The main challenge Imam Reza faced in the beginning of his Imamat was from a few of his father’s representatives who refused to accept him as the Imam after Imam Kazim. They were among the representatives of Imam Kazim in his network of representatives across the Islamic territory. They were responsible for guiding the Shias according to the Imam’s teachings and advice, collecting their obligatory Islamic dues, and resolving issues among the Shias in their community. These individuals were among the Shia scholars spreading the narrations of the Shia Imams, and were qualified in their Islamic knowledge. For around four years, during the imprisonment of Imam Kazim, they did not transfer the collected obligatory Islamic dues from their communities to Imam Kazim, nor did they spend it according to his guidance. The stored wealth in their possession grew to a significant amount and was enough to entice them against their duties. When Imam Reza asked them to transfer the collected wealth to him as the next Imam, they refused. They instead denied the Imamat of Imam Reza by denying the martyrdom of Imam Kazim. They claimed that Imam Kazim was not martyred, but instead was the Mahdi promised by the Prophet and had simply disappeared from sight. These representatives were able to gather some support from their Shia communities and separated themselves from the majority of the Shias who accepted Imam Reza as the next Imam. This faction of Shia was known as the Vaghefi, or those who stopped at the Imamat of Imam Kazim.
The denial of Imam Kazim’s martyrdom by the Vaghefis was against clear historical evidence, as many had witnessed the martyrdom of Imam Kazim and had attended his burial. For example, right after Imam Kazim’s martyrdom, Sendi ibn Shahak, who poisoned the Imam, tried to portray the Imam’s martyrdom as a natural death. He gathered more than 50 people in his house and exhibited the Imam’s body. He asked them to testify that the Imam’s body did not have any sign of injury or suffocation. He later put the Imam’s corpse on the bridge of Baghdad over the Tigris River to disrespect the Imam and the Shia belief. The people of Baghdad visited the Imam’s corpse to witness his demise. Later, when Haroon’s uncle, Sulayman ibn Abi-Ja’far, was informed of Sendi ibn Shahak’s actions, he found it against the political favors of the Abbasid government. He feared this could trigger Shias, who were in large numbers, in Baghdad and the other cities to rise up against the government. Thus, he sent his agents to retrieve the Imam’s corpse from Sendi ibn Shahak’s soldiers. He then held a grand burial ceremony for the Imam, where crowds of Muslims participated. Despite the clear evidence surrounding the martyrdom of Imam Kazim, the Vaghefis insisted on their belief and continued in their ignorance.
The Vaghefi faction began with three of Imam Kazim’s representatives who had monetary interests. They were able to gather some supporters from the Shias, as they had social acceptance in their communities and were known as scholars who recited narrations from the Shia Imams. They fabricated narrations from Imam Sadiq and the other Shia Imams in their own favor to prove their false claim that Imam Kazim was the promised Mahdi and was still alive. They also misinterpreted some narrations from the Shia Imams to their own benefit. Among their fallacies was to use Imam Kazim’s name, Musa, and relating it to the story of Prophet Moses who had isolated himself and disappeared from his nation for around 40 days. They concluded that Imam Kazim had disappeared temporarily and would later appear before the people.
While Imam Reza had not yet publicly declared his Imamat, he did not stay silent in confrontation with the Vaghefis who had branched from the Shia community. Imam Reza debated with the leaders and the followers of the Vaghefis on multiple occasions to guide them. The Imam proved to them that his father was no longer alive and that his inheritance had been distributed amongst his children. The Imam also corrected fabricated narrations by the Vaghefis and interpreted the true meaning of the vague narrations they misused. The Imam also provided them with the knowledge of the unseen to prove his divine knowledge, a sign of the Shia Imams. Consequently, the Imam was able to guide many of the Vaghefis to his Imamat.
The remaining Vaghefis caused trouble for Imam Reza during his Imamat. They instilled doubts in the hearts of his Shia followers. They looked for any excuse to blame the Imam and to justify their own beliefs. They asked the Imam, if he was the righteous Imam, why had he not declared his Imamat publicly? The Imam responded that he was following the Prophet, who had started his mission of prophethood in hiding.

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