Shia Islamic Beliefs in English PDF

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In the name of Allah,
the Compassionate and the Merciful

Shia Islamic Beliefs
Qodratullah Qorbani (PhD.)
Assistant Professor of Philosophy,
Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran
2

3

Preface 11
Chapter1: General Notes about Islam and Shia
ϭ͘ Introduction 15
Ϯ͘ Some Universal Properties of Islam 17
ϯ͘ Fundamental Beliefs in Islam 20
ϰ͘ Islamic Theological Schools 25
ϱ͘ General Properties of Shia Theology 30
ϲ͘ Causes and Origins of Shia Theology 34
ϳ͘ Sources of Shia Theology 37
Chapter 2: Unity of God

Ϯ͘ Some Arguments for Existence of God 49
ϯ͘ Theoretical Unity 55
ϰ͘ Practical Unity 58
ϱ͘ Unity and Idolatry 62
ϲ͘ Divine Attributes 65
ϳ͘ Divine Knowledge 69
ϴ͘ Divine Power 70
4

ϵ͘ Divine Life and Eternity 71

ϭϬ͘Divine Will 73
ϭϭ͘Divine Speech 74
ϭϮ͘Divine Wisdom and Truth 75
ϭϯ͘Negative Attributes 76
ϭϰ͘Divine Justice 77
ϭϱ͘Destiny and Providence 79
ϭϲ͘Predestination and Freedom 83
ϭϳ͘Theory of Intermediate Position 85
(Amron Beynol Amrayn)
Chapter 3: Prophecy or Prophethood

1. Introduction 89
2. Philosophy of Prophecy in the Quran 91
3. Necessity of Prophecy 93
4. Philosophical Arguments for Necessity of
Prophecy 95
5. Ways of Recognizing Prophets 96
6. Prophets' Distinctive Properties 100
7. Revelation and Its Virtues 101
8. Infallibility of Prophets 103
9. Divinely Inspired knowledge 105
10. Prophet Muhammad 106
5

11.Aspects of the Quran's Miracle 107
Chapter 4: Imamate
Ϯ͘ The Necessity of Imamate and
the Rule of Divine Grace 115
ϯ͘ Infallibility as the First Virtue of Imam 117
ϰ͘ Inspired and Directly knowledge as the Second
Virtue 120
ϱ͘ Superiority to Others as the Third Virtue 122
ϲ͘ Appointment by Divine Method as the Forth
Virtue 122
ϳ͘ Imam as the Best Person to Guardianship 123
ϴ͘ The Imamate of Ali and Its Aspects 123
ϵ͘ Ali's Imamate in the Quran 124
1. The Verse of Wilayat 125
2. The Verse of Ulel Amr 126
3. The Verse of Tabliq 126
ϭϬ͘ Ali's Imamate in Prophet's Traditions and Words
127
1. Hadith of Wezarat 128
2. Hadith of Manzelat 128
3. Hadith of Ghadir 129
6

4. Hadith of Kawsar or Seqelayn 132

ϭϭ͘Infallibility of Ali as Imam 133
ϭϮ͘Superiority of Ali Towards Others 134
ϭϯ͘Twelve Imams 134
ϭϰ͘Imam Mahdi 138
ϭϱ͘Mahdaviat in Islamic Thought and the Quran 140
ϭϲ͘Some Properties of Mahdi in Shia Point of View
142
ϭϳ͘Imamate's Functions in the Age of Absence 145
ϭϴ͘The Life of Mahdi and His Reappearance 146
Chapter 5: Resurrection
1. Introduction 147
2. The Place Resurrection in Islam 148
3. Meaning of Resurrection 149
4. The Nature of Death
5. Human's Death in the Quran
6. Some Properties of Death in the Quran and
Tradition
7. Some virtues of Isthmus
8. Corporeal or Spiritual Resurrection
Resources
7

8

$ERXWWKH$XWKRU
Dr. Qodratullah Qorbani has Ph.D. Degree in

Philosophy of Allamah Tabatabaei University, Tehran,
Iran, and is Assistant Professor of philosophy at
Kharazmi University, in Tehran. He does researcher in
philosophy, especially Islamic and Western philosophy,
and Science and religion Issues. He has researched and
written about theological and philosophical subjects
since 1998. He has written six books, the first is An
Introduction on Religious and Political Thought of
Martyr Ayatullah Motahhari, published in 2004, the
second is a Comparative Study on Descartes Theology,
published in 2005, the third is Empiricism from Ibn Sina
and West Contemporary Philosophers, the fourth is
Christian Science Theories, Research, 2012, and the fifth
is Islamic science Theories, Islamic Sciences University
under. The sixth is the present book. His PhD thesis is
Critical Study on Theoretical Aspects and Functions of
9

Religious Science Theories. He has almost written 30

articles about some Islamic and western philosophers
such as Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Heidegger, Kant, Mc
Intyre, Ibn Sina, Mulla Sadra, Motahhari, Khomeini, and
science & religion issues that are published in some
Academic refereed journals in Iran, India, Turkey and
Romania. He has participated and presented papers in 16
international and national conferences in Iran, India,
Turkey, Romania and Spain about above philosophers
and other theoretical subjects.
10

Preface
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate and the

Merciful
It seems that contemporary world has been involved in

VRPHVSLULWXDOFULVHVDQGPRGHUQSKLORVRSKLHVFDQ¶WWDNH
acceptable responses for such crises, then, we see there
are many mystical, metaphysical and moral sects that try
to invite modern human to spirituality. In this case, and in
order to remove spiritual crisis of modern human, the role
of divine religions are very important. Islam, in particular
Shia Islam, due to its divine origins and complete
WHDFKLQJV IRU WDNLQJ KXPDQ¶V PXQGDQH DQG VSLULWXDO
happiness, can have an effective role for providing perfect
worldview for modern human. Hence, it is an essential
11

need to publish and extent all aspects of Islamic teachings

by writing some books in this case.
The book, Shia Islamic Beliefs, tries to picture summary

virtues of Shia beliefs in the light of Islamic teachings. It,
by explaining fundamental beliefs of Shia, tries to show
that it is the best and real interpretation of Islamic
worldview, and has unique virtues which other Islamic
VFKRROVGRQ¶WKDYH7KLVERRNILUVWVKRZVWhe historical
origins of Shia in the tradition of the Prophet Muhammad
and the Quran, and some of its distinguished virtues from
other Islamic schools. In fact, we try to describe the real
picture of Shia Theology based on Islamic sources.
Fulfilling this, after some introductory discussions, it is
concentrated on two Shia fundamental beliefs, including
Imamate and Divine Justice, as well as Divine Unity,
Prophecy and Resurrection, and is tried to give some
useful and simple explanation of them. This book is an
introductory work to familiar with Shia theology in short
and general, then, most of its debates are generally, not in
detailed, but its systematic debates and structure can
guide our readers to refer to more books which they need.
12

I hope I can do my religious task to explain Shia theology

in a simple way for all interested people, in particular
Non-Muslims who have fundamental interests and
questions, and try to find their answers in Shia Islam.
Qodratullah Qorbani (Ph.D.)
Kharazmi University
Tehran, Iran
qorbani48@yahoo.com
13

14

Chapter 1
General Notes about Islam and Shia
ϭ͘ Introduction
Islam is the last divine religion which was given in the
year 621 Ac in the land of Hijaz, contemporary Saudi
Arabia, in the city of Mecca to its people and then to
people of Medina, and was introduced to most of the
lands which were near to Medina. After establishing a
kind of Islamic State by the Prophet Muhammad (peace
be upon him) in Medina, Islam was extended to other
lands like Iran, Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Yemen, India,
south of Europe and so on.
The messenger and Prophet of Islam is Muhammad,
(peace be upon him), who was born in 571 Ac and was
chosen by God as the Prophet of Islam (Rasulullah) in
his forty age, and received all verses of the holy Quran
as direct revelation during 23 years. He invited all people
15

of Mecca, first, and Medina and other cities of Hijaz and

countries neighbor of Medina by sending letters, and
died in 632 Ac in Medina. Prophet Muhammad was an
unlettered person who could not read or write anything,
but due to his moral and personal virtues, God selected
him to deliver divine message to people.
The holy Quran is as the central book of Islam which its
verses was revealed to the heart of Prophet Muhammad
by divine direct revelation, it means that all verses of the
Quran is just God's words to Muhammad and to all
people in the world without any alteration. The Quran
has 114 chapters, which is called Surah, and contains
about 6660 verses are called Ayah (Sign), which are
about most of issues related to mundane and spiritual life
of humans, God and his attributes, the worlds and other
things. Because of revelatory and divine virtues of the
Quran, from the time of its sending until now and in the
future, nobody was and is not able to introduce a chapter
or verses like the Quran's one, then verses of the Quran
are unique and only from God to heart of the Prophet.
Now, there are many Muslims who live in most
countries, and it seems that Islam plays the most
important role for guiding people of the world and takes
16

backgrounds of real happiness of mundane and spiritual

life of contemporary human.
Ϯ͘ Some Universal Properties of Islam

Islam is as the divine and the last religion which after it
there is no religion. It means that, God introduced Islam
as the last religion by which all humans can get their
spiritual and mundane happiness, hence historical
evidences show that after manifestation of Islam, there
was and is not any religion instead of Islam, and also
Islam is the last religion of Abrahamic religions which
has divinely origin and Muhammad is the Prophet of
Islam. Such religion has some common and unique
virtues like comprehensiveness, being global and
Immortality as well as divinity. So, for giving an
acceptable definition of Islam, it can be said, Islam is a
religion of surrendering all divine truths which was
given by God to the Prophet of Islam. Then the first
condition of being Muslim is to submit divine facts and
truths. The Quran says that Islam is not a new religion,
but it is a religion of previous apostles, in particular
Ibrahim and it is the final, original and real religion
17

nearby God. The Quran emphasizes that Ibrahim was not

a Jews or Christian, but, in fact, was a Muslim.1
The literary meaning of Islam is obedience and
submission, but terminologically, it means accepting of
all God's commands and do according to them, in fact,
Islam is a complex of divine teachings for all
humankinds, and everybody accepts such teachings can
be called as a Muslim, but being Muslim needs to accept
both Islamic theoretical and practical laws and
teachings.2 So, Muslim is called to somebody who
accepts Islamic principal beliefs, including Oneness of
Allah, the Prophethood of Muhammad and the Day of
Resurrection.1
It was said that some virtues like being global,
immortality and comprehensiveness are some of Islam's
essential properties. When it is said, Islam is a global
religion, it means that Islam is a religion for all people of
the world without any geographical and racial
restrictions, if we consider some verses of the Quran it

1
. Quran, 3:67.
2
. Motahhari, Understanding the Quran, Sadra Publication, Tehran,
1999, Vol. 4, p 57.
18

calls for all people and nations in all areas in the past,
present and future. So, the divine message of Islam is for
all people in the world, because of its
comprehensiveness teachings. Here, it can be said that
comprehensiveness of Islamic teachings means, Islam
considers all individual, social, mundane and spiritual
aspects of human's life and has many proper teachings
related to them. In fact, the Quran, as revealed and
divine book of Islam, has many verses about mentioned
subjects and other issues that people needs in their life.
Hence, it is said the Quran is the book of right living and
getting real happiness. Also, when it is said Islam is the
immortal religion, it shows that as far Islam is the last
religion nearby God, and Muhammad is the seal of
apostles, there is no religion after Islam until the Day of
Resurrection. So, it must be Islam to have all necessary
teachings for getting people's happiness and to be more
complete than other religions even divine ones.2 Hence,
Islam invites all followers of other divine religions and
all people of the universe to submit Islam as their final

1
. Ayatullah Ibrahim Amini, Introduction to Islam, Trans by
Sayyid Athar Husain Rizvi, Ansariyan Publications, 2000, P 62-65.
2
. See: Quran, 6:19 & 9:33.
19

religion and the best way to understand God and getting

eternal life. Here, it is necessary to say that the Quran is
only revelatory and divine books that its verses are justly
God's words to the heart of Muhammad. Then Islamic
teachings, which are in the verses of the Quran, have
divine authentic and the best commands for guiding
people to the right path.1 Finally, Islam is a religion that
makes a real relation between theoretical and practical
aspects of human life, it means, when believing in
Islamic teachings has value that human deals and acts
according to them.
ϯ͘ Fundamental Beliefs in Islam

In order to comprehend the correct meaning of Islamic
theology, we should notice the general principles of
Islam. It is said that, Islam is a divine religion has some
fundamental beliefs, including Unity of God, Prophecy
of Muhammad and Resurrection. In short, Islamic
fundamental principles are as follow:

1
. Motahhari, Collections of Works, Tehran, Vol. 3, p 164.
20

ϭ͘ 7DZKƯG (Unity): The Oneness and Unity of Allah.

Ϯ͘ Nubuwwah (Prophethood): Allah appointed perfect
and infallible the Prophets and messengers, like
Muhammad, to teach mankind the religion.
ϯ͘ Qiyamah (The Day of Judgment): Allah will raise
mankind for Judgment.
In the other hand, Islam has three basic realms or
sections which are including; Religious Teachings,
Morals and laws, that all of them are principal parts of
Islam, but Islamic theology tries to deal only with
religious teachings and beliefs, then studying of these
principles and other Islamic teachings and beliefs is
called Islamic Theology which is raised from the Quran,
the Prophet's tradition and human's Reason. Believing in
all three mentioned principal beliefs are necessary and
essential for those who accept Islam as their religion. It
means believing in one or two of them is not enough to
be a Muslim, although believing in unity of God,
including his existence, practical and theoretical unity
and attributes, is prior to the Prophethood and
21

resurrection. Here we give some information about these

three beliefs, in short.1
3.1. Unity of God

Unity of God in Islam is called Tawhid and means
believing in that Allah as the God is one and there is no
god except him, and has no son no partner, and that none
has the right to be worshipped but Him alone. He is the
true God, and every other deity is false. He has the most
magnificent names and sublime perfect attributes. No
one can share His divinity and His attributes, and He has
all positive and perfect attributes absolutely, and is an
abstractive existent, who has no corporeal and material
properties. In addition, unity of God, has two theoretical
and practical aspects, theoretical one teaches us that God
is one and unique in his essence, attributes and creation,
legislation and divinity, and practical one shows that we
must believe, worship and trust on just One God and do
not associate anybody to him.

