and from al-Ḥusayn, ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn, Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī, and Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad as well—men whose learning is acknowledged by all who know the subject—while the rest also have well-documented biographies and openly transmitted reports.
What, then, entitles this Imam to remain hidden for such an extended period—more than four hundred years—when he is, according to them, the Imam of the Ummah, its guide, its caller, and its infallible authority, belief in whom is obligatory, to the point that anyone who denies him is, in their view, no believer at all? If they say, “He is afraid,” we reply that his forefathers faced even greater danger, as all scholars agree, and some of them were actually imprisoned. Fear is relevant only when a person is fighting; but had he done what his predecessors did—sitting with Muslims and teaching them—there would be nothing to fear.
A full exposure of these people’s error would be lengthy. What concerns us here is that they make this doctrine the very foundation of their religion. They go on to claim that if the true community splits over two opinions—one whose advocate is known and another whose advocate is unknown—the correct view is the one whose advocate is unknown. I have found this stated in the writings of their own elders, who reason that an opinion with no known advocate must have come from the infallible Imam. This is the utmost degree of ignorance and misguidance.
In the same fashion, when they transmit material of this kind—biographies, tales, and hadiths—and you ask them for the chain of transmission, they cannot point you to a single person renowned for truthfulness. One of them is content merely to have heard it from someone like himself, or to have read it in a book devoid of any recognized isnād; and if they do name anyone, he will be among those notorious for lying and fabrication. It never happens that they cite something unknown to the scholars of the Sunnah except through an unidentified transmitter or through someone already infamous for falsehood.
On this very basis someone asserted, “This is the shrine of al-Ḥusayn (may Allah be pleased with him),” and likewise other famous sites attributed to al-Ḥusayn, and even shrines said to mark the grave