The recognition of Imams

One of the factors influencing the Shiites living in an Islamic lifestyle, is the constant contact with the infallibles (the Holy Prophet and the Infallible Imams). This elements is so important in the Islamic lifestyle that is recommended to raise our children based on the relationship and affection of Ahl Al Bayt since childhood; Because they are one of the members of al-Thaqalayn that relationship with them and receiving their religious education will cause that a revolutionary believers will not be misled in the path of understand his religious teachings. Also accompanying them will lead to this thing that the movement of man in this path will continue. That is why Imam Ridha in the Hadith of "Golden Chain" says: "But all this depends on some conditions, and I am considered to be one of those conditions"; that is saying Shahadatain (the two testimonies) is not just enough rather to reach the salvation an accompanying teacher and master is needed and no teacher and master is worthy of this action except the innocent Imams.
The indicators
1. Knowing the Infallible Imams
One of the great and important Islamic duties is knowing the Infallible Imam. Based on this religious and great duty and responsibility, every Muslim has a duty to know the Prophet’s successor, Imam and his religious and divine leader after knowing the Glorified God and His Prophet. Something that is inferred from the narrations and hadiths of the Infallible Imams is the emphasis on knowing the Infallible Imams more completely and it is so important that not knowing the Imam can lead to the corruption of man, society, the deviation and destruction of the Islamic Ummah. Regarding this topic Imam Sadiq says:
''The world will not be reformed without the existence of Imam and anyone who dies and doesn’t know his Imam, will die in complete ignorance and at the time of death you need knowing the Imam more than anything else so that at that time he can say: “I have been doing the right thing''.
With a little carefulness and thinking about the abovementioned hadith, the necessity and the great importance of knowing the Imam will be clarified for every Muslim; since Imam Sadiq has considered the death without knowing the Imam as dying in complete ignorance and with disbelief; and more importantly, he considers the greatest and the most important human need at the time of death knowing the Imam and understanding that sacred entity.
Knowing the Imam and his privileged right and his divine status is not just limited to a surface understanding of preliminary things such as name, title, date of birth, the time of martyrdom and knowing that he is contemporaneous with which Umayyad or Abbasi caliph; since knowing the Imam means becoming aware that why the Imam has been appointed, knowing his characteristics, knowledge on his realm of power and possession in the universe and awareness of this fact that Imam is the expressive language of revelation and the true interpreter of the Quran.
References
A) Believing that Imam is the sent guide by God
The tradition of God holds that "He delivers an ultimatum" to man. That is he distinguishes the right way and wrong way clearly and shows that what the way to reach happiness and felicity is. Based on the kindness of God he is obliged to prepare the grounds gaining proximity and preventing man from disobedience by sending the prophets and descending the divine books. God has considered two guides for man. Imam Kazim says:
''O Hisham, Surely God has descended two guides for the people, the apparent guide and the hidden guide, but the first one are the apostles and prophets and Imams, and the second is the intellect of people''.
The meaning of the fact that the prophets and Imams are the guides is that we should learn the way to reach felicity from them; because they can guide men towards reaching pride and felicity. Imam Sadiq said:
''The divine God is constantly present on earth which distinguishes Halal from Haram and promotes people to the path of God''.
B) Identifying the stages of authority and leadership
The root of the term "guardianship" is "guardian" and its original meaning is when something is besides something else, so that there's no distance between them, whether this distance is material or spiritual. Guardianship has three types: individual, partial, general. Each of these three types are divided into incipient and legislative guardianship. According to another division, the guardianship is divided into two types: general and specific. In the former, there is a commitment for the Muslims against each other and therefore the latter shows the commitment and responsibility of Muslims towards the Holy Prophet and Ahl Al Bayt. The specific guardianship is divided into four types: affection, Imamate, leadership and disposition companionship.
C) Knowledge of the dignity of the Infallible Imams
Shiites believe that all the affairs and dignity that is given to the Holy Prophet by God is constant for the Commander of the Faithful and the other Infallible Imams except prophethood. The first dignity that was given to the Holy Prophet was that he was the messenger of God; that is he used to explain the divine laws and commandments. The Quran states that
And whatever the Messenger has given you - take; and what he has forbidden you - refrain from” Surat Al-Hashr [verse 7].
The right of social and political leadership, governing or sovereignty over the people was the other affair that was done by the Holy Prophet and included two public positions of judgment and commandership. The Holy Prophet’s judgement in legal disputes and domestic struggles was pervasive:
“But no, by your Lord, they will not [truly] believe until they make you, [O Muhammad], judge concerning that over which they dispute among themselves and then find within themselves no discomfort from what you have judged and submit in [full, willing] submission.” Surat An-Nisa [verse 65].
