ABSTRACT
Twelver-shiism like Sunnism developed a short phrase proclaiming the faith in the form of the personal Witness, al-shahadah. The term wali is not used merely as by the Sunnis, in the sense of 'the friend of God' who intercedes for the believer, but there is implicit in the term the conception of an heir to Muhammad, whose function is to carry on Muhammad's mission of guiding the believers in spiritual and worldly affairs and who is without defect, infallible and equal in status to Muhammad, except in the question of his office as prophet-messenger. An examination of the available historical sources and the juristic literature of the Twelver-shiah may lead to concede that the advent of the Safawis, their immediate military aims and political circumstances evolved the introduction and finally adoption of the three-tenet shahadah among the Twelver-shiah in contradistinction to the juristic precepts as enunciated by the early Twelver-shii doctors in the four canonical books of the Jafari fiqh.
