Was al-Sharīf al-Raḍī a Zaydī? The Controversy over His Funeral and Legacy

When al-Sharīf al-Raḍī became a Zaydī and returned to the way of his early ancestors, his brother al-Murtaḍā abandoned him and did not pray over him; instead, he left the town during the escorting of his funeral. Moreover, his contemporaries did not deem him reliable as they did his brother—namely al-Najāshī and al-Ṭūsī and others like them.

Shaykh Muḥammad Riḍā Kāshif al-Ghiṭāʾ even said:

“There still remains in my mind something troubling about al-Murtaḍā’s absence at his brother’s death, and his not praying over him or burying him—something upon which the historians are agreed. How can we be convinced that al-Murtaḍā— that pious, God-fearing, spiritually knowledgeable man—would be so overcome by grief in the face of God’s decree and destiny that he would flee from attending this scene, while he was at the same time the noble head of the family and its elder, and the deceased was his own brother, al-Raḍī? There must, therefore, be some secret that we have not become aware of.”

[Al-Sharīf al-Raḍī: p. 112]

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