A Defence of the Infallibility of Imam Ali (a) against Sayfuddin Amidi's Requirements in the Book Abkar ul-Afkar

In this article, the problem of Sayfuddin Amidi's (551-631 A.H.) - a prominent Ash'ari theologian - criticism has been investigated in the denial and refutation of the infallibility of Imam Ali. In the book Abkar al-Afkar fi Usul al-Din, seven cases of doing and living as obligation have been attributed to Imam (a) and concluded that the requirement of those obligations is the absence of infallibility. The findings of the research show that none of the seven requirements may be taken as being against the infallibility of Imam (a). Amidi is a person of polemics and fallacies, he does not have mastery of history and hadith and he used weak narrations, he is not impartial in his research and fanatically seeks to prove his presuppositions. Issues such as accepting arbitration, pledging allegiance, cooperating with caliphs and dealing with the killer of Zubair, etc., may not be taken as being in conflict with infallibility.