Reasons for the advent of the Shī‘ism
While examining the reality of the Imamate in the Shī‘iite school of thought, we said that we have many documents proving that the Shī‘ah belief in the twelve Imāms (‘a) is based on decisive arguments derived from the Book of Allah and the Prophetic (s) tradition [Sunnah]. This is why it is improper to talk about the reason why the Shī‘ahs accepted the ‘Alī’s (‘a) guardianship, [wilāyah] before the reality of the Imamate is studied.
Once you have proved that the Shī‘ism, wilāyah, and resorting to the Imāms (‘a) are all obtained from the Prophetic (s) traditions of thaqalayn and the Ithnā ‘Asharah khulafā’, and that resorting to them is (in rank) next to resorting to the Qur’an, it is time to tell the interlocutor that there are fundamentally incongruent reasons for the advent of the Shī‘ism and for the appearance of the Extremism. Why the Wahhābīs do not perceive the issue is because they are suffering from the serious illness of mingling the Shī‘ism with the Extremism; they should go through stage one discussed in this book in order to be cured.
