TRADITIONS THAT ARE TOLD ABOUT THE IMAMAT OF THIRTEEN ONES
In our article “JILA AL-BASAR LE MAN YATAWALLA AL-AIYEMME AL-ISNAESHAR” (glisten of sight to one who yields to the twelve Imams) we have dealt over this subject. The traditions that indicate that there are thirteen Imams are not authentic ones. The narration should be constant, that is, heard by many; hence, told by many or circulated mouth by mouth. Such narration of any tradition is gestant with credibility. If it is told by one person it does not stand credible. When the Prophet (SAW) spoke, he spoke among his associates or in a gathering or amidst a few people. So, his conversation was heard by more than one man; and accordingly narrated by more than one. If a tradition is narrated by only one source and there is no second to it; it is void of any authenticity. This is a standard or a law for gaining certainty about the issue pertaining to belief and other religious matters. On the other hand, the traditions that indicate the number of Imams as twelve are many and related by several and told by various sources. In the book MASNAD of Ahmad al-Hanbali there are above thirty sources mentioned having had heard from the Prophet(SAW) the number of Imams to be twelve. Muslim in his “SAHEER” quotes eight sources who have related the traditions indicating the number twelve. In the Shia books there are hundreds of sources who have mentioned the Prophet’s sayings the traditions, that fix the number of twelve. Besides, the sources form the man of good reputation. There remains no doubt in the authencity of the very subject. However the traditions or tradition quoting the number of Imams to be thirteen has been invented. Since it is a lie it is dismissed.
29. SALEEM RELATES A NEWS:
What is attributed to Saleem does not exist in his (SALEEM’S) book. Saleem is reported to have narrated that the Prophet (SAW) had told Ah Bin Abi Taleb that he and twelve ones from his progeny are the rightful and legitimate Imams. The very authentic copies of the book of SALEEM BIN QAIS mostly possessed by scholars do not have what it is alleged to him. What the book of Saleem Bin Qais carries is the various narration of several sayings of the Prophet (SAW) all to the effect that the Imams are twelve and their names starting from Ah Bin Abi Taleb down to Mahdi are indicated. This book came into being in the first century of Hijra and remains till now well credited and well trusted. The names of the twelve Imams were mentioned at a time when they were not yet born. So what is a false accusation or an unfounded allegation merely attributed to Saleem Bin Qais is only a matter of prejudice, to obfuscate the very subject and infuscate the understanding.
It is common practice to fabricate a fiction and then set out in conquest of a writer who may transact this counter note on his credit because of the customers who bank in him their trust. Better than Saleem Bin Qais they could not have found. As his notes are plenty, one counter can easily be mixed therein. If at all it is deducted, a general clamor would stout that it is Saleem’s; since Saleem’s would obtain currency and circulate from hand to hand. Such a fraud is also played with Abi SAHAL NOUBAKHTI. This silly trick has persisted deliberately. Writer should have checked them. Translators also proved negligent in this respect. Anyway, we should pronounce here that such a stratum will not be of benefit to any nor will it serve as a religious cause nor will it advance any religion forward. It would only create a mist on the understanding of readers. The root of belief in a ‘MEHDI’ is also to be found in the Tora and that of the Bible prior to Islam. Any literature that could be traced in the distant past will say something of this kind. This is the pedestal of the Divine Religion.
