if someone were to say that these claims are not proven for these people then are they proven for the imamis in their claim of the text on ali may god be pleased with him? we would say no rather what is proven for them is the claim of possible expressions transmitted by individuals. as for the expression that is an explicit text no. and the claim of continuous transmission is also not possible and those expressions as they narrated that he said whoever i am his master then ali is his master and his saying you are to me as aaron was to moses and other than that of the possible expressions do not take the place of explicit texts. as for the claim of an explicit and mutawatir text it is impossible for reasons that will be fully discussed in the book on imamate in the science of theology and it is not our purpose now. however we will mention its impossibility in two ways. one of them is that if it were mutawatir we would not have doubted it just as there was no doubt about the existence of ali may god be pleased with him nor about his appointment to the caliphate after the messenger of god may god bless him and grant him peace nor about the matter of
فإن قال قائل هذه الدعاوي لا تستتب لهؤلاء فهل تستتب للإمامية في دعوى النص على علي رضي الله عنه قلنا لا انما الذي يستتب لهم دعوى الفاظ محتملة نقلها الآحاد فأما اللفظ الذي هو نص صريح فلا ودعوى التواتر أيضا لا يمكن وتيك الالفاظ كما رووا أنه قال من كنت مولاه فعلي مولاه وقوله أنت مني بمنزلة هارون من موسى الى غير ذلك من الألفاظ المحتملة لا تجري مجرى النصوص الصريحة فأما دعوى النص الصريح المتواتر فمحال من وجوه موضع استقصائها في كتاب الإمامة من علم الكلام وليس من غرضنا الآن ولكنا نذكر استحالته بمسلكين احدهما انه لو كان ذلك متواتر لما شككنا فيه كما لم يشك في وجود علي رضي الله عنه ولا في انتصابه للخلافة بعد رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم ولا في امر