Leading The Ummah

The Introduction To The Second Edition

In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

The issue of Leadership is one of the most significant issues in Islam, on which the prosperity of the ummah is dependent. This is because the beloved Prophet of Islam laid the foundations of the religion and presented it to the Muslims in its perfect form, but put the task of its continuity and maintenance upon the shoulders of his future successors. The recognition of these leaders, however, has a tremendous impact on the destiny of the Muslims.

While the Holy Prophet's body wan not yer buried, there appeared disagreements among the ummah over the issue of leadership and during the Saqifah convention there arose two different views. Finally, through various deceitful diplomacies the immigrant sector which had five or three representatives seized the rein of leadership.

Now, the burning question is the following: could the Divine verdict be seen only in those two points of view or had the Prophet already solved the problem of leadership through the Divine Revelation much earlier than the muhajirin (immigrants) or the Ansar could have found the chance to delve upon such a delicate issue?

This book offers an answer to such a question and will offer some profound reasons by resorting to Qur’anic verses and to prophetic narrations in order to explain the issue of leadership, illustrating that the Divine verdict concerning the Islamic Leadership was quite different from the view that was brought up in the Saqifah convention.

The position of leadership, given its special sacredness, belongs exclusively to the infallible, i.e. flawless persons who have Divine education and are introduced to the ummah through Allah via the Prophet (S).

This book was written more than twenty years ago for the interested youth and has been taught in Tehran several times and is now presented to interested readers after elaborate editorial work. I hope it can guide the readers in the right direction.

Ja’far Subhani
Qom, the Imam Sadiq Institute
Zil Haijah 7, 1415
17/2/1374