30. TITLES OF THE TWELFTH IMAM:
The writer sees everything from a material aspect. He has not yet reached a destination. Everywhere he stops and wanders again and says something in the pain of fatigue. Moslems believe generally in Mahdi; it is a political belief. The Shia believes in Mahdi particularly; it is a political effect. What is a belief? He has several titles such as MEHDI, REDEEMER and etc.; they are invented by history. Let him at least for once tell something of sense. Any link with the world, the other one, is out of question to the writer. He compares natural phenomenon with religion. The moon, earth, sun and animals all appear and disappear in a cycle, come and go; likewise religion too is to him. He wants to reach a religion after having lost the religion. The world that is next, the self that is in a man, the ulterior influence of invisible on visible, the unseen on the seen, the spirit and its environment, the soul and its surroundings; all these things carry no sense to him. What holds a matter matters to him. So, he is altogether on quite a different track, which never joins the straight path of belief. He displays a series of historical events as his discoveries. He has assorted the events, adjusted the episodes, rejected and accepted some while misplacing others in an order prove his point. When he offers his cargo he misleads the customer. The titles such as MEHDI, GHAYEB, HUJJAT which are rooted in the Quran and transplanted in the Prophet’s sayings are regarded by him as the names that came into being due to certain incidents or events in history.
Had he cared for traditions he would have come to know that the titles ‘AL-QAYEM’, ‘HUJJATULLAH’, ‘KHALEEFATULLAH’, ‘AL-MENDI’ belong to the twelfth Imam. But the language of tradition is strange to him nor is he familiar with the tone of the Prophet (SAW).
In some time or some era one title might have been widely spoken. Again in certain conditions some other title might have given more consolation or satisfaction to the people. For this reason some among the titles of the twelfth Imam are more famous. We observe this in the names of God also. AL-SHAFI, AL-SALAAM, AL-HAHZ, AL-RAHMAN, AL-REZZAGH are more uttered. The personal circumstance has a bearing on this as one resorts to a particular tribute or quality moves them to the other. But this could not mean that God was lacking those qualities in ancient times and got them as time progressed. Such results are the natural outcome of the analysis done on the basis of matter. Therefore, the very method of analysis, that is, the material one, is wrong and will lead one astray. The belief in God is the consequence of a centipede of things and a train of suppositions. Before that, there was no belief in God. Likewise, the qualities which are the names of God. This is the result of a materialistic view of the things. Finally, one has to deny all God and prophets. Such a result of such a wrong method of analysis can not convince one nor could it be justified in rejecting God. It will not succeed to shake the belief of a believer.
The moment Mahdi came into being the titles were fixed to him because of the qualities he possessed. Mahdi the rescuer, fixed one, good doer, master of the command, master of time, master of age, master of moment is he. Each of those titles reflects a particular dimension of his personality and of his task. The possessor of those titles is the twelfth Imam. Mahdi is the same twelfth Imam and the 12th Imam is the same Mahdi that the scholars of Sunni have acknowledged. Abu Davood is one of them. He in his book “AL-MEHDI” says that the twelfth Imam is the seal of the Imams.
31. THE TITLE “AL-QAYEM”
Although the writer’s uproar, this time he quotes page 282 from the book “GHEEBAT” (absence) of Tosi that, “QAYEM means he will upraise after meeting his death.” About this sufficient explanation Tosi has provided; “but to deal this subject we first should necessarily speak of the Imamate.” As the ramification is getting wider we shall speak about the Imamate only briefly because its short summary suffices to take in the details.
Imamate in Shiasm is based on the Holy Quran. There are numerous traditions of the Prophet that support the establishment.
1. Imamate is a Divine obligation. Persons competent enough become the choice of God. They are vested by God with this mission. God’s choice of the person to this office is pronounced to the people by the Prophet at God’s desire.
2. The prime and the supreme condition for an Imam that qualifies him to be the Imam is his infallibility, that is, immunity from sin or wrong doing, and his superiority in knowledge with the others so that all could obey his instructions and follow his guidance. Khaleel Bin Ahmad narrates a description of Imam by Ali Bin Abi Taleb: “All need him while he needs no one. This is an indication that he is the Imam of all.”
3. The earth can not be without an Imam or the Authority of God. Everyone should know and recognize the Imam of his time. If he dies without knowing his Imam, he has died as though in ignorance.
