”[^5] Abraham was so pleased with the honor...

”[^5] Abraham was so pleased with the honor, which he held high in his esteem, that he wanted the blessing to be continued and the Imamate continued among his offspring. The answer Abraham got was that Imamate would never be granted to a wrongdoer.[^6] In other words, the Imamate would be conferred only upon an Infallible and Immaculate person and that no tyrant can ever be an Imam.

Infallibility and Immaculacy is an inseparable ingredient of Prophethood and Imamate because in the matter of interpreting and implementing Divine Commands and Ordinances, the Imam should not be swayed or influenced by his personal desire, wish, fancy or fear. Imam al-Sadiq (a.s.) said, “ The Imam is designated by God and the Messenger to be God’s proof before people.

Through the blessed existence of the Imam (a.s.), a link is established between God’s servants and the supra-sensible realm, and God’s Grace flows down upon them. God will not accept the deeds of his servants unless they are loyal to the Imam.

God does not abandon His servants to their own devices after creating them; instead, by means of the Imam, He lays out a path of piety before them and thus establishes His proof .”[^7] The special favors granted to the Prophets and the Imams brought with them an element of jealousy among people. The Qur’an reveals:“ Are they envious of what We in our generosity bestowed on the progeny of Ibrahim?

We gave the Book and Wisdom to the family of Ibrahim, and also gave them kingship and rule .”[^8] People were ready to concede that the prophets were given Books and Wisdom, but they became jealous and inimical when the kingdom remained with the prophets. The word Caliph literally means ‘deputy’ and it was understood, in Islamic connotations, to be synonymous with the word Imam, in the matter of succession to the Prophet (S).

However, the word Caliph was later segregated to denote political rule by ordinary men instead of guidance in all matters pertaining to Muslims by the Divinely appointed Imam. The Caliph was no longer required to be Infallible and Immaculate. Any person who claimed he had the majority and could hold out threats to his detractors, was considered a fit person to be the Caliph to rule the Muslim Ummah.

This extraordinary feat of fallacious reasoning was achieved by a simple distortion of another Qur’anic phrase ‘ Ulil A mr’[^9] so that it came to denote any person in authority.