Ali Bin Babway...

Ali Bin Babway, a man of thought and knowledge, writes a letter to the Imam through the Nawab (Imam’s deputy) and gets an answer through the same channel. Had there not been a truth in it a man of Ali Bin Babway’s like would not have corresponded with the Imam. This in itself is proof. The writer says on the authority of Fathia that a group of Shia believed in the Imamate of Ja’far and many yielded to his authority.

By saying so the writer wants to say what he, of course, does not say but means to say, however does not want to go that far. Well, we say that he means that Mahdi was fake Imam because of Ja’far. Why does he not ponder the other way? Why wasn’t Ja’far a false Imam? The biography of Ja’far was known to one and all. His reputation, his conduct his behavior, his temperament brought him no respect from the people.

Therefore, he was immediately ignored although he was supported by the government of the day in order to create a rift and split. Those who gathered around him were the paid agents of the government. Another mistake. The writer sees the Imam as an infant. But the consensus shows that the Imam had attained his boyhood. The unity among Shias is of course due to a belief common among them. In a stock all are shareholders; and all are united too.

The belief in the Imamate of the twelfth Imam has brought all Shias together. But the writer says that the Imam’s deputies (Nawabs) had brought all together. Of course they were men of reliance and respect in all the Shia places. For example, Abulafer Omravi was very much respected. They were symbols of unity and honor of the Shia but not the reason for it. The Nawabs were only agents of the Imam. The cardinal and supreme factor was the very Imamate of Mahdi, which held the mosaic together.

Today too this belief in Imamate holds the jurisprudents in awe and reverence and the deputies of the Imam. Previous…