4. Imams are twelve as per the sayings of the Prophet.
5. All the Imams are from the Prophet’s House. They do not exceed twelve including Ali. According to the Prophet’s words, repeatedly said, they are at parity with the Quran and as heavy (important) as the Quran itself. They never part with the Quran. They remain always associated with it.
6. All Imams individually possess the worldly and the spiritual leadership. The only thing that they do not share nor possess is the prophet hood, which was terminated at the Prophet himself. NAHJUL BALAGHA describes them as God’s Authority over His creatures. They are the boat of safety. They are the refuges for the nation. They are the guards to protect the people from divisions and deviations. He who does not recognize them and they do not recognize him shall not enter heaven. He who denies them and they who denies him shall enter hell.”
7. The Imams were introduced before hand by the Prophet (SAW) who disclosed their names and specifications individually. Each Imam has introduced the following one his successor indicating his name and his person. These are the fundamentals of principle belief. There is no likelihood, no possibility for any mistake or confusion in the order and the person of the Imam, because of the precautions already taken by the Prophet (SAW) in his time in disclosing their names individually. Also each Imam pointed out to the people his successor (the next Imam). One should take these matters into consideration if he were to know something of the Imamate. For a believer who acknowledges God and the Next world the ground is reason on which the pillars of belief rest. These fundamentals are irrefragable and incontrovertible because they are supported by the Quran and the constant circuit of the Prophet’s traditions.
This subject that the IMAMAT is a Divine obligation has been established by the Quran and the tradition that took the wing of constancy. Dr. Allama Hilli in his book “TWO THOUSANDS” (ALFAIN) has brought forward two thousand arguments and evidence to prove this subject only. Basically this subject springs from TOWHEED (oneness of God) and it is the oneness of God that gives origin to this subject. Imamate is so basic and so fundamental that it is deep-rooted in Towheed. Towheed is the essence of Islam. And, it is this Towheed that establishes Imamate thereby making it obligatory upon all Muslims. The importance of Imamat is reflected form this where we suffer:
“To Him is the Command and to Him is the order and He is the Sultan and He is the Ruler and He is the Guardian and He is the cognizant of the interests of the creatures. There is no order nor is there a dismissal to any one without Him.”
The matter of immunity from sin gives strength to this subject besides the superiority of knowledge. The Quran here says: “He who guides to the truth more deserves to be followed; he who does not guide should be guided.” The Imam should necessarily be infallible. Reason requires so. Dr. Allama Huh has established this fact through two thousand arguments. One many refer to book ALFAIN.
There should be God’s Authority over the earth. “To each nation there is a leader.” “And we have reached the word to them.” “A day (in which) we call every people with their Imam.” These Quarnic verses with due consideration to their interpretation and the sayings of the Prophet thereon prove that the earth can not be empty of an Imam. The books, those of Sunnis, Shias, Zaidias, and those of Imamias all say collectively the same. There is uniformity of opinion at this point. TAZ-KARAT AL-HOFFAZ of the Sunnis has acknowledged the necessity of the presence of an Imam on earth. Whether the Imam is hidden or apparent, concealed or absent or open he is there as should be.
In the book SAWAYEQ and other books of Sunni scholars a long statement of Imam Zainulabedeen is narrated. The Imam in his long statement says that the earth can not remain without an Imam from the House of the Prophet (SAW). If there happens to be any word coming to this fundamental it is worthless and groundless.
Imam Zainulabedeen says in his supplication in his SAHEEFA SAJJADIA:
“O, God, you have supported your religion in all times by the Imam whom you made a banner to your servants and a tower in your dominion after making his rope to reach yours and you made him a medium to your paradise. And obedience to him you made obligatory. And you warned about disobedience to him. To carry on his orders, you ordered; and to stop at what he stops the action, you commanded. No advancer advances from him nor does a delayer lag behind him. He is the Fortress of seekers and the cave of believers and the path of adheres and the worth of the worlds.”
In this supplication the Imam is well sketched. The states and the station of the Imams is made clear. Shiasm can be observed in this supplication.
