In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
Imam Mahdi, the promised existent , Chapter One
General Leadership (Imamate) in The Shia Religion – 6th part
Imamate is a human need and a divine blessing
The criterion of needing a prophet and imam
Undoubtedly, every human society always needs a powerful leader to manage its affairs under his plan; However, the issue of imamate and guardianship is superior to leading and overseeing the worldly affairs of the people, and the criteria for the need for a prophet and an infallible imam will not be limited to the aforementioned matters.
Imam Mahdi (www.myimammahdi.com)
Some people argue about the necessity of prophethood and imamate as follows: since human beings are social and civil creatures and order is necessary for civilization and that depends on the existence of law, it always needs prophets and imams to provide and guarantee the survival of order and progress of human civilization by establishing laws and implementing them.
Khwaja Nasir al-Din Tusi (a great Iranian scientist) challenged this argument as follows: this statement is not complete in proving the necessity of prophethood and imamate, because there may be people and communities who never choose a religion and do not follow the prophet and imam; But they live better or like us. They have a legal and orderly civilization that provides for their world, so the necessity of prophethood and imamate is not only for the purpose of bringing order to our world, rather, since we are eternal beings and have a long way to infinity, in order to reach this eternity and the path to infinity, which we know as resurrection, and to walk the path of our eternal happiness, we need the sending of prophets and the existence of imams. If we rotted and perished like plants after death, the need for law and solving the problems of the social system would provide the necessity of prophethood and imamate; But after death, the grave, the Purgatory, the Resurrection, the reading of books, the reckoning, the measure, the path, heaven and hell are in front of us, and we do not know the depths of the truths and what these are, and on the other hand, we are and eternity.
Every thought that passes through our mind and every action that we do is connected with our eternity and we need beliefs, morals and actions that will protect us from death to purgatory and from there to heaven and guide us. Compensating this need depends on the existence of someone who can say a word compatible with our past and future and the prophets take it from the Most Holy Essence of God, and the imams take it from the prophets and convey it to the believers.
Imam Mahdi (www.myimammahdi.com)
The mention of this Semitic matter was deduced by Mohaghegh Tusi from the text of the speech of Abu Ali Sina (a great Iranian scientist) because Abu Ali Sina proposed the flow of prophecy in the intersections of worship, asceticism, mysticism and the exact difference between devotee, ascetic and mystic. What came in Mohaghegh Tusi’s speech is an explanation of the meaningful words of Abu Ali Sina, not a criticism of it.
Other students of the school of Qur’an and Imamate have also expressed different and different expressions about the necessity of sending messengers and installing righteous imams and evaluated various criteria, the most prominent of which is Hisham bin Hakam and Kolini (one of the great Shiite scholars) narrates the story of his debate with Amr bin Ubaid Mu’tazili as follows: The blessed presence of Imam Sadiq said to his student: I heard that you had a debate with Amr bin Ubaid on the subject of Imamate and guardianship. He said yes; But I will not allow myself to describe it in your presence. Imam Sadiq said: You are allowed and I want you to say it. Hisham said that I participated in his scientific meeting (which denied guardianship and Imamate) in Basra Mosque and I asked him: Do you have eyes? Do you have ears and body parts? He said: What ill-considered and unwise questions you have! I said these are my questions; You answer and let me ask my questions. He said yes, I have eyes, ears and body parts. I said, apart from these perceptive and stimulating channels, do you also have a mind and a heart? He said: Yes, I said: You have eyes to see and ears to hear, and your other affairs are provided by your other perceptive and stimulating channels, what is the need for intellect and heart? He said: I need them to keep my ears, eyes, other organs and womb from error through their leadership, guidance and control. I said: The Lord who created a heart to protect us from the mistakes of perceptive and stimulating channels of man, did He not create a heart and an imam for the world and human societies?
