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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Imamat and Khilafat Chapter 7: Imamat in the Quran In the previous meeting we discussed the verse, Today I have perfected your religion and completed My favour to you and have chosen Islam for you as a religion, and said that the internal and external evidence relating to this verse showed that, as reported by the Shi'ah and the Sunnis both, it was revealed in connection with the Ghadir al-Khum event.

As at present we are discussing the Quranic verses on which the Shi'ah arguments about Imamat are based, we propose to quote two or three more verses in order to elucidate the trend of the Shi'ah arguments. One of these verses is a verse of the Surah al-Maidah which comes some 60 verses after the above quoted verse. The verse runs as follows: "0 Messenger!

Make known that which has been revealed to you from your Lord, for if you do it not, you will not have conveyed His message." (Surah al-Ma'idah, 5:67) It is necessary to make a few preliminary remarks which will be helpful to understand this verse and the previous one.

Special Position of the Verses Relating to the Prophet's Progeny A point that is really somewhat mysterious is that the Qur'anic verses relating to the Prophet's progeny especially the verses which from our Shi'ah point of view relate to Imam Ali, have a special way of expression. Though these verses have enough internal evidence to indicate what they signify, yet they have been inserted in between some other verses dealing with some other points.

That is why effort has to be made to get at their significance. This special feature has been admirably dealt with by Muhammad Taqi Shari'ati in his book, Imamat and Khilafat. Others have also mentioned this point, but he is perhaps the first to deal with it in Persian. This feature also provides an answer to those who ask why Imam Ali's name has not been expressly mentioned in the Qur'an.

The Verse of Tathir (Purification) For example, we have a verse known as the verse of Tathir (purification): "People of the house, Allah wants to remove all kinds of uncleanliness from you and to purify you thoroughly". (Surah al-Ahzab, 33:33) Here purification means a particular kind of purification that has been mentioned by Allah. It does not mean an ordinary or a medical cleansing. That is not what is meant.

In fact it means the removal of all that is regarded by the Qur'an as rijs or rujz that is all kinds of dogmatic, moral and practical sins.