After all these discussions it is a wonderful thing to say “The upraising of QAYIM after death was acknowledged earlier but later on this thought was rejected by scholars.”
Any thought in a Shia atmosphere if expressed by the Prophet (SAW) and Ali Bin Abi Taleb and all other Imams are a fixed truth. Any other thought contrary to it is of no credit and is void of truth. In an analysis some seek to find out a trifle and enlarge it magnifying it in order to avoid the truth or to reject the fact. Some non-Muslim Islamic scholars have done this to serve their venom.
It is not our point to overlook the loophole. What we say is, do not overlook the important ones. One should examine and compare both and see which one is acceptable.
The Imam first dies and the upraises. This is contrary to the fundamental. The earth in that case would remain without an Imam, which is not possible. The age of the Imam is lengthy as his occultation too. If we accept his death first and then his becoming a redeemer, we have to reject what the Prophet (SAW) and Ali (AS) and the other Imams have told us. A narrator by the name of Mosa Bin Sadan Hannat (whom is not regarded as a man of reputation) quotes another man by the name of Abdulla Bin Qassim. Abdulla Bin Qassim was called ‘the her’. Such a man can not be trusted. This liar hero quotes his source as Abu Saeed Qurasani. Abu Saeed Qurasani’s whereabouts are not known. Besides this, there is not other source to have had told the same thing or a similar one to it.
If we look at the word QAYIM we understand it to mean that an upraising is ahead, and this Imam is to be the doer or possessor of that ‘QIYAM’. An upraising which is to be against the political conditions and religious perversion and social depravations of that time. He will uproot every root of tyranny and fill the world with justice. Generally the word ‘QIYAM’ (upraisal) is contemporary with surmise. All Imams were QAYIM that is ‘responsible’. But each of them was in accordance with the conditions of his time. The situation he was in was one concerned to him. But in a broader view and a broader sense this title QAYIM is particular to Mahdi because the QIYAM is going to be a wider, universal one not confined to a specified time and place. His QIYAM (upraisal) will embrace the conditions of individual, social, political, and economical ones. The application of this title brings to mind that of only the 12th Imam and no other one.
Saddookh has narrated a tradition. His source is Kamaluddin. Kamaluddin narrates that he (Kamaluddin) heard the 9th Imam, Mohammed al-Taqi (A.S.) say: “The Imam after me is my son. His word is my word. His order is my order. To obey him is to obey me. The Imamat will run to his son, Hasan Askary. What he says is to be obeyed. His word is his father’s word. His order is the order of his father.” Then he became quiet. Kamaluddin asked; “Oh, son of the Prophet of God! Who is the Imam after Hasan?” The Imam wept. Then he said; “Imam Hasan Askari’s son, AL-QAIYM AL MONTADER.” Then Kamaluddin asked; “Oh, son of the Prophet of God, why is he called AL-QAYIM?” The Imam answered; “Because he will bring an upraising.” Kamaluddin asked; “Why is he called the awaited one?” The Imam replied: “Because there will be an absence that wilt be very long. Faithful ones will await his appearance. Those who have doubt will reject him. Those who believe in him will be redeemed.”
In another source “MA’ANI AL-AKHBAR”, the same is also mentioned. Some have indicated other reasons too for his title ‘QAYIM’. One is that he will appear and raze a war against tyranny with his sword. Now, for his other title, Mehdi, there are several interpretations. AL-MEHDI is as independent a title as is AL-QAYIM. One whom God has guided is called Mehdi.
According to predictions, the reforms and the deeds that Mehdi will perform will suit the title AL-QAYIM. It is also known that these titles, “AL-QAYIM” and “AL-MEHDI” were heard from the Prophet’s mouth. There is no sense in arguing that one title is superior to the other. Both belong to one and both were given and pronounced by one.