Imam Mahdi (www.myimammahdi.com)
Is it the case that every path traveled and with every recitation and understanding of religion is correct? Or is there someone who said the final word and recognized right from wrong? The one who is in charge of such a matter is the blessed presence of the infallible Imam, who is the heart and intellect of this world, and scientific and practical errors are corrected in line with his guidance and leadership.
Imam Sadiq heard this argument and asked: Where did you learn these words? Hisham said: I learned from you and your school. Then Imam Sadiq said: By God, this matter is written in the book of Abraham and Moses.
The center of gravity of the mentioned argument is the eternity of man and his need for a teacher and corrector of beliefs, morals and actions, which will cause his eternal salvation and proves the necessity of the existence of prophets and infallible imams.
Imamate, the grace and eternal favor of God
The Holy Quran mentions many divine blessings and considers them countless: “And if you count the blessings of God, you will not be able to finish them” (Surah Nahl, verse 18), and he calls the most important and supreme blessing “grace” and considers the sending of prophets and the installation of imams as one of the greatest graces: “Indeed, God graced the believers when He raised up among them a prophet from among themselves” (Surah Al-Imran, verse 164), “And We wanted to grace those who were weakened on earth by the oppressors, and make them the leaders of the people, and make them inheritors of the earth” (Surah Al-Qasas, verse 5).
n the first verse, he speaks of prophecy with the past tense: “… God graced…” because prophecy is finite, although religion is eternal. But in the second verse, about Imamate, he uses the present participle, which means gradualness and continuity; He seems to be saying that we always choose infallible imams for the people and make the oppressed of the earth imams. The present participle shows that the earth is never without an imam, and as long as humans and human societies exist on earth, they need infallible leaders.
Imam Mahdi (www.myimammahdi.com)
Imamate, this divine grace always remains and people benefit from it and in every age they have an infallible Imam who is great in the kingdom of the world. Although he is oppressed on earth; And those who are weak and lowly in the inner world will never be able to reach this position, even if they are considered great in the world.
Whoever does not know the supreme grace of God and does not consider it a blessing, will be deprived of the perception of its subtleties; Then he will not only deprive himself of its results, he will oppose the grateful auspicious people and will say in denial that the Shiites believe that the Imamate is the grace of God and that grace is necessarily issued from the Holy Essence of God.
Therefore, there is always an obvious or hidden imam. If we accept that imamate is kindness, what you believe is never kindness; An Imam who does not see the people and the people do not see him, the people’s relationship with him is broken and his access is not available to everyone, and this is not a favor. According to you, what would be a blessing is a living imam who is present and watching, so that people can see him and share their needs with him. He should also take over the management of people’s affairs and answer the scientific and practical questions of the society and solve the difficulties. Therefore, if the rule of kindness is correct and we accept the principle of the case, the rest of it is unacceptable.
Although such a statement is based on ignorance of the truth of Imamate in Shia philosophy, the statement of Mohaghegh Tusi in his description of abstraction is a comprehensive answer to this doubt. He says that the presence of the Imam is a blessing and his taking over the affairs of the people by command or prohibition or tenure is another blessing, and the absence of the Imam and the absence of his authority is from us, and in other words, the presence of the Imam, even if it is hidden, is a divine favor and a great blessing of God.
Imam Mahdi (www.myimammahdi.com)
The insightful person who finds that prophethood and imamate is the gift of God and his grace, he knows imamate, and as a result, he also knows the imam, then he follows him, and finally, in the light of the kingdom of spiritual life, which is the truth of the water of life, it boils from within his soul.
The water of life is not like rain and snow that falls from the sky; Or it boils from the ground like a spring, but it originates from within the soul and boils from the heart, that’s why active scholars are always alive: “Those who accumulate wealth, even though they are alive, are dead, and the people of knowledge are alive as long as the world lasts. Their bodies are destroyed, but their memory remains in the hearts” (Imam Ali).
Those who accumulate wealth are alive on the surface and dead on the inside because they have a plant and animal life, not a human. But true scholars and pure men are alive even after death, because they have enjoyed human life and the fountain of life has boiled from inside them.