1
. See: Ayatullah Ibrahim Amini, Knowing God, trans by Sayyid
Athar Husain Rizvi, Ansariyan Publications, 2011, Qom, P 99-115,
22

3.2. Prophethood
Muslims believe that God revealed books to His
messengers as proof for mankind and as guidance for
them. Among these books is the Quran, which God
revealed to the Prophet Muhammad. God has guaranteed
the Quran protection from any corruption or distortion.
Muslims, also, believe in the Prophets and messengers of
God, starting with Adam, including Noah, Abraham,
Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, Moses and Jesus. But GoG¶VILQDO
message to man, a reconfirmation of the eternal message,
was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad. Muslims
believe that Muhammad is the last Prophet sent by God.
So, the Prophethood in Islam is the second principle of
beliefs which shows the importance of people guidance
in God's view. This belief explains that because of
limitations of human's intellect for recognizing the right
path and getting real happiness, God sent the Prophets by
divine revelation and teachings to guide them to the right
path and real happiness. In fact, the Prophethood
indicates that God by his divine grace has not left any
people or corner of the world without guidance, hence,

$\DWXOODK-D¶IDU6REKDQL&KDUWHURI,PDP\DK%HOLHIV4RP
Imam Sadeq Institute, 1998, P 55-57& 121-134 & 185-193.
23

He sent Prophets to all nations to instruct and guide

them. So, believing in the Prophethood is necessary and
essential like believing in unity of God.
3.3. Resurrection
The third principal beliefs of Muslims is believing in the
Day of Judgment, and dealing with its requirements.
Islam is the complete religion that pays more attention to
the importance of Resurrection more than other
religions, and there are many verses in the holy Quran
which explains its aspects. Believing in resurrection
means that the world will come to, and end on the Day
of Resurrection (Qiyamah), and all people and things be
resurrected and presented before God who will decide
their individual fates according to their beliefs and deals
in this world.
Of course among these mentioned principal beliefs, there
are some relations, and some of them are prior to others.
In fact, unity of God, due to its essential place, towards
Prophethood and resurrection, is more principal and
prior to, since the two later beliefs have meaning in the
light of unity of God. So, unity of God in all its practical
and theoretical aspects is the first and most important
24

beliefs in Islam, which without accepting it, nobody can

claim that he/she is a Muslim.
ϰ͘ Islamic Theological Schools

Although Islam has invited people to three mentioned
principal beliefs and all Muslims have accepted those
beliefs, because of some presuppositions, historical
backgrounds and other factors, there were and are some
different understanding and interpretations of these
mentioned beliefs and other important teachings of Islam.
Hence, it seems that Islamic Theology was started from
the time of the Prophet Muhammad, specially the time of
his successors and the companions. So from the time of
Prophet Muhammad until now, we are encounter with
some different theological schools in Islamic world, that
each of them has special properties different from the
others. The Sunni and Shia schools are of the most
important groups of Muslims in particular from
theological point of views, although maybe there can be
some political, jurisprudential and historical differences
between them. Here, we give some introductory notes
about them from historical and theological approaches.
25

4.1. Sunni Schools

The word Sunni is applied to those of Muslims who,
from theological viewpoint, believe in three principal
beliefs of Islam, but have different interpretations about
divine justice and specially Imamate in the contrary to
Shia school. In fact, Sunni schools are Muslims who
accept the Quran and tradition of Muhammad and his
companions, DQGGRQ¶WEHOLHYHLQUHOLJLRXVDXWKRULW\IRU
the Prophet successors like Shia school. It is necessary to
say that Sunni schools have many branches, but from
theological perspectives, some of them are more
important like People (Ahlul) of Hadith, Asha'areh and
Mo'atazelleh. Of course there are important differences
among mentioned Sunni schools about the role of human
intellect, the Quran and the Prophet's tradition for
understanding Islamic teachings.1
4.11.People of Hadith
They were appeared in the early years of Islam and have
continued their growth until now in some Islamic
countries like Saudi Arabia which they are called

1
. Morteza Motahhari, Understanding Islamic Sciences, Islamic
college for Advanced Studies Press, London, 2002, P 54-55.
26

Wahhabism. They refuge the value of human reason, and

just trust on revealed texts like the Quran and Hadith of
the Prophet Muhammad, and reject any intellectual
interpretation and deep investigation of Islamic texts. In
fact they believe that human reason can't understand the
realities of Islam, then we have no choice to refer and
use of Islamic clear texts like the Quran and the
Prophet's tradition without any rational interpretation.
So, their theological sources of thinking are just religious
texts like the Quran and the Prophet's tradition.1
As it was said, Wahhabism is a new form of Ahlul hadith
though. The founder of Wahhabism is Muhammad Ibn
Abdol Wahhab who was living in 12th AH and was under
influence of Ibn Teymeyieh who was living in 6-7th AH.
Abdol Wahhab renewed Ibn Teymeyieh's though and
presented many teachings about Islamic beliefs which
were caused that most of Islamic scholars opposed to
him.2 In fact, Wahhabim has a kind antirational and
dogmatic interpretation of Islam.

1
. Muhammad Reza Kashefi, Shia theology, Research Institute for
Islamic Culture and Thought, Tehran, 2007, P 55-56 & Motahhari,
Ibid, P 54.
2
. Ali Rabbani Golpayegani, Introduction to Theology, Qom,
Darolfekr Press, 1999, P 321-323.
27

4.12.Mo'atazellah
This theological school was established by Wasel Ibn
A¶ta who was the pupil of Hasan Basri. Then
0R¶DWD]HOODKDUHFDOOHGWKHSHRSOHZKRZHUHDSSHDUHGLQ
the beginning of second century of Islam, and extremely
used and trusted on human reason in theological issues.
They are called Rationalists. They believe in validity and
ability of human reason for understanding Islamic
teachings. In fact they posit human reason's authority
over all things even the Quran and the Prophet's
tradition. Therefore, in their thought, human reason is
the only valid source which other sources gain and grasp
their value from it. So, Mo'atazellah are thinkers who
maintain that the role of revelation is confirming and
acknowledging of human reason's judgments.1
4.13.Asha'arah
They have arisen in three and fourth century of Islam in
Islamic nations. The funder of it was Abulhasan Ali Ibn
Asha'ri, was born in 330 Ah in Baghdad. He, at first, was
of Mo'atazellah school, then separated from it and

1
. Rabbani Golpayegani, Ibid, P 249-255.
28

argued that their beliefs about most of theological issues,

specially divine justice, are wrong, and also he tries to
chose a way between extremely rationalism of
Moa'tazellah and extremely textualism of Ahlul Hadith.
Then, he and adherents of Asha'areh used both rational
and revealed methods, but they maintained that human's
reason is limited and can't understand most of religious
teachings. In fact, Asha'areh pay attention to the ability
and validity of human reason, but believe that because of
many restrictions of human reason, we must use the
Quran and the Prophet's saying as the best and most
valid sources of reality. Then human reason should
follow and obey the commands of revelation and Islamic
texts like the Quran and Hadith.1
It is necessary to notice that all mentioned Sunni schools
have many similarities with each other in particular
towards Shia sects. In fact division of Islamic schools
into Sunni and Shia is based on their understanding and
explanation of leadership of Islamic society after demise
of the Prophet Muhammad which is called Imamate,
although there were many theological differences

1
. Ibid, P 269-283.
29

EHWZHHQ WKHP LQ VRPH LVVXHV OLNH GLYLQH MXVWLFH *RG¶V

Attributes and so on.
4.2. Shia Schools

Like Sunni schools, there are some schools among Shia
people, because of their different understanding of some
Shia beliefs, among them, there are three important Shia
schools including: 1. Zeydieh, 2. Ismaeilieh and 3.
Imamiyeh. In the next pages we will discuss on these
three schools in short and detail.
ϱ͘ General Properties of Shia Theology

For understanding theological sources of Shia, it seems
that we should pay attention to the real meaning of Shia
in the context of Islam. The word Shia means follower or
partisan, but in Islamic theology, Shia means someone
who believes that Ali is the right successor and first
Imam after the Prophet Muhammad, and tries to
demonstrate it. It means that the belief of Imamate is the
central virtue of Shia that distinguishes it from other
Muslims. In fact Shia Muslims hold the fundamental
beliefs such as other Muslims. In addition to these
beliefs, however, Shia believes in the Imamate, which is
30

the distinctive institution of Shia Islam. Sunni Muslims

maintain the caliph as a temporal leader only, and
consider the Imam to be a prayer leader, but Shia
Muslims hold a hereditary view of Muslim leadership.
They believe that the Prophet Muhammad designated Ali
to be his successor as Imam (when uppercase, Imam
refers to the Shia descendant of the House of Ali),
exercising both spiritual and temporal leadership. Only
those who have Wilayat (Spiritual Guidance) are free
from error and sin and have been chosen by God through
the Prophet. Each Imam in turn designated his successor
- through twelve Imams - each holding the same
powers.1
Then Shia theology was started from the time of the

Prophet Muhammad, because he in during of his life
selected Ali as his successor and the first Imam of
Islamic society and mentioned this important note
several times in different situations. In addition, most of
Shia Muslims maintain to twelve Imams and Successors
after the Prophet Muhammad that he according to Allah's

1
. Muhammad Reza Kashefi, Theology of Shia, Tehran, Research
Institute for Islamic Culture and Thought, 2007, P 65-66 & 109-
117.
31

revelation determined them for explaining Islamic

teachings and managing Islamic society in order to reach
mundane and spiritual happiness. It means that,
according to Shia beliefs, although Muhammad is the
last Prophet which after him God does not send any
Prophet, Islamic society needs to religious and pure
people who can direct community, but because of most
importance of religious leadership of Islamic society,
Shia believes that they must be determined by the
Prophet Muhammad according to God's will.1
By considering above notes, we can give a complete

description of Shia theology which introduces the
identity of Shia, as follow: the meaning of identity of
Shia which only for them is this belief that the Prophet's
family, which are called Ahlulbait, are the certain and
real source and reference for Muslim people after demise
of the Prophet Muhammad. It means that, Imams are
only people who can understand, explain and teach
Islamic teachings for Muslims correctly because they
have infallible and absolute knowledge through God, in

1
6HH6D\\LG0XKDPPDG+XVD\Q7DEDWDEDHL6KL¶DK7UDQVE\
Sayid Husayn Nasr, Qom, Ansariyan Publications, 2009, P 191-
195.
32

fact, they are Guardians of people that have right to

guide Islamic society. Therefore, in Shia theology, Imam
has religious, political and other authorities and
guardianships towards Muslims since he was determined
by the Prophet according to God's command, because, he
got his knowledge and other abilities by the Prophet and
never make mistakes. In addition, Shia believes that after
death of the Prophet Muhammad as the last Prophet, the
society of Muslims needs to guide by leaders who are
exactly familiar to Islamic teachings and are able to
govern Islamic society in the right path. In fact Muslim
people themselves can't understand and apply the
Quranic teachings and Prophetic traditions correctly, but
they need to Imams for doing these.1
So, it can be said that, Shia theology is raised from

teachings of the Quran, traditions of the Prophet
Muhammad and words of Imams. Then Imamate is one
of the most important and central beliefs of Shia
Muslims which is different from other theological
schools. It means that believing in Imamate, in its exact
meaning, is belonged just to Shia theology. Hence we

1
-D¶IDU6REKDQL&KDUWHURI,PDP\LHK%HOLHIV,ELG3-152, &
33

can determine the identity of Shia theology by

concentrating on principle of Imamate.
It is known that Shia Muslim consider Imamate and

Divine Justice as their basic beliefs as well as three
mentioned beliefs, namely, Unity of God, Prophethood
and Resurrection.
ϲ͘ The Causes and Origins of Shia Theology

It is clear that Shia theology was firmly rooted in the
tradition and Words of the Prophet Muhammad and
Imams, and consists of numerous traditions, in which
profound metaphysical or social issues have been dealt
with logically and analyzed rationally. There are some
historical and religious causes by them Shia have growth
and formed as a theological school, some of these factors
have more important role than others.
6.1. The personality of Ali

Ali Ibn Abitaleb had an active and brilliant role in the
early years of Islam. He was of Muhammad's family, the
husband of his daughter, which the Prophet himself

7DEDWDEDHL6KL¶DK,ELG3-206.
34

trained him for several years. In addition, Ali was one of

the best scholars, pure and religious people who have
many followers and partisans.
6.2. The verses of the Quran

There are some verses of the Quran that directly or
indirectly indicate the caliphate of Ali after demise of
Muhammad. Most of Sunni thinkers accept that the clear
evidence of these verses is Ali, for example, in Surah
Ma'edah, God says:
Your guide is only Allah, his messenger, and the
believers; those who establish the prayer, pay their
obligatory charity, and bow down (in worship).1
Historical evidences show that the exact reference of
this verse is Ali, which argues his high position in the
view of the Quran.
6.3. The place of Ali nearby Prophet Muhammad

Prophet Muhammad by his words and behaviors
showed that Ali has an especial place nearby him. He
called Ali as his brother, the closest friend, successor,

1
. Quran, 5:55.
35

knower of the Quran and so on which none of

Muhammad companions had this place. Prophet in the
Hadith of Ghadir says:
For whomever I am his master, and the authority whom
he obeys, Ali will be his master.1
And the Prophet LQRWKHUKDGLWKH[SODLQV$OL¶VSRVLWLRQ
in epistemic perspective. He says:
I am the house of wisdom and Ali is its gate.2
These two words of the Prophet and his others words
show the high position of Ali nearby the Prophet and his
superiority to companions.
6.4. Clear religious texts

There are, as well as the Quran's verses, many words of
Muhammad which he determined Ali as his caliphate
and Imam of Muslim people after himself. We can see
some hadiths about this subject that Sunni scholars
accept them, except there are some differences in
interpreting. Of course in Shia corpus on Hadith all

1
6HH7DEDWDEDHL6KL¶DK,ELG3
2
. See: Ayatullah Ibrahim Amini, Imamate and the Imams, trans by
Hamideh Elahinia, Qom, Ansariyan Publications, 2011, P 37.
36

words of the Prophet and Imams are death with a rational

and discursive manner.
These historical facts indicate that, Shia is a reaction and
correct response to the Prophet's message in which
response of Ali has central role. Then Shia Muslims see
their origin in the Quran, and in friendly relation
between the Prophet Muhammad and Ali, and clear
indications of the Quran and Muhammad's words.
By considering of mentioned notes, we can conclude that

Imamate is the basic cause for origination of Shia people
and their theology, although the cause of this fact is
originated in different understanding and interpretations
of Muslims, in particular companions of Muhammad, in
the early years of Islam. In fact it seems that cooperation
of historical, political, racial, and other factors were
caused Shia theology.
ϳ͘ Sources of Shia theology

Shia Muslims use the Quran, tradition of the Prophet
Muhammad and Words of Imams as principal sources of
their beliefs and worldview. We should add human
intellect and Consensus to these sources as third and
37

forth sources of Shia theology. In fact Islamic

foundations of Shia are depended on these principles, so,
Shia theology is not completely rational and not
completely textual but is combination of them.1
7.1. The Quran

