit and misguidance, might crave in an attempt to divert its owner from the straight path.

Years passed, and the Ahl al-Bayt remained leaders in practice. Yet some people admired them with a merely emotional admiration that took the form of shouting, chanting slogans, swelling crowds, and spreading superstition—until Imam Zayn al-ʿAbidin ʿAli ibn al-Husayn said to certain extremist Shiʿites, “You have loved us so much that your love has become a disgrace to us.”

Such love could never be a disgrace as long as they were following the Ahl al-Bayt in word and deed—unless, that is, they had deviated into a kind of self-deluding superstition; and it was this that prompted the Imam’s remark.

Extremist Shiʿites have persisted in asserting that the Imam is infallible and possesses independent authority,