When it comes to the central tenet of Twelve Imams critics of the Shia faith claim:
The belief in the Twelve Imams was not universally accepted or recognized among early Shia sects, such as the Zaidis and Waqifis. It was initially simply Imamiyyah, that centuries later transformed into Ithna Ashariyya, possibly under the influence of the Ahle Tasannun belief of ‘Twelve Leaders of Quraish’ report.
They further claim that that earliest Shia books including Al-Usul Al-Arba Miah and Basair al-Darajat by Muhammad al-Saffar (exp. 290 AH), who wrote during the Ghaibah Sughra (Minor Occultation) period in the late 3rd century hijri, did not mention the idea / specific belief in Twelve Imams. The concept of Twelve Imams, only began to emerge at the beginning of the fourth century hijri, during the time of Shaikh Mufeed (r.a.).
Reply
The claims of the critics that the Twelve Imams belief did not exist in early Shia books and emerged only later in the early fourth century is a blatant lie.
Al-Usul Al-Arba Miah Mention Twelve Imams
In Shia theology, ‘Asl’ (pl. Usul) refers to foundational texts documenting the teachings of Shia Imams (a.s.), compiled by their companions. These early works, like the ‘Four Hundred Usul’, (Al-Usul Al-Arba’ Miah) are authoritative sources for Islamic jurisprudence and theology. Many were later incorporated into larger Hadith collections, such as Al-Kafi by Shaikh Kulaini (r.a.).
Out of the 400 Usul (Al-Usul Al-Arba’ Miah) only 16 are in circulation today, with ravages of time and strict prohibition on circulating virtues and teachings of Ahle Bait (a.s.) explaining the severely diminished count of the Usul.
Even so, from the 16 Usul book present today, we fund mention of the Twelve Imams. For instance, it is reported that Imam Zainul Abideen (a.s.) narrated:
Indeed, Allah created from the Light of His Greatness, Muhammad, Ali and 11 of his descendants, and He placed them as figures in the brightness of His Light, where they worshipped Him before the creation of the creatures. They would glorify Allah and extol Him. They are the Imams from the progeny of Allah’s Messenger.
- Asl of Abu Saeed Abbad al-Usfuri (exp 250 AH), p. 15
In another narration, Imam Muhammad Baqir (a.s.) quotes Holy Prophet (s.a.w.a.):
Indeed, me and 11 of my descendants and you O Ali, are the pegs of the earth….so when the eleventh of my descendant (Imam Mahdi (a.s.) departs, the earth and its inhabitants, will be destroyed and they will not be given respite.
- Asl of Abu Saeed Abbad al-Usfuri (exp 250 AH), p. 16
Basair al-Darajat on the Twelve Imams (a.s.)
The allegation / misrepresentation that Basair al-Darajat author has not documented any reports on the Twelve Imams shows the critics’ ignorance and laziness since clearly they have not taken the trouble of referring the book.
The author under question – Muhammad al-Saffar, in his book Basair al-Darajat, has narrated several reports on the Twelve Imams.
To keep this article concise, we will present two examples with authentic chains to expose the falsehoods being permeated by the critics. Additionally, we will demonstrate that Saffar sourced both reports from pre-occultation authors (pre-260 AH), proving once again that the critics of Shia faith are not interested in the truth.
In his book Basair al-Darajat vol 2, pg 110, Muhammad al-Saffar narrates through his chain of narrators from Humran Ibn Ayun, who reports from Abu Jafar Imam Baqir (a.s.):
The Messenger of Allah (s.a.w.a.) informed, ‘Among my family, there will be Twelve Muhaddath.’
Abdullah Ibn Zaid, the maternal brother of Imam Ali Ibn Husain (Imam Sajjad (a.s.)), responded with surprise, saying, ‘Exalted is Allah! Did you say Muhaddath?’ in disbelief. Imam Baqir (a.s.) then turned to him and said, ‘By Allah, the son of your mother (Imam Sajjad) indeed knew this.’
After hearing this, Abdullah Ibn Zaid remained silent.
Abu Jafar (referring to Saffar here, not Imam Baqir (a.s.)) commented, ‘This misunderstanding was what led to the downfall of Abul Khattab (the exaggerator / Ghali); he could not comprehend the distinction between Muhaddath and Nabi.’
As observed, the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.a.) foretold the presence of Twelve Muhaddath among his Ahle Bait.
The term Muhaddath refers to a specific characteristic of the Imams, and its meaning is further clarified in Saffar’s book (Basair) through various other narrations. An example that illustrates the difference between a Rasool, Nabi, and Muhaddath is also provided.