Shia theologians believe that we can get and grasp all
universal facts from the Holy Quran. They pay attention
to this verse of the Quran in which Allah says:
And we have sent down to you the book making
everything clear, as a guidance and mercy, and glad
tidings to those who submit.2 In fact, Shia believes that
the Quran is a divinely inspired and revealed book by
Allah on the tongue of his Prophet, making clear
everything, and an everlasting miracle. Human is unable
to write anything like it because of its eloquence, clarity,
truth and knowledge, and no alteration can be made to it.
The Quran we have now, is exactly what was sent to the
Prophet, and anyone who claims otherwise is either an
evil doer, a mere sophist or else person in error, and all

1
. Kashefi, Ibid, P231.
2
. Quran, 71: 89.
38

of them have gone astray, because it is the speech of

Allah.1
It means that the Quran is the comprehensive, realistic
and infallible book which explains most things for
Muslims. So in addition to fundamental maintains, we
can use Quranic information about the empirical world
and other areas. In this case, there are many verses in the
Quran about God, His attributes, human freedom,
determination, resurrection, freewill and so on. Shia
theologians mention that one of important issues in the
Quran is about Faith and its virtues in Islamic
framework. The Quran indicates that religious faith
should have epistemic and practical virtues.2 Allamah
Tabatbaei, the Iranian famous philosopher and
theologian, about comprehensiveness and infallibility of
the Quran, maintains that it is a living and eternal
reminder which will never die and fall into oblivion. It is
immune from and secure against any alterations in form
and style which could affect its character and verse, that

1
. Allamah Muhammad Rida Al Muzaffar, The Faith of Shia Islam,
Qom, Ansariyan Publications, 2008, P 26.
2
. Kashefi, Ibid, P232.
39

is, as the reminder of Allah which expresses divine truth

and knowledge. For this reason, in the verse:
Surely, We have revealed the Reminder and We will
most surely be its preserver,1
The God indicates that the divine Book has always been
and will continue to be guarded against any distortion
and alteration.2
7.2. Tradition
In Shia views, tradition, means Sunnah, and
encompasses the words and life of the Prophet
Muhammad and twelve Imams, because they believe
Imams have behavior and speaking according to Islamic
rules which Muhammad established in his life. The
Quran itself grants the necessity of referencing Muslims
to Sunnah, and in particular, because of infallibility of
the Prophet Muhammad, it says that the Prophet is the
best person who is pretence to convey and interpret the
Quran to Muslims, since he never speaks out of his
wishes.3 It means that Prophet Muhammad have the

1
. Quran, 15:9.
2
. Allamah Tabatabaei, Al Mizan fi Tafsir Al Quran, Vol. 12, P 99.
3
. Quran, 62:2, 33:21, 59:7.
40

high knowledge of divine revelation and his words and

deals are according to God's will and commands. There
are many words of the Prophet Muhammad and some
verses of the Quran emphasize on the trustworthy and
reliability of words and deals of Imams the same as
Prophet. For example, the Prophet Muhammad in the
famous Hadith of Seqelayn, says:
O' people, I leave among you two precious things, which
if you hold on to you will not go astray after me: the
Book of God which is like a rope extended between the
heaven and the earth, and my household. These two
things will not separate from each other until they reach
me near the fountain on the Day of Judgment. Take care
in how you treat them after me.1
So, Shia theologians emphasize that Muhammad and
Imams' tradition have unique properties like infallibility,
derived from the absent universe, compatibility with the
Quran and human reason. Then as well as tradition of
Muhammad, in particular after his death, we need Imams
to understand, applying and explaining Islamic teaching
correctly. Then we can use teachings derived from

1
. Allamah Muhammad Riza Al Muzaffar, The Faith of Shia Islam,
Qom, Ansariyan Publications, 2008, P 35.
41

tradition in any areas of Islam. In short, Shia Muslims

believe in authority of the Prophet and Imam's tradition
because of their infallibility, their knowledge of unseen
worlds and compatibility to the Quran. It is necessary to
mention that there is an important difference between
Shia and Sunni theologians, that is, Sunni theologians
maintain to certainty and validity of Prophet's
0XKDPPDGWUDGLWLRQDQGKLVFRPSDQLRQVDQGWKH\GRQ¶W
refer to Imams traditions as household of Prophet, since
they believe there is no religious authority for household
of Muhammad after his demise, then Muslims have to
use their reason and consensus for understanding Islamic
teachings and also for governing Islamic society. Shia
theologians, in contrast, believe that the Prophet
Muhammad determined twelve Imams, first of them is
Ali, as religious leaders and Guardians after himself
according to the Quran's teaching, because Islamic
society after demise of Muhammad needs to leaders who
have perfections like Prophet, we call them as Imam and
believe that because of most of their virtues equal to
Prophet Muhammad, we must obey their commands the
same as Prophet. They argue because of most
importance of managing Islamic society for getting real
42

mundane and spiritual happiness, it is a principal and

main program and task for God and the Prophet to
determine some pious people for Muslim communities.1
In short, we can consider the role of revelatory book like
the Quran and the Prophet¶VWUDGLWLRQDQGKLVKRXVHKROG
in three as follow notes:2
1. Confirmation of the facts that are already known
by reason.
2. Introducing new subjects that are not known by
reason, such as details of resurrection and detailed
accounts of moral and legal systems.
3. Providing sanctions through the religious system
of reward and punishments.
7.3. Human reason

As far as we know, reason is one of the sources of
theological thought. Hence Shia theologians have paid
more attention to its role and used it in the most of
theological studies. In fact, most of Shia theologians
believe that reason is a reliable source of knowledge and

1
. Kashefi, Ibid, P 263-264.
2
0RKKDPDG$OL6KRPDOL'LVFRYHULQJ6KL¶L,VODP/RQGRQ
Centre for Cultural and Ethical Studies, 2010, P 39.
43

in complete harmony with revelations, that is, some of

them believe in extremely rationalism and some tries to
keep reason and textual teachings compatible, and some
other believe in just revealed teachings of Islam. In fact,
the latter theologians maintain that reason needs
revelation to understanding and arguing. There are some
verses of the Quran invite all people to think and use
their intellect in all things, in particular religious ones. It
seems that human reason contributes to religious studies
in three major areas: the first is in understanding the
realities of the world, such as the existence of God, the
truth of religions and scientific facts. The second is
introducing principles of moral values and legal norms,
such as the evil of oppression and the good of justice.
The third is in setting up standards and logical processes
of reasoning and inference. All these three roles of
reason are recognized and, indeed, recommended by
Islam.1

1
. Shomali, Ibid, P 39.
44

7.4. Consensus
Consensus is one of the other important sources of Shia
theology and thought. They called LW DV ,MPD¶ DQG
believe that whenever is impossible to get clear
teachings of the Quran and tradition about some issues,
Shia theologians use consensus of Shia scholars to get a
possible and rational solution. In the other word,
whenever there exists an agreement among all Muslims
or most of Muslim scholars in a way whereby the
agreement unveils the Sunnah, it can serve as a proof, as
an instrument to uncover the will of God.1 There were
some issues in the history of Islam that most of Muslims
had consensus on that, but it does not mean that
consensus has authority the same as the Quran and
Sunnah. In fact, when consensus is accepted by Muslims
or Shia scholars, it does not oppose to Islamic clear
teachings.

1
. Ibid, P 40.
45

46

Chapter 2
Unity of God
1. Introduction
In all Islamic sects believing in unity of God is essential
and fundamental for all Muslims. Since Muslims
maintain that God is the creator of all existents in the
world, and all things are God's creatures and effects.
Then we can't recognize all existents of the world
without having any knowledge of God, and it is very
important that if there is no God, it is impossible to get
real knowledge about the world and make or discover
universal scientific laws. So, all sciences are depended
on universal laws which were created and have kept by
God. Therefore recognizing God and his attributes and
relations to existents, like the world and humans, are
necessary clearly. It is necessary to notice that such
believing in divine unity among Muslims, in particular
47

Shia people, are based on the Quranic teachings, since

there are many verses in the Quran which show the most
important role of unity of God in Islamic beliefs and in
forming of Islamic worldview. In fact having religious
worldview impacts on human individual and social life,
and makes sense the origin and resurrection of human
living, and defines some rational and real aims for his
mundane and spiritual activities. So, believing in a
religious worldview, like Islamic one, is very important
in our life, that is, the first base of other thoughts and
deals is believing in God, his attributes and relations to
human and other existents in the world. So, everybody
should think about the existence of God and other issues
related to him prior to other beliefs by rational,
transmitted and empirical methods.
Shia theologians, by considering of this importance, try to
give complete meaning of unity of God including his
existence and attributes in order to form a complete
framework of Islamic beliefs. They say Unity of God is
meant believing in one reality, and in theological sense it
refers to believe in the unity of God and the origin of
being and to have faith in his uniqueness in every aspect.
In other words, unity of God insists of believing in
48

Oneness of Allah and deals based on this deed. Then,

they divide unity of God into two parts, including
theoretical and practical unity. They consider some
divisions for theoretical unity, like: unity of essence,
unity of attributes and unity in divine actions, and some
parts for practical unity such as: unity in creation, unity in
lordship, unity in worshiping, unity in legislation and
unity in obedience.
Most of Shia theologians, before explaining meaning and
aspects of unity of God, try to give some arguments for
existence of God by using philosophical, theological,
scientific and transmitted methods. In fact, believing in
existence of God, rationally, is prior to his attributes and
relation to creatures. Then, Islamic theologians, in
particular Shia ones, first, try to argue existence of Allah
by discursive and rational proofs.
2. Some Arguments for Existence of God

In Islamic theology because of believing in Islam, the
existence of God is clear, and we consider that the Quran
cites many signs of Allah in its verses. Meantime due to
fundamental role of believing in existence of God and its
priority to other deeds, Shia theologians present some
49

arguments and emphasize that accepting the existence of

God is a rational thinking without any imitation.
There are four arguments that are used for demonstrating
existence of God by Shia theologians, although each one
has some virtues different from the other.
2.1. Argument from Design

This is the first arguments which are used in Shia
theology, and it is called Borhane Nazm. This argument
shows that empirical world is an orderliness universe and
existent, and needs to a doer who gives order. In fact,
every orderliness event or complex has own master or
doer who gives order and has knowledge. Hence, it must
be the Master or doer of worldly order has knowledge and
other perfect attributes. Then, the natural world has God
who has knowledge and make order in that. This
argument, in fact, by observing of scientific phenomena
in the empirical world and inferring orderliness and
causal relations among them, try to argue their needs to
doer who is God and it use many Quranic verses to
improve this proof.1

1
. See: Muhammad Saeidi Mehr, Islamic Theology, Tehran Taha
Publication, 2002, Vol. 1, P 41-52, & Ayatullah Jawadi Amuli, A
50

2.2. Cosmological Argument

Some of Shia theologians and Islamic philosophers use
Cosmological Argument, as the second one, which can
cover the virtues of argument from design and is more
acceptable. They by using of some principles like: 1.
division of existence into possible by essence and
necessary by essence, 2. Principle of causality, 3.
Impossibility of regress, and 4. Impossibility of
circularity, argue that there is really at least one existent
in the world, if it is necessary by essence, therefore, it is
God, if no, it must have a cause, and by considering
impossibility of regress and circularity of causal chains,
we reach the first cause who is God and is not effect. It
means that we by intellective thinking of real relations
among existents in the world can understand that all
things are depended existents and need to real cause that
can be God.1 Islamic philosophers called this argument as
the proof of Contingency and Necessity, because in that

Commentary on Theistic Arguments, Trans by Hassan Allahyari,
Ansariyan Publications, 2007, P 195-210.
1
. Jawadi Amuli, Ibid, P 103-124, & Allameh Helli, Kashful
Morad, Translated and commentary by Ali Shirvani, Qom,
Darulfekr, 2010, Vol. 1, P 7-9.
51

we concentrate on these two essential properties of

existents.
There are some verses in the Quran indicate this note, for
example in Surah Fater, God says:
O' People, it is you who are in need of Allah. He is the
rich, the praised.1
2.3. Argument of Creation

Shia theologians, also use Argument of Creation, or
Hohouth, as the third argument, for demonstrating
existence of God. They say the world, means all existents
except God, are created in time, it means that there was a
time in which there were nothing except God, then God
willed to create some things like the corporeal world. So
God's creation is temporal creation in time. Every created
thing needs to creator and maker, because all creatures
are effect and need to a cause to create them and bring
into existence. So, the universe needs to creator who is
God, that is, the universe as an effect and creature in
order to come into existence, needs to God's creation, and

1
. Quran, 35:15.
52

as far we see the universe exists, then there is God who

created it.1
The Quran cites in many places that this is God who
created the worlds and its existents and humans, and
except God nobody can create anything.2
2.4. Innate Argument

The last proof is Innate Argument and in which
theologians say, the sentence: God exists, is one of
primary and immediate perceptions. It means this
conception of God is of self evident data which all
humans comprehend it without any rational activity. And
also it is said, the sentence: God exists, is one of logical
evidenWGDWD,WPHDQVWKDWZHGRQ¶WQHHGWRSURYLGHVRPH
argues for demonstrating the conception of God's
existence, but it is clearly known by primary logical
attentions, because God recognized and introduced
himself to humans before their creation in this world. In
fact, believers in this argument, say that all humans know
God by intuitive and internal knowledge. It is meant that
all humans have intuitive and presential knowledge of

1
. Jawadi Amuli, Ibid, P 129-135.
2
. Quran, 29:61-63, 43:9-12, 52:35-36.
53

God, because human is the creature of God and has been

created in Godly virtue, then God posited his idea and
conception in human's mind and soul and heart.1
For better understanding innate argument, it must be said
that it is a practical argument not theoretical one, and is
an argument has two essential parts, including human and
God, because this argument shows that human because of
his poverty and needing, always tries to find referents of
his poverty and hope, and blesses to him, for example, we
can consider someone who is involved in some great
disasters, calamities or problems, so that there are no
natural and physical methods and instruments for
removing his disasters. Then, in such situation, he/she can
not think to find some natural solutions except pays
attention to an existent who is beyond of all limitations
and appeals to him to get salvation. In fact, the principal
base of innate argument is possibility of hope and grace
in humans towards a sublime existence.2 About this
argument, we can notice this verse of the Quran:

1
. Muhammad Saeidi Mehr, Islamic Theology, Tehran, Taha Press,
2002, Vol. 1, P 32-36.
2
. Jawadi Amoli, Ibid, P 245-261, & Saeidi Mehr, Islamic
theology, Ibid, P 32-38.
54

When your lord brought forth descendants from the loins

of Adam's children, and made them testify concerning
themselves (he said): Am I not your lord? They replied:
'we bear witness (that you are my lord). Lest you should
say on the day of resurrection: 'we had no knowledge of
this.1
3. Theoretical Unity
As it was said, Unity of God is meant believing in one
God in all aspects, which covers practical and theoretical
one, and by noticing of these two aspects of unit
accompany, human can do his/her deeds in the right path.
Hence, we can say, theoretical unity means that human
maintains oneness of God in his essence, attributes and
actions. It means that theoretical unity is related to our
points of view about essence, attributes and actions of
Allah, and refers to our deeds and thinking about God.
There are, also, many verses of the Quran and the Prophet
Tradition about theoretical unity of God, which guide
Muslims in their beliefs.

