and said, “He is al-Khidr.” Similarly, the Rāfidah see someone whom they suppose to be the awaited, infallible imam, or claim that he is. It is related that when al-Khidr was mentioned to Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal, he said:
“Whoever refers you to someone absent has not treated you fairly. None but Satan has put this on people’s tongues.”
We have discussed this at length elsewhere.
If, however, by “the Pole, the Succour, the Unique One, the All-Encompassing One,” the speaker means a man who is the best person of his age, that is possible. Yet it is also possible for two, three, or four people in an age to be equal in excellence. One cannot categorically assert that in every age only one person ranks highest in excellence. There may be a group whose members surpass one another in some respects but not others, with their respective merits being closely matched or equal.
Even if there is a man who is the best person of his age, calling him “the Pole, the Succour, the All-Encompassing One” is an innovation for which Allah has sent down no authority. None of this nation’s early generations or imams ever used such language. The early generations would consider certain individuals to be the best, or among the best, of their age, without applying to them these titles for which Allah has sent down no authority. This is especially so since some who adopt this title claim that the first of the Poles was al-Hasan ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī Tālib—may Allah be pleased with them both—and that this position then passes down to those below him, reaching some of the shaykhs of