Shi'ism and Its Types During the Early Centuries

Supplement 2

In reply to the Imam, Mu'awiyah is indignant at the Imam's considering himself to be the descendant of all the prophets. He writes: "Not sufficing with the kinship with Muhammad you have claimed kinship with all the prophets." Then he adds: "You should know that Muhammad was one of the apostles who had been sent to all mankind. He delivered the message of his Lord and beyond that he did not own anything ....

Now tell us, where is the merit in your relationship? And what is the merit in your right? Where in the Book of God do you find your name mentioned? Where in the Qur'an is mentioned anything about your kingdom, your imamate and your superiority? Yes, we do follow the imams and caliphs who have gone before us, and you too used to follow them." Then he refers to himself as 'Uthman's heir.

In his reply the Imam accuses him of enmity towards the prophets and of the love of his pagan forebears. There he adds:

You should know that we are the family of the Apostle of Allah (s). The unbeliever does not befriend us and the believer does not harbour our enmity in his heart. You have denied the Imamate of Muhammad (s) and you imagine that he is an apostle and not an Imam. This denial leads you to deny the Imamate of all the apostles.

But we bear witness that he was an apostle and an Imam .... As to your denial of my relationship with the Messenger of Allah and my right, indeed our share and our right is there in the Book of God, and God has mentioned us along with the Apostle in the context of the division [of the spoils of war), where He has said: "Whenever you take any spoils of war, a fifth of it belongs to the Apostle and the kinsmen." (8:41)

And in another place He says, "Give the kindred their right" (30:38). Don't you see that our share has been mentioned along with the share of God and the share of the Apostle and your share has been mentioned along with the outsiders? You deny my Imamate and my authority Don't you see that God, the Exalted, has given us merit over all the world's people? (3:33) . . . If you can separate us from Abraham (a), Ismail, Muhammad and the Al of Muhammad in the Book of God, try to do so! [^68]

This letter has been cited by Abu Ishaq al-Thaqafi, the 3rd/9th century Shi'i historian (d. 283/). The doctrine of Imamate as a Divine office is quite evident in this letter of the Imam (a), and the various aspects of the argument on which it is based are quite clear. Its most significant part is that which asserts a relationship between prophethood, wasiyyah, and Imamate and affirms them as deriving from an original tradition in the history of the prophets.

Mu'awiyah's denial of the Imamate of the Apostle of God (s) is also a noteworthy point in this correspondence. In any case, Imam Ali ('a) made a great effort ill many of his speeches and sermons to establish the preeminence of the Ahl al-Bayt over others and to establish their Divine right. In asserting such a right he considered it to be an inalienable element of the Imamate, and, naturally, he did not recognize such a right for the other caliphs.

The characteristics of Shi'i thinking are quite evident in many passages narrated from the Imam Ali ('a). In one of his sermons he declares concerning the Ahl al-Bayt ('a):

They have been entrusted with the secret of the Apostle, and whoever takes refuge in them finds the way to the truth. They are the repository of the knowledge of the Apostle and the exponents of the laws of the Shariah. The Qur'an and the Sunnah are secure with them, and they, like a high mountain, are the sentinels of the faith. By their means, Islam is kept straight, steady, and stable. [^69]

In another place he says, Where are you going and where are you being led away? The waymarks are established the signs are clear, and the lighthouses stand raised. So where are you being mislead and how do you go astray? The Household of your Prophet is in your midst and they are the guardians of the truth, the standards of religion, and the tongues of truthfulness. So place them in the best stations of the Qur'an and turn to them like thirty camels approaching their watering place. [^70]

In another passage he declares:

We are the tree of prophethood and the place of descent of Messengerhood, the place of frequenting of angels, the mines of knowledge, and the mainspring of wisdom. Our friend and supporter is hopeful of receiving Divine mercy and one who regards us with enmity and hostility awaits Divine vengeance. [^71]

They (i.e. the Ahl al-Bayt) are life for knowledge and death for ignorance. Their temperance will inform you of their learning, their exterior of their interior, and their silence of the wisdom of their speech. They do not oppose the truth, nor do they disagree regarding it. They are the pillars of Islam and its sanctuaries. Through them the truth is restored to its proper place and falsehood is forced to withdraw froth its position, its tongue being cut off from the root. They have understood the religion through the spirit of understanding and observance, not through audition and narration. Indeed, the narrators of knowledge are many, but few are those who observe it. [^72]

Indeed, the virtuous of my kindred and the pure ones of my lineage are the wisest of men in their childhood and the most learned of them in their grown up years. Indeed, we belong to a household whose knowledge derives from God's knowledge and whose judgements derive from the judgement of God, and we have heard the speech of the truthful one. So if you follow in our footsteps, you twill be guided by our insights, and if you do not do so, God will destroy you at our hands. With us is the banner of the truth: whoever follows it will reach the shore safely, and whoever forsakes it will be drowned. [^73]