Saffar narrates through the same chain of narrators, this time from Zurarah, brother of Humran, the narrator of the previous narration. He says, ‘I asked Aba Jafar / Imam Baqir (a.s.) about Rasool, Nabi, and Muhaddath.’
Imam (a.s.) informed:
Rasool is the one to whom Jibraeel comes and talks to him face to face, and he sees him like someone from among you talks to someone. This is the Rasool or Messenger. As for the Nabi, he is the one to whom the angel comes while he is asleep, like the dream of Ibrahim, and like when the Messenger of Allah (s.a.w.a.) used to get numb at times during revelation via Jibrail. So, this is the Nabi or Prophet.
According to the Noble Quran, the Holy Prophet (s.a.w.a.) was among those who combined in their persona both messengership (Risalah) and prophethood (Nobuwwat) as per verse 40 of Surah Ahzab.
Hence, the Messenger of Allah (s.a.w.a.) was a Rasool. Jibrail used to come to him and talk to him face to face, and he could see him. And he (s.a.w.a.) was a Nabi, since Jibrail also used to come to him while he was asleep.
As for the Muhaddath, he is the one who hears the speech of the angel and talks with him without seeing him and without the angel coming to him while asleep.’
- Basair al-Darajat, Chapter of Difference Between Rasool, Nabi, Muhaddath, trad 2
Who is a Muhaddath
According to the narration, Muhaddath is someone the angels talk to, without him (or her) seeing the angels. He is neither a Rasool or Messenger nor a Nabi or Prophet, and this concept is widely known in Islamic literature, both in Sunni sources and Shia sources.
An important point is that a Muhaddath can be a person AFTER the Holy Prophet (s.a.w.a.) and since he / she is not a Nabi / Rasool, the belief in Finality of Prophethood is not affected. The skeptics accuse Shias of taking the Imams at par with prophets and in this way, they blame Shias for disregarding Finality of Prophethood (Khatme Nobuwwat). Clearly, the skeptics have failed to understand the dividing line between a Prophet and Muhaddath.
Not only the Imams (a.s.), but there were also other Muhaddath
There are other Muhaddathun, apart from the Imams (a.s.)
For instance, among the names of Lady Fatima Zahra (s.a.) is Muhaddathah, as the angels conversed with her.
- Al-Amali of Shaik Sadooq (r.a.) p 592
It is reported that Salman al-Muhammadi was a Muhaddath.
- Basair al-Darajat, Chapter of Muhaddath, His Characteristics, How He Is Treated, How He Is Conversed with, trad 4
Obviously, Finality of Prophethood is not disrupted with Lady Fatima Zahra (s.a.) and Salman al-Muhammadi being among the Muhaddath.
Also, Shias cannot be accused of embellishing the Imams (a.s.) with titles and characteristics like Muhaddath, as others like Salman al-Muhammadi are also considered among the Muhaddath.
Muhaddath Narrations are Pre-Ghaibat
The other interesting point here is that these narrations are pre-Ghaibat / occultation report from a pre-occultation book. Shaikh Najashi says about the first narrator that Saffar narrates these two narrations from. He records in his book Al-Fehrist, page 265:
Ali Ibn Hasan al-Wasti from Hasan al-Qasir, known as Al-Munammis, lived more than 100 years, and he was a reliable narrator. He has narrated from Imam Sadiq (a.s.). His narration is from Sadan Ibn Muslim. Ali Ibn Hasan has a book that a group of our scholars have narrated from, and the chain that Najashi mentions here for that book is through Saffar himself, from Ali ibn Hasan. This means that the narration of Saffar from Ali Ibn Hasan is obviously from the book of Ali Ibn Hasan because Saffar was the narrator of the book of Ali ibn Hasan as well.
The other point is that Ali Ibn Hasan has narrated some narrations directly from Imam Sadiq (a.s.), who died by poison in the year 148 AH, meaning that Ali Ibn Hasan must have been born long before that, at an age to be able to narrate narrations from Imam Sadiq (a.s.). If we say he was at least 10 years old, for example, and he narrated those narrations from Imam (a.s.) in the last year of his life around 148 A.H., and assume that Ali Ibn Hasan lived even for 120 years and narrated this narration of the Twelve Muhaddath in the last year of his life, it still would be the year 258 AH, where Imam Askari (a.s.) was still alive, and occultation had not yet commenced. We have taken the most conservative esimates, whereas realistically speaking, Saffar must have narrated this narration from Ali Ibn Hasan long before occultation, around the first quarter of the third century.
Another important fact is that the narrator before Ali Ibn Hasan, whose name is Moosa Ibn Bikr, is also an author, and his book is a second-century source in many early sources like Al-Mahasin of Marhoom Barqi and Al-Kafi.
