12 // Lesson twelve

Imamate

The fourth principle of religion is Imamat. Imamate means leading the religious and secular affairs of the people as the successor of the great prophet of Islam, His Eminence Muhammad bin Abdullah.

The presence of an imam after the prophet is necessary from two points of view:

1 The life of society is impossible without a leader, whose speech and decrees must be insightful. As long as the great prophet was alive, the leadership and power of Muslims was in his hands. It should be noted that the prophet, although he is the chosen one and the messenger of God, nevertheless also represents the ruler of Muslims.

That is why, in order that after the death of the Prophet, the work of leading and managing Muslims did not cease or temporarily cease its activity, it was necessary that the successor of the Prophet began to work as soon as possible and decided to continue the work started by the Prophet, which included the expansion of the sphere of monotheism throughout the world, and directed people in the direction of the desired perfection. Otherwise, all the works of the prophet would be wasted and Muslims would not be able to achieve happiness.

2 The great prophet of Islam (Dbar), in addition to being the ruler and ruler of Muslims, was also a divine teacher and a heavenly messenger, who spoke the truth to people.

If there is no person to teach truths and religious concepts and express those laws that the prophet did not have time to explain during his lifetime, that is, if there is no imam or spiritual guide, then his absence in the popular environment will harm Islam. Therefore, it seems very important that the imam, the successor of the prophet, constantly leads the affairs of the people in order to eliminate all their needs in both religious and ideological matters. Also, when it is said that the prophet fully expressed all the laws of Islam, it means that he brought to the people the general provisions of Islam, and the explanation of these general provisions and the elimination of the issues arising in this connection and teaching people the higher principles of the Qur’an requires an imam or, in other words, a great teacher whose level of erudition would be similar to that of a great prophet.

And now we want to bring to your attention a dispute between one of the students of Imam Sadiq and one of the scholars of the Sunni religious direction regarding the need for an imam and a spiritual leader after him. the prophet

One of the young and famous scholars and students of Imam Sadiq – Hisham says: “One day on a Sunday I came to Basra and went to the mosque. Amru bin Ubaid Mutazi was there and around him sat a large crowd of people who asked him questions. I also sat down among the inquirers. Each asked his question and received an answer. I turned to Amru and said: “O learned man! I am not a resident of this city and have come from afar. Would you allow me to ask you a question? Amru said: – Ask any question. I said: – do you have eyes? He said: – Don’t you see what I have, why are you asking about it? I said: – All my questions are of this kind. He said: – I ask, even though your questions are meaningless.

– do you have eyes?

So.

What are you doing with your eyes?

– I see the visible, distinguish the color and type of the visible.

– do you speak the language?

So.

What do you do to them?

I distinguish the taste of dinner.

-do you have a sense of charm?

So.

What do you do to them?

-sense of smell, distinguish a good smell from a bad one.

– do you have ears?

So.

What do you do to them?

-Hear sounds and distinguish them from each other.

– do you have a heart (mind) apart from all this?

So.

What do you do to them?

– If other senses will doubt, then thanks to him I will eliminate this doubt. Because, it is absolutely clear to everyone that sometimes the five senses of a person make mistakes, so I turn to the mind to eliminate their mistakes.

Hisham said: -As soon as Amru bin Ubaid said this, I confirmed the truth of his words and said: “Yes, God Most High has created the mind to control the senses and eliminate their errors. About a learned man! Will it be true if we say that God , who left the eyes and ears and other organs of man without a guide, could he leave the Muslims after the Prophet without a guide and a leader, so that as a result people would be in doubt and conflict, fall into error? Can common sense agree with this?

Hisham said: -When I came to this conclusion from those simple questions, Amru bin Ubayd realized that I am a Shia and a disciple of Imam Sadiq, so he calmed down and could not answer my question and only by exchanging pleasantries was able to end this dispute.

With this dispute, Hisham comes to the conclusion that after the prophet, God Almighty appointed his successors, who one after the other will be imams and spiritual leaders of Muslims.

Thus, as the great Muslim philosopher Abu Ali ibn Sina (Avicenna) says: “Is it incomprehensible to the mind that the wise Allah, who created eyelashes and eyebrows for man and eliminated his needs to such an extent, is it possible that such a good Allah could forget about such is the greatest need of the people (to appoint a guide), leave the people without a guide, a leader and an educator and provide them with themselves?