He also reinforced his position by invoking one of the Rafidi leaders who had been in greater Syria, a man known as Ibn al-ʿŪd (1). I have come across several of his legal opinions (2) in which, in more than one place (3), he claims that the rightly-guided faction consists of the followers of the awaited, infallible Imam. He then cites the “consensus of the rightly-guided faction” as proof, on the assumption that their pronouncements are taken from that very infallible Imam (4)—an Imam whom no one knows, of whom no report has ever been heard, and for whom no trace or sign exists.

Indeed, he went so far as to say: “If they disagree over a matter and two opinions emerge—one whose proponent is known and another whose proponent is unknown—the opinion whose proponent is unknown is the truth, because among those who hold it is the infallible Imam.” Yet I subsequently found him differing with his own colleagues and refuting them on various points. How can such disagreement and rebuttal be reconciled with the claim that they are the rightly-guided faction that never agrees upon falsehood?

Much the same is asserted by many people of capricious desire and misguidance: that they alone are upon the truth, or that they are the people of Allah, the people of true realization, or the friends of Allah—restricting (5) these (6) descriptions to themselves alone—while in reality they (7) are far closer to being the enemies of Allah and to nullification than they are to genuine realization.

Such people bear a strong resemblance to what Allah has related about the Jews and the Christians when He said: “And they said, ‘None shall enter Paradise unless he be a Jew or a Christian.’ Such are their wishful thoughts. Say, ‘Produce your proof, if you are truthful.’ 111 Indeed—whoever submits…"