Part 1:The Imams from Ahlebayt whom Shia consider to be their divinely appointed Imam

[Texan_Dude]

Re: Part 1:The Imams from Ahlebayt whom Shia consider to be their divinely appointed

@desert_bird

Hazrat Ali (ra) said:"Two kinds of people will be damned on my account Those who form** exaggerated opinion **about me ( shia sect) and those who under-estimate me because they hate me. ( khwarijs ) "

(Nahj ul Balagha,saying:116)

@Ibn_Sadique

^ Your reference is wrong - It is Sermon 126

With regard to me, two categories of people will be ruined, namely he who loves me too much and the love takes him away from rightfulness, and he who hates me too much and the hatred takes him away from rightfulness. The best man with regard to me is he who is on the middle course. So be with him and be with the great majority (of Muslims) because Allah’s hand (of protection) is on keeping unity. You should beware of division because the one isolated from the group is (a prey) to Satan just as the one isolated from the flock of sheep is (a prey) to the wolf. - Nahjul Balagha SERMON 126

Surely never in history have Shias ever been "the great majority (of Muslims) - Just a fringe 10% of Muslims World.

Well thanks for posting the Sermon of Hazrat Ali AS… Lets look at the following part of sermon:

*With regard to me, two categories of people will be ruined, namely he who loves me too much and the love takes him away from rightfulness, and he who hates me too much and the hatred takes him away from rightfulness. The best man with regard to"me is he who is on the middle course. So be with him *:

The initial part of the sermon clearly states, there are people that would love Hazrat Ali AS so much that the love will take them away from rightfulness. Based on my personal observation from history there are people who loved Hazrat Ali AS so much that they claimed him to be nauzubillah God… If someone does shirk, I would question if they are even muslims… so you cannot affiliate them with nazubillah Shia’s .. The twelvers, believe Hazrat Ali AS as the first Imam after Prophet.. but don’t associate him with nazubillah God… Since we do not love Hazrat Ali AS so excessive to claim him God (Shirk taking away from Righteousness)

However I would want to point a hadith of Holy Prophet Mohammad P.B.U.H. narrated in the Sahih book:
The Messenger of Allah said: **Loving Ali is the sign of belief, and hating Ali is the sign of hypocrisy.
**Sahih Tirmidhi, volume 5, page 643
Sunan Ibn Majah, volume 1, page 142
Musnad Ahmad Ibn Hanbal volume 1, pages 84,95,128
Tarikh al-Kabir, by al-Bukhari (the author of Sahih), v1, part 1, p202

Now lets ponder on the ideology of love and hatredness, Intellectual laws of love and hatred state three things. Love your friend. Love your friend’s friend. Hate your enemy. Hate your friend’s enemy. How can i even claim to love my father or my mother, if I also love those who troubled them and abused them? Will you love your friend who abuses your righteous father? Can you claim to love your father if you equally love your uncle who over took your father’s business by crook and destroyed him financially?

Now let me ask you a question, Imam Ali AS was awarded a sword from Allah SWT called Zulfiqar. If Allah SWT, awarded Hazrat Ali with Zulfiqar, you would not expect Imam Ali AS to use it against the righteous muslims or nazubillah you won’t expect Allah SWT have his Prophet Mohammad P.B.U.H. making the love of Hazrat Ali the sign of belief if nauzubillah he was of to go on war against righteous? Similarly, I also want to quote a letter Imam Ali wrote to Mawiya which is also from the same book Nahjul Balagah:

After praising Allah and invoking His Blessings and Peace on the Holy Prophet (s), I write to inform you that I am in receipt of many of your letters which appear to consist of various pieces of advice to me. You have very cunningly tried to couch them in flowery words and phrases. You have done this because of your natural evil-mindedness and because of the envy, enmity and malice you bear against me.

(These kinds of letters show that they have been written from a person who has no inner-light and no benevolent guide to show him the true path. Avarice, self-agg*****zement and lust of power prompted him to do so and he jumped at the suggestion. It is a letter from a person, whom selfishness has led astray and who has lost his sense of proportion and therefore, it contains no sense and no real worth. Some commentators consider the following passage as a part of the letter above:)
Remember that the allegiance and fidelity sworn to me is such that it does not require reconsideration on the part of those who have sworn it nor are they at liberty (from a religious point of view) to go back upon it. Therefore, those who belittle it, scoff at it, or go back upon it are hypocrites and traitors.

http://www.al-islam.org/nahjul/letters/letter7.htm#letter7

If Mawiya came to war agaisnt Hazrat Ali AS and his companions in the battle of Siffin, would you call him righteou considering the love of Imam Ali AS is the sign of belief as per Sahih bookss? and if a person regards such a person as Ameer ul Momineen… would you call him sincere lover of Imam Ali AS? Just to give you an example, if you consider your dad righteous, and if a person rasises his sword against your dad. Knowing your dad is righteous, and you still support the person who come against him, would you claim that you love your dad? Now would you claim that shias fall in this category nazubillah?

Just to give you some good example just in this particular thread, a fellow guppy nazubillah claimed, there are companinons who have more virtues then Imam Ali, Imam Hassan and Imam Hussain AS… and I raised a number of questions such as

If Imam Hassan and Imam are the Chielf of the Youth of of Paradise, what is the status or position of them do people who have more virtues then them? Similarly i have quoted a few ayats on the merit of Ahleybait and have asked him to show the ayats on companions he claimed to have more virtues then these personalities… and yet he failed to answer any of them yet…

If a person make such claims and places other people over the personality whose love is sign of a believer and failed to provide justifications, would you place him on the person whose love took him away from righteousnes or the person whose hates take him away from righteousness.

Now lets look at the second part:

and be with the great majority (of Muslims) because Allah’s hand (of protection) is on keeping unity. You should beware of division because the one isolated from the group is (a prey) to Satan just as the one isolated from the flock of sheep is (a prey) to the wolf. - Nahjul Balagha SERMON 126

Surely never in history have Shias ever been "the great majority (of Muslims) - Just a fringe 10% of Muslims World

Let me split your highlighted section in two lines:
and be with the great majority (of Muslims)
because Allah’s hand (of protection) is on keeping unity

The second line supports the argument for the first one **(Because). **Imam Ali AS is asking his followers not to divide amongst themselves and be with the majority, not to split up in sects. Definitely, Allah himself does not like divisions.

Surely they who divided their religion into parts and became sects, you have no concern with them; their affair is only with Allah, then He will inform them of what they did. Quran [6:159]

I have tried to clarify things for you, but also in regards to your game of Stats… I am sure you must know pretty well, within Ahley Sunnah their are a number of sects.