ভূমিকা
Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Imamate and Leadership The Imamate As a Rational Necessity ( 141 ) Lesson Fifteen In accordance with the sound disposition and the pure nature that are innate in him man is ceaselessly engaged in the struggle to develop and advance towards perfection. Consciously or unconsciously with a love that quickens his spirit he moves forward in the direction of the utmost dignity and nobility man can attain.
This is a reality that is always manifest in humans; spiritual need impels them to advance ever further along their path in order to approach higher degrees and more exalted values. This evolutionary process passes through various degrees which are firmly and profoundly interlinked.
It is of course true that within man unbridled and unholy desires exist that are hostile to this enterprise and throughout the course of his forward motion man must constantly battle against the destructive inner forces that threaten to rob him of his powers and sacrifice him to forces of evil. As long as man exists on the plane of being this struggle towards perfection will also exist.
Its aim and culmination must be clear and there must exist also in human society an exceptional individual who thanks to his spiritual qualities has penetrated to the inner meaning of all laws a personage who while fully engaged in the struggle has never once fallen prey to deviation. Such an individual or personage is what is intended by the term Imam.
He is the truly liberated man the chosen herald of monotheism; in his exalted person all conceivable have been ( 142 ) realized and rendered active. As the vanguard of the humanity he is the divinely appointed link and intermediary between the world of the unseen and the human race. Without himself needing any intermediary he is guided directly by God.
Like a lamp burning in the heart of the darkness through the teachings that have come to him from heaven he enables everyone to rise and ascend to the degree permitted by his spiritual ability and capacity. He employs his intelligence his faith and his will in order to impel them forward to the most exalted degrees and to guide them to the superabundant source of unity justice and purity.
Were human society to lack such a divinely chosen person man would be unable by the efforts of his intellect alone to find his directions no link would exist between the human race and the world of the unseen and man's efforts to attain perfection would falter and fail.