1
. Quran, 7:172.
55

There are three important parts of theoretical unity,

including: essential unity, attributive unity and divine
unity in action, in Shia theology. Essential unity means
that the essence of God is One and has no similar and
unique partner, that is, God is an unique Essence to which
basically cannot be attached multiplicity, even it is
impossible to conceive any two beings or two types that
are like Him. Therefore, uniqueness is implied to his
essence and Tawhid or Oneness is also essential for his
essence.1 Attributive unity means the essence of God
conceptually is different from his attributes such as
knowledge and power, but there are no differences
between God's essence and his attributes objectively; and
in the external world. Attributive unity depends on three
principles: 1. the essence and attributes of God are
different conceptually, 2. there is a kind of external and
objective unity between the essence of God and his
attributes, 3. there is a kind of external and objective

1
. See: Saeidi Mehr, Islamic Theology, Ibid, P 74-77, & Sayyid
Muhammad Husayni Beheshti, God in the Quran, Trans by Ali
Naqi Baqirshahi, Tehran International Publication Co, 2002, P 97-
99.
56

unity between God's essential attributes.1 Divine unity in

action indicates that there is only Allah who is justly the
real and independent doer and agent, namely, there are no
independent existents in the world, since all of them are
possible and contingent but God, then all their actions, in
the high level, are ascribed and referred to God. Unity of
divine actions is explained in two principles: 1. God for
doing his works is independent and has no partner, 2.
there is no existent but God, who is independent in his
works, and there is no action in the world without God's
will. Then: every happening and actions in the world is
divine action.
Divine unity in action has many parts, which some of its
important ones are as follow: 1. Divine unity in creation,
2. Unity in lordship, and 3. Unity in Legislation and
Authority. Unity in creation means that God is the only
real creator of the world, and all existents are his
creatures, then they are not independent creator but God,
and they can create only by God's divine will and

1
. Saeidi Mehr, Ibid, P 89-94 and 133-137, & Beheshti, Ibid, P
145-153.
57

providence.1 In the Quran, there are many verses indicate

this unity, for example, we read:
If you ask them: 'who has created the heavens and the
earth and subjected the sun and the moon? ' They will
say: 'Allah. ' How perverted they are.2
Unity of lordship means that God is only and real owner
of all existents and he manages all things independently
without any helping of everybody. Unity in legislation
means that there is one legislator who is God, and nobody
can legislate without God's authority and will. Then God
is the owner of all things in the world and he is only real
legislator over the whole existence.3 This verse of the
Quran indicates such unity:
All things perish, except his face, Judgment is his, and to
him all of you shall return.4
4. Practical Unity
Practical unity shows that human must act and deal with
his/her divine beliefs. Since human's beliefs effect his/her

1
. Ayatullah Ibrahim Amini, Knowing God, Trans by Sayyid Athar
Husain Rizvi, Ansariyan Publications, 2011, Qom, P 120-121.
2
. Quran, 29:61.
3
. Amini, Ibid, P 101-119, & Beheshti, Ibid, P 112-116.
4
. Quran, 28:88.
58

acts and behaviors in every manner. It means that there

are essential and fundamental relations between
theoretical and practical unity. Practical unity covers and
impresses all social and individual, political and
economic, mundane and spiritual, and so on fields of
human life. In fact, it is the most important human's effort
to get and reach spiritual perfections. Then, it is like a
method, a way or direction to do or to take, while this is
theoretical unity which determines our perspectives about
mentioned fields of human life, so theoretical unity is the
base of practical one.
There are many divisions into practical unity. Some of
them are including: 1. Unity in worshiping. 2. Unity in
seeking help. 3. Unity in Obeying or Obedience. 4. Unity
in love and grace. 5. Unity in Reliance and Complete
Trust.
Unity in worshiping means that we must worship only
infinite God, since only who is pretence to worshiping.
Worship means servitude and obeisance and a special
humility in front of the existent with the condition that the
worship act should arise from belief in divinity, lordship,
will and authority of that existent. Since divinity,
lordship, will and creatibility are reserved only for the
59

holy being of Almighty Allah. Then, human worshiping

and servitude should also be reserved for him and no
other being is eligible for this position.1 In Surah
Maryam, there is a verse which shows this note:
Indeed, Allah is my lord and your lord, therefore worship
him. That is the straight path.2
Unity in seeking help means that human seeks help only
from Oneness God in all his/her mundane and spiritual
affaires. The Quran emphasizes on unity in seeking help
beside unity in worshiping, in Surah Fatehah, we read:
You (alone) we worship; and you (alone) we rely for
help.1
Unity in Obeying or Obedience shows that human is only
slave and obedient of God and human have to obey just
God's commands and the commands of people who are
God's successor rightly. The foundation of unity in
obedience is unity in legislation and authority, in fact,
when we believe that there is just God who can legislate
and govern in the world, then only He is pretence to
obeying and servitude, and obedience of others is only

1
. Ayatullah Ibrahim Amini, Knowing God, Ibid, P 127, Saeidi
Mehr, Ibid, P 130-138.
2
. Quran, 19:36.
60

acceptable, when they have commands through God and

they are right messengers of God. In fact, these people
have a kind of divine guardianship (Wilayat) trough
God.2 Therefore, the later kind of obedience is pertained
to those who justly have right of guardianship over us and
are appointed by God which consider Apostles and
Imams as those who have such position. In the Quran,
we read:
O' Believers, obey Allah and obey the messenger and
those in authority among you. Should you dispute about
anything refer it to Allah and the messenger, if you
believe in Allah and the last day. That is better and the
best interpretation.1
Unity in love and grace is meant that the only and real
beloved and friend of human is God, and there is nobody
like God to give his mercy, grace and love to human.
Since divine essence of God possess all perfections of
beauties and graces. Unity in love involves human to
recognize all absolute divine perfections in order to reach
nearness of God. Unity in Reliance and Complete Trust

1
. Quran, 1:3-4.
2
. Saeidi Mehr, Ibid, P 142, & See: Ali Rabbani Golpayegani,
Discursive Beliefs, Qom, Hajar Press, 2011, Vol.1, P 93-99.
61

means that because of all absolute divine attributes of

God, humans have to trust only on God, and consider him
as the real and oneness human's supporter. Unity in
UHOLDQFH GRHV QRW PHDQ WKDW KXPDQ GRHVQ¶W GR DQ\WKLQJ
and just expect from God to take everything, it means that
human should try to work and get everything with
considering this note that all things are under God's
control and will.2
5. Unity and Idolatry

The meaning of Idolatry is believing in two or more gods
and a kind of rejecting unity of God. Idolatry is a
religious subject because of its role in the whole life of
believers. The Quran emphasizes that all humans, first,
were monotheist, but because of some material, social
and environmental factors, some of them have tented to
idolatry. The role of many aspects of idolatry in divine
actions is not clear but most time it plays role unclearly.
Human can have clear and hidden idolatry and does many
works while he believes in unity of God.

1
. Quran, 4:59.
2
. Saeidi Mehr, Ibid, P 142-146, & Beheshti, Ibid, P 127-130.
62

There are many divisions for idolatry, for example, we

can consider idolatry into essential and attributive and in
actions, and also we have clear and hidden idolatry.
Essential idolatry means human believes in multiplicity
of essence of God, or he/she maintains to two or more
parallel gods. Attributive idolatry is consisting of
believing in differentiation between God's attributes and
his essence; it means that the attributes of God are
different from his essence. Idolatry in divine actions is
opposite to unity in divine actions, and means there are
some gods beside Allah who play role in the world. In
fact Allah is not alone for creating, keeping, legislations
and so on.1
There are many aspects of idolatry in divine actions, such
as idolatry in creation and agency, idolatry in divinity, in
worshiping, in legislating, in lordship and so on. Idolatry
in creation means that there are two or more gods who
interfere in creation of the world and existents. Then
some of these gods can create goodness and some
badness and evils. Idolatry in legislation is meant human
accepts beside God other gods who play role in

1
. Saeidi Mehr, Ibid, P 157-165.
63

legislation in the world and human affaires. Idolatry in

worshiping and divinity means human considers some
gods as his/her God and worships them.1
There are many verses in the Quran about some aspects
of idolatry. The Quran not only mentions some virtues of
idolatry but rejects idolatry in any situations absolutely. It
describes some virtues of idolatry as follow:2
1. It rejects any kind of idolatry absolutely and
generally. In Surah Ana'am, we read:
Say, Surely my prayer and my sacrifice and my life and
my death are all for Allah, the lord of the worlds. No
associate has he, and this am I commanded and I am the
first of those who submit.3
2. The Quran says that idolatry is a vain and false belief
which has no rational and logical foundation.
3. The Quran says that idolatry is only sin that God never
forgive people who have this belief. In Surah Nesa, we
read:
Surely Allah does not forgive that anything should be
associated with Him, and forgives what is beside that to

1
2
. Ibid, P 173-176.
3
. Quran, 6:162-3.
64

whomsoever. He please and whoever associates anything

with Allah, He devises indeed a great sin.1
4. The Quran emphasizes that idolatry has many great bad
results, one of them is destroying all human's good
actions and works, it means that if someone worships
God in most time of his life and accept idolatry even in
his/her end of life and is died, he/she destroys all his/her
good works certainly and will die in idolatry. Surah
Zumar, shows this note:
And certainly it has been revealed to you and to those
before you, surely if you associate with Allah, your work
would certainly come to naught and you would certainly
be of the losers.2
6. Divine Attributes
Shia theologians consider many positive and absolute,
and also some negative, attributes for God, and try to
explain them in theological books. Positive attributes
show some perfect virtues of God, negative attributes
negate all material and corporeal attributes from God. In

1
. Quran, 4:48.
2
. Quran, 39:65.
65

fact negative attributes negate imperfections and defects

from God, and show that God has not any defect or
composition, namely, Negative attributes of God negate
some material properties like materiality, composition,
moving, and so on. Most of Shia theologians argue about
some God's positive attributes like: Divine Knowledge;
Divine power; Divine will, Divine eternity and so on, and
some negative ones such as immateriality and non
composition.
Because of the most important of divine attributes, there
are different points of view about recognizing God's
attributes in Islamic theology. School of Ta'atil maintains
that we grasp our conceptions of attributes from our life
and environment, then because of their human virtues, we
GRQ¶W DOORZ WR DVFULEH DQG SUHGLFDWH WKHP WR *RG VLQH
there is no similarity between God and other existents.
Most of Islamic theologians believe in possibility of
knowing God's attributes, but there are two groups. First
group maintains that there are no important differences
between human and God's attributes, then, we can
describe God by human's attributes. They are called Ahlul
Tashbih. In fact, they consider God as a corporeal
existent which like material existents who has some
66

organs such as hand, eye, face and head. Second group

believe that although we can recognize some of God's
attributes but it does not mean that God's attributes are
similar to human's one completely. In this approach
although there are some similarities between God's
attributes and human, they are not the same.1
Shia theologians emphasize that we can understand and
ascribe those attributes that were mentioned in the Quran
and Islamic tradition, or ascribing them is possible
logically and rationally. They, in rational method, argue
that, since God is necessary by essence, pure and absolute
existent, He does not have any defects. So every attribute
which is possible by essence, God can have it perfectly,
and God is the first cause of everything and the real
creator of all things in the world, logically and
consequently, He has all perfections which every effect
has. So because of final causality by God, we can
conclude that He can have all his attributes absolutely.
They for demonstrating understandability of God's
attributes, say, we recognize all perfect attributes from

1
. Ali Rabbani Golpayegani, Theological Schools and Sects, Qom,
Al Mustafa University, 1998, P 189-190, & Saeidi Mehr, Ibid, P
196-200.
67

our environment with some limitations, then we can

understand that these attributes indicate existential
perfections, so we can separate all limited and material
virtues of these attributes and try to make infinite and
absolute attributes as far as it is possible, then we can
ascribe them to God.1
They, also, use the Quranic verses for indicating that
God has absolute attributes which are understandable, for
example in Surah A'araf, we read:
To Allah belong the finest names, so call him by them,
and keep away from those who pervert them. They shall
be recompensed for the things they did.2
The Quran, from one hand, emphasizes that knowing God
and his attributes is possible, and from other hand, argues
that there is no complete similarity between God and his
creatures. Surah Shoora, indicates that:
There is nothing like him. He is the hearer, the seer.3

1
. Ibid, P 196-197.
2
. Quran, 7:180.
3
. Quran, 42:11.
68

7. Divine Knowledge
Real meaning of divine knowledge is that all facts and
affaires present nearby God and He knows everything in
every time and space. There are three kinds of God's
knowledge to his essence, to things and creatures before
and after their creation. God's knowledge to his essence
means that God knows his essence by intuitive
knowledge, since God's existence is the same as his
essence. By this argument; God's existence is immaterial
and abstractive, we know every abstractive existent
presents nearby and knows his essence. In fact there are
no differences and separation between God and his
essence existentially and objectively, but there are some
differences conceptually. About God's knowledge to
things before their creation, there are two kinds of
collective and detailed divine knowledge to things by
God. The meaning of collective knowledge is God does
not know all things in detail before their creation, that is,
his knowledge is simple and universally. The meaning of
detailed knowledge is that God knows all things in detail
and particularly before their creation. For demonstrating
God's knowledge to things after or before their creation,
we can say God knows all things and everything about all
69

existents after and before their creation, since God is their

final and real cause and certain creator, and creatures are
his effects.1
The Quran in many verses argue about God's knowledge
to all things, for example in Surah Loqman, we read:
Allah, he alone has knowledge of the hour. He sends
down the rain and he knows what is in the wombs. No
soul knows what he will earn tomorrow; and no soul
knows in what land it will die. Surely, Allah is the
knower, the aware.2
And in Surah Al Imran, He says:
whether you hide what is in your hearts or reveal it,
Allah knows it. He knows all that is in the heavens and
earth and has power over all things.1
8. Divine Power
When we say God is powerful, it means that if his will is
applied to achievement of something or avoiding that,
certainly God's will is happened. For arguing God's
power, we can say all existents are possible by essence,

1
. See: Beheshti, Ibid, P 202 & Amini, Knowing God, Ibid, P 106,
& Saeidi Mehr, Ibid, P 214-225.
2
. Quran, 31:34.
70

and effects of the first cause who is God. In fact God is

the only existent who is really creator which if his destiny
is applied to something, it certainly will happened.
Most of Islamic theologians maintain that there is no
limitation to God's Omnipotence, that is, his power is
infinite and absolute.2 There are many verses in the Quran
argue divine power over all things, for example, we read:
Have they not seen that it is Allah who created the
heavens and the earth and was not wearied by their
creation, and that he is able to restore the dead to life?
Yes, he has power over all things.3
9. Divine Life and Eternity

