Methods of Imam Reza ́s Confrontations with the Followers of Other Religions, Islamic Sects and Muslim Schools of Thought

Religion of Islam has considered enjoining the good and forbidding the evil as the best way of confrontation with opponents and deviated ones. The significance of this teaching can be easily seen in its high frequency occurrences in the holyQuran and traditions. Since the highest level of enjoining the good is guiding people to the true religion, and the most important instance of forbidding the evil is preventing those going astray from their distorted beliefs, the Shiite imams as the religious leaders have considered their foremost ambition the true presentation of the religion of Allah and guiding those gone astray to the Shiite school. While most sects werebusy theorizing their own doctrines and disseminating their own beliefs, Imam Reza started to confront distorted religions and sects. The present article is an attempt to respond to the following questions: 1. What are the methods of Imam Reza in confronting other sects?. Is it possible to derive some rules and principles from these methods using them as a paradigm of scholarly confrontation?