Criticism of Twelver Shia Islam

However, this belief has long been criticized by Sunni scholars who "often speculate that the twelfth Imam never existed, but was a myth designed to keep the Shia cause alive.

[7] According to Bernard Lewis, the concept of the Imam's occultation and eventual return became a defining doctrine in Shia Islam after the suppression of various uprisings and the mysterious disappearances of their leaders.

Shias claim the only possible occasion that the son of eleventh Imam is said to have made a public appearance was at the time of his death, then as a child the boy was seen no more.

[13][14][15][16] The Christian missionary Thomas Patrick Hughes criticized Mut'ah as allowing the continuation of "one of the abominable practices of ancient Arabia.

According to Shahla Haeri, before the 1979 revolution, the secular Iranian middle classes viewed temporary marriage as a form of prostitution legitimized by the religious establishment, describing it as having been given a 'religious cover.

While most Sunni Muslims believe that Muhammad later prohibited the practice and therefore deem it akin to prostitution, making it forbidden among Sunnis, Shias maintain that it was banned by Umar ibn Khattab, the second caliph, and view mutʿah as a valid practice, considering it a safeguard against prostitution or in situations where regular marriage is not feasible.

[27] Critics argue that the Twelvers have taken dissimulation far beyond life-threatening situations and have allowed its use in any scenario that is judged to benefit the continuation or propagation of the Twelver creed, as is emphasized by the "celebrated" reputed saying of the 6th Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq, "[t]aqiyyah is my religion and the religion of my forefathers";[28][29] along with his other often quoted saying from Kitab al-Kafi: "Nine tenths of faith is taqiyya.

[34] According to Patricia Crone, Twelvers even extended the use of taqiyya "to protect their secret wisdom from exposure to the uncomprehending masses (including their own co-religionists), who might pervert it or denounce it as heretical.

Sunni and Shia commentators alike observe that verse 16:106 refers to the case of 'Ammar b. Yasir, who was forced to renounce his beliefs under physical duress and torture.

[41] Shia commentators have argued that taqiyya has precedents from the time of Muhammad, including the story of Ammar ibn Yasir, Such commentators argue that to not avoid certain death is illogical, and that dissimulation is permissible under various circumstances, such as to preserve life, to protect the chastity of women, or avoid destitution.

[27] One allegation commonly leveled against the Twelvers is that they disrespect two of the Sunni Caliphs Umar and Abu Bakr, who supported Muḥammad, as per Sunni belief,[42] during the early days of the Islamic Ummah, but whom later betrayed The Prophet after his death and his household (Ahl al Bayt), as per Shi'ite belief.

[43] Such Shi'ite practices include the recited Dua Sanamain Quraish, which calls God's curse on the first two Sunni caliphs following Muhammad's death, Abu Bakr and Umar.

In the 1980s and 1990s, three major religious writers in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan again cited this argument, noting that until all "profanity" against the Sahabah was abandoned, dialogue with Shia scholars could not begin.

[50][51][52][53] However, some Shi'ite scholars in the past, such as Shaykh Tusi,[54] Muhammad Baqir Majlisi,[55] Sadiq Hussaini Shirazi, Hossein Vahid Khorasani,[56][57] Mohammad Jamil Hammoud al-Amili,[58] Yasser Al-Habib[citation needed], cursed and/or allowed for disrespecting of the figures revered by the Sunnis.

Pakistani Islamic scholar and polemicist Ehsan Elahi Zaheer argues against the possibility of these personalities assuming the leadership of the Imamate at such young ages.

[d] After which the Caliph called together a great gathering in which all kinds of questions were asked from the young Imam, who astonished them all with his judgment and learning.

The Syrian Salafi mufti Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728 AH/1328 AD) composed a long refutation of it in his Minhaj as-Sunnah an-Nabawiyyah.

In Islamic Government Khomeini writes: "Amongst the necessities in our doctrine is that our Imams have a dignity which no favored angel nor sent prophet could ever reach.

[73] This constitution, Shi'ites say, is not limited to Islam, but each great messenger of God had two covenants, one concerning the next prophet who would eventually come, and one regarding the immediate successor, the Imam.

"[77] According to Shia, the status and authority attributed to Imams will be senseless if they are prone to the same weakness found in general people.

[97][98] Twelvers extract this ruling from the two most important sources of jurisprudence which are the Quran, which only mentions 3 times for prayer,[99] and the Sunnah of the Messenger Muhammad who was praying this way, as it is also reported by Sunni sources as permissible distinctly during travel,[100][101][102][103][104][105][excessive citations] thus they believe this backs their claims accepted within a Sunni point of view.

Twelvers are also accused of believing that the present Quran is omitted of the verses which support the Imamate of Ali because Caliph Uthman removed them during his compilation of the book — noting the incompatibility of the belief that the codification and propagation of the Quran was truthfully undertaken by the Sahaba, who, in Shi'ite tradition, represent the earliest people to take the Caliphate from its rightful claimants and to have corrupted the religion of Islam.

[120] Twelvers have been criticised for the practice of Tatbir (a form of self-flagellation) during Ashura, the observation of the martyrdom of Husayn, traditionally accompanied by acts of ritual self-harm, which is often described as barbaric.

[123] Suffering and cutting the body with knives or chains was banned by the Shi'ite marja Ali Khamenei, Supreme Leader of Iran and by Hezbollah in Lebanon.

[129][130] Twelvers have also been accused of raising Karbala in Iraq to holiness and prominence — which in itself is "frowned upon by Sunnis" — above even Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem.

[131][132] This belief is exemplified by the attribution of the title Karbala-i for one who has performed pilgrimage there (just as one who makes the Hajj is titled Hajji), its annual attraction of more pilgrims for Ashura and Arba'een than the Hajj (seen as "a counterweight and a challenge to the annual haj taking place in Mecca"[citation needed]), prostrating during salat on turbah, commonly made from the clay of Karbala, and to numerous ahadith attributed to the Imams which are interpreted by critics as placing the land of Karbala above the Kaaba.

[143][144] Another common target of persecution by the Iranian Twelver religious establishment is the Baháʼí community, which itself is a religion that branched off from Shi'a Islam.