Imamate and Leadership [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

and the Necessity of Belief in it

Throughout the history of Islam, different sects
have debated among themselves the question of whether inerrancy is necessary in prophets
and Imams or not.

The Shi'ah are unanimously agreed on the inerrancy
('ismah) of the Imams, and they regard only the one who possesses this fundamental quality
as fit for the office of Imamate, given the sensitive and portentous nature of the office.
There is always the danger that a leader burdened with responsibility for the manifold
concerns of the ummah may knowingly or unknowingly veer in the direction of error, in
which case the honor and values of the ummah will be at risk, with undesirable
consequences for Islamic society as a whole.

Insistence upon inerrancy as a condition for
leadership is a hallmark of the Shi'ah and a proof of the maturity of their religious
thinking and comprehensive grasp of Islam, for with great care and alertness they have
identified who the leader should be and designated inerrancy and extensive knowledge as
two of his inseparable qualities. His inerrancy and immunity from sin are the result of
his piety and self-discipline, and his knowledge is the result of divine grace and
generosity, bestowed upon him from God's limitless ocean of wisdom. These two qualities
are to be found in combination only in the Imams of the Prophet's Household, peace and
blessings be upon him and his family. The Sunnis accept anyone as caliph or Imam, without
any precondition, and they do not insist on inerrancy and immunity from sin.

Inerrancy is an inner faculty of self-restraint,
springing up from the great source of faith, piety, and insight; it insures man against
all kinds of sin and moral corruption. This powerful inner attribute, derived as it is
from vision of the suprasensible world and the very essence of all creation, is so
effective that it prevents man from embarking on any kind of sin or rebellion, whether
small of great, open or hidden.

When we say that the factors leading to rebellion
and sin have no effect on such a person, we do not mean that in accordance with divine
with and decree an overwhelming force prevents him from being attracted to sin, so that
the capacity to sin and disobey is removed from him. It is rather that the possessor of
inerrancy, while having freedom to choose and to act, is prevented by his awareness of the
majesty and constant presence of God from approaching the sphere of sin. He has had such
success in establishing the dominion of piety over his soul that he cannot even conceive
of sin in the purified sanctuary of his mind, so that the possibility of his actually
committing a sin is reduced to zero.

Generally speaking, the commission of any
undesirable act is the result of not knowing how ugly the act is and how harmful its
consequences are. Even if one is aware to a certain extent of the ugliness of the act and
his faith seeks to warn him and alert him to the danger, he is overpowered by his desires
and loses all self-control, and is drawn to impurity and sin. It is only attention to the
damaging consequences of one's deeds, the restraining force of piety, and a powerful sense
of obedience toward divine law, that create a certain immunity in man; there will then be
no need for any other means of restraint and control. Muhammad b. Abi 'Umayr says: "I
asked Hisham, the celebrated pupil of Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq, peace be upon him, whether the
Imam possessed the quality of inerrancy. He answered that he did, and I then asked him to
explain inerrancy to me.

"He said: 'Several things hie at the origin of
rebellion and sin - greed, envy, lust, anger, and so forth and not one of these can
penetrate the being of the Imam. How might he be greedy, considering that he has
everything at his disposal, including even the treasury of the Muslims? How might he be
envious, for only he who is aware of a station higher than his own can be envious, and no
station higher than the Imamate can be conceived? As for anger, it is impossible that the
Imam be angered by any worldly concern, for God has entrusted to him the implementation of
His laws. But in connection with anything touching on the hereafter, anger in not at all
undesirable. The Imam will never fall prey to lust, for he is well aware that the
pleasures and desirable things of this world are transitory and valueless when compared to
the reward that God shall bestow on His worshippers on the Day of
Resurrection."

People will submit fully to the requirements of
religious duty in response to the summons of their leader and unquestioningly accept his
commands and instructions when they regard all his orders as being the command of God,
without having doubt on the matter. If someone not be thoroughly immune to sin and error,
can complete trust be placed in his words or his orders be obeyed with devotion?

The effect of inerrancy is such that it protects man
from deception by the allurements of this world power and position, wealth and possessions
and enables him to remain steadfast in the face of all types of distraction.

If it is not possible to trust the leader fully, the
mission of religion, which is to enable man to attain perfection, will necessarily remain
unfulfilled, for the credal structure of the religion will be distorted by inevitable
suspicions that the commands and edicts of the leader are not based on revelation and the
authentic principles of Islam.

In addition, possession of the attribute of
inerrancy cannot be restricted to the period in which the leader of the Muslims actually
exercises the office of Imam. Throughout his life, including the period before assuming
the Imamate, his heart must have been free of all darkness and his person of all sin. In
addition to the fact that sinning entails a loss of human dignity, people will always
suspect of continuing sinfulness and pollution one whom they know to have erred in the
past, however slightly. This suspicion will in turn rob the leadership of such a person of
all legitimacy. He will no longer be regarded as an exemplar of piety and purity, as one
endowed with unique virtues.

