“An Inquiry into Ibn Taymiyyah’s Critical View on Shiite Similarity to Judaism in Imamate and Distortion of Revelation”

Shi’a has always been subject to various accusations by dissidents. Some of these allegations, being the subject of this thesis, are the Shiite similarity to the Jews in the imamate and distorted revelation claimed by one of the Sunni radical scholars, Ibn Taymiyyah. In Manhaj al-Sunnah, he writes allegations against Shiites, two of which are as follows: 1 Shi’a believes that Imamate is in the offspring of Ali, as the Jews regard it as Davood’s descendants; 2 the Qur’an is distorted from the Shia’s point of view of; as the Jewish people believe that the Torah is distorted.  His accusations have caused other Muslims to censure Shiite. In this thesis, the author of this thesis attempts to select this issue, namely, a critique of the charges against Ibn Taymiyyah in the Shi’a analogy with the Jews on the issue of imamate and revelation, in order to answer for his incorrect allegations based on detailed and documented reasons. It is stated in this thesis that since God is the wise, aware of the interests of his servants, only he determines the Imam. Shiites believe in the Imamate based on the verses and narratives, while Sunnis consider the Imamate as official representative of people. Likewise the distortion of the revelation, another accusation is responded, and it is said that the vast majority of scholars and ordinary Shi’a people believe that the Quran is protected from distortion and that there is no distortion or a reduction in the Surah or the verses in the Quran. In the thesis, the views of Shi’ite Imams and scholars will be mentioned in rejecting Shia’s accusation, and every honest human with a slight study of Shiite beliefs finds that the Shi’a holds that the Quran is immune from distortion.