It seems that life is a positive attribute which is the same
as divine essence, so when we say God is alive; it means
that, He has power and knowledge and can act many
works. For demonstrating God's life, it can be said it is
clear that having power, knowledge and actions is
indicated to having life. Then God by considering these
attributes has the virtue of life. In other words, It means

1
. Quran, 3:29.
2
. Saeidi Mehr, Ibid, P 228-230, & Amini, Knowing God, P 106.
3
. Quran, 46:33.
71

God was and has existed from eternity, He is beyond any

temporality, and has existed in the past, exists in present
and will exist in the future.1 For arguing God's eternity,
we say God is necessary by essence, it means that
necessity of existence for essence of God is necessary and
there is no time in which we can conceive non-existence
of God. Then God is eternal God.
There are some verses in the Quran indicate to eternity
and divine life, for example Surah Baqarah, says:
Allah, there is no god except he, the living, the
everlasting. Neither dozing, nor sleep overtakes him. To
him belongs all that is in the heavens and the earth. Who
is he that shall intercede with him except by his
permission! He knows what will be before their hands
and what was behind them, and they do not comprehend
anything of his knowledge except what he willed. His seat
embraces the heavens and the earth, and the preserving
of them does not weary him. He is the high, the great.2
And also:

1
. Allameh Helli, Ibid, P 36-37, & Saeidi Mehr, Ibid, P 238-240.
2
. Quran, 2:255.
72

All things perish, except his face, judgment is his, and to

him all of you shall return.1
10. Divine Will

Will is an existential perfection in humans by which they
trend to do something, and also it is a sensual and mental
virtue which is acquired after awakening of usefulness of
actions before doing them. God's will is consisting of his
essential freedom, that is, God essentially is free agent
and doer, then his will is the same as his freedom. It is
important to know that God's will is of his essential or
active attributes. It seems although divine will is related
to God's knowledge but God's will has some active
virtues which are regarded to God's relations to existents
with proper spatial and temporal qualities.
In theologians argument for divine will; we say existents
which are in a temporal time and before that time they did
not exist, while all of them were and are including of
divine knowledge and power. Then this is after
application of divine will which they exist. It means that
there is essential needing to divine will for bringing about

1
. Quran, 28:88.
73

all things from nothing to existence, as well as divine

knowledge and power.1
There are some verses in the Quran indicate that God's
destiny and will governs and penetrates in all aspects of
the world, and every act which is under authority of
divine will certainly is happened, for example:
When we decree a thing, we only say: 'be, ' and it is.2
And:
Allah creates whatever he will. Allah is powerful over
everything.3
11.Divine Speech
Divine speech is considered as of divine attributes
among Islamic theologians. Shia theologians maintain
that divine speech is including of some created voices and
sounds sometimes in the material world and sometimes in
spiritual universe by angles and other instruments. Then
divine speech is new and created and is composited of

1
. Allameh Helli, Ibid, P 38-30, & Saeidi Mehr, ibid, P 247-252.
2
. Quran, 71:40.
3
. Quran, 24:45.
74

sounds which are accidental for God not essential. In fact

God creates these sounds in matter.1
12. Divine Wisdom and Truth

Truth is one of important attributes of God which
accepting of the Prophets' invitations are depended on
this. In fact, rejecting divine truth is concluded rejecting
all religious teachings. Theologians believe that using of
transmitted methods for demonstrating divine truth is not
accepted, but we should use only rational arguments.
There are different views in using rational arguments for
divine truth, some theologians who believe in Rational
Goodness and badness of affaires, maintaining that
human's reason can understand goodness and badness of
acts without any referring to religious texts, so it is
impossible for God to do bad and ugly works which
human reason accept their badness.2
For demonstrating divine wisdom, most of theologians
consider God as wise, and show many signs of his
wisdom in the external world. They argue that so far God
has all perfections completely then He certainly does his

1
. Saeidi Mehr, Ibid, p 258-262.
2
75

works wisely and rationally, and because of harmony

between doer and actions, and so far as we see many
harmonic acts in the world, it can be concluded that all
God's acts are wisely.1
We, in the Quran, read:
(This is) a book whose verses are clear, and then
distinguished from him, the wise, the aware.2
13. Negative Attributes

Every negative attribute, in fact, negates defects,
limitations and imperfections from God and refers to
positive one. So, we can say, God is an absolute existent
and possess all existential perfections, therefore there are
no defects, imperfections and limitations in his essence.
When it is said: God has no negative attributes; it means
that He has no material, spatial, corporeal and
compositional properties, because of his absolute
spirituality. Then, God is not a matter or body, and is not
visible to physical eyes. He is not ignorant, helpless,
subject to change, unjust and needful.3

1
. Ibid, p 270-273, & Rabbani Golpayegani, Ibid, P 167-169.
2
. Quran, 11:1.
3
. Amini, Knowing God, P 109-115.
76

We find some verses of the Quran indicate the negative

attributes of God, for example:
No eye can see him, though he sees all eyes. He is the
subtle, the aware.1
14. Divine Justice

It is one of the most important philosophical and
theological issues, in Islamic theology, and the fifth
fundamental principles of Shia theology. Divine justice
has extensive functions and covers all individual and
social life of humans, and can affect totality of human's
worldview. Divine justice is related to divine wisdom and
truth, since wisdom of God's acts is involved that He
should act according to absolute justice.
There are different viewpoints about divine justice
between Islamic theologians. Most of Shia and
Mo'atazellah, by using of principle of Rational Goodness
and Badness, believe in divine justice; and Asha'areh, by
using of Transmitted Goodness and Badness, believe in

1
. Quran, 6:103.
77

determination and try to justify divine justice

irrationally.1
In Shia points of view Divine justice is considered as one
of the fifth principal Shia beliefs and is a rational subject
which can be understood by human reason. It means that
all humans by their natural reason can understand the
necessity of divine justice.
They consider three kinds of divine justice including
natural, legislative and rewarding ones. Natural justice
means God gives all perfections to all existents as much
as their suitability and competence. In fact, God gives all
perfections to existents according to their capacity.
Legislative justice is meant God prescribes all laws which
are necessary for taking humans real happiness, and he
also does not obey humans more than their abilities.
Rewarding justice explains that God gives reward of
humans' acts as much as their works.2 Shia theologian
believe in all three mentioned kinds of divine justice and
argue being just is necessary for God which can be
understood by human's intellect. They say human's reason

1
. Rabbani Golpayegani, Ibid, P 166-174, & Saeidi Mehr, Ibid, P
313-315.
2
. Ibid. P 316-317, & Sobhani, Ibid, P 79-83.
78

confirms rational goodness and badness of acts. God,

because of his absolute perfections, does acts justly; it
means that, God never does injustice and ugly works.
Since, If God does injustice works this is arisen of his
ignorance, his needing or wisdom. Two mentioned notes
are impossible, and it is impossible for God to do
injustice works.1
The Quran emphasizes on rejecting injustice in God's
works and the world, for example in Surah Yoones, we
see, God says:
Indeed, Allah does not oppress to mankind a thing, but
they oppress themselves.2
And also He says:
Surely Allah enjoins the doing of justice and the going of
Good to others.3
15. Destiny and Providence

Destiny and providence is one of the most important
issues nearby theologians and philosophers. It determines
and introduces the relation between God and human, and

1
. Ibid, P 317-318.
2
. Quran, 10:44.
3
. Quran, 16:90.
79

affects all human individual and social life. For

understanding the meaning of destiny and providence, it
is good to know that the word destiny means the limit,
measure and quantity of a thing. The word providence
means judgment, certainty and such on. Destiny and
providence, in short, means determining of measures of
things and judging about their virtues. Destiny and
providence is one of the most important issues nearby
Islamic theologians and philosophers.
We have two kinds of destiny and providence including
Scientific and Objective one. Scientific Destiny is that
God knows all properties of everything before their
creation; it means that, God eternally knows what
attributes each creature has and will have in the future.
Scientific providence means God knows about the
necessity of existence of things based on actualizing of
their causes, namely, God eternally knows each one of
thing will exist in proper situation and under certain
influences. In fact, foreknowledge of God to properties of
things and their necessities is very scientific destiny and
providence. Objective destiny means that God determines
all essential and accidental virtues of things externally.
Objective providence is meant God bestows the necessity
80

of existence to his creatures externally, and creates them

by his causes and means system.
Objective destiny and providence is of creative attributes
of God, and it can be ascribed to Divine creation.
Objective destiny of everything based on its existential
level is different from another thing. Hence destiny of
immaterial things is including of determining their
essential properties, but in material things, for
determining objective destiny, there are some material,
spatial and temporal conditions which should be
considered.1
There is an important question is related to human's
freedom and destiny. If, according to scientific destiny
and providence, God previously knows human's acts and
in detail, and if, according to objective destiny and
providence, divine will interferes in forming of human
acts: Are there any freedom for humans? Does human act
freely? Is human determined or not?
For answering such questions, there are some viewpoints,
some theologians, like Asha'areh deny human's freedom
and believe in determination, and some theologians such

1
. Sobhani, Ibid, P 84-89, & Saeidi Mehr, Ibid, P 326-328.
81

as Moa'tazelleh believe in absolute human's freedom, and

some theologians like Shia maintain to moderate
viewpoint, both determination and freedom relatively.
According to Shia viewpoint; God's scientific destiny and
providence is not applied to human's acts absolutely, but
the object of God's destiny and providence is human's
acts with all his/her freely properties, in particular by
considering human's will for making his/her acts. In fact,
if we consider an agent having freedom, knowledge and
reason, like human, God provided and determined that
human does his acts freely and by helping of his reason
and knowledge. It is the same for objective destiny and
providence, that is, God decided to actualize human's acts
and works through causal system in which human has
freedom and rational ability.1
There are some verses in the Quran shows the importance
of destiny and providence, for example:
It is not for any soul to die except by the permission of
Allah a postponed book.2

1
. Ibid, P 328-330, & Sobhani, Ibid.
2
. Quran, 2:145.
82

16.Predestination and Freedom

Predestination and freedom is one of the most important
human basic concerning. There are many relations
between destiny and providence with predestination and
freedom. The main question is: Does human act, at least,
some of his/her works freely or not? For answering such
questions, some believe in absolute freedom of human,
some believe in absolute determination, and some chose a
way between them.
Due to extensive realm of Predestination and freedom in
human life, it can impress on almost individual and social
aspects of human life. Then there are some theological,
philosophical and social approaches for understanding
and determining this subject. Philosophical approaches
try to investigate this matter by human reason and
philosophical principles without using religious
teachings. Theological approaches try to do research on
this subject by using of God's attributes and religious
teachings. Sociological and psychological approaches try
to study this subject by considering of environmental,
training and racial conditions.
Subjects of Predestination and freedom were growth from
early years of Islam among Muslims by growing
83

deterministic viewpoints during and by helping of Bany

Omayyeh Empire. In this time there was a theological
group was called Ahlul Hadith who supported
determinism extremely, in the contrast, there were some
groups of Muslims who supported human's freedom
completely.
Supporters of determinism have some reasons for their
beliefs including Unity in creation, Divine foreknowledge
and Extensiveness of divine will. First, they, by using of
principle of Unity in creation, believe that because God is
only creator of all existents including human and material
things, it is impossible for God who is not free in his acts.
Second, by referring to divine foreknowledge, they argue
that God knows everything eternally, then, we can't do
anything opposite to God's foreknowledge. If we do this,
it means that God does not have absolute foreknowledge
and he is involved in a kind of ignorance. Third, they
apply extensiveness of divine will to both humans and
other existents, then human's acts is not out of divine will,
it means, all human's works, in fact, are God's works. So
there is no freedom for human in his works and acts.1

1
. Ibid, 338-340, & Sobhani, Ibid, P 90-93, & Rabbani
Golpayegani, Ibid, P 245-253.
84

Theory of acquired (Kasb) is for those of Asha'areh who

tries to keep human's freedom meanwhile believing in
divine determinism. This theory tries to show a kind of
human's power and role in some humanly works, it says,
when human wants to do some things, God gives him a
power to do that work. Then human's power has some
impact on actualizing some events.1
Theory of Liberty (Tafviz) was supported by
Mo'atazelleh extremely opposite to determinism.
Adherents of this theory believe that God does not
interfere in human's action, then, humans absolutely are
free in their works. They argue if human is not free in his
works, it is impossible to constitute some bases for
religions, and human is not responsible for his works.2
17.Theory of Intermediate Position ( Amron Beynol

Amrayn)
Adherents of this theory try to keep both divine attributes
like knowledge, will, justice and unity, and to keep
human's freedom as well as God's power, knowledge and
will. This theory is arisen of the Quran and the Prophet

1
. Rabbani Golpayegani, Ibid, P 233-235.
2
. Ibid, P 231-233.
85

Muhammad and Imams words and saying, and in fact,

has a rational approach towards human and God¶V acts. It
tries to ascribe human's acts to him and God, because it
considers human as the cause of his/her freely acts, and
also considers God as the real cause. In fact it emphasizes
that human does his/her acts by his/her power, knowledge
and will, then, he/she is responsible for his/her actions.
But meanwhile, God also due to his absolute perfections
not only knows all human's acts previously, but also He
wanted that human does his/her acts freely.1
There are some verses of the Quran and some words of
the Prophets and Imams which explain the meaning of
intermediate position. For example:
Everyone is pledged for what he has earned.2 No soul can
believe except by the permission of Allah.3 But you shall
not, unless Allah wills, the lord of all the worlds.4
And Imam Sadeq says:

1
. Rabbani Golpayegani, Ibid, P 235-242, & Saeidi Mehr, Ibid, P
344-345.
2
. Quran, 52:21.
3
. Quran, 10:100.
4
. Quran, 81:29.
86

There is no compulsion from Allah, nor is there absolute

delegation of power from Allah to human, but the real
position is between the two extremes.1
It seems that exact understanding of the real relation
between human and God¶V actions is not easy and needs
to access to some divine secrets and unseen knowledge
because of its complicated virtue. Hence, when Imam Ali
was asked about destination and providence and freedom,
by considering of its difficulty to understand, says:
LWLVDGDUNZD\GRQ¶WHQWHULWLVDGHHSVHDGRQ¶WHQWHU
WR LW LW LV *RG¶V VHFUHW WKHQ GRQ¶W ERWKHU \RXUVHOI to
understand it.2

1
. Allamah Muzaffar, Ibid, P 12.
2
. Nahjolbalagheh, wisdom No. 287.
87

88

Chapter 3
Prophecy & Prophethood
1. Introduction
Importance and place of prophecy in Islam is clear,
because Prophecy makes relation between believing in
God and Resurrection and is as a common and important
factor for introducing divine religions, and it is the best
way to convey God's commands for believers in order to
go right path and get real mundane and spiritual
happiness. Hence, it can be said Prophets are of selected
humans who convey the message of God and guide to
success perfections and warn of the factors of decline and
misfortune.
There are some notes about the merits and necessity of
prophecy, for explaining them, it can be asked some
questions like that: Are there any necessity for sending
Prophets in human societies? And does God have to send
89

Prophets? Can human's intellect judge necessity of

prophecy?
There are some different answers to such questions:
Asa'areh theologians believe that sending Prophets by
God is not necessary, and human's intellect can't judge
the necessity of this, since the necessity of sending
Prophets by God caused Him must be determined God
and agent, and is not free, while He is an absolute and
free God completely. They believe just in merits of
sending Prophets not its necessity. They consider
prophecy and Prophethood as divine grace and mercy.
Imamiyah and Mo'tazellah theologians, by using of the
rule of rational goodness and badness, believe in the
necessity of sending Prophets by God as well as its
merits.1 Imamiyah theologians, in fact, make essential
and keep relation between believing in God and
resurrection with prophecy, since it is necessary to
understand them by using of Prophets divine teachings.

