Amidst this all, these two Imams guided to the truth.

Amidst this all, these two Imams guided to the truth. These Imams and their faithful disciples were the first to see this danger, and they were ready to fight it with their logical evidence. They defended their true faith, repulsed their enemies, and raised the standards of the shari’a . They launched an unremitting jihad (academic, of course) against the ghulat and showed them their true colours.

They argued with the Muttazilites, the Murji’ites, and the Kharijites in public and proved the weakness of their standpoints. They exposed the Sufis and refuted their arguments. They corrected what was wrong in the theological ideas of many Muslim scholars, and showed them where they had gone wrong in jurisprudence. (3) As we have explained above, the major part of this work was done by Imam Ja’ far as-Sadiq.

As a result of his untiring defence of Islam, the Muslim world came to see in him the only hope for the salvation of Islam. Eyes turned towards him, thinkers accepted the Imam as their “great-teacher”; people used to come into his presence with pen and paper ready, and his words were recorded on the spot. Thousands of such notebooks were filled, and the words of the Imam Ja’far as-Sadiq attained the same prestige as those of the Messenger of God.

Not only the Shi’is, Sunnis, Mu’tazilites and atheists but also the Hindus and Christians came to him and benefited from his discourses. The Sunni Imam, Malik b. Anas, the founder of the Maliki school of law, said: “No eye ever saw, no ear ever heard, and no heart ever imagined anyone superior to Ja’far b.

Muhammad in virtue, knowledge, worship and piety.(4) Ibn Shahr ashub writes: “So much knowledge has been narrated from as- Sadiq that has never been narrated from anyone else, and the scholars of traditions have collected the names of his trustworthy narrators of various beliefs and views, and they were four thousand men.” Abu Na’im writes in Hilyatu ‘l-Awliya : “Malik b. Anas, Shutba b. Hajjaj, Sufyan at-Thawri, Ibn Jarih, ‘Abdullah b. ‘Amr, Rawh, b. Qasim, Sufyan b. ‘Uyayna, Sulayman b.

Bilal, Isma’il b. Ja’far, Hakim b. Isma’il, ‘Abdu l-‘Aziz b. Mukhtar, Wuhayb b. Khalid, Ibrahim b. Tahman, among others …, narrated from Ja’far as-Sadiq, peace be upon him.(5)” Quoting from others, Ibn Shahr ‘ashub has added the names of the Sunni Imams Malik, ash-Shat and Ahmad b. Hanbal, and al-Hasan b. as-Salih, Abu Ayyub as-Sajistani and ‘Umar b. Dinar. (6) Hasan b.