Imamate · Dhow Noor Circle

Imamate

*Qur’an: Imams Guide by Allah’s Command (Takwini Guidance)*

_Waja’alnahum aimmatan yahduna bi amrina…_

💠 We find in the Qur'an that whenever it mentions imamate it puts guidance side by side.

📖 Allah says in the story of Abraham: And We gave him Isaac and Jacob as a further gift; and We made [them] all righteous ones; and We made them imams, to guide [people] by Our command ... (21:72-73);

📖 and He says in another place in the Qur’an: And We made of them imams to guide by Our command as they were patient, and they were certain of Our signs (32:24).

💠 Here the imamate is defined in terms of guidance, and then further qualified with the condition, "by Our command." Clearly, the imamate does not mean any type of guidance; *it is a guidance which emanates from the command of Allah*. And the realiity of that command is described in these words:

📖 His command, when He intends anything, is only that He says to it: Be, and it is. Therefore glory be to Him in Whose hand is the kingdom of everything ... (36:82-83);

📖 And Our command is but one, as the twinkling of an eye (54:50).

💠 The Divine Command is the sublime side of the creation, with which the Imams face towards Allah; it is pure, free from fetters of time and space, and untouched by change and variation. *It is also the real meaning of the word "Be," because the Divine Command "Be," is nothing other than the actual existence of the thing concerned.*

💠 it very clearly proves that whatever is the subject of guidance (that is, the hearts and the deeds), *the imam has its inner reality*; he is constantly in touch with its other side—the side of the command, which is never hidden from him.

💠 It is known that hearts and the deeds, like any other thing, have two sides, one of the "command" and the other of the "creation" ; *therefore, the reality of the deeds of men - both good and bad— is always in the vision of the imam*, always under his observation; and he has authority over both ways — the way of happiness and bliss and the way of unhappiness and distress.

📖 Also, Allah has said: [Remember] the day when We will call every people with their imam (17:71).

💠Therefore, *the imam is the one who shall lead the people to Allah on the day when hidden things shall be tried*, as he leads them to Allah in this world.

💠 The last quoted verse also shows that *there cannot be a single period, a single moment, without an imam*, because God says, "every people"in the above verse

Ref:

Allamah Tabatabai, Tafsir al-Mizan, v.2

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