The Early Ahl al-Bayt Were Zaydī in Creed
Shaykh Āṣif Muḥsinī from the Imāmīyya, and the Sunnī historian Abū al-Maḥāsin both attest that the early progeny of the Prophet ﷺ were Zaydīs in creed.
Shaykh Āṣif Muḥsinī said:
”In reality, the doctrine of the Imāma and the belief in twelve Imāms was not a belief held among Banū Hāshim nor among many of the youth from the sons of al-Ḥasan and the sons of al-Ḥusayn, who held to the beliefs of the Zaydīyya.”
— Mashraʿat Biḥār al-Anwār (2/173)
The Sunnī historian Abū al-Maḥāsin said:
”(Referring to Sayyid ʿIzz al-Dīn ʿAjlān) – unlike his forefathers – he loved the Sunnīs and defended them against the Shīʿa. This is rare among the noble Sādah, for most of them were Zaydīs who openly professed that.”
— al-Nujūm al-Zāhirah (1/139)
Indeed, this is the case when it comes to the early Ahl al-Bayt, they were Zaydīs precisely because their forefathers (from the Ḥasanid & Ḥusaynid line had transmitted this creed for them).
Shaykh al-Mufīd said regarding the son of Imām Ṣādiq (Muḥammad al-Dībāj):
“He holds to the position of the Zaydīs in rising with the sword.”
— al-Irshād: 2/212.
Shaykh Ḥasan al-Amīn said:
“And what is mind boggling! Two from the sons of Imām Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq leaned towards the Zaydīyya, and they are: ʿAbdullāh, and Muḥammad.”
— Aʿyān al-Shīʿa: 1/71.
Shaykh Ḥasan al-Amīn also said:
“Those who gave Bayʿa to al-Nafs al-Zakīyya were two from the most notable sons of Zayd b. ʿAlī. They are ʿĪsā the orphaner of lions, and al-Ḥusayn Dhu-l ʿAbra. After the death of Muḥammad they also joined the ranks of his brother Ibrāhīm the revolter in al-ʿIrāq.”
— Aʿyān al-Shīʿa: 1/71
According to the genealogist al-Marwazī – Ismāʿīl b. Mūsā al-Kāẓim:
”Was the commander of the army of Abī al-Sarāya [the leader of the army of al-Imām Muḥammad b. Ibrāhīm b. Ismāʿīl b. Ibrāhīm b. Ḥasan b. Ḥasan b. ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib] his sons were known as the leaders, and dignitaries from the sons of al-Kāẓim.”
— al-Fakhrī fī Ansāb al-Ṭālibīyyīn: 15
Muḥammad b. Ibrāhīm is the brother of Imām al-Qāsim al-Rassī! In addition to Ismāʿīl was Aḥmad b. Mūsā, he is among the greats of the Ahl al-Bayt who gave Bayʿa to Imām Muḥammad b. Ibrāhīm Ṭābāṭabā. Indeed, the sons of al-Kāẓim were among the greats of the ʿitra, and the Shaykhs of the Zaydīyya in enjoining good, forbidding evil, supporting, and giving Bayʿa to the Imāms who rise from their family. Considering that their path was one, and their beliefs were one.
Not only did the sons of Imām Kāẓim join the revolt of Imām Qāsim al-Rassī’s brother, but so did ʿAlī b. Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq as well. Not only did he participate in Zaydī revolts with his kin, he – like his father Imām Ṣādiq – also raised Zaydīs. The son of ʿAlī b. Ja’far al-ʿUrayḍī is Muḥammad al-Akbar, who was the teacher of al-Ḥāfiẓ Muḥammad b. Manṣūr al-Murādī!