Bismillah,
For those of you that don't know, Sulaiman bin Jareer is the leader of the Sulaimaniya/Jareeriya Zaidi sect. He lived during the times of Abu Ja'afar Al-Mansour, which means that he was a contemporary of Ja'afar Al-Sadiq.
Al-Nawbakhti, the Shia historian relates his story and his arguments against the Imamis:
لما أشار جعفر بن محمد إلى إمامة ابنه إسماعيل ثم مات إسماعيل في حياة أبيه رجعوا عن إمامة جعفر وقالوا كذبنا ولم يكن إماما لأن الإمام لا يكذب ولا يقول ما لا يكون، وحكوا عن جعفر أنه قال إن الله عز وجل بدا له في إمامة اسماعيل، فأنكروا البداء والمشيئة من الله وقالوا هذا باطل لا يجوز، ومالوا إلى مقالة البترية ومقالة سليمان بن جرير وهو الذي قال لأصحابه بهذا السبب إن أئمة الرافضة وضعوا لشيعتهم مقالتين لا يظهرون معهما من أئمتهم على كذب أبدا وهما القول بالبداء وإجازة التقية، فأما البداء فإن أئمتهم لما أحلوا أنفسهم من شيعنهم محل الأنبياء من رعيتها في العلم فيما كان ويكون والإخبار بما يكون في غد وقالوا لشيعتهم إنه سيكون في غد وفي غابر الأيام كذا وكذا فإن جاء ذلك الشيء على ما قالوه قالوا لهم: ألم نعلمكم أن هذا يكون فنحن نعلم من قبل الله عز وجل ما علمته الأنبياء وبيننا وبين الله عز وجل مثل تلك الأسباب التي علمت بها الأنبياء عن الله ما علمت، وإن لم يكن ذلك الشيء الذي قالوا إنه يكون على ما قالوا قالوا لشيعتهم: بدا لله في ذلك [فلم] يكونه. وأما التقية فإنه لما كثرت على أئمتهم مسائل شيعنهم في الحلال والحرام وغير ذلك من صنوف أبواب الدين فأجابوا فيها وحفظ عنهم شيعتهم جواب ما سألوهم وكتبوه ودونوه ولم يحفظ أئمتهم تلك الأجوبة لتقادم العهد وتفاوت الأوقات لأن مسائلهم لم ترد في يوم واحد ولا في شهر واحد بل في سنين متباعدة وأشهر متباينة وأوقات متفرقة فوقع في أيديهم في المسألة الواحدة عدة أجوبة مختلفة متضادة وفي مسائل مختلفة أجوبة متفقة، فلما وقفوا على ذلك منهم ردوا إليهم هذا الاختلاف والتخليط في جواباتهم وسألوهم عنه وأنكروه عليهم فقالوا: من أين هذا الاختلاف وكيف جاز ذلك؟ قالت لهم أئمتهم: إنما أجبنا بهذا للتقية ولنا أن نجيب بما أحببنا وكيف شئنا لأن ذلك إلينا ونحن نعلم بما يصلحكم وما فيه بقاؤنا وبقاؤكم وكف عدوكم عنا وعنكم؛ فمتى يظهر من هؤلاء على كذب ومتى يعرف لهم حق من باطل؟ فمال إلى سليمان بن جرير هذا لهذا القول جماعة من أصحاب أبي جعفر وتركوا القول بإمامة جعفر عليهما السلام
.
When Ja'afar bin Mohammad pointed towards the Imamate of his son Isma'eel, he (Isma'eel) died during the life of his father, and they (the Imamis) turned away from the Imamate of Ja'afar. They said, "We were lied upon, and the Imam does not lie, nor does he say what doesn't happen." They narrated from Ja'afar that he said that
bada'a (what was hidden has become apparent) occured to Allah as to what would happen to the Imamate of Isma'eel. They turned away from
bada'a and the will of Allah and said that this is false and not permissible. They shifted to the view of the Batriyyah.
As for the statement of Sulaiman bin Jareer, who said to his companions that the Imams of the Rafidha created two ideological view, which prevents them from ever finding an apparent lie from the Imams, which are
bada'a and
taqiyyah. (Sulaiman bin Jareer said:) As for
bada'a, when the Imams have taken the station of prophets amongst their people, in the knowledge of past and future, they told their Shias, "Tomorrow, such and such will happen." If that matter occurred, they said, "Didn't we tell you that this would happen?! We knew this from Allah what the prophets knew from Him, and between us and Allah are the causes of which how the prophets knew from Allah what they knew." However, if that matter that they said would happen didn't occur, they would said, "
Bada'a has occurred to Allah, so it didn't happen."
As for
taqiyyah, for when there were so many questions regarding the
halal and
haram and other matters that they responded to, and these answers were memorized, written, and documented, by their Shias, and the Imams themselves didn't memorize their answers due to the passage of time, for their questions didn't occur in one day, nor one month, but were years and months apart, and different times, they answered a question with many contradicting answers, and contradicting answers with a similar answer. So, when they were encountered due to these contradictions in their answers, were condemned, and they were asked, "Where did these contradictions come from, and how is this possible?" The Imams responded, "Our responses were
taqiyyah, and we can answer in whichever way we want, for that is to us, and we know what is best for you, and what will cause us both to last, and what prevents our enemies from us."
So, how is it possible for their lies to be apparent and how is it possible to know their truth from their falsehood?!
Al-Nawbakhti comments: And so, a group of the companions of Abi Ja'afar joined Sulaiman bin Jareer and left the opinion that Ja'afar (as) is the Imam.
I (Farid) say: The argumentation of Sulaiman bin Jareer is flawless. It is no wonder that Imamis joined him after formulating these arguments. However, as a Sunni, I am obligated to believe that it was not the Twelver Imams that created these concepts, but rather, the liars amongst their students. For we do not find cases in which the
bada'a card needs to be played in the narrations attributed to the Al-Baqir and Al-Sadiq in the Sunni hadith library, nor do we find the insane amount of contradictions that we find in the Shia hadith library within our system.