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On the numbers of Imams a.s:

Since their books is unknown, answering from their books is hard and maybe impossible; but we can use Ahadith and narrations from prophet and Imams that they accept.

In general there are ways to identify Imam:

• By announcement:

• In strict text and hadith (an-nas); the number and names of Imams a.s are declared from prophet sawa and there are lots of Ahadith regarding the name and number of Imams after prophet

• By declaration of previous Imam

• Kirama (miraculous events): In the history of Shia there has been situations which people for many reasons (like not hearing from previous Imam or having doubts etc.) asked for proof from Imams a.s to prove that he is the true Imam, for example after the martyrdom of Imam al-Husayn (a.s) his brother Muhammad b. al-Hanafiyya argued to Imam al-Sajjad (a.s) in Hajj ceremony, asking his nephew to accept his Imama. He argued that, contrary to previous Imams, Imam al-Husayn (a.s) had not assigned anyone as the Imam after himself. Besides, he was the son of ‘Ali (a.s), and more qualified owing to his age and great number of hadiths narrated by him. Imam al-Sajjad (a.s) responded to his uncle by inviting him to piety and avoiding ignorance in return and said: “My father had recommended me before he set off for Iraq, and had me vow a while before his martyrdom.” Imam al-Sajjad (a.s) invited him to go to al-Hajar al-Aswad (the Black Stone), so that the Imam would be one to whom al-Hajar al-Aswad testifies for. Doing so, Muhammad prayed and asked the Stone to testify to his Imama, but nothing happened. Imam al-Sajjad then, after saying prayer, asked so from the Stone, and the Stone uttered a testimony to the Imama of ‘Ali b. al-Husayn (a) after his father, al-Husayn b. ‘Ali (a), and thus, Muhammad b. al-Hanafiyya accepted his Imama. Some scholars believe that this debate was contrived so that weak Shi’as would not be inclined to the Imamate of Muhammad b. al-Hanafiyya.

• Based on our knowledge, They think that their Imams are emanation of Imam Ali a.s. while their Imams doesn’t have attributes of Imam Ali a.s like knowledge, courage infallibility etc.

On  Qayamat:

Agha khani shias believes that Qayamat  is now and present. One of the main reasons for Qayamat is that so everyone will see the result of their actions and deeds (this reason for necessity of Qayamat or day of judgment is widely accepted, not just by Muslims but other religions and philosopher as well) so based on this definition (which Qayamat is where everyone will see the result of their actions), Qayamat is not happened yet, because we see lots of people do things and their actions goes without reward or punishment (for example there are lots of unsolved cases of theft and murder in which the guilty person got away). So they must be a place and time for these people to see the result of action which defiantly is not here and now.

Besides according to various verses of Quran, the start of Qayamat is with lots of Celestial and terrestrial events (like destruction of mountains, rending and splitting the sky, convolution of sun and being darkened etc.). You can these verse almost in every surah of Quran; the surah of last Juz of Quran has more details on physical/material preparations for Qayamat, which none of them happened yet.

regards

Sheikh Mahdi Mosayyebi