Tuesday, December 11, 2018

Duties Of People Towards The Imam

This is obligatory according to texts (Quran and Hadith), and reason.



Rational Proof: The Imam of the Time (aj) is a guide and a leader whose obedience is compulsory and it is necessary to re-cognize correctly one whose obedience is compulsory. So that if someone lays a false claim to be that leader, he can be ex-posed at once and we shall not be misguided by his false pro-paganda. Thus the recognition (Marefat) of the Imam of the Time (aj) is obligatory and it is also obligatory to learn about his special characteristics so that if a false claimant of Mah-daviyat appears we can, at once, realize his falsehood. Further details will come in the coming pages, Insha Allah.


Textual Proof: Shaykh Sadooq (r.a.) has recorded a tradi-tion of Imam Musa Kazim (a) that he said, “One who doubts about four things has denied everything revealed by Allah. One of these being the Marefat of the Imam of age.”

Also that which supports the above point is that which is mentioned in Kamaluddin, quoting from Imam Sadiq (a), who has narrated from his forefathers that Amirul Momineen Ali (a) said from the pulpit of Kufa Masjid: “O Allah, it is necessary that Your earth does not remain devoid of Your Proof on Your creatures, who may guide the people to Your religion and who teaches Your religion, so that Your argument is not rendered invalid and those who follow Your saints may not be misguided

after having received guidance, whether this Proof be seen and not be obeyed or be hidden and the enemies are lying in am-bush for him and himself he is hidden from the view of the people while his knowledge will not be hidden from the people and his laws are firm in the hearts of the believers and they act upon them.”1


I say: According the Arabic dictionary Qamoos, the Arabic word ‘aadaab’ for manners is the plural of ‘daab’ which means manner or characteristic etc. Here it implies the special char-acteristic of the Imam of the Time (aj) that make an impression on the hearts of the people, especially his followers. It is nar-rated in traditions that during the time of the advent of the Imam of the Time (aj) people will adopt virtuous qualities in or-der to emulate the Holy Imam (a). Another point derived from this is that the effectiveness of the Imam’s morals and manners on the hearts of the believers is a sign of faith. Another thing that proves the importance of this is the emphasis with which the Holy Prophet (s) has all times shown in informing the people about the special qualities of His Eminence.


So much so that he is even having precedence over the other Imams (a) in this regard. However this is only for the fact that it is necessary for all the people to have cognition of the spe-cial characteristics of Imam Mahdi (a). On the basis of this it is obligatory on all believers to know the Imam of the Time (aj) with his distinguishing features so that they may not be de-ceived by the false claimants of this holy office.

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