We are the intimate ones, the companions (of the Prophet), the treasures and the doors (of Divine knowledge). Houses may not be entered except through their doors (2:189), and one who enters them from a place other than the door is called a thief . . . . The Qur'anic verses mentioning noble stations are about them (i.e. the Ahl al-Bayt), and they are the treasurers of the All-beneficent. When they speak, they speak the truth; and when they are silent, no one may get ahead of them. [^74]

Where are those who falsely and insolently claimed that they are ones who are firmly rooted in knowledge' (al-rasikhuna fi al-ilm; ref. to 3:7; 4:162) and not we? Because God has raised us in station and kept them low; He has bestowed upon us and deprived them; He has allowed us entry and kept them out. Through us, guidance is sought and blindness is turned into vision... Surely the Imams are from the Quraysh, planted in this lineage in Hashim's descent. Others are not entitled to it (Imamate), nor is anyone besides them competent to assume leadership. [^75]

No one from this ummah can be compared to the Household of Muhammad, may God's benedictions be upon him and his Household, and one who benefits from their bounties can never equal them. They are the foundation of the religion and the pillars of certainty. To them the extremist must return and with them must catch up he who lags behind. They possess the prerequisites of the right of wilayah, and to them belong the wasiyyah and the inheritance. [^76]

Certainly the Imams are caretakers (quwwam, pl. of qa'im) appointed by God over His creatures, and the dispensers of the knowledge of the Divine to God's servants. None shall enter paradise except one who acknowledges them and is acknowledged by them, and none shall enter Hellfire except one who does not acknowledge them and is not acknowledged by them. [^77]

Look at the Ahl at-Bayt of your Prophet and stick to their path. Follow their footsteps, for they will never lead you out of righteousness or land you into destruction. If they stand, you too stand up, and if they rise you also rise up. Do not overtake them, nor fall behind them, for that would destroy you. [^78]

In these passages, as in his letter cited earlier, the Imam considers the Imamate and the kind of leadership that it signifies as a kind of prophetic inheritance. This inheritance is not one which pertains only to the right of temporal authority, but is also accompanied with wasiyyah, wisdom, inner purity and infallibility. It is a tradition that the Qur'an attributes to the prophets when it refers to the office that Abraham sought for his progeny and concerning which God declared that His covenant does not include the unjust (2:124).

The Qur'an speaks of the prophets as belonging to one another's seed (dhurriyyah), although the concept of being chosen (ijtiba) plays a central role in the matted Some of the Sunnis imagine the Shi'i concept of Imamate to mean something of the sort of an ordinary hereditary right, and hence they have accused the Shi'ah of considering Imamate to be hereditary, whereas in the Shi'i conception Imamate derives from designation (nass).

This designation acquires its meaning within the framework of a divine conception of inheritance which emanates from the Qur'an itself. In a letter in which he refers to the dispute with the Quraysh and his insistence on demanding his own right, Imam Ali ('a) writes, "Am I being ambitious when I demand my inheritance and ask for the restoration of the right that God and His Apostle have granted me?" [^80] In this statement inheritance and right are mentioned side by side.

More important than the passages cited above is the incident which occurred during the first days of his entry into Kufah after the Battle of the Camel. At that time, as mentioned by scores of Sunni sources, Imam Ali ('a) summoned the people of Kufah and the Companions of the Prophet (s) who were accompanying him, to assemble in the mosque of Kufah. There, he asked those who had witnessed the event of Ghadir and heard the declaration made by the Prophet to stand up and bear testimony A large number of people, among them twelve Companions who had fought by the Prophet's side at Badr, bore testimony. [8l]

Invoking the witness of the Hadith of Ghadir in a general gathering had no purpose other than to publicly establish his divine right to wilayah. [^82]

The Qur'anic concept of hujjah (lit. proof, testament) also affirms the viewpoint of Imam Ali ('a) concerning wilayah. It is a concept that the Imam applies to the prophets as well as to others who, without being prophets, are assigned by God to guide mankind. In one of his sermons he says, "At no time has God left His creatures without a messenger, or without making a scripture accessible to them, or without appointing a hujjah over then." [^83]

Elsewhere he says, The earth is never devoid of someone who is an upholder of God's proof. He is either manifest and well-known, or afraid and concealed, so that God's proofs and His clear signs are not invalidated. How many are they, and where are they? By God, they are few in number, but great in esteem near God. Through them God maintains His testaments and signs, until they entrust them to others like themselves and plant them in the hearts of their likes. Knowledge has led them to the reality of understanding, and they have attained the spirit of certitude.

That which is hard upon seekers of comfort comes easy to them. They endear what the ignorant regard with aversion. They live in the world with their bodies, but their spirits are in a higher realm. They are the vicegerents of God in His earth and His callers to His faith. [^84]