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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books An Introduction to the Emendation of A Shi‘ite Creed The Imamis' position on Non-Imami hadith From this urgently needed study of ours it appears that those of the Imamiyyah, who were accused of corporealism and anthropomorphism, whether correctly or not, were accused on the basis of their belief in hadith which had leaked over to them from the non-Imami sects, and we have given examples bearing witness to this.

These hadiths themselves were what led others to corporealism and anthropomorphism, knowingly or unknowingly; in this their views concurred, or at least those of their views which are narrated, although it is not proved that they, or some of them, believed in them.

As a single example of the effect of these hadiths on the environment of the Imamiyyah, in addition to the examples already given, there is what as-Saduq narrates with a chain of authority originating with Ya‘qub as-Sarraj, who stated: I said to Abu ‘Abdillah, peace be upon him: 'Some of our followers claim that Allah has a form like human form, and they also say that He is, in this form, beardless, with short,curly hair [refer to what has been stated previous-ly].' Abu‘Abdillah, peace be upon him, fallen to the ground, prostrated, and then he raised his head and said: 'Praise be to Allah Who does not resemble anything, Who is not perceived by vision, and not bound by knowledge.

He did not beget, because a son would resemble his father; He was not begotten, for whoever was before Him would resemble Him.'[^1] There is another factor, and it suffices that we mention just one piece of evidence for it without comment or explanation. This is what came from Ibn Abi ‘Umayr Muhammad ibn Ziyad al-Azdi al-Baghdadi (d.

217/832), the famous Imami Traditionist and scholar, concerning what al-Kishshi narrated from al- Fadl ibn Shadhan: He questioned Abu Muhammad ibn Abi ‘Umayr, saying to him: 'You have met the non-Imami shaykhs, but how is it that you have not heeded them?' He said: 'I listened to them; however I saw that many of our followers had heard knowledge from the ‘ammah (non-Imamis) and from the khassah (the elite-Imamis), and that they had been con- fused to the point where they narrated a non-Imami hadith from Imami sources and vice versa.