This will only pave the way for those who wish to use...

This will only pave the way for those who wish to use religion in their own interests, to achieve their immoral aims by spreading corruption. They will be equipped with holy forces, using the hadith s and deeds of the Imams as proof justification for their actions. In this way, they misguide everyone else to act in the way they desire. All this will only result in dispersal, chaos, lack of morals, and social principles.

Pity the nation which lacks morals and social principles, allowing everybody acting upon their own ways of thinking. The saying “once a patient has too many doctors, there is no hope for recovery” is on the same basis with what is mentioned above.

Beyond doubt, if all these apparently different methodologies are not researched, examined and explored, we will still see these negative effects even if we have several leaders with different approaches, or leaders that have the same approach but express it differently in different places and we will not be able to resolve these differences to reach a specific aim. This will lead us to chaos as mentioned before.

As an example, if we look at the lives of ( s ) and Imam ‘Ali ( ‘a ), we see that they lived in poverty, wearing patched clothing and feeding themselves on oat bread. Also in the Qur’an it says, “Indeed, you have in the Messenger of Allah an outstanding exemplar for him whose hope is in Allah and the Last Day, and remembers Allah much.” 18 This implies that all people are obliged to follow the Prophet’s path and customs. They must all live on low class levels and wear patched clothes.

On the other hand, when observing the lives of Imam al-Mujtaba19 , Imam al-Sadiq or Imam al-Rida20 ( ‘a ), we see that they did not live in the same fashion as the Prophet. They lived well, ate good food, wore good clothes and appreciated the superb aspects of life. Once, Imam al-Sadiq ( ‘a ) paid a visit to a wealthy person. He found the wealthy person in a small house.

The Imam asked him, “Why do you not buy yourself a bigger house?” He replied: “This is my father’s house, in which he used to live.” The Imam then asked, “If your father was lacking common sense, does that mean you should be foolish like he was? Do you want to pay the price for your father’s senselessness for the rest of your life?” It is such apparent contradictory issues in Shi‘ism that make it look like it has this weak spot.

But the same example can be used to show that not only is it not a weak point but a point of strength.