[Chapter: The fourth chapter of Minhāj al-Karāmah, on the ways of establishing the imamate of the Twelve Imams]
[The first way of establishing the imamate of the Twelve Imams: explicit designation]

Chapter

The Rāfidī (2) said (1):

“Chapter Four: The imamate of the remaining members of the Twelve Imams (3).

“We have several ways of establishing this:

“One is explicit designation. The Shia (4) in widely separated lands have handed this down, generation after generation, from the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—that he said to al-Husayn (5): ‘This is an imam (6), the son of an imam, the brother of an imam, and the father of nine imams. The ninth of them is their Qā’im. His name is like mine (7), and his kunyah (honorific name) is my kunyah. He will fill the earth with justice and equity, just as it was filled with oppression and injustice.’”

The response has several aspects:

The first is to say: First of all, this is a false claim about the Shia, for only one group (8) among the Shia transmits this, while all the other Shia groups reject it as false. The Zaydīs, without exception, reject this as false (9), and they are the most rational, the most knowledgeable, and the best of the Shia. All the Ismā‘īlīs likewise reject it as false, as do all the other Shia sects except the Twelvers, who are one of approximately seventy Shia sects.