Presently, the largest
branch of the Shi’ah in existence is the Ithna Ashariyah or “Twelvers”.
They are known as Twelvers because they believe in a succession of twelve Imams
after the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ
1. Imam Ali b. Abi Talib
2. Imam al-Hasan b. Ali
3. Imam al-Hussain b. Ali
4. Imam Ali b. al-Hussain
5. Imam Muhammad b. Ali
6. Imam Ja’far b. Muhammad
7. Imam Musa b. Ja’far
8. Imam Ali b. Musa
9. Imam Muhammad b. Ali
10. Imam Ali b. Muhammad
11. Imam al-Hasan b. Ali
12. Imam Muhammad b.
al-Hasan
(may Allah be pleased
with them)
According to the Twelver
Shi’ah, the last of these twelve Imams, Muhammad b. al-Hasan, is the Mahdi
and went into occultation on 5th January 874 C.E. at the age of 5
years.
I intend to show the
reader in this post that the doctrine of Ghaibah or “occultation” as
held to by the Twelver Shi’ah was in fact taken from earlier Shi’ite groups. An
earlier Shi’ite sect, no longer in existence today, was the Kaisaniyah. They
regarded one of the sons of Ali b. Abi Talib, namely, Muhammad b. al-Hanafiyah
(may Allah be pleased with them both), as a rightful Imam. Some Kaisaniyah
regarded Muhammad b. al-Hanafiyah as Ali’s successor, while most others
believed he was the fourth Imam, succeeding al-Hasan and al-Hussain (may Allah
be pleased with them). For this reason, we can refer to the Kaisaniyah as “Fourer”
Shi’ah. Muhammad b. al-Hanafiyah died on 25th February 700 C.E.
corresponding to the 1st Muharram, 81 A.H., approximately 170 years
before the alleged “Twelfth Imam” was even born.
Some of the Kaisaniyah
regarded Muhammad’s son Abdullah, known as Abu Hashim, as his rightful
successor. However, some of the Kaisaniyah rejected the fact that Muhammad b. al-Hanafiyah
had died, instead positing that he had gone into Ghaibah (occultation)
on Mt. Radwa (a mountain near the sacred town of Medina), having a spring of
honey and water, and guarded by a lion and a leopard. This subsect of Kaisaniyah
was founded by Abu Karib al-Darir and were known as Karibiyah. It can be
said that the Karibiyah subsect of Kaisaniyah were historically the first
faction of the Shi’ah who put forward the idea of Ghaibah (occultation)
of an Imam; and likewise the first group of Shi’ah to regard one of their Imams
as the awaited Mahdi, also called the Qa’im. Digest the fact that this
group of Shi’ah appeared with their doctrines some 170 years before the Twelfth
Imam of the Ithna Ashari sect was born. Among the ranks of this sect were two
famous Arab poets; Kuthayyir b. Abd-al-Rahman (660-723) and al-Sayyid
al-Himyari (723-795). The former transcribed this doctrine in the following
lines:
وسَبِطٌ لا يذوقُ الموتَ حتى يقودَ الخيلَ
يَقْدمُها اللّواء
تغيَّبَ لا يُرى عنهُمْ زمانًا برَضْوى عندهُ
عَسلٌ وماء
“Behold, the Imams from
the Quraish, possessors of the truth, of whom there are only four – Ali and his
three sons. These three are the grandsons [of Muhammad ﷺ], about whom there is no obscurity. One grandson was a man of
faith and righteousness; another is buried in Karbala; and the third shall not
taste death till he advances at the head of his cavalry with his banner before
him. He has gone into concealment at Radwa, where he lives on honey and water,
and for a while he will not be seen amongst men.”
Reference: Diwan Kuthayyir
Azza; p. 521
Similarly, there is the poem
of al-Sayyid al-Himyari regarding the occultation of Muhammad b. al-Hanafiyah.
Reference: Diwan al-Sayyid
al-Himyari; p. 31
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