Imam Reza's Confrontation with the Mentality and Action of Waqifite

Although it was not an unprecedented issue to name a person from Ahl-al-Bayt as the last Imam and Expected Mahdi, a group of Shiites considered Imam Kazem (PBUH) as Expected Mahgi and Qa’em and thus rejected his demise and refused to accept Imam Reza as the next Imam. They were known as Waqifite. Since they posed a serious threat to Shia’s noble mentality, Imam Reza paid special attention to them and allocated much time and effort to deal with their issue. Thus, analyzing the nature of this incident and those involved has been a subject of interest for the researchers and analysts of Islamic studies. Although remarkable and valuable literature has so far been authored regarding introducing this faction, an analysis on the mutual relations and positions between Imam Reza and Waqifite is less accounted for. With descriptive -analytical method and in library-collection manner, this article examines the issue of Waqifite on two main bases: 1) What Waqifite is and who they are; 2) how Imam Reza confronted them.