الإمامية

The Imamiyya are one of the two great branches of Shi'ism that survive to this day, alongside the Zaydiyya, according to Ahmad Amin. ² See also the Shi'a.

The most important of their sects are the Twelvers, named for their belief in twelve imams. In Ahmad Amin's time this was the official creed of the state in Iran. He estimates their number at about seven million in Persia, a million and a half in Iraq and five million in India. ³

Ahmad Amin reports that some among the Imamiyya said that the imamate passed after Ja'far al-Sadiq to his son Isma'il, not to Musa al-Kazim, and so they were called the Ismailis. They said that hidden imams came after Isma'il, because the imam may go into hiding when he has no power. They continued so until Ubayd Allah al-Mahdi, the head of the Fatimid state, made the call openly. He adds that they were called the Batiniyya, because they said that every outward meaning has an inner meaning and every revelation an interpretation. ⁴

Ahmad Amin sets out the points on which the Shi'a differ from the People of the Sunna. They reject the increase of the shares in inheritance ('awl), and follow the view of Ibn Abbas in giving some heirs precedence over others. They give precedence to kinship over the male agnates, and they transmit from al-Sadiq: "Property goes to the nearest, and the agnate gets dust." They do not give women inheritance from land and estates. They say that prophets are inherited from, while the People of the Sunna rely on the hadith "We, the company of prophets, do not leave inheritance." They also differ in the wording of the call to prayer, such as adding "Hasten to the best of deeds". ⁵