As the Holy Prophet was the commander and leader of the Muslim community and in other words he was the governor of them and the manager of their community. The Surat An-Nisa [verse 59] “Obey Allah and obey the Messenger and those in authority among you” refers to the fact that he is the manager and leader of your community; accept any command that he gives you.
The Holy Prophet has another position because of having the position of Imamate under the title of "spiritual guardianship" and “the guardianship of authority" and in other words he was the medium of divine grace which is the highest stage of guardianship.
These two kinds of guardianship is a kind of precious incipient authority and dominance. The Takwini Wilayah (divine guardianship) means that man by passing the path of servitude will gain the Qurb (proximity to God) and the result of this achievement is that in its higher stages the human spirituality which is the truth will be centralized in him and by enjoying such kind of spirituality he will be the leader of it, dominant on his mind and conscience, witness of the deeds and the guide of the time. The earth is never devoid of such master which enjoys this spirituality and in other words of a “perfect human''.
God manages the world through the existence of his guide. Therefore the earth is never devoid of a guide otherwise it will destroy it people. The Imams according to the verse of Purification Surat Al Ahzaab verse 33 and the Mutawātir hadith of al- Thaqalayn are infallible and they are mentioned as equal to the Holy Quran, based on this the interpretation of religion and the Quran (religious authority) is given to them and their words and deeds and reports are considered as a noble source and inalienable document for his understanding the religion. As verse 59 of Surah Nisa which was mentioned and the first verses of Surah al-Ma'idah, as well as the Hadith al-Ghadir and verse “Your ally is none but Allah” Surat Al-Ma'idah [verse 55] and the verse “The Prophet is more worthy of the believers than themselves” the leadership has been given to the Imams after the Holy Prophet. Therefore the revolutionary believers are required to refer to them in their lifestyle and learn the religious issues and commands and accept their guardianship in the dimensions of Imamate, leadership and spirituality.
D) Identifying the characteristics of Imam
1. Innocence
Based on the Shiite, Imam should be innocent like a prophet that is immune from any sin and wrongdoing, otherwise he cannot be the leader and model of the people and cannot be trusted by the society.
Shia in addition to rational arguments, cites the verses of the Quran and the infallibles' narrations. Including verse 33 of Surah al-Ahzab, which states:
Allah intends only to remove from you the impurity [of sin], O people of the [Prophet's] household, and to purify you with [extensive] purification.
The impurity in this verse means all the things which the Holy Quran forbids them and doing them by the Infallible Imams is considered as a sin according to the Holy Quran whether is its related to religion, behavior or actions. Thus, this verse implies the infallibility of the prophet's household which are the Imams.
Hadith al-Thaqalayn are among the hadiths that implies the infallibility of the Ahlul Bayt. The Holy Prophet in this narration, considers his household equal to the Holy Quran and regarding the divine book the God says:
Falsehood cannot approach it from before it or from behind it” Surat Fussilat [verse 42].
Fakhruddin Razi one of the great Sunni theologians writes:
A person that must be obeyed according to the command of God, must certainly be infallible; because if he is not immune of the sins when he makes a mistake, the God which has made his obedience necessary in fact considers following him in wrong doing necessary too and that creates a kind of contradiction in the divine decree; Since on the one hand that is a prohibited action, and on the other hand, following those in authority is necessary and it leads to the union of promoting and preventing. So on the one hand, we see that the Lord's command is to obey those in authority without any condition and on the other hand, if they are not infallible, it is not a correct command. We infer from this introduction which was mentioned in the above verse that those in authority must be innocent.
2. Being appointed by God
Another feature of an Imam is that imamate is a covenant from God and people cannot have any role in choosing the Imam; since based on the narration from Imam Ridha people do not have the power to recognize the Imam and Imam should be introduced from God through the prophet; as God says: “Allah is most knowing of where He places His message” Surat Al-An'am [verse 124].
God addressed Ibrahim that the Imamate is my covenant, and I will not give it to the wrong-doers; “My covenant does not include the wrongdoers” Surat Al-Baqarah [verse 124].
Ibn Hisham who is one of the famous Sunni scholars of Sunni narrates that the dean of one of the Arab tribes told the holy prophet: I will believe in you in case you choose me or one of the members of my tribe as your successor. The prophet replied: God will chose my successor and I have no authority over it.
3. The necessity of the superiority of Imam
When we evaluate Imam with others, we can imagine have three manners; whether he's equal to other people or lower than them, or he is superior to them. In the first one, there’s no reason to prefer him to others and this preference without any reason is not logical and in the second one to prefer someone with a low status to a superior one is intellectually void, based on this, in the third manner Imam must be superior to others in terms of knowledge, Accordingly, the requirement that the Imam should remain third in science, religiousness, generosity, magnanimity, courage, statesmanship, governing, respecting people and also good character and virtues that is he should be a “perfect human” and in this case God won’t place his message to another one.