The Typology and Criticism of Sunnī Doubts against the Verses on Ahl al-Bayt’s Virtues

Numerous verses of the Qur’ān discuss the virtues of Imām ‘Alī (a) and other Infallibles (a). Shī‘a exegetes and theologians have relied on these verses to indicate the importance of the Imāmat position and prove the immediate vicegerency and walāya of Imām ‘Alī (a) after the prophet. On the contrary, some Sunnī exegetes (e.g., Fakhr Rāzī, Ālūsī, Rashīd Riḍā, and Muḥammad ‘Izza Darūza) have cast some doubts against the use of these verses by the Shī‘a scholars. Due to the significance of this issue, the criticism of the doubts cast by the Sunnī exegetes in this regard is highly important. The results of this study demonstrate that due to the differences between Shī‘a and Sunnī principles and premises about Imāmat, the Sunnī scholars have suggested doubts in the seven realms of principles of jurisprudence, jurisprudence, theology, history, language, content, and occasion of revelation. The important point and innovation of this study is that although not all of the evidences and proofs given against the Sunnī doubts in this regard are argumentative, they are mostly dialectic and rely on the Sunnī sources themselves to reject them. To present and answer the doubts, this study used the document analysis method to present viewpoints and the analytical-critical method to examine the data. Moreover, in addition to the presentation of the typology of the doubts, those doubts are examined that have not been investigated in the past or have been inspected scantily.