The Rāfidah, however, call (1) for an infallible imam, yet inwardly they have only a nonexistent imam, while outwardly they have an imam who is an outright unbeliever or a gross oppressor (2). Thus, the imams of Ahl al-Sunnah—even granting whatever injustice and sins may be ascribed to them—are better than the visible imams in whom the Rāfidah believe (3), and better than a nonexistent imam who has no reality.
As for the remaining imams who actually existed, Ahl al-Sunnah follow them just as they follow their peers. They and their peers are therefore imams. Whoever follows these men together with their peers (4) among the rest of the Muslims is better than one who follows them alone. Knowledge consists of both transmission and understanding; the greater the number of scholars engaged in it, and the more they agree upon it (5), the stronger it is and the more deserving of being followed. Thus, the Shiʿah possess no good without Ahl al-Sunnah sharing with them [in it; and the good unique to Ahl al-Sunnah] (6) is not shared with them by the Shiʿah.
The Tenth Point (7): It may be said that every member of Ahl al-Sunnah can counter what this Imāmī has stated with something stronger than it. For he says of men such as Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib, ʿAlqamah, al-Aswad, al-Hasan al-Basrī, ʿAtā ibn Abī Rabāh, Muhammad ibn Sīrīn, Mutarrif ibn al-Shikhkhīr, Makhūl, al-Qāsim ibn Muhammad, and ʿUrwah ibn al-Zubayr