the cellar in Samarra after the death of his father, al-Hasan ibn ʿAlī al-ʿAskarī, in the year 260 AH. He remains absent to this day: nothing has been heard of him, and no one has seen him or found any trace of him.

Those knowledgeable about the genealogies of the Prophet’s household say that al-Hasan ibn ʿAlī al-ʿAskarī had neither children nor descendants.

There is no doubt that all rational people regard such a claim as the height of folly. Only the most foolish, misguided, and ignorant of people would accept the belief that such a person is an imam and is infallible. A detailed refutation of their claims belongs elsewhere.

The purpose here is to illustrate the kinds of assertions and reports circulated among people of ignorance and misguidance. For these people claim among the ignorant and misguided that this awaited one was either two, three, or five years old when his father died; they disagree among themselves about this.

It is established by the explicit texts of the Quran, the mass-transmitted Sunnah, and the consensus of the Muslim community that a child of this age must be under another person’s guardianship, both personally and with respect to his property. He would therefore himself be in another’s custody and care, under someone entitled to assume responsibility for his person and property and to oversee and look after him, whether a dhimmī (non-Muslim under Muslim protection) or otherwise. Before the age of seven, he is a child who is not commanded