Not only one, there are other divinities as well within that. Some believe in 6 Imams, some believe in 12 Imams, and some believe that Imam is Ghazal, not Qayab, but he is the Imam, and the other believe, no, not he, the other one is. So there are differences, 4 major divinities and then further sub-divinities, so many among the Shiites as well. Those who are extravagant in their beliefs about Hazrat Ali, those who are less extravagant, and again they have about 34 divinities, the Shiites.
As far as the question of Imamate is concerned, it is said that some, let’s start from the Arafatis. There were two brothers, Musa Qasim and Ismail. Musa Qasim, Ismail was the elder one as I understand, as I remember, and Musa Qasim was, now I don’t intend to reject you, but one of them, let’s say, was the elder and he was to inherit his father, who I think was Imam Bakr. Was Imam Bakr the 6th Imam? That’s right. So Hazrat Imam Bakr was the 6th Imam. The Imamate, according to them, was to be inherited by the elder son. So either of the two, one of the two was the elder son, whichever it was, he was to inherit. But Hazrat Imam Bakr was told that this boy has some drawbacks and some faults in character. He is of questionable habits.
So he disinherited him and gave the Imamate to the second son instead of the first one. Then what happened was, according to those who believe in the first and not the second, if the first one was Ismail, then the Ismailis believe that before his death he reinstated Ismail and took the Imamate back from Musa Qasim. So because he was reinstored, he had the right. The other sect says, no, even if it was restored, Imam Bakr had no right to do that. As far as we go, Imam cannot commit a mistake. They believe that Imam is non-arraying, like a prophet.
So they say that once a decision was made, it cannot be altered. And if it is altered, then it is proved that the first decision was wrong. And if the first decision was not wrong, then the second decision must be wrong. So in view of this belief that an Imam cannot err, the second sect says that obviously this is wrong, it must have been misreported. It is their belief that you agree that once the Imamate was shifted and we also agree. That is acceptable. But this reshifting must be a misreporting because Imam cannot make a mistake.
So they still believe in the second one. So there are two divisions at the sixth juncture. But later on, those who believe that Imamate continued, some of them followed one of the two, I mean. They also had a setback at the twelfth Imam. Twelfth Imam was killed in some battle. Now a further division took place among those. Some believe that the twelfth Imam had disappeared and he would come again. And some believe that the twelfth Imam had not disappeared and the Imamate was inherited by some and it continues.
So those who believe that he disappeared, they argue that because during the lifetime of an Imam, no one else can inherit. So the Imamate has come to a stay there. A stalemate has developed. As long as the Imam is living somewhere, some believe in the heaven and some believe that there is a Ghar called Antakya. The Imam is in Ghar-e-Antakya. So he hid himself there and would reappear one day.
So those who believe in his absence could not believe in the inheritance of Imam by his children or by any near relative. So again a division took place and some continued believing in the inheritance of Imam and they say Imam is hadith. So one of the two sects further divided into two. Now the one which believed that Imam had disappeared, they gained ascendancy over all the rest because it was a more interesting belief. You know it appealed to the fancy of the ignorant much more that Imam is still living somewhere and he is guiding us and he has not disappeared.
Moreover, the sentimental shock also helped them because he was killed in a battle and they did not want to believe that the Imam was defeated. So they tended to believe that no, he has disappeared. So they are in majority all over the world. They are called Asna-Ashari. That is believing in twelve Imams and the twelfth has disappeared. Most of Iran is Asna-Ashari. Most of Pakistan Shias are Asna-Ashari. And the rest are divided into Ismailis and Borashim.
What was the name of the second name? Borashim. Now Borashim is a community. Dawdi. So it was not Musa Kalmeshwar Dawdi. No, Asna-Ashari was the first Imam out of the division. One is the very Imam that is Fahad-e-Arafat and the last Borashim. No, Ismail was the Imam. They are called Ismailis. Ismailis were further divided. That is right. But I am not talking of that. I am talking of the second remaining follower, Musa Qadam or what? Musa Qadam was seven. Seven? Yes. I know that. I am talking of Musa Qadam and his brother Ismail.
Relation with both were seven because they were sons to Imam Bakr. So what I mean to say is that Ismailis are not descendants of Musa Qadam. They are descendants of Ismail. You were saying that the Musa Qadam descendants or his followers later on split into Ismailis and others. This is not correct. That is different. Ismailis were further divided later on but not on the twelfth.
Musa Qadmi, they divided on the twelfth stage and some started believing in disappearance of the Imam and sunset of the Imam and they continued. What are they called? That was the testimony. Isna-Ashari. Isna-Ashari I have already told. The others which believed that the Imam continued and who was the next was another thing. Anyway, I mean in nutshell I have told you. It is not necessary to give you all names but this is exactly how it happened.
