Al-Qāsim’s purpose was to say: “This claim is just like yours. Yet you detest and reject it, and the same means by which it is refuted also refute your claim(1).”

The same applies to the counterclaims people cite against the interpretations of the Qarmatians, the Rafidites, and others like them. For example, they claim that His words:

“Then fight the leaders of disbelief”

[Surah al-Tawbah: 12]

refer to Talha, al-Zubayr, Abū Bakr, Umar, and Muāwiya. This is countered with the Kharijites’ assertion that they refer to Alī, al-Hasan, and al-Husayn. All of this is false. The point, however, is that they are answered with an argument like their own, while the proof of its invalidity applies to both kinds of claim. It is thus established that all of them are false.

[The Rafidite’s third method concerning the proofs drawn from the Sunnah for the imamate of Alī, may Allah be pleased with him]

[The first: When the words of Allah Most High, “And warn your nearest kindred,” were revealed, the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, gathered Banū Abd al-Muttalib]

Section

The Rafidite said:(2)

“The third method concerns the proofs based(3) upon the Sunnah transmitted from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. They are twelve in number.

The first is: ‘What everyone has transmitted is that, when the words of Allah Most High,

“And warn your nearest kindred”

[Surah al-Shuarā: 214]

were revealed, the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, gathered Banū Abd al-Muttalib in the house of Abū Tālib(4). They were forty men, and he ordered that a sheep’s leg(5) be prepared for them with a mudd of wheat(6), and that there be prepared for them