32. MAHDI AL-ANAM THE TWELFTH IMAM:
The writer in this chapter has written what reflects his prejudice or ignorance. The Imam will appear; the Imam will rescue the world from tyranny; all this imagination is the product of the last decades of Bani Ommiya’s rule. The tyranny of Bani Ommiy’s government invigorated this belief more deep. But in no way did it create this supposition or this fancy as the writer says. It is as old as Islam itself The Prophet (SAW) himself had disclosed MEHDISM and told the people what we now know. It is a promise given by the prophet (SAW) and as is known, the Prophet (SAW) did not utter out of his own desire or lust. It is God’s word and Divine Revelation from which he speaks. So, it is a promise given to us by God through the Prophet (SAW).
The writer says that the title of MEHDI was given to rescue the Shia from dullness and hopelessness. To inject them with ray of hope or a beam of anticipation towards a better future. As we have repeatedly said it is a reality. The title has nothing to do with the disappointment of a man or a group of men. The title does not add anything to the personality of the Imam. His responsibility is already foretold by the Prophet (SAW). The Shia did not invent anything so far as religion is concerned. The title MAHUI is also acknowledged by Sunni scholars. It was heard on the tongue of most well known Sunni authorities. As such, it seems that it is the writer who is trying to invent something at this stage.
33. MIRACLOUS BIRTH AND THE DATE:
It is not bad to give a summary about the event of Mehdi’s birth. The birth of Mahdi the son of Imam Hasan Askari is recorded by historians as being a simple event.
However the birth is surrounded by some strange signs. The writer is not willing to see or accept the strange signs because he says that no such events were recorded. Which records he uses for his research, we do not know. An event of birth is not to be elaborated - generally speaking. Sources that are close to the house of Imam Hasan Askari (AS) should also be contacted to see what they know and have to say. Historical science has gone too flaccid as its scholars have shown prejudice in recording the events or the facts. However, facts do remain unchanged although the attitude of a historian is however changeable.
The birth of messengers is gestant with unusual events, extra ordinary. Adam’s birth for example was a strange thing. The birth of Abraham, Is’haq, Moses, and Jesus were all strange, Jesus (AS) still in a cradle spoke. All these events were super natural and extra ordinary. If these events are not historical, then the birth of Mahdi too is not one. If those events are regarded as being historical, the birth of ‘Mahdi’ too is one. The negligence of some historians do not spoil the event. As a figure of speech, no matter how many veils are hung to hide or conceal something, if a candle is placed beyond the veils even the slightest light will still pass through those veils. Often is the case that an unauthentic source says something ignorant and it becomes history; but an occurrence of importance and magnitude which took place and is told by persons of repute and renown, still is not considered history! What a portentous display of prejudice and partiality it is! The writer says that the biographies of the Imams of the Shia have been so written that they are like the stories of the SOHS. The stories of the SOFIS are far from sense and reason. The writer could have said that the biographies of the Imams are like the stories of the births of prophets like Abraham, Is’haq, Ismaeel, Moses, Jesus and Yehya. But, taste is needed to install a similitude. Delicacy is the demand, wit is the want and vigilance is the vitality, needed to bring a similarity of the same sanctity. The stories of the SOFIS are fabricated in order to attain the level of godly figures so as to make them credible. They are fake, false, and feigned. But the facts of the prophets or the Imams do not break apart by false statements as a shadow can not eradicate a light. It is the evil that proves a virtue. A dark night is the indication of a bright day, which dawns from within its folds.
The very sense the word history imparts should be defined here. Some events are perhaps narrated in the books of philosophy or medicine and not in the book of history. Although irrelevant of its place it is still history or an historical event. Whether it be the prophet of God or kings what they do goes down as history. Therefore, history can not be confined to a man or a particular group or a particular performance. As a result there is no classification or category to which certain events are regarded as historical or non historical. The writer is wrong. The birth of the twelfth Imam was history in itself as well as a historical event.
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Author: Maulana Sayyid Zafar Hasan Amrohi
