Introduction
We Twelver Shias believe that Imam Mahdi, son of Imam Hasan ‘Askari (a.s) and from the progeny of Imam Husain (a.s) is the twelfth infallible imam from the progeny of the Holy Prophet (s).
We believe that he is born and is alive though he lives away from people. This belief is among the essential beliefs of our religion and any Shia who casts doubts on it is no longer considered a Shia.
In order to be able to hold dialogue with the followers of other religious sects and to invite them to accept this belief we need to make use of [generally] accepted arguments and valid methodologies. It is on the basis of such an approach that we can hold talks with fair-minded and impartial scholars of other religious sects. There are however people who do not pay heed to sound arguments and friendly admonitions. It is thus useless to engage in dialogue with such type of people. It seems as if the followers of Ibn Taymiyya, to cite an example, are among such people. Instead of paying attentions to sound arguments they use foul language and level accusations.
In his Minhaj al-Sunna, Ibn Taymiyya, mentor of such kind of Sunnis, commenting on Shias’ belief in Imam Mahdi, says very rudely: “One of the stupid deeds done by Shias is that they have devoted to awaited Mahdi particular places where they keep waiting for him. The basement (sardab) of Samarra considered by Shias as a place where Mahdi has disappeared is among such locations. They sometimes put animals such as mule, horse etc. over there so that the awaited imam would ride on them after appearing. They commission a person to stand by the basement and keep calling on awaited Mahdi to appear. They carry weapons whereas there is no one they need to fight with. Among Shias there are people who do not offer their prayer lest they are not deprived from helping their imam if he appears due to getting engaged in prayer. This is while they live in cities like Medina that is far away from the place where he is likely to appear. During the last ten days of the month of Ramadan or days that are better off than these days they turn their faces towards the east asking him earnestly to appear…..
