All of the Holy Imams that the Twelvers follow were martyred...

All of the Holy Imams that the Twelvers follow were martyred, except the last Holy Imam, Imam Al Mahdi (atfs)[^6], who is believed to be in occultation. All of the Holy Imams are from the progeny of the Holy Prophet (sawa); they are the sons of Fatima (sa)[^7] and Ali (as), and there is no doubt or dispute about it.

The beliefs of the Ithna Ashari Shias have been discussed in many books & only the lives of the 2 imams, which are not followed by the other sub sects, will be discussed in detail later in this book. Zaidis The Zaidis do not believe in the 5th Imam, Imam Muhammad al-Baqir, because he did not revolt against the corrupt government. They follow Zayd ibn Ali Zainul Abideen as their Imam because he staged a revolution against the corrupt rulers of Bani Umayyah.

They do not believe in a direct lineage – instead, any descendant of Imam Hasan and Imam Husayn (as) who stages a revolution against a corrupt government is considered as an Imam. The Zaidis do not believe that the Imams are divinely appointed. They also do not believe in the infallibility of the Imams, nor do they believe that the Imams receive divine guidance. The Zaidis are mainly found in Yemen.

Alawis Alawis loved the Ahlul Bayt[^8] (as) to the extent that after seeing the impeccable qualities of the Ahlul Bayt (as) they started exaggerating the status of the Imams. Alawites are also called Nusayris, Nusairis, Namiriya or Ansariyya. They are also known as the exaggerators. Within Alawites they have various sects. There are over one million Alawis that live in Syria and Lebanon. The Ithna Ashari Imams have condemned the exaggerators.

The Ismailis The Ismailis are a branch of Islam that is the second largest part of the Shia community after the Twelvers. They get their name from their acceptance of Ismail Ibn Jafar (as) as the divinely appointed spiritual successor to Imam Jafar al-Sadiq (as). The Ismailis dispute the succession of the seventh Imam - they say that Ismail ibn Jafar actually succeeded Imam Jafar al-Sadiq (as), whereas the Ithna Ashari Shias believe that Musa al-Kadhim (as) succeeded Imam Jafar al-Sadiq (as).

Ismail died before his father. However, some of the Ismailis claim that Ismail had not died, but rather, had gone into Ghaibat (occultation). Some of the Ismailis accepted his death and therefore claim that his eldest son, Muhammad Ibn Ismail, was now Imam.