How are we Shia able to establish the greatness of ahlul bayt through historical accounts? The same way we love and cherish the Imams, ahlul sunnah love and cherish figures like Abu Bakr and Umar whom we do not revere at all. We actually look at them as oppressors. And they attribute bad qualities to Imam Ali and other Imams sometimes as well which in their eyes makes them all the same. How were we able to get the narrative us Shia have versus the narrative they have been taught? No disrespect towards our brothers and sisters, there is such a stark contrast in this area and I’m wondering how it’s possible we have such a reverence towards our Imams and recognize them but they see them as average people who had knowledge.

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One way to establish that is to refer to Motawater hadiths that all Muslims have accepted. For example:

1- The hadith of Thiqlayn clearly proves the infallibility of the Ahlulbayt, since it says they shall never separate from the Qur’an till the Day of Judgment. If someone never separates from the infallible Qur’an, he must be infallible.

2- The Sahih hadiths that Imam Ali is the most knowledgeable, the most just, is always with the Qur’an, is loved by Allah and His messenger, and so on. Imam Ali’s status is not disputed by any Muslim. Yes some Sunnis claim for instance he may have upset Lady Fatima (in a fabricated incident) and irritated the Prophet, but they all agree the Prophet loved him deeply and Islam succeeded because of him. And all Muslims agree that Hassan and Hussain are the masters of the youth of paradise, and all their descendants (the Imams) were pious. There is no dispute in that. So we have certainly over the positive status of Ahlulbayt.

3- As for those enemies and hypocrites, not all Muslims agree on them. There are hundreds of reports that indicate they committed injustice—all from Sunni books. You can see these videos for that:

https://youtu.be/EeNSdBzaO50

https://youtu.be/-9-Ou-oFDM0

https://youtu.be/Z22Y1nfw9mw