The Liar of Thaqif (Mukhtar al-Thaqafi) Part 2

 بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

وصلى الله على نبيه الامين

وعلى آله واصحابه اجمعين

I previously discussed the reality of the pretender al-Mukhtar b. Abi Ubaid al-Thaqafi, who is hailed as a hero by the Twelver Shi’ah sect. Mukhtar’s associate, Abu Amrah Kaysan, after whom the deviated Kaysaniyyah sect is named, was believed by the latter to receive divine revelation via the Angel Gabriel عليه السلام as Muhammad al-Hasan b. Musa al-Nawbakhti, a Twelver Shi’i theologian, has mentioned:

وكان يزعم أن جبرائيل عليه السلام يأتى المختار بالوحى من عند الله عز وجل

“He (Kaysan) claimed that Gabriel peace be upon him came to al-Mukhtar with wahi (revelation) from Allah” (Firaq al-Shi’ah p.59):

This is a Twelver Shi’ah corroboration of what is in our Sunni sources, for example, Rifa’ah b. Shaddad رحمه الله narrates:

دَخَلْتُ عَلَى الْمُخْتَارِ فِي قَصْرِهِ فَقَالَ قَامَ جِبْرَائِيلُ مِنْ عِنْدِي السَّاعَةَ

I entered upon al-Mukhtar in his palace and he said: “Gabriel just came to me this hour” (Sunan Ibn Majah)

Like sayyidina Ibrahim b. Malik al-Ashtar رضى الله عنهما, Rifa’ah b. Shaddad al-Bajali initially joined and assisted al-Mukhtar in his mission of avenging the martyrdom of Imam al-Husain رضى الله عنه وعليه السلام but subsequently left him when the reality of the pretender was made plain to him.

The Isma’ili Shi’i heresiographer, Abu Tammam, in his text Kitab al-Shajarah, lists the Mukhtariyyah as one of the subsects of the Kaysaniyyah. He writes that al-Mukhtar would say that the Imam after the Prophet صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم was was Ali b. Abi Talib عليه السلام, and that the Ummah became misguided and committed disbelief by giving bay’ah to Abu Bakr رضى الله عنه, then the Imam after Ali b. Abi Talib عليه السلام was his son al-Hasan then al-Husain then Muhammad b. Ali, the well known son of the Hanafiyah عليهم السلام (Bab al-Shaytan p.98):

The infamous Twelver Shi’i scholar, Baqir Majlisi, has mentioned that the fourth Imam, Ali b. Husain al-Sajjad, also known as Zain al-Abidin رضى الله عنه cursed al-Mukhtar because the latter pretended to receive wahi (revelation) from Allah (Jilaa al-Uyun, Urdu, v.2 p.341):