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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Portraits of Youths in Quran and the History of Islam Hisham Ibn Hikam The Youthful Missionary Of Shia Islam When there is discussion about young people who possessed exceptional capabilities and who were having unsurpassed merits and excellence it would not be fair to ignore Hisham Ibn Hikam, the youthful missionary of Imamate.

He was among the best students of Imam Ja'far as-Sadiq (a.s) and the incidents connected with him are very interesting and thought provoking. Hisham, the best student of Imam Sadiq (a.s) had a debate with Amr Ibn Ubaid, the Mutazali scholar of Sunni faith. The debate is very interesting and clear. Hisham was a great scholar of jurisprudence, a traditionalist, a scholastic theologian and an eloquent speaker.

He was an expert in religious debates and his forceful and convincing arguments silenced even the most proficient opponents. Hisham was the most outstanding among the four thousand students of Imam Ja'far as-Sadiq (a.s). He possessed such intellect, understanding, knowledge and wit that his fame had spread far and wide. His debates and discussions with the great scholars of Ahle Sunnat are found in books to illustrate points of fundamental beliefs and juristic matters.

Hisham was born in Kufa, a center of Shias and he was brought up in Wast near Baghdad . He traveled to Baghdad on business. He is the first person who discussed in rational terms the principles of Islamic faith and belief and especially the matter of Imamate. He also penned books on this topic leaving precious material for the coming generations.

He has explained and proved his premises in such a beautiful manner with the help of logical and textual proofs that the Shias of Imam Ja'far as-Sadiq (a.s) in particular and all the Muslim scholars in general have benefited to a great degree by his argumentative methods. He was such a meritorious knowledgeable personality that he never fell short in discussion about divine recognition. No one ever was able to defeat Hisham in any religious debate.

Rather he used to single-handedly defeat a large group of opponents. Every year Hisham used to travel for Hajj pilgrimage and after that arrived in Medina to be in the presence of Imam Ja'far as-Sadiq (a.s). After that he continued to benefit from the company of Imam Musa Kazim (a.s). He had the advantage of gaining knowledge from these two Imams.