ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Imamat and Khilafat The Concept of Imamat There is a verse in the Quran which is a part of that series of verses which we are at present discussing. The remarkable verse is not connected with Imam Ali's person, but deals with the doctrine of Imamat in the sense which we have already explained and now we propose to explain it briefly.

As we have already said, it is an old mistake of the Muslim scholastic theologians to discuss the question of Imamat in a way as if both the Shi'ah and the Sunnis subscribe to the same conception of Imamat but hold different opinions with regard to its conditions. The Shi'ah say that an Imam must be infallible, and is to be appointed by Divine ordinance; whereas the Sunnis do not subscribe to that point of view.

The actual fact is that the Sunnis do not believe at all in that conception of Imamat in which the Shi'ah believe. The Imamat in which the Sunnis believe is only to this worldly aspect of the actual Imamat and one of its functions. In the case of Prophethood also we see that the Holy Prophet was the leader of the Muslim community but this leadership or the administration of the State was only one of his functions as a Prophet.

His leadership does not mean that Prophethood and leadership are synonymous. Prophethood is a reality which has so many aspects and features. One of the characteristics of a Prophet is that in his presence nobody else can be the ruler or the head of the Muslims. The Sunnis say that Imamat means, no more than the administration of the government and that an Imam is the head of this administration or the ruler of the Muslims. He is to be elected by the Muslims from among themselves.

The Sunni concept of an Imam does not go beyond the status of the head of the Muslim State. But according to the Shi'ah Imamat is a rank similar to Prophethood and in some respects, even higher than Prophethood by certain degrees. The high-ranking Prophets are those who were Imams also. Many Prophets were not Imams at all. Even the high ranking Prophets attained the assignment of Imamat long after they had been Prophets.

In short, if we admit that Imamat is like Prophethood, we will have to admit also that as in the presence of a Prophet who has a superhuman aspect, the question who should be the ruler does not arise, similarly in the presence of an Imam; this question is out of question.