413 A.H)...

413 A.H), one of the most outstanding early Shi’a scholars, defines the Shi’a as being those who follow Ali and believe in his immediate successorship to the Prophet.

[^3] Explaining why Shi’a are also called “Imamiyah”, he says: “This is a title for those who believe in the necessity of Imamate and its continuit y in all ages, and that every Imam must be explicitly designated, and must also be infallible and perfect.”[^4] Thus, it can be said that Shi’a Muslims are those who have the following beliefs about the successorship to the : a. hip to the Prophet is a Divine position. b.

As the Prophet was chosen by God, his successor or Imam also must be chosen by God and then made known by the Prophet. c. The immediate successor to the was Ali. When did Shi'ism start? Naturally the question arises as to when Shi’ism started. There are many hadiths narrated by both Shi’a and non- Shi’a regarding the issue of Imamate that will be studied later when discussing Shi’i doctrines.

In what follows, however, we will just study some hadiths in which the spoke of a group of people as “Shi’a” (followers) of Ali and then refer to some extra reasons from hadiths and the history of Islam that can shed more light on the subject at hand. All hadiths mentioned below are cited from respected Sunni sources. These are, however, a few of the most important narrations, and there are many more to be found in the sources mentioned here as well as others. (1) Ibn 'Asakir (d.

571 A.H.) narrated from Jabir b. 'Abdullah al-Ansari that he said: Once we were with the , when Ali arrived, upon which the Prophet said, 'I swear by Him who has my life in His hand that surely this man and his Shi’a will be happy on the Day of Resurrection and then the verse “Surely those who believe and do good deeds are the best of men” (98:7) was revealed. Later, whenever the companions of the saw Ali coming, they would say, “The best of men has come”.[^5] (2) Ibn Hajar (d.