1
. Allameh Helli, Kashful Morad, Translation and Description by
Ali Shirvani, Qom, Darulfekr Press, 2010, P 10-11 & Saeidi Mehr,
Ibid, Vol. 2, P 14-15.
90

2. Philosophy of Prophecy in the Quran

Understanding the necessities and merits of Prophethood
is very important for Shia Muslims, in particular by using
the Quranic verses, then, there are some verses in the
Quran show the merits, aims and philosophies of
prophecy:1
ϭ͘ Teaching and training: the Quran mentions that one of
the main goals of sending Prophets is to teach and train
all people in many basic areas which are beyond of
people's reason to get them. See Surah Jumoah:
It is he who has raised among the illiterate (Arabs), a
messenger from themselves, to recite to them his verses,
to purify them, and to teach them the book and the
wisdom, though before that they were in clear error.2
Ϯ͘ Mentioning and remembering: the Quran says that one
of functions of Prophets is to remember human's innate,
internal perceptions and tendencies. It means that because
of impresses of mundane life, sometimes people forget
their original and inherent virtues; in this case, Prophets

1
2
. Quran, 62:2.
91

try to revive these forgot virtues. In Surah Ibrahim, we

read:
This is a message to be delivered to mankind so that they
may be warned by it, and know that he is (Allah) one
God, and so all those possessed of minds may remember.1
ϯ͘ Taking human's real freedom: the Quran mentions that
God wanted to free human from all ignorance and wrong
beliefs, and guide him/her to real freedom. So, divine
Prophets try to save humans from chains of mundane and
bring them to real freedom. In Surah Ibrahim, we read:
We have sent down to you (this book) in order that you
bring mankind from darkness to the light by the
permission of your lord, to the path of the almighty, the
praised.2
ϰ͘ Giving final argument: God should send Prophets to
present divine message to all people, since if God does
not send down them, maybe there are some people say
that, we could not distinguish the right path from wrong
one, because God has not guided us by his messengers.
See Surah Nesa:

1
. Quran, 14:52.
2
. Quran, 14:1.
92

Messengers bearing glad tidings and warning, so that

the people will have no argument against Allah, after the
messengers, Allah is the almighty, the wise.1
ϱ͘ Taking backgrounds of real justice: God wanted to
provide many important backgrounds of justice for
human society by sending his Prophets. In Surah Hadid is
said:
We have sent our messengers with proofs, and sent them
with the book and the scales, so that people might
establish the scale (of justice). We have sent down iron in
which there is great might and diverse benefit for people,
so that Allah knows those who help him and his
messengers in the unseen. Indeed, Allah is the strong, the
almighty.2
3. Necessity of Prophecy
Imamiyah and Mo'tazellah theologians believe in
necessity of prophecy by using the rule of divine grace
and mercy (Qaedeh Lotf). The role of divine grace
explains that God should provide some conditions by

1
. Quran, 4:165.
2
. Quran, 57:25.
93

which people can worship him and do their religious

tasks. It means if God takes some facilities for people in
order to they can perform their religious tasks well, it is
necessary for God to do this. Imamiyah and Mo'tazellah
theologians argue for necessity of the rule of divine grace
based on the rule of impossibility of refutation of divine
purpose by God. They argue it is clear that, God's
purpose of creating humans and legislating is that they
can get real happiness by obeying divine laws and
forbidding wrong and injustice affaires. Then God knows
that humans need to his grace and help, and if God does
not help them, it is like refutation of his purpose of
human creation, but we know refuting divine purpose by
God himself is impossible. Then God takes some
backgrounds for people to do good things and avoid of
bad things. In short, Islamic theologians show that we as
God's creatures have to worship God as our creator, and
Prophets, by presenting revealed teachings, show the best
and right path fulfilling religious tasks and worship him,
then we can say: legislating religious laws and presenting
religious tasks is a divine grace which help us to do our
tasks better, so it is necessary for God to sent his Prophets
94

who present divine tasks and laws and take backgrounds

for getting people to real happiness.1
4. Philosophical Arguments for Necessity of Prophecy

This argument was given by Islamic philosophers like Ibn
Sina and Khajeh Nasiruddin Tusi. They say, humans as
social existents need to live in communication and want
to take most benefits for themselves, but, because of
plurDOLW\ RI KXPDQV¶ WHQGHQFLHV DQG GHVLUHV WKHUH LV QR
choice to posit some laws in order to control them and
provide their possibility to get real happiness. Fulfilling
this, we need to a legislator who is over all mundane
tendencies, and can guarantee his laws for society in all
times and has the best knowledge of humans, their
needing and abilities. So, it seems that, there is only God
who is pretence to make such laws and give humans the
backgrounds of real freedom and justice.2
And also, in another argument, it can be said that the
purpose of human creation is to reach them to complete

1
. Ayatullah Ibrahim Amini, Prophethood and the Prophet of
Islam, Sayyid Athar Husain Rizvi, Qom, Ansariyan Piblications,
2011, P 12-19, & Allameh Helli, Kashful Morad, Ibid, Vol. 2, P
10-17.
2
. Allameh Helli, Kasful Morad, Ibid, P 17-19.
95

perfections which is possible only by using of human's

freedom and intellect, but human maybe make mistake in
many cases in using of his/her freedom and intellect, and
can't distinguish right path from wrong one. So, human
for getting his/her final and real happiness needs to
revealed teachings as well as his/her intellect, experience
and freedom.
But it should be mentioned that all revealed teachings
help human to get to real happiness arbitrarily and freely
and by using of his/her reason not compulsorily. It means
that sending Prophets are necessary requirements, not
adequate ones, for humans to get complete happiness. So
we can say the main purpose of sending Prophets are to
take necessary conditions and requirements for humans to
gain spiritual happiness, since without revealed teaching
such happiness can't be attainable, although in this case
the role of human intellect is very important.
5. Ways of Recognizing Prophets

God wants to take some ways for people to know the
Prophets, since if they can't know them, the purpose of
divine wisdom of sending Prophets is refuted, and people
maybe can't select right path.
96

Islamic theologians consider three ways for recognizing

divine Prophets, including miracles, evidence of previous
Prophet and using of witness of other documents. In this
case the role of miracles is very important.1
1. First way: Miracle is a supernatural event which is

inspired by God and is achieved by the Prophet, while
this is according to Prophet's claiming, and Prophet by
presenting it, invites all people to do such work, if they
can, and it can't be learnable. Divine Miracles have some
basic virtues, like: 1. Supernatural, 2. Compatibility with
Prophet's claiming, 3. Competitive virtues, 4.
Compatibility with Prophet's goal, 5. Impossibility to
teach or learn, 6. Impossibility to give its similar by
another person.2
Supernatural virtue of miracle shows that it seems
incompatible with natural system and causality, but is
compatible with whole system of being. In fact, miracle
dose not refute the principle of causality, but it is just
beyond of natural causality and is according to real

1
. Amini, Ibid, P 43-46, & Allameh Helli, Ibid, P 23-24.
2
. Saeidi Mehr, Islamic Theology, Ibid, Vol. 2, P 38-41.
97

causality. Compatibility of Prophet's claiming means that

it must be in agreement with what Prophet claims.
Competitive virtue indicates that Prophet, by presenting
his miracle, invites his unbelievers to present something
like this, if they are true in their beliefs. Compatibility
with Prophet's goal means that the miracle must be in
agreement with what is Prophet's purpose of fulfilling
miracle. For example, if he wants to heal a sick, it must
he/she finds health not is died. Impossibility to teach or
learn is meant because of supernatural and divinely
virtues, it must be, nobody can teach or learn it.
Impossibility to present its similar by other person means
that miracle is not the high level of some supernatural
works such as magic which after passing sometimes,
some people can do that.1
We should notice that miracle of a Prophet can
demonstrate trustfulness of Prophet's claiming. For
demonstrating this, it is said, by considering of divine
wisdom of humans creation, in order to get to real
happiness, fulfilling this is possible by sending Prophets
and recognizing the real Prophets is possible by observing

1
. See: Amini, Prophethood and Prophet of Islam, Ibid, P 33-39,
& Saeidi Mehr, Ibid, P 39-43, & Allameh Helli, Ibid, P 24.
98

or recognition their miracles, it means that God by giving

some miracles to his Prophets can introduce his wisdom
and the right path to people in order to get real happiness.
The word miracle was not used in the Quran; it used
some words like Ayah, Bayienah and Borhan. Ayah
means sign, Bayienah means clear speaking, and Borhan
means clear argument, for example:
A clear proof has come to you from your lord. Here is the
shecamel of Allah, a sign for you. Leave her to graze in
the earth of Allah and do not touch her with evil, lest a
painful punishment seizes you.1
2. Second way: Acknowledgement by Other Prophet:

it is also the way of recognition prophecy. In fact all
divine ProphetV KDYH LQIDOOLELOLW\ DQG GRQ¶W PLVWDNH DQG
error, then their evidences are valid and confirmed. We
have pay attention that it must be received the evidence of
previous Prophet by certain ways, and what previous
Prophet confirms about prophecy of a person must be
objectively true.

1
. Quran, 7:73.
99

3. Third way: Using of Evidences and Reasons: We

can use many other ways for discovering certainty about
prophecy. In this case, we can consider some factors like:
1. Moral virtues, 2. Environmental properties, 3.
His followers, 4. His methods for inviting people, 5. His
belief and patience and stability in his invitation and 6.
The Nature of his teachings.1 It is necessary to note that
in the present time, using of these six mentioned factors is
very important to recognize right path and get real divine
teachings of Prophets.
6. Prophets' Distinctive Properties

It is naturally clear that divine Prophets have to be of the
most brilliant and pure people in their lifetime. They have
to be as an ideal pattern and guidance for people in their
society, since there are only such persons can invite
people to divine teachings. In fact complete actualizing of
prophecy by messengers needs that they have unique
properties. There are some different viewpoints between
Islamic theologians about virtues of Prophets towards
others. Imamiyah and Asha'areh theologians believe in

1
100

superiority of Prophets to angles, but Moa'tazellah

theologians believe in superiority of angles to Prophets.
There is the verse of Surah Al Imran in which God speaks
of the superiority of Prophets to all existents in the
world:
Allah chose Adam and Noah, the house of Abraham and
the house of Imran above all worlds.1
7. Revelation and Its Virtues

Revelation is one the most important and essential
properties of divine Prophets, since Prophets by
revelation can aware people and present divine teachings
to them. It can be said that the source and origin of
revelation is not natural, material universe, human
intellect, experience and sense perception, but is
immaterial and spiritual universe. It seems that, the nature
and reality of revelation is not clear for our human
understanding, we can say that it is a kind of special
perception which is completely different from humans'
perceptions, and can't be attainable by human's faculties
like intellect, experience and sense perception, it is

1
. Quran, 3:33.
101

directly derived from Godly source by Prophet's heart.1

In fact revelation is a special relation between Prophet
and God, by which he gets divine realities from God and
unseen universe. It is clear that for getting revelation, it is
necessary for Prophet to have pure and clearness heart
and soul.
There are three levels of revelations by which God speaks
to Prophets:2
1. Direct revelation: in this way, God sends divine
teachings to Prophet's heart immediately. This is of the
highest one of revelation.
2. Making noise: which God sends revelatory contexts by
some noises to Prophet's ear such as revelation to Moses
in Toor maintain, we read about this kind in Surah Taha:
When he reached it, he was called: 'O Moses, I am your
lord. Take off your shoes, for you are in Towa, the sacred
valley. I have chosen you. Therefore, listen to what shall
be revealed. Indeed, I am Allah. There is no god except

1
. Amini, Ibid, P 46-50, & Saeidi Mehr, Ibid, P 62-63.
2
. See: Almizan fi Tafsir Al Quran, Vol. 15, P 345, & Amini, Ibid,
P 48-50, & Saeidi Mehr, Ibid, P 67-68.
102

me. Worship me, and establish the prayer of my

remembrance.1
3. Revelation by an angle: in this way, Prophet receives
revelatory conceptions through an angle according to
God's command and will.
8. Infallibility of Prophets
Infallibility means a power and faculty in human by
which he avoid of doing any mistake and error.
Infallibility is a divine grace by God which caused
infallible person never has willing to disobey God's
commands and do errors, while he is able to do such
things. Infallibility has some Aspects including:
1. Infallibility in doing errors and opposition to God
commands,
2. Infallibility in error and forgetfulness for receiving and
presenting divine revelation,
3. Infallibility in error and forgetfulness of fulfilling
God's commands, individual and social affairs.2

1
. Quran, 20:11-14.
2
. Amini, Ibid, P 21-26.
103

Some Islamic theologians believe that Prophets'

infallibility is according to God's grace. They say there is
no motive to do errors by Prophets while they have power
to do them. It means that infallibility is a Godly grace by
which there is no any kind of tendency to make mistakes.
In fact infallible Prophets are in such a place and spiritual
position that they arbitrarily and consciously avoid of
perpetrate sins.
Due to the mentioned importance of infallibility,
Imamiyah theologians believe in absolute infallibility of
Prophets in all time, before and after their prophecy, since
perpetrating any sin by them can refute their infallibility
and is opposite to God's wisdom of sending Prophets.
It is possible to think that having infallibility is opposite
to having freedom, so that, human avoid of error due to
some forces and may be is not able to perpetrate errors.
But we should notice that there is no contradiction
between infallibility and freedom. Since infallible human
due to observation of internal nature of sins and their
results never will to do them.
For arguing infallibility of Prophets it was said, one of
goals of sending Prophets is teaching and purifying
people, but this purpose is actualized only when Prophets
104

themselves are pure and pretence to have all suitable

virtues such as infallibility. In fact, when people accept,
Prophet's inviting to divine teachings, he will be a pure
and infallible messenger and does all the best things
before people. It means people can confide on Prophet's
invitation, when he is true and infallible and does God's
commands before people. Shia theologians say: Fulfilling
the purpose of prophecy is based on people's confidence
on Prophet while Prophet's sins is caused to negate
people's confidence and to refute divine's goal.1
9. Divinely Inspired knowledge

