Imamate is a Divine office like that of Prophet Hood.

Imamate is a Divine office like that of Prophet Hood. As God chooses His prophet, He chooses His successor too because the office is the same; the prophet introduced a mission and the Imam was and is the guardian of that mission. One propagates while the other preserves. The writer says that in the early years of Islam there was no sign of either Shi’ism or Sunnism. If he means by this that the Shia thought had no root in Islam in its early years; he is mistaken.

He says openly quite contrary to the fact. The leadership of Ali (as) or his succession to the Prophet (S) was the most original thought expressed by the Prophet (S) himself. It is as old as Islam itself. In addition to the Prophet’s sayings, there are several incidents and occasions of no less importance which occurred and which pointed to the issue of Imamate, that is the leadership after the Prophet. During that time a division had not yet occurred.

Opposition to the Shia thought and Imamate took years to develop and identify itself by the name of Sunni. The individuals who channeled things to flow in quite the opposite direction, which caused the division, were quite resigned to the original Islam because that was the age of the Prophet, which to them was the age of ambush.

The Islam of that age, that is, the time of their ambush, remained in its originality that later begot the name of Shi’ism because they had invented ‘Sunnism’ - a contrary school. The life of the Prophet (S) rather shielded them. The death of the Prophet (S) exposed them. There they were feeble. Later they were cunning. What the Prophet had set up they upset. The upset one took the name of Sunni. The original setup preserved its entity in Shia. Zero hour was the death of the Prophet (S).

The meeting place was Saqifa. They gathered; laid bare their intentions. The clamor died down and a successor to the demised Prophet was suggested, nominated, and appointed – all in no time. Why was Ali not there? Ali (as) was occupied in the funeral of the Prophet (S). Actually the gathering at Saqifa drew a line between Islam dividing it into two. Now, their allegation.

The Holy Quran has not located a center nor accommodated the scholars with a choice in interpretation of the issues and of fashioning the affairs into a discipline. This is not correct.