Ali ibn Hasan al-Wasti has narrated many narrations from Moosa bin Bikr, indicating that Ali Ibn Hasan’s narration from Moosa Ibn Bikr is most probably also from the book of Moosa Ibn Bikr, like the two narrations about Muhaddath in Basaer that we presented, indicating it to have been taken most probably from one of the chapters of his book about the same topic.
Hence either Saffar has taken it from the book of his teacher, Ali ibn Hasan, who has taken it from the book of his teacher, Moosa ibn Bikr, or Saffar has narrated it from his teacher, Ali Ibn Hasan, who has taken it from the book of his teacher, Moosa Ibn Bikr.
Second Narration on Twelve Imams in Basair
The second narration of Saffar in his book Basair al-Darajat, is from the chapter titled ‘A Chapter About The Imams Being Muhaddathun, Mufahhamun.’
We have already seen what Muhaddathun means—someone who the angels talk to—and Mufahhamun is also quite similar. Mufahhamun is like the Mulham, i.e. someone who gets implicit divine inspiration.
The first narration in the chapter that Saffar records is from Imam Reza (a.s.), who said:
The Imams are owners of knowledge, truthful, Muhaddathun, Mufahhamun.
So, we see that being a Muhaddath is a quality of the Imams.
The second narration that Saffar narrates through his chain of narrators is from Samat Ibn Mehran, who says:
I was with Abu Basir and Muhammad Ibn Imran (the freed slave of Imam Jafar Sadiq (a.s.)) in a house in Mecca. Muhammad Ibn Imran said:
I heard Imam Sadiq (a.s.) saying: ‘We are Twelve Muhaddath.’
Abu Basir said to him: By Allah, did you really hear this from Abu Abdillah i.e. Imam Sadiq (a.s.)?
He said – Yes.
Abu Baseer made him swear once or twice whether he indeed heard it from Imam Sadiq (a.s.).
Then Abu Baseer said: I heard Imam Baqir (a.s.) saying the same.
Saffar narrates this report through Abdullah Ibn Salt Abu Talib. Let’s review his standing among the scholars of Rejal. Marhoom Sayyid Abul Qasim al-Khoei records in his book Mojam al-Rejal al-Hadith, vol 11, pg 237:
Abdullah Ibn Salt Abu Talib Al-Qummi, servant of Bani Teem Al-Laat Ibn Sa’laba, is trustworthy; his narrations are relied upon. He has narrated from Imam Reza (a.s.) a book of Tafseer is attributed to him. Then Marhoom al-Khoei mentions the chain of narrators of this Tafseer.
Sayyid al-Khoei quotes Shaikh Sadooq, writing in the introduction of his book Kamaluddin about the family of Abdullah Ibn Salt and then says: Ahmed Ibn Muhammed Ibn Isa used to narrate from Abdullah Ibn Salt Abu Talib. May Allah be pleased with him.
Shaikh Tusi likewise grades him as trustworthy and counts him among the companions of Imam Reza (a.s.) and Imam Jawad (a.s.).
Also, Shaikh al-Barki counts him among the companions of Imam Reza (a.s.) and Imam Jawad (a.s.) as well.
Abdullah Ibn Salt Abu Talib lived long enough until Saffar met him and narrated from him. Apparently, Saffar was among the last narrators who narrated from Abdullah Ibn Salt Abu Talib, indicating that this was most probably before Ghaibat, which commenced from the year 260 AH, while Saffar died 30 years later in the year 290 AH.
It is important to note that Saffar is not the only sub-narrator from Abdullah Ibn Salt Abu Talib, nor is Abdullah Ibn Salt Abu Talib the only sub-narrator from Uthman Ibn Isa for this narration, as it is evident from other sources that we will present to you.
Samaat Ibn Mehran – the first narrator in this chain – is described by Najashi as a highly trustworthy narrator. He narrated from Imams Sadiq and Kazim (peace be upon them). Najashi provides a chain of narrators to the book written by Samaat, which includes Uthman Ibn Isa, like the chain in Basair al-Darajat. Shaikh Kulayni and Shaikh Sadooq also narrate this tradition through different chains. Sulaiman al-Mahuzi, grades the chain as authentic, with all narrators being trustworthy. Sadooq further supports this with variations in his other works, highlighting different chains of narrators.
The notable point here is that Muhammad Ibn Husain Ibn Abil Khattab died in the year 262 A.H., i.e. two years after Imam Hasan Askari (a.s.), which indicates that most probably he had heard this narration from Abdullah Ibn Salt Abu Talib long before that year; otherwise, Muhammad Ibn Husain Ibn Abil Khattab’s main student, Muhammad Ibn Yahya al-Attar, would have also narrated it directly from Abdullah Ibn Salt Abu Talib, especially since all three lived in the same city i.e. Qum.