In Islamic theology, it is believed that Prophet should
have divinely inspired knowledge which is beyond of all
human sciences and is derived from divine sources and
certainly is infallible. We can say Prophets' divinely
knowledge is a divine grace by God which is called
unseen science.2

1
. Allameh Helli, Ibid, P 19-20.
2
105

10. Prophet Muhammad

The Holy Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, as the
seal of Prophets and messenger of Islam was born in 570
ac in Mecca. He in his lifetime before prophecy was of
the best, purified, trustworthy and pietist people in his
society. He was appointed as the Prophet when was forty
years old and invited his relatives and people of his
society in Mecca, Medina and other communities in his
lifetime. He died in 622Ah.
For demonstrating of the Prophet Muhammad's prophecy,
there are some ways for studying about his miracles, in
particular the holy Quran. He has some miracles which
are divided into mortal and immortal ones. The Quran is
the greatest and immortal miracle. The Quran as direct
revelation of God to Prophet's heart was sent down during
23 years in Mecca and Medina. It as divine miracle has
some unique virtues like: Supernatural, as Prophet's
claiming as sign of God's Prophet, and having
competitive virtues. The later virtue means that there are
some verses of the Quran which invite all people to bring
a verse or Surah like the Quran, if they can. In Surah
Baqarah: we read:
106

If you are in doubt of what we have sent down to our

worshiper ( Prophet Muhammad), produce a chapter
comparable to it. Call upon your helpers, other than
Allah, to assist you, if you are true.1
11.Aspects of the Quran's Miracle

One of the most important miraculous aspects of the
Quran is its literary miracle. It has both the deepest
meanings and highest literary arts over all literary human
and poets, which after fourteen century nobody can give a
passage like verses of the Quran. Historical events show
that most of disbelievers and enemies of the Prophet
Muhammad in his time, finally, confessed to divinity and
miraculous virtues of the Quran; but they had tried to
argue that he has a kind of magic power to give verses of
the Quran. The Quran was sent down among Arab people
who had long experience in literary arts and there were
many poets who were famous in eloquence poetic.2
There are some aspects in literary miraculous of the
Quran, including: beauty of words, eloquence of

1
. Quran, 2:23.
2
. See: Allameh Helli, Kashful Morad, Ibid, P 46-47, & Amini,
Propethood, Ibid, P 110.
107

meanings and their deepness, harmony among verses and

coherence between contexts. About harmony and
coherence of context, it can be said that if everybody look
to verses of the Quran, he can see literal harmony and
beauty among its verses and can find many teachings
regarding to knowing God, his attributes, human and his
relation to God, the world and the end of human life,
historical facts, social and individual laws, moral and
philosophical teachings and so on.1
It can be said the second way for demonstrating a
prophecy of Muhammad is using announcement of
previous Prophets. In our beliefs, Prophets like Moses,
Jesus and Ibrahim mentioned the name of Muhammad as
the final Prophet. We can refer to divine books like Tura
and Bible, but unfortunately we believe that their contexts
were altered in previous centuries, meantime there are
parts of old and new testaments which indirectly indicate
the prophecy of Muhammad. There is a word is called
Farqelit, and it is meant a person who is be worshiped. In
the Bile of John, part 14, we read this verse:

1
. Amini, Ibid, p 113-124.
108

If you love me keep my commands. And I ask of my father

which will give you another lover that will always be with
you.1
In addition, the Prophet Muhammad for arguing his
prophecy to Christians and Jews was saying that their
Prophets indicated his prophecy in their books, and in
contrary to the Prophet's claiming, Christian and Jewish
scholars just did not have any response except silence.
The Quran mentioned this fact in Surah Baqarah and
Aaraf:
Those to whom we gave the book know him (the Prophet
Muhammad) as they know their own sons, but a party of
them, conceal the truth while they know.2
To those who shall follow the messenger; the unlettered
the Prophet (Muhammad) whom they shall find written
with them in the Tura and the gospel. He will order
kindness upon them and forbid them to do evil.3
There is another way to confirm the prophecy of
Muhammad. In this way, we use many evidences to
recognize truthfulness of prophecy of Muhammad. Some

1
. John, 14:26 & 16:7-8.
2
. Quran, 2:146.
3
. Quran, 7:157.
109

of these evidences are; his moral personality, the

environment of his society nearby his prophecy, his
followers, his methods for inviting people, his patience in
mission, and the nature of teachings. The importance of
cited evidences in the present time is high, because, now
most of people who try to find the reality of Islam can use
WKLV PHWKRG WKURXJK LQYHVWLJDWLRQ LQ 0XKDPPDG¶V OLIH
and Islamic teachings.
One of the basic beliefs in Islam is that Muhammad is the
seal and last Prophets which was send by God. It means
that there will not be any Prophet after death of
Muhammad, and Islam is as the final and complete
religion for people who want to get real happiness. The
Quran mentions this fact in some verses like Surah
Ahzab:
Muhammad is not the father of any of your men. He is
the messenger of Allah and the seal of the Prophets. Allah
has knowledge of all things.1

1
. Quran, 33:40.
110

Chapter 4
Imamate
1. Introduction
It is noticeable to consider central importance of Imamate
in Shia theology and essential distinctive between Sunni
and Shia theology in this matter. There is an essential
relation between prophecy and Imamate in Shia theology,
because Shia considers Imamate as the continuation of
prophecy for presenting Islamic teachings to people.
7KH ZRUG ³,PDPDWH´ PHDQV /HDGHUVKLS RU 0DVWHU\
literally. There are different means of Imamate based on
many approaches, some consider it as religious, political
and social authority which is given by God or Prophet,
and some thinkers believe that it is applied to any
religious or political leader who have power and authority
over people. In Shia beliefs, Imamate means religious
111

leadership and Imam is attributed to someone whose

conduct and commands are followed by people.
There are plural viewpoints about Imamate and Imam's
conditions and virtues among Sunni theologians. Most of
Sunni scholars consider Imamate as a worldly position,
and an Islamic fundamental, for example, Baqelani, one
of Sunni thinkers, considers three conditions for Imam,
including:
1. Being of Quraishi Household,
2. Having knowledge at least equal to a judge,
3. Having enough ability and knowledge to governing
society and military commandeering.1
Maverdi, another one of Sunni thinkers, believed in
seven virtues for Imam as follow:
1. Justice,
2. Having knowledge equality to Mujtahed (authorized
religious juries),
3. Healthiness of sensual organs,
4. Healthiness of organs of body,
5. Policy,
6. Bravery and

1
. Abobakr Baqelani, Tamhidul Avael, Beirut, Cultural books
Institute, 1407Ah ,P 471.
112

7. Being of Qurashi's household.1

The cause of different viewpoints among Sunni
theologians is that they think Prophet Muhammad did
not appointed anybody for managing Islamic society after
his death, and in fact he had no teachings about the way
of political and religious leadership of Islamic society
after his death. Then Sunni thinkers tried to consider
some methods for political and religious leadership.
Hence maybe there can be some contradictory views
about the position, ways of appointing and virtues of
Imam among them. In fact, most of Sunni scholars based
on their opinions about Imamate consider it as one of
secondary issues of Islamic society, and as a
jurisprudential and political subject not theological. They
regard the appointment of Imam as the duty of Islamic
society.2
Shia scholars consider Imamate as one of the most
important issues of basic and theological in Islam, then,
believe that such most prominent matter must be
indentified by God or Prophet. They believe in Imamate

1
. Almaverdi, Ahlamul Aoltanyieh, P 6.
2
. Ayatullah Ibrahim Amini, Imamate and the Imams, Trans by
Hamideh Elahinia, Qom, Ansaryian Publications, 2011, P 17.
113

as divine position and Imam is the guardian and

responsible of all religious affaires of Muslims. In fact, in
Shia beliefs, Imamate is succession and caliphate of the
messenger of Allah in all Prophetic duties and ranks,
except revelation with the invisible world and receiving
revelation, which are only for the Prophets.1 Shia
theologians enumerate some essential virtues for Imam
including:
1. Infallibility
2. Divine knowledge
3. Spiritual superiority to others and
4. Selected by God or the Prophet or previous Imam.
,QWKHRWKHUZRUG,PDPLV$OODK¶VWUXVWHGVHUYDQWDPRng
the people, His proof for the servants, His caliph in lands,
LQYLWHU WR $OODK¶V UHOLJLRQ DQG SURWHFWRU RI $OODK¶V
sanctuary. Imam is infallible and away from sins and
vices. He is abounded with knowledge and patience, the
pillar of religion, honor of Muslims, and the cause of
anger and perishing the infidel and the heterodox. Imam
is a unique personality in his own age, no one can replace
him and no scholar can reach his scientific stance.

1
. Amini, Imamate and the Imams, Ibid, P 17-18.
114

,PDP¶VYLUWXHVDQGJRRGQHVVLVQRWREWDLQDEOHUDWKHUKH
has reaFKHG VXFK SRVLWLRQ E\ $OODK¶V 0HUF\ 1 By
comparing Imam and people, Imam Ali says:
2¶ SHRSOH WKH PRVW GHVHUYLQJ SHUVRQ IRU ,PDPDWH LV WKH
most powerful one among you in managing the issues and
the most learned in divine commandments. If someone
was going to plot sedition after taking oath of allegiance,
he is asked to leave it and if he did not accept, he is
fought with. Imam is aware of the lawful and the
unlawful, the obligatory and recommended deeds and
$OODK¶V FRPPDQGPHQWV +H LV QHHGOHVV WR SHRSOH DQG
everyone needs to him.2
2. The Necessity of Imamate and the Rule of Divine

Grace
Shia theologians consider the necessity of Imamate like
the necessity of prophecy because of both their
importance for getting real happiness of Muslims. They
argue the necessity of Imamate by using the divine grace
rule, and say appointing Imam through God is a divine

1
. Kulaini, Usul Kafi, Vol. 1, P 200, & Amini, Ibid, P 21.
2
. Najul Balagheh, Sermon 173, & Biharul Anwar, Vol. 68, P 389.
115

mercy which provides basic backgrounds of obedience of

God's commands by people and establishment of divine
justice and happiness, then it is rationally necessary for
God to determine Imam for Muslim society.1
2.1. Needing to Imam

There is another way by which we can show the needing
of Muslim society to Imam after death of the Prophet, it
means, after Prophet, Muslims need to someone who can
explain all fundamental Islamic teachings and guide
Muslim society by using Islamic laws which is according
to divine wisdom. In the other words, holy Prophet had
some important duties like:2
1. Interpreting the Quran's verses and explaining their
mysteries.
2. Explaining Muslims' religious tasks in individual and
social affaires.
3. Replying to doubts of unbelievers of Islam.
4. Guarding of Islamic teachings and believing and
preventing from any alternation.

1
. Allameh Helli, Ibid, P 60-61, & Amini, Ibid, P 19-20.
2
. Saei Mehr, Ibid, P 138.
116

Now it is clear that it must be someone after death of

Prophet to fulfill these duties, then, we can say the
needing of Muslims to Imam never is not stopped. In fact
Islamic community always has new questions which can
be answered by Imam.
3. Infallibility as the First Virtue of Imam

As it was said, one of the most important virtues of Imam
is his infallibility in Shia theology. Infallibility means
being safe, an infallible person is someone who is
completely safe from committing faults, forgetfulness and
wrongdoing. Hence, Imam must be infallible in
explaining and fulfilling Islamic commands and
teachings. Shia theologian try to proof infallibility of
Imam by using of intellectual and transmitted methods.
They argue the principle of needing to Imam and
demonstrate his infallibility, since fulfilling all
fundamental tasks which Imam has, is involved that he
must be infallible, for example, if Imam's interpretation of
the Quran is not infallible, he can not do the Prophet's
tasks and people can not accept his explanations and obey
117

Islamic commands which he represents.1 In fact if we

accept that it is necessary for Islamic community to have
religious leader after demise of the Prophet, that is called
Imam, to fulfill Prophet's tasks, he must be infallible like
the Prophet. In other words, people so far as need to
Imam they are fallible and in error and need to be guided
by infallible religious leader. It seems that infallibility of
Imam has an important secret which is twofold: first, their
strong belief in Allah, the hereafter, the hell and paradise,
the reckoning, punishments and rewards, and second,
inner intuition of outcomes of wrongdoing which is
granted to them by the Almighty Allah.
The secret of infallibility of Imam from faults and
IRUJHWIXOQHVV LV KLV NQRZOHGJH W\SH WKDW LV ,PDP¶V
knowledge of religious facts is intuitive which originates
from their insight, he intuitively knows the true path to
humanity and the sources of religious commandments
and rules without any forgetfulness. Moreover, his
physical structure is created by the exalted Allah in a way
that they can state intuitive knowledge in words for

1
. See: Amini, Ibid, P 60-61, Allameh Helli, Ibid, P 65-70.
118

people. This is another divine blessing and support from

Allah.1
The Quran in some verses shows the importance of
infallibility of the Prophets and Imams. In Surah Baqarah,
God introduces Imamate as covenant of God, and says
that this position never has given to disbelievers and
tyrants:
And when Abraham was tested by his lord with certain
words and he fulfilled them, he said: 'I have appointed
you as a leader for the nation. ' (Abraham) asked: 'and of
my descendants? ' 'My covenant, ' said God, 'the harm
doers shall not receive it.2
And in Surah Nesa, God commands Muslims to obey
him, the Prophet Muhammad and those in authority
among them equally and without any conditions. We call
Imams as those who have authority among all people
because of their inspired knowledge, position and other
unique virtues:
2¶ %HOLHYHUV REH\ $OODK DQG REH\ WKH PHVVHQJHU DQG
those in authority among you.3

