Abstract
The offspring of illegitimate intercourse is called the walad zina (or illicit child) by the Imami law, however, since he is a human being, he has the very rights of a Muslim. It means that there is no difference between legitimate child`s rights or illicit one; consequently, to be an illicit child is not a criminal offence, but his parents` fornication is a determined (hodud) crime, and so in accordance with principle of personalizing penalties, he must  not be punished for the crime of his  parents. However, the claim of Dr. Kohlberg is that based upon the Imami traditions and jurisprudence, the such a child should be deprived of the Shiite rights, since he  is not known as an Imami individual, but he is an infidel. In this paper, we will show that the most of traditions and jurisprudential theories which have been cited by Etan Kohlberg has been rejected by well-known Imami jurists, including Imam Khomeini. Therefore, if the author had not relied on the invalid sources, he could have transmitted the true data to the Western readers for all these years.