After this he added...

After this he added: “This is how their names have been written upon the Divine Throne and I asked God the Supreme whose are these names? He said “O Mohammed they are the Imams after you and they have been purified from sin and their enemies have been cursed by Me.” Likewise in the tradition of the two weighty things (thaqalayn), the Prophet had regarded his Household as carrying the same weight as that of the Holy Qur’an, and has emphasized on the fact that they will never separate.

This in itself is a proof for the infallibility of the Prophet’s Household. The Knowledge of the Imam It is without doubt that the Household of the Prophet were more acquainted with the knowledge of the Prophet than other men were.

The Prophet himself has said: “Do not teach them as they are more knowledgeable than you.” Imam Ali was with the Prophet’s from the very young age and was brought up in his house and he remained with the Prophet until the last minute of his (the Prophet’s) life, thus culminating and absorbing knowledge directly from him.

Hence the Prophet said: “ I am the city of knowledge and Ali is the gate,” and Imam Ali is quoted as saying “ The Prophet of God taught me a thousand doors of knowledge, each one opening a thousand other doors (for every door he taught) and I learnt everything…” However the knowledge of the Imams was not limited to that taught by the Prophet. They were also bestowed with Divine knowledge and taught the secret sciences in an intuitive manner.

These particular methods of instruction have been mentioned in the Qur’an as with the cases of Khizr (a), Dhul Qarnayn, Mary (a) and the mother of the Prophet Moses (a). It has been defined as revelation but different to the kind of revelation received by the prophets. The infallible ones, even from a very young age were bestowed with knowledge of these sciences and were needless of any form of education from others, and were qualified to be Imams, even in their childhood.

This issue can be understood from many traditions of the Imams, and whilst focusing upon their infallibility the authenticity of those traditions can be established. However before mentioning any examples, we would first like to refer to a verse in the Noble Qur’an, which regards the importance of an individual or individuals who have ‘knowledge of the book’:“Say, ‘Allah suffices as a witness between me and you, and he who possesses the knowledge of the Book”.