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Chapter 3
4. The Twelve Holy Imams
There are in fact recent Imamic phenomena in Christian
Protestantism. Two examples are found in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints and a Seventh-day Church of God group. The organisation by a
council of twelve reveals an awareness, however dim, of Biblical Imamic
principles. Sadly, the imposition of such an organisation does not guarantee
divine authority. It merely imitates it. We must find the true continuity of
Biblical Imamic authority within a few centuries after Jesus. A gap of nearly
two thousand years is not acceptable.
Muhammad appeared as a prophet of God at the right time. As
did all prophets, he condemned idolatry and polytheism. His mission in terms of
the Imamate was timely. First of all, he warned the Jews for their rejection of
the claims of Jesus. He condemned them for rejecting the Imamate. Secondly, and
this was the most timely of all, he attacked the Christian corruption of the
Imamate.
Although the Imamate was already misunderstood by many
Christians in the first century, the replacement of the Imamate by the doctrine
of the trinity and Episcopal authority did not become complete until shortly
before the coming of Muhammad. Muhammad condemned the Christians' paradoxical
rejection of Jesus' Imamic role and their raising him to the status of God.
When Muhammad appointed his cousin and son-in-law
Ali ibn Abi Taleb as his Imamic successor, he inaugurated a line of twelve
authoritative figures. All of these claimed Imamic authority. It is our purpose
at this point to summarise the Biblical aspects of the Imamate which are
reproduced among these twelve divine proofs.
The following characteristics arise from the Bible account.
The Imam is first of all a witness to the unity of God and its clearest
exponent. He applies the law of God authoritatively to situations not clearly
covered by the verbal revelation. Such situations include the difficult areas
of purity but may extend to other applications of the law, even to the case of
verdicts on concealment or taqiyya. The factor of diplomacy is balanced
by the factor of deliverance. At times the Imam is called upon to lead people
out of oppression into freedom. The Imamate is related to series of twelve. The
experience of occultation, at first only tenuously related to the Imamate,
appears full-fledged in the Imamic experience of Jesus. With David the
necessity of continued and strong loyalty to the Imam appears. The Biblical
Imamate is summed up as living proof of divine guidance.
An examination of the lives and teachings of the twelve holy
Imams from Imam Ali to Muhammad al-Mahdi reveals a remarkable
correspondence between the Bible teaching and the Imamic fulfilment. The Bible
carefully and consistently develops the theme which appears in the twelve holy
Imams. The Bible asserts itself not only as the foundation for the Imamate, a
grand source for the development of Imamic principles, but as a prophetic
witness of the final flowering of the institution in the descendants of
Muhammad.
The prophetic character of the Bible Imamate appears vividly
in the symbolism of the series of twelve. Each slot or position in the series
has its own character. The first slot is obviously a commencement. The second
is conciliatory. The third is martyrdom. The fourth is praise. The fifth is
clarity of distinction. The sixth is codification. The seventh is loyalty. The
eighth is betrayal of promises from the world. The ninth to the twelfth
progress from imprisonment and secretness to occultation.
The most easily identifiable of these are the third and
fourth slots, martyrdom and praise. As we examine the Biblical series of
twelve, we note that very often these two aspects occur at the expected points.
The names of the sons of Ishmael are the normative point of departure. The name
of the third son is Adbeel', disciplined of God, and the name of the fourth is
Mibsam', fragrance. These two names give a rough equivalent to the third and
fourth slots we have already seen. Levi and Judah are the third and fourth sons
of Jacob. Levi with his brother Simeon took part in the slaughter of the
Shechemites and was therefore scattered in Israel. His descendants became the
priests, those who engaged in sacrifice. The figure of Levi eminently
represents martyrdom in sacrifice. The name 'Judah' means praise.
The names of the third and fourth judges are Shamgar and
Deborah. The only thing we know about Shamgar is that he slew six hundred
Philistines with an ox-goad (j udges 3:31). His one act fits perfectly
into the slot of martyrdom and sacrifice. The story of Deborah in the book of
judges is the only one to contain a hymn of praise to God (j udges 5).
The third and fourth good kings are Rehoboam and Abijah.
Although these two are not actually called good, since they permitted evil
things in the kingdom, still they opposed the idolatry of Jeroboam and remained
faithful to God. Rehoboam is the one who lost the kingdom of Israel, thus
representing martyrdom and sacrifice. His loss of the temple treasure to
Shishak the Pharaoh is also representative. Abijah's war experience with
Israel contrasts with Rehoboam and represents the power of praise. He was
victorious over Israel without the use of arms. The priests blew trumpets and
the people shouted, and God worked for them without their engaging in battle.
(2 Chronicles 13:1415).
The third and fourth in the series of minor prophets are
Amos and Obadiah. All of the prophets in this series are similar in predicting
woe and judgements and finally restoration. It is thus difficult to place them
in characteristic slots without doing violence to their true character.
Psalms 74 and 75 are the third and fourth of the twelve
Psalms of Asaph. Psalm 74 begins with the words O God, why hast thou cast us
off for ever?' It is like a study of the Karbala massacre itself and is one of
the most clearly prophetic passages of the Bible. Psalm 75 begins with the
words Unto thee, O God, do we give thanks'. A comparison with the
supplications of Imam Zeynel Abideen shows a remarkable similarity between the
themes of this Psalm and the Imam's work. As such, this Psalm also forms a
remarkable prophecy of the coming fourth Imam.
The clearest prophetic expressions of the Imamate in the
Bible are thus truly the names of the sons of Ishmael and the twelve Psalms of
Asaph, which fit all twelve slots perfectly.
The twelve apostles of Jesus are slightly problematic. They
are not a series of twelve successive figures, and as such are more like the
sons of Ishmael and Jacob than like the judges or kings. Nor do they clearly
fit into the slots of twelve. The Gospel of John gives Peter and Philip the
third and fourth place chronologically. The martyrdom of Peter is striking, but
the martyrdom of James takes precedence in being the first. Nor does the theme
of praise necessarily attach itself to Philip. The apostles of Jesus, like the
minor prophets, are relevant to the Imamate mainly because they appear as twelve.
They do not have an Imamic role of their own, although they are among the
greatest witnesses to the Imamate. They are the ones who answer and affirm
Jesus' Imamic call Follow me'.
The actual Imamate seems to have been conferred on James by
Jesus, for we find James taking a leadership role in the church at Jerusalem
after the occultation of Jesus. The successors of James fled from Jerusalem
into Arabia in AD 70 where they kept the faith in obscurity until the coming of
the prophet Muhammad. There may well have been twelve of them in all over this
period of a little over five hundred years. From the Imamate of James beginning
in AD 31 to the birth of Muhammad in AD 570 is 539 years. An average of about
forty-four years is not at all unrealistic for this quiet period. But we
do not know their names. We only have the prophecy that when faith is gone from
Israel, a remnant shall always exist in Kedar (Isaiah 21:16-17; 42:11-12).
In sum, the principle of the Imamate is a central issue of
the Bible. From beginning to end there have been authoritative figures which
the text assumes to have been sent from God. Love, loyalty and obedience are
seen in the text to be their due. The second point of our list of Islamic
distinctives is amply illustrated from the Bible. Only the Islamic doctrine of
Imamic infallibility is left somewhat undeveloped before the emergence of
Jesus as a God-sent figure. As a whole, divinely appointed leadership as
it appears in the Bible corresponds amazingly closely to the Islamic Imamate.
No institution in established Christianity so closely parallels it.