The bitter memory of a life spent partially in sin
and corruption can never be erased, and it will always serve as a pretext for his
opponents. They will have a powerful and credible tool for attacking him and destroying
his reputation and base of popular support. He will be unable to defend his honor or
answer his critics convincingly.

If we examine the life of the Immaculate Imams,
peace be upon them, we will see that the groups opposed to them, for all their impudence
and shamelessness, never resorted to accusations of corruption in order to destroy their
reputation. If there had been the slightest grounds for making such an accusation, the
enemies of the Imams would never have remained silent, and the people in general would
have entertained doubt concerning the Imams' pronouncements on matters relating to
revelation and God's law. We read in the story of Musa, peace be upon him, that the
Fir'awn (Pharaoh), that cruel tyrant, unhesitatingly pointed the finger of accusation at
Musa when he confronted him, saying:

"Are you not that child that grew up under our
tutelage and spent many years with us ? Who then committed murder and rebelled against our
divinity?" Musa answered: "Yes, indeed I killed someone, but not deliberately;
my intention was to save an oppressed person, and the result was and accidental killing. I
then fled out of fear of you until my Lord taught me knowledge and wisdom and appointed me
as one of His prophets." (26:16-19)

The first and most essential condition for the
office of Imamate is, then, inward purity and profound piety, divinely accorded protection
from sin, the possession of a lustrous heart both before and after appointment to the rank
of leader and Imam.

It is true that everyone is exposed to the
possibility of error, for the simple reason that whatever knowledge and information he has
consists of a series of concepts and images acquired by means of the senses and other
ontological faculties, none of which are infallible.

However, the Imam observes the innermost nature of
the world, including its suprasensible aspect, by means of the eye of the heart, and this
grants him access to a whole treasure house of true and certain knowledge. His perception
of reality is not dependent on his senses and is for this reason immune against error.
Fallibility arises only when a person wishes to apply his mental concepts to the world of
external reality; it does not exist in the case of the Imam who has a direct and
unmediated perception of reality and is inwardly connected with the essence of all being,

The comprehensive infallibility and inerrancy of the
Imam, manifested in his speech, his acts, and his thoughts, results from his privileged
knowledge of the realm of the unseen. No one can comprehend the totality of reality by
recourse to external and conventional means, and perceive the true nature of things as
they are; it is only divinely bestowed knowledge, a mode of comprehension derived from the
world of the unseen, that can guide man infallibly to a knowledge of the reality of all
things.

Piety expressing itself in deeds is far more
effective than verbal exhortation in bringing about the moral education of men and
advancing them on the path of spiritual growth. If the one who assumes the task of the
spiritual guidance of the people is lacking himself in spiritual virtue and no sign of
moral purity or practical piety can be discerned in him, he will be totally unable to
fashion upright and exalted human beings, to exercise any positive role in their
development, or to guide them toward the general goals inculcated by religion.

It may appear that the Qur'an has attributed sins to
some of the prophets. However, the sin must be carefully examined in each case to gain a
proper understanding of the matter. The essence of true sip is to rebel against God, to
disobey His commands, to plunge into the whirlpool of vice, all of these being acts for
which a specific punishment has been decreed; in this sense, the prophets are completely
free of all sin.

Another kind of sin might be called relative, for
its commission does not entail any specific punishment Even this kind of sin is not to be
expected from those true travellers on the path of God who are in direct communication
with the source of all being and directly perceive all hidden truths. Given the vision
with which they are endowed, it is not to be thought that they would be unaware of God for
even an instant, for even such temporary inattention would diminish their closeness to
God.

Considering the fact that these favored friends of
God possess vast treasuries of faith and knowledge and have direct and precise awareness
of reality, it will be considered a sin on their part if their orientation to God is
interrupted for even a moment, even though such brief inattention would not occasion so
much as a reproach in the case of lesser persons.

Something similar can be observed in the case of
socially prominent people who carry certain titles and ranks; people have higher
expectations of them than they do of others. Everyone is obliged to try to fulfil the
expectations that others have of him, based on his rank and position ill society. Sobriety
and dignity of speech are expected of a learned scholar, but not of an illiterate and
unlearned man.

It is true that awareness of the undesirable
consequences of sin does not in itself create immunity against sin and that its
restraining influence is neither reliable nor constant. However, a knowledge that is
deeply rooted and shows clearly all the grievous results of sin, a perception and an
awareness that permits the reality of all things to be seen directly, in such a fashion
that limitations of time and space are transcended, and a lively fear of severe punishment
by God - all these taken together constitute a mechanism which makes the commission of a
sin by a possessor of inerrancy impossible.

