This expression was a new endorsement of the position based...

This expression was a new endorsement of the position based on the principle of nass - and it was aimed to exploit all the political potential that this principle carried with the Ummah - without explicitly committing to it. This would enable them to make an about-face in a massive publicity operation aimed to misguide the Muslim public opinion.

The 'Abbasid missionary activity advanced under this banner, and when it implemented its political plan to overthrow the Umayyad regime and establish the 'Abbasid state, it was based on the principle of nass . From the very first speech of Abu al-'Abbas al-Saffah, after he was acknowledged as the leader in Kufah, the 'Abbasids claimed that they had implemented the political plan of the (A), the family of 'Ali (A), the Banu Hashim and the descendants of the Prophet (S).

With the implementation of the 'Abbasid plan, three different ideas in the Islamic political thought were alternately used, in order to address the main question in the Islamic political problem during the era of the Infallible Imams (A). The question dealt with the source of the legitimacy of actual leadership after the expiry of all Islamic political entities which traced their origins to Islam and claimed to practise it. The principle of nass.

This was the principle of the Imams of the (A) who devoted themselves to establish it firmly in the mind of the Ummah and to create an awareness in it through it, so that it became, as mentioned, generally acceptable to all the Muslims, whether as the sole formula for legitimacy of rule or as the most preferable one. The principle of bay'ah. It completely ignored the principle of nass and did not acknowledge it, directly or indirectly. The principle of "al-rida min aal Muhammad".

It was the formula on which the 'Abbasid missionary activity was based and which was politically implemented. This principle, which in essence was the principle of bay'ah, was actually, as we have said, a distortion of the principle of nass aimed to exploit its political potential on one hand, and to escape from its political implications on the other. The political implication of the principle of nass is government by the Infallible Imam. This was what the 'Abbasids did their utmost to prevent.

However, for the success of their missionary activity, they urgently needed the political benefits of the principle of nass; hence the slogan of "al-rida min aal Muhammad".