﴿إِنَّمَا وَلِيُّكُمُ اللّهُ وَرَسُولُهُ وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا...

” [^9] Whether we consider the supremacy mentioned in the verse to mean guardianship [ wilayah ] or more worthy, the verse proves that the right of the Prophet ( s ) to decide for the people takes precedence over their right to decide for themselves. All the exegetes [ mufassirin ] point to this, and as such, the people have to accept the decision of the Prophet ( s ) over their own and have no right to oppose his decision and view.

Of course, the verse states only the essence of wilayah of the Messenger of Allah ( s ) and not the limits of that wilayah —whether the limit of wilayah and preeminence of the Prophet’s decision applies only to social affairs or, in addition, also to personal affairs.

Undoubtedly, the skeptics who have resorted to the first group of verses in order to negate the wilayah of the Messenger of Allah and his successors cannot be expected to resolve the outward contradiction of these two groups of verses. Most of them are unaware of the existence of the second group, or do not accept the content of these verses.

However, since we deny the existence of contradictions and inconsistencies in the verses, we should strive to resolve the outward contradiction of the verses. For this we need to pay attention to the particular course of both groups of verses by taking into account their contexts as well as the tone of the verses and their addressees in order to understand the real purpose of the verses.

Reason behind the uniqueness of the Qur’anic approach Once we scrutinize the two groups of verses, we will find that the tone and expression of the verses are different from each other. The first group of verses is in connection with those who had not yet embraced Islam. As such, God enlightens them with the truth of Islam and mentions the benefits of obeying Him.