Furthermore, from the chains of the narrators of Shaikh Sadooq, we see that Muhammad Ibn Yahya al-Attar has narrated this narration from Saffar as well.
So when Muhammad ibn Yahya Al Attar, a Qummi scholar, has narrated the same narration from two of his Qummi teachers but has not narrated it from the other Qummi narrator above them, i.e., from Abdullah Ibn Salt Abu Talib, himself directly—and this is not just for this narration but all other narrations—we don’t see Muhammad Ibn Yahya al-Attar as a sub-narrator from Abdullah Ibn Salt Abu Talib in any other early Shia sources.
This is a clear indication that Abdullah Ibn Salt Abu Talib had passed away long before Muhammad Ibn Yahya al-Attar so could not directly narrate from him. Since even his intermediary narrator to Abdullah Ibn Salt Abu Talib, i.e. Muhammad Ibn Hussein Ibn Abil Khattab, had died in the year 262 A.H., Abdullah Ibn Salt Abu Talib definitely died long before that, long before the occultation.
Moreover, his teacher Saffar was among the last scholars witnessing Abdullah Ibn Salt Abu Talib and narrating from him, as Shaikh Sadooq has asserted.
Also, the first narrator in the chain, Samaat Ibn Mehran, is also an author, as we documented in Al-Fehrist of Najashi. Interestingly, his book has been narrated through the same sub-narrator Usman Ibn Isa, as we saw from the chains of the narrators of Najashi, and we see that even the sub-narrator to Usman Ibn Isa, i.e., Jafar Ibn Abdullah al-Muhammadi, for the entire book of Samaat Ibn Mehran also appears in one of the chains of Shaikh Sadooq in Kamaluddin for the narration of Twelve Muhaddath, as well as the sub-narrator Ahmed Ibn Muhammad Ibn Saeed Ibn Uqdah Hamdani, the same famous Zaidi Jarudi scholar, which leaves no room for doubt that this narration of Twelve Muhaddath has been taken from the book of Samaat Ibn Mehran himself at the top of the chain.
This is also evident once we investigate the other narrations of Samaat Ibn Mehran. We see that Usman Ibn Isa appears as a sub-narrator for his narrations frequently in the early Shia books like Al Mahasin of Barqi, Basair al-Darajat, Al-Kafi, among others. So, we can safely conclude that Saffar’s narration definitely goes even further back in time, to the period of the earliest Shia books, to the mid-second-century Shia sources, namely the book of Samaat Ibn Mehran himself. And he was a companion of Imam Sadiq (a.s.) and Imam Kazim (a.s.).
Did Shias Borrow Belief in Twelve Imams From the Ahle Tasannun?
Among the most outrageous allegations of the skeptics is that the Shias borrowed the belief in Twelve Imams from the Ahle Tasannun.
This is the like the allegation of the Ahle Kitab (Christians and Jews) that Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.a.) borrowed the Quran from the Old Testament and New Testament (Torah and Injee).
Just because a set of beliefs / concepts co-exist it does not mean they are a copy of one another. It means that the belief is so widely prevalent that multiple peoples / nations hold it as a means of salvation.
The belief in Twelve Guides of the Ahle Tasannun are primarily linked to three such narrations, the primary narrators of which are four famous companions of Holy Prophet (s.a.w.a.).
The first narration is by Abdullah Ibn Masood, second one by Jabir Ibn Samurah and Saad Ibn Abi Waqqas and third one by Abu Juhaifah.
A quantitative rijali analysis of the transmission of the three narrations in Sunni works shows that within the first three centuries, approximately 200 narrators reported these traditions, a majority of whom are deemed trustworthy according to Sunni rijal standards. Interestingly, around 25%-30% of these narrators are classified as Imami Shia. This means about 50 narrators of such reports on Twelve Guides in the Sunni sources are in fact Shias
Hence to claim the Shias have borrowed their belief on Twelve Imams from Sunni sources is ridiculous and reeks of mischief at worst and ignorance at best.
Key Takeaways That Prove Imamate Belief in Twelve Imams is Original Tenet of Shiaism
Reports on the Twelve Imams are documented in the earliest, most reliable books of Shias i.e. Al-Usul Al-Arba Miah, so the claim that this belief is a latter-day innovation is wrong.
Mention of Twelve Imams / Muhaddath are also to be found in the early book – Basair al-Darajat authored by Muhammad Safar, exposing the lie of those who claim that there are no reports in this early book.
More importantly, we can see that these authentic reports from Basair al-Darajat on the Twelve Imams are not only taken from early third century and pre-occultation period sources; rather, it is demonstrably evident that they are traceable even further back in time to the mid-second-century sources.