 Further elements allow a better defining of the Ikhwân's political position. The history of early Islam is approached from a Shî‘i perspective; some important events of the prophet Muhammad's life and mission are recalled; soon attention shifts to two fatal events which led to the defeat of Shî‘ism, the battle of Siffîn and the slaughter of Karbalâ’. In a passage on the struggles for imâmate, the “representatives of the Muhammadic (Muhammadiyya) Law and of the Hashimi federation” (cf. Epistle 31, III, 165, 11–12) are opposed. If the latter are the ‘Abbasids (or even the supporters of Abû Hâshim, son of Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyya), the former should be understood as the direct descendants of the Prophet through Fâtima, whence the Ikhwân's strict ‘Alid militancy should be demonstrated.