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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Imamate and Leadership The Method of Choosing the Imam Or Leader ( 227 ) Lesson Twenty-Four One of the topics which have been constantly under discussion among Muslims since the very rise of Islam is the question of selecting the Imam or the leader; it is in fact this question that brought about the division of the ummah into Shi'ah and Sunni.

The Shi'ah are committed to the principle that the right to designate the Imam belongs exclusively to God and that the people have no role to play in this respect. It is the Creator alone Who selects the Imam and identifies him to the people by means of the Prophet.

The attachment of the Shi'ah to this understanding of the Imamate and the attention they have lavished on the belief that God and the Prophet alone may choose the Imam who serves as God's proof in each age spring however from a profound respect for the rights and dignity of man. In just the same way that prophethood implies a whole series of attributes and conditions so too the office of the Imam coming after the Prophet must similarly be accompanied by certain qualities.

This necessity arises from the fact that the Shi'ah refuse to accept as leader of the community anyone lacking in the key qualities of justice inerrancy and perspicacity. A proper command of the religious sciences an ability to proclaim God's laws and ordinances and to implement them in society in the appropriate way and in general to guard and protect God's religion - none of this is ( 228 ) possible in the absence of those qualities.

God is aware of the spiritual capacities religious rank and piety of the Imam and in accordance with this awareness He knows too to whom the custodianship of religious knowledge should be entrusted: who it is that can carry this burden and not neglect for a minute the duties of summoning men to God and implementing divine justice. But quite apart from this aspect of the matter the Shi'i understanding of the Imamate also reflects a lofty human ideal.

If we say that people have no right to interfere in the matter of choosing the Imam it is because they cannot be adequately informed of the inner purity and piety of individuals of the degree to which they adhere to she values of Islam and the Qur'an; above all they cannot perceive the presence or absence of the divine principle of inerrancy.