No intelligent pilot will consent to take off in a
plane which he knows to be carrying a time bomb and is therefore destined to blow up in
midair. It is not, however, that he has some immunity to this suicidal course of action
built into him, involuntarily; he can freely decide whether to take off or not. The fact
that he refrains from taking off is because he is fully aware of the disastrous
consequences that would inevitably follow if he did; it is his intelligence and awareness
that guide him and reduce to zero the possibility that he would do so.

This may serve as an illustration for the way in
which profound and immediate knowledge of the fatal consequences of an act can provide
immunity against committing that act, in the most powerful and practical way imaginable.

The leader of religion is not subject to compulsion
or determination in his obeying divine command or adorning his soul with purity and
virtue, nor does inerrancy negate his possession of free will and choice, in the sense of
making it impossible for him to sin, without any involvement of his ability to decide.

It is rather that the Imams' constant orientation to
the pure essence of God, their selfless struggles for His sake, their devotion,
self-sacrifice, and exertions in seeking His satisfaction, powerfully insure these exalted
personages against the commission of sin. Although- they retain the capacity for
committing evil deeds, they never pollute themselves by committing them, and their minds
never even incline in that direction.

Their comprehensive knowledge of the corruption
caused by sin, joined to their thorough awareness of the sublimity of the divine essence,
suffices fully to rein in any instinctual tendencies that might exist in their beings and
to render them steadfast on the path of purity, piety, and virtue.

Quite apart from the Inerrant Imams, peace be upon
them, who are of course situated at exalted levels of knowledge and insight, there are
those who are not inerrant but are nonetheless sincere and ardent lovers of God who
sacrifice their whole beings for His sake, and effectively acquire a degree of immunity
from sin in their exertions to attain God's pleasure, so that the mere thought of
disobeying divine command has no attraction for them.

It is of course possible that in their case the
desired result is attained not by breadth of understanding or completeness of awareness,
but by a strong sense of obedience to God, an innate purity of mind which quells any
tendency to sin that may exist within them and leads them to a categorical rejection of
evil.

The commission of a sin arises either from
incomplete knowledge of the ugliness of the sin, unawareness of its evil consequences,
deficiency of intelligence, or feebleness of the will when confronted with the onslaught
of passionate desire. None of these factors can obtain in the case of one who possesses
abundant spiritual knowledge, who perceives in detailed form all the corruption sin
causes, and who has subordinated his ego to the demands of piety.

In addition, freedom from error and sin is ensured
by the protection God extends for the sake of the correct conveyance of the message. In
just the same way that God watches over the first receipt of revelation by the Prophet,
peace and blessings be upon him and his family, in order to exclude all error, divinely
guaranteed inerrancy is also called for at this stage in the process. For it is necessary
that Cod's message and commands should be conveyed to mankind without the least error or
mistake, whether intentional or accidental.

Thus the Qur'an says:

"Were it not for God's grace and mercy toward
you, a group of God's enemies would have conspired to make you deviate from the right
path. Thanks to God's kindness, it was only themselves that they caused to wander from the
truth, and they are completely unable to harm you. God has bestowed on you this Book,
wisdom and prophethood, and taught you what you knew not, for God's kindness to you is
great and His favor unbounded." (4:111)

The propagation and implementation of God's revealed
commands is similar, in that it is a prolongation of messengerhood and the leader and Imam
to whom these tasks fall must like the Prophet be unassailably immune to error in his
words, actions, and deeds. To commit any error in the exposition of God's commands would
negate the whole purpose of the Imamate, in just the same way that corrupt and unworthy
rulers are a threat to the authenticity of religion.

There can be absolutely no doubt that if the
responsibility for preserving and implementing the laws of religion is not entrusted to a
trustworthy and inerrant individual who heads the executive power and applies them
faithfully and integrally, the aims and purposes of religion will suffer decay and
distortion, for there is a possibility that an unreliable and errant individual who heads
the executive power may implement the laws incorrectly or on the basis of incorrect
knowledge, or deliberately distort in conformity with his personal desires and interests.

Furthermore, there are numerous verses of the Qur'an
which call for elucidation and interpretation by the Imam; it is he who must supply the
necessary clarifications.

One in whom all human perfections have been
actualized is a complete human exemplar of the religion. He embodies the state that is the
ultimate aim of man's evolution and is always situated on the straight path which leads in
that direction. He is inherently bound to act in accordance with the shari'ah in every
period of his life and is never polluted by sin or impurity at any point in his life. If
even a brief portion of his life were to be spent in sin, resulting in a temporary
deviation from the straight path, he could no longer be regarded as an exemplary
individual, a perfect model of religion, and the divine aim of providing men with the
means of ascent toward Him could not be realized.

It is impossible therefore to renounce the principle
that the one who expounds and implements divine law must possess comprehensive inerrancy
and freedom from sin, even before his actual assumption of the Imamate. Were it to be
otherwise, society cold never submit to the guidance and instructions of the Imam with
full confidence.

Notes:

al-Saduq,
al-Amali, p. 376.