The Reasons behind the Disagreements among the Today’s Shiites over the Recognition of the Referent of Imam

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Abstract

Surveying the history of Shia in the very time of Ahl-al-Bayit(The
family of the prophet) ,shows that, when every one of them was
martyred, some of the people in the Shiite society were left with
perplexity in recognizing the referent of the Imam, leading to
the emergence of varied tendencies in this regard. Some have
said these perplexities and disconformities represent the forgery
of the texts indicative of the names of Imams. However, to
reject this reasoning, one can say there is another hypothesis,
claiming these texts had already existed but were concealed due
to dissimulation (Taqieh). And this has established the ground
for the other parameters to affect the emergence of these
disagreements. These parameters include the role of the elites;
the teachings of Mahdiism and its related challenges; the kind
of the Shiite community’s attitude towards the available criteria
for recognizing the referent of Imam; and finally, the existing
distance between some Shiites and the leadership center of Shiite
community.

Keywords