you press them, “Who actually said that, and who transmitted it?” they have no infallible authority to which they can appeal. They cannot name a single individual known for honesty in transmission or for learning in his pronouncements. The most they can muster is the bald claim, “The saved faction has reached consensus.” Of course, in their own eyes they are that very “saved faction,” the only true believers, while the rest of the Muslim community are unbelievers.

They add, “Our predecessors were upon the truth because the infallible Imam was among them.” Now, the “infallible” according to the Twelver Imāmī Rāfiḍites (1) is the person whom they allege slipped into the cellar of Sāmarrāʾ after the death of his father, Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī al-ʿAskarī, in the year 260 AH. To this day no reliable report has ever emerged about him; no one has set eyes on him or found the slightest trace.

Those versed in the genealogies of the Prophet’s household (2) affirm that Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī al-ʿAskarī left neither child nor descendant. It is self-evident that rational people take no account of such a tale, and that believing in the Imamate and infallibility of a person of this description is something only the most foolish, misguided, and ignorant of men would countenance. A fuller refutation of their claims belongs elsewhere (3).

Our purpose here is simply to illustrate the kind of statements and reports traded among the people of ignorance and error. Concerning this so-called “Awaited One,” these deluded folk claim that at the time of his father’s death he was two, or three, or five years old—their own reports differ. Yet it is established by the explicit text of the Quran, by mass-transmitted Sunnah, and by the unanimous agreement (4) of the Muslim community that anyone of such an age must be under the legal guardianship of another with respect to both his person and his property; indeed, his very life must be placed in the care and custody of whoever