salamz Br. Mystic!
You're funny!
Were you asking about Imam Ahmed bin Isa or Ahmed bin al-Qaasim?
Regarding the imamate of Imams as-Sadiq and al-Baqir:
The concept of imamate in Zaydiyya is slightly different from imamate in the other Shia groups. To the Zaydiyya, imams are divided into basically 3 categories:
1. imam of knowledge
2. imam of justice
3. Imam of both knowledge and justice
An imam of knowledge is basically a scholar of the family of the Messenger (saws) that is known for his piety and unparallelled for his knowledge of the sciences of the
deen. Even though he may issue
fatawa, he does not fight to establish justice.
An imam of justice is a leader from the family of the Messenger (saws) that fights to establish justice on the Earth. He is charismatic and courageous but having extensive knowledge of the
deen is not required.
An Imam of knowledge and justice is a scholar and leader from the family of the Messenger (saws) that is known for his piety, unparallelled for his knowledge of the sciences of the
deen, and fights to establish justice on the Earth.
Even though all three are imams (lowercase "i"), it is only the third category that the Zaydiyya use a capital "I" for Imam. In other words, the Imam has to be knowledgeable and establish justice to be considered the Imam.
Imams as-Sadiq and al-Baqir fall in the 1st category because they are known for their knowledge. But since they did not openly establish justice, they cannot be considered a capital I "Imam".
Imams like Ali, al-Hasan, al-Hussein, Zayd ash-Shaheed, al-Hadi, and Mutawakkal fall into the 3rd category.
I don't know about the other 12er Imams though. I know that the Zaydiyya consider Ali bin Musa ar-Rida as an imam from the 3rd category.
I can't think of anyone that falls into the 2nd category offhand, though.
I hope this helps you!
your brother,
Student