Imam Shafi'i...

Imam Shafi'i, one of the four Imams of the Sunni, in his famous verses says "Let everybody know that if the love of Muhammad's descendants means to be a Rafizi, I am a Rafizi ". [^1] Imam Shafi'i also says "O ! Allah has made it obligatory in the Qur'an to love you. It is a matter of pride for you that without invoking blessing on you, prayer is not valid,".

Again he says in his verses "After having seen that the people have chosen different ways which have led them to the Ocean of deviation and ignorance. I have, in the name of Allah, embarked the ship which may lead me to safety.

The of the Holy Prophet are that very ship We have been ordered to hold fast the rope of Allah, and that rope is their love".[^2] Zamakhshari and Fakhruddin al-Razi, who bitterly oppose the Sh'iah on the question of succession to the Holy Prophet, quote him in their commentaries on the Qur'an as having said "He who dies adhering to the progeny of Muhammad dies the death of a martyr; his sins will be forgiven he dies the death of a repentant and his faith will be regarded as perfect".[^3] Imam Ali also says in Nahj al-Balaghah, in the end of sermon 232 "He who dies in his bed, but acknowledges the rights of Allah, His messenger and tbe is as good as one who dies a martyr in the battlefield He will be rewarded for his good intentions, which will be regarded as a substitute for his fighting with his sword".

Ibn al-Fariz, the well-known Egyptian mystic and lyric poet, who is compared to the Persian poet, Hafiz, says addressing Allah "If I do not earn Your pleasure, my life will be wasted and will go in vain. But I have no means to please You except the bond of my affection towards the progeny of Muhammad, a descendant of Qusayy''.[^4] In this case it is possible that by using the word Wala’ he might have meant a higher feeling, but there is no doubt that the word signifies love.

Mulla Abd al-Rahman Jami is a man about whom Qazi Nurullah Shustari has said that the two Abd al-Rahman(s) — Abd al-Rahman Jami and Abd al-Rahman ibn Muljim Muradi, have hurt Imam Ali. Still he has rendered into Persian verse the ode composed by Farazdaq in praise of Imam Ali ibn Husayn al-Sajjad. He has narrated a story that after the death of Farazdaq somebody saw him in a dream and asked him what treatment was meted out to him by Allah.

Farazdaq said that he was delivered from sins and sent to Paradise on account of the ode he had written in praise of Ali ibn al-Husayn.