The ‘Itrah in the Shariah: leaders of guidance, or deliberately leaders of misguidance for the Ummah?

After you have learned how the Shariah opposes occultation (ghaybah); and that with the collapse of the doctrine of occultation, the entire concept of Imamate in Imami Shi‘ism disappears, due to the severance of its effect—while the Sunnah remains, in its meaning, urging and indicating the guidance of an uninterrupted ‘Itrah.

So come and examine whether the Imams of the ‘Itrah—before the occultation—in the very foundations of Imami thought are guides or misguiders (far be it that the eminent descendants of al-Husayn be included in the explicit meaning or necessary implication of Imami doctrine). For taqiyyah is the opposite of speaking the truth, and the manifestation of what contradicts the truth, as defined by Shaykh al-Mufid of the Imamis. The Mufidian Imamis hold unanimously that their Imams would deliberately contradict the rulings of the Qur’an out of taqiyyah, until reports attributed to them—though they stand in the place of the Prophet in the Ummah and are deemed infallible—spread throughout books and lands. This only increased the Ummah’s confusion—indeed, the confusion of the Imams’ own companions before anyone else—as you can find reflected in the words of al-Muhaqqiq al-Bahrani, who complains of the consequences of that taqiyyah and the misguidance that befell them. Then the refuge of the servants has been absent for twelve centuries, while the jurists themselves are in a state of bewilderment! So where is such “guidance” in relation to the purport and implication of the Hadith of the Two Weighty Things (al-Thaqalayn)? All of this was an escape from attributing disagreement to them due to ijtihad, so they deliberately placed disagreement upon taqiyyah—thereby wronging the eminent descendants of al-Husayn and attributing to them, knowingly or unknowingly, the misguidance of the Ummah and the confusion of the Shi‘a. Thus, the grace and guidance of the ‘Itrah turned into corruption and misguidance!

Moreover, this taqiyyah is among the greatest things that nullify infallibility. So how can the two be combined—in one whose speech is a disclosure of the speech of God and His Messenger—were it not for partisanship?

May Allah grant you success.
O Allah, send prayers and peace upon Muhammad and upon the family of Muhammad

Translation of Ustadh Kadhim Al Zaydi (May Allah reward him)