However, Imam £"diq (a.

However, Imam £"diq (a.s.) lived during a period in which the Umayyad dynasty was in decline and the Abbasid dynasty was in ascendance and he took the opportunity to spread the realities of Islam on a wide scale.

The Sh:!a are also named the ‘Twelvers (ithn" !ashar:yah)’ as they believe in the Imamate of the twelve Imams of the Prophet’s house, the prophet having said: ‘The successors after me will be twelve in number.’28 The Sh:!ite sect, then, is a practical form of Islam as the Prophet (N) and his pure household put forward.