1
2
. Quran, 2:124.
3
. Quran, 4:59.
119

4. Inspired and Directly knowledge as the Second

Virtue
Shia theologians consider a kind of inspired and divinely
knowledge for Imam which is called Elme Khodadadi or
Ladonni, and is not the same as Prophet's revealed
knowledge, but is beyond of human one and can not be
gained or learned by ordinary methods. They argue that
fulfilling all Prophet's tasks after him, in particular
explaining the Quran's mysteries and replying all
religious questions by Imam, needs to have a kind of such
inspired and directly knowledge by them, since doing
mentioned duties by merely human knowledge is not
possible.
Shia theologians enumerate some sources of Imam's
inspired knowledge, such as the Quran and heritage of the
Prophet. It seems that the Quran is the first and most
important source of Imam's inspired knowledge, since
Imam is the first person after the Prophet who can use the
Quran's teachings and sciences better than others. Of
course we can pay attention to the importance of the
Prophet's heritage because of his revealed knowledge and
special relation with God. The second way was did by the
Prophet Muhammad during his 23 mission, that is, he in
120

his prophecy time received all verses of the Quran and

transferred to Ali as the first successor, and he also
explained many Islamic teachings and commands to Ali
that Muslims needs after his demise as his tradition and
secret words, that is, there were many Islamic teachings
that the Prophet Muhammad said to Ali alone and he
transferred to his successors. It was narrated that the
Prophet of Islam ordered Ali to write down the sciences
that the Prophet taught him in a book to be left for next
Imams. Ali, about this fact, has quoted:
The Prophet told me, write down what I tell you, I said,
2¶0HVVHQJHURI$OODK'R\RXIHDUWKDW,PD\IRUJHW"+H
said, I am not afraid of your forgetfulness, because I have
asked the Almighty Allah to set you as guardian of
sciences, but write them down for the Imams from your
progeny.1
$ERXWWKHLPSRUWDQFHRI,PDP$OL¶VNQRZOHGJHWKHUHLV
a famous word of the Prophet Muhammad who says;
I am the house of wisdom and Ali is its door.2

1
. Amini, Ibid, P 37.
2
. See: Amini, Ibid, P 37.
121

It is noticeable to know that, all divine knowledge which

was transmitted to Ali by the Prophet Muhammad was
transferred to other Imams by Ali and his successors. In
fact, each of Imams transmitted religious sciences and
commandments to his successor in two ways, including
verbal training and granting of books and permission to
narrate from them.
5. Superiority to Others as the Third Virtue

According to Shia beliefs Imam must be superior to all
people in his lifetime in all epistemic, moral, practical
and theoretical virtues, since religious leadership of
Muslim society and fulfilling Islamic rules and teachings
is needed that Imam must have all perfective virtues in
the high level.1
6. Appointment by Divine Method as the Forth Virtue

All Shia people believe that because of basic importance
of Imamate position, it must be, he is appointed by God
or the Prophet or previous Imam, since people because of

1
. Allameh Helli, Ibid, P 71-72.
122

their fallibility, some mistakes and restrictions can not

distinguish the right Imam, and in most time make big
mistakes which historical facts show this matter. In fact
people can not recognize Imam's fundamental virtues
such as infallibility and other divine virtues except the
Prophet and previous Imam.1 Hence, Allah and the
Prophet due to their infallibility and divine knowledge
can recognize Imam and appoint him for Muslims.
7. Imam as the Best Person to Guardianship

Shia scholar believe that Imams are the best and first
persons who are pretence to govern and manage Muslim
society in all aspects, since they have all Prophet¶VGXWLHV
and the necessary authority, and can rule the people and
have high commands for taking their real happiness.
8. The Imamate of Ali and Its Aspects

Historical facts show that the Prophet Muhammad had
appointed Ali as his successor and the caliph of Muslims
in his time and mentioned this fact several times. This
matter indicates the personality and place of Ali in Islam,

1
. Saeidi Mehr, Ibid, P 150-153, & Allameh Helli, P 73-74.
123

nearby the Prophet Muhammad and Muslims, and shows

that Ali was the best person who had pretence to be as
caliph and leader of Muslims. In addition, historical facts
and evident data of Islam enumerate many unique virtues
of Ali towards other companions of the Prophet, that
means, Ali was the first person who accepted Muhammad
invitation to Islam, he was as the first person that was
appointed as successor of Prophet by him, Ali had many
effective role in extension of Islamic invitation and
strengthening Islam, and he was the first assistant of
Prophet to defend Islam and establish its bases. So, Ali
was the first one who had special place nearby God, the
Prophet and also people.1
9. Ali's Imamate in the Quran

Due to the most importance of Imamate position in Islam,
there are some verses in the Quran which indicate the
Imamate of Ali indirectly and the Principle of Imamate
directly. These verses mention the place and role of
Imamate in Muslim society after death of Muhammad,
and emphasize on the importance of obedience of Imams

1
. Ibid, P 74-78.
124

by Muslims, because in the Quranic viewpoint, Imams

are who interpret and explain the Quran's verses and
Islamic teachings and guide Islamic community after the
Prophet. Then in many cases they have a place equal to
the Prophet.
9.1. The Verse of Wilayat

There is an important verse in the Quran, in Surah
Maedah, which indirectly shows the Imamate of Ali and
clearly indicates the place of Imamate and says that
obedience of Imam is equal to obeisance of the Prophet
and God:
Your guide is only Allah, his messenger, and the
believers; those who establish the prayer, pay their
obligatory charity, and bow down in worship.1
This verse mentions that guardian of Muslims are God,
Prophet and those who establish prayer and pay their
obligatory charity while bow down in worship, while
historical evidences show that the exact reference of this
verse according to the history of early Islam is only Ali.
Another note of this verse is the word Wali, which is

1
. Quran, 5:55.
125

called Guardian in English literature, the word Wali in

Islamic though, in particular Shia theology is applied to
someone who has many high virtues and is pretence to be
as religious and political leader for Muslims.
9.1. The Verse of Ulel Amr

This verse is in Surah Nesa and commands Muslims to
obey Allah, the Prophet Muhammad and those who have
authority among them. In this verse the word Ulel Amr is
indicated those who have religious and political authority
among believers according to God and the Prophet
commands and Islamic teachings, then obeisance of them
is equal to obeying of God and Prophet:
9.2. The Verse of Tabliq

The third verse is in Surah Maedah and was send down to
the Prophet in his last days of lifetime during coming
back from last pilgrimage to Medina. This verse when
sent down to the Prophet, he had achieved most of his

1
. Quran, 4:59.
126

tasks in order to representing Islamic teachings to

Muslims, and God says to Prophet if you do not this
command, it means that you have not achieved your task
of prophecy completely:
O' messenger, deliver what is sent down to you from your
lord; if you do not, you will not have conveyed his
message. Allah protects you from the people. Allah does
not guide the nation, the unbelievers.1
After sending down this verse, the Prophet called for all
Muslims who were with him and introduced Ali as his
successor and caliph of Muslims. Most of Sunni and Shia
scholars and theologians accept that this verse was sent
down to Prophet in the day of Gadir Khom and he
immediately, by calling for and gathering Muslims,
introduced Ali as Muslims caliphs, then this verse
certainly indicates the Imamate of Ali.
10. Ali's Imamate in Prophet's Traditions and Words

As well as the Quran's verses, Shia theologians use words
and hadiths of the Prophet in order to demonstrate
Imamate of Ali. Since the history of Islam, in particular

1
. Quran, 5:67.
127

lifetime of Muhammad, shows many situations in which

the Prophet introduced or mentioned and remembered
Ali's caliphate and Imamate repeatedly. Here we consider
some hadiths of the Prophet concerning this matter.
10.1. Hadith of Wezarat

The hadith of Wezarat is related to the first days of the
Prophet invitations in which he had tried to invite his
relatives to Islam, then called his relatives to his home
and invited them to Islam and said that everyone who
accept his invitation, he can be as his caliph and
successor after him, in this situation there was only Ali
who announced his acceptance three times and the
Prophet by considering Ali's accepting, said to the guests:
This person, certainly is my brother, successor and
caliph among you; then hear his words and obey his
commands.1
10.2. Hadith of Manzelat

This hadith is one of special words of the Prophet
Muhammad which directly is related to Imamate of Ali in

1
. Tabatabaei, Shia, trans by Nasr, Ibid, p 202.
128

which the Prophet enumerates the place of Ali towards

him such as Aaron to Moses. Prophet said to Ali:
Are you not satisfied to be to me what Aaron was to
Moses except that after me there will not be another
Prophet?1
In fact, in this hadith the Prophet explains all virtues of a
Prophet, like Aaron, for Ali, except prophecy. Then
according to this, Ali has the position of caliphate of the
Prophet and Imamate of Muslims. The expression
Manzelat in this hadith means position and place which
someone has, and we know one of positions of Aaron to
Moses was his prophecy caliphate, but because of sealing
of the Prophet Muhammad, Ali is only the caliphate and
successor of the Prophet Muhammad not prophecy.
10.3. Hadith of Ghadir

One of the most famous hadiths of the Prophet
Muhammad about Imamate of Ali is the Hadith of Ghadir
Khom which was said by the Prophet after sending of
verse of Tabligh in the place of Ghadir khom. In this day,
the Prophet DFFRUGLQJ WR *RG¶V FRPPDQGV LQ RUGHU WR

1
. Ibid, P 202.
129

represent his final religious task, when he and Muslims

were coming back from pilgrimage of Hajj to their lands,
gathered them in the land of Ghadir Khom and had a
lecture with speaking of some important issues for
Muslims, then said:
I will go to the day after life before you, and leave for
you two valuable heritage. The first is the Quran as the
divine book and the second is my household, be careful as
to how you behave toward them, these two will never be
separated from each other until they encounter me at
(fountain) Kawthar in paradise.1
Then the Prophet took hands of Ali and asked Muslims:
2¶ people, which one of you is superior to believers from
themselves?
Muslims answered: Prophet himself knows better than
everybody. After that, Prophet said:
Certainly God is my master, and I am the master of
believers and know their benefits, so, for whomever I am
his Master (Mowla), and the authority whom he obeys,
Ali will be his Master. Oh God, Be friendly with the

1
. Ibid, p 200.
130

friends of Ali and enemy of the enemies of Ali.1 When

Prophet achieved his religious task and introduced Ali as
his caliphate and master of Muslims, God immediately
sent down this verse of Surah Maedah, and said:
This day I have perfected your religion for you and
completed my favor to you. I have approved Islam to be
your religion.2
It is necessary to say that there is no doubt and
differences among Shia and Sunni scholars and
theologians about historical fact and words of Prophet in
Ghadir khom, but the difference is how to interpret
Prophet's words. Most of Sunni theologians try to
interpret and explain the Word Mowla as Love and grace,
that is, they maintain that Prophet said everyone loves
me, should love Ali, and there is no religious or political
leadership and authority for Ali. But Shia theologians
argue that the word Mowla means being Master, and in
this important situation, by considering of sending down
the verse of Surah Nesa, it is vain that the Prophet merely
announced his love to Ali and by this achievement he can

1
. Ibid, P 199.
2
. Quran, 5:3.
131

complete his religious tasks, and forgot to appoint

Muslim's master after himself.
10.4. Hadith of Kawsar or Seqelayn

As it was mentioned in above lines the hadith of Kawsar
is one the famous words of the Prophet in which he both
emphasizes on the validity of the Quran and his
household for Muslims after him. It seems that the
Prophet had said and remembered this fact in any cases
that one of the most situations is in Ghadir in which
Prophet said:
It seems that God has called me unto Himself and I must
obey His call. But I leave two great and precious things
among you: the book of God and my household. Be
careful as to how you behave toward them. These two will
never be separated from each other until they encounter
me at Kawsar in paradise.1
This hadith shows the most important of cooperation of
the Quran and Prophet's household for taking real
happiness for Muslims, then, because of high position of
Ali nearby Prophet Muhammad, it is clear that the first

1
. Tabatabaei, Ibid, P 200.
132

reference of his household is Ali just as historical evident

of Islam and other words of Prophet argue this fact.
11. Infallibility of Ali as Imam

Shia theologians consider infallibility as one of the most
necessary and important virtues of Imam like Prophet.
Hence, they believe in not only infallibility of Ali as the
first Imam, but also believe in infallibility of eleven
Imams after him, and argue this virtue by referring to this
verse of Surah Ahzab as well as intellective reasons
which was mentioned in previous parts:
Allah only wishes to distance fault from you, and to
cleanse you, and to purify you abundantly.1
In this verse, God says that He wants to remove and
clean any sin, fault and dirty from household of the
Prophet, that is, his family, in particular Ali and other
Imams as his progeny, according to this verse, are pure
and infallible people for whom is impossible to perpetrate
any sin and mistake.

1
. Quran, 33:33.
133

12. Superiority of Ali Towards Others

One of virtues of Ali towards other companions of the
Prophet Muhammad is his superiority in all or most
perfections. This is a historical and theological fact that
even Sunni scholars have acknowledged and some of
them wrote many books for explaining some aspects of
personal virtues of Ali that are superior to other
companions of the Prophet. Ibn Abbas, of famous
companions of the Prophet, narrated a word of him in
which the Prophet says:
If all threes of gardens are changed to pens and Jinns try
to numerate and humans try to write virtues of Ali, they
FDQ¶WGRVXFKZRUNEHFDXVHRILQILQLW\RIKLVYLUWXHV1
13. Twelve Imams

There are different points of view between Shia Muslims
about the number of Imams after martyrdom of Imam
Hussayn. Some of Shia Muslims believe in four Imams
and are called Zeidieh, some other maintain to seven
Imams and are called Ismaeilieh, but most of Shia
Muslims believe in twelve Imams and are called

1
. Saeidi Mehr, Ibid, P 172.
134

Imamiyeh. Imamyieh Shia is applied to those of Shia who

believes in infallibility of all Imams and maintains that
Imam exists in every time, that there is one Imam
continuously on the earth as the caliph and proof of God,
and considers Imams as twelve ones.
The Quran has not mentioned the names of Imams
directly, but we can find some verses that indicate some
virtues of Imams as successors of the Prophet, for
example in Surah Nesa, we read:
There are hadiths and words of the Prophet Muhammad
in which he not only mentioned the place of Imamate but
also cited the names of twelve Imams. As well as words
of the Prophet about Imamate of Ali, we can pay attention
to the context of hadith of Seqelayn in which the Prophet
emphasized on cooperation and unity between the Quran
and his household that is called Imams. In addition, we
have some words of the Prophet that he had spoken about
twelve Imams generally or in detail, for example in a

1
. Quran, 4:59.
135

hadith which was narrated in Sahih Muslem, the Prophet

said:
God's religion is alive continually until the Day of
Judgment or until my twelve successors of Quraysh will
guide Muslims.1
And we can pay attention to the narration of Ibn Abbas
who asked of the Prophet Muhammad:
how many are Imams after you?
The Prophet said:
Their numbers are equal to the Apostles of Jesus Christ
and the tribes of Moses and Chiefs of the children of
Israel, Imams after me are twelve persons, first of them is
Ali Ibn Abitaleb, after him are two his sons: Hassan and
Hussayn, after martyrdom of Hussayn, the forth Imam is
his son Ali Ibn Hussayn, after him the fifth Imam is
Muhammad Ibn Ali, then his son Ja'afar Ibn Muhammad,
then his son Musa Ibn Ja'afar, then his son Ali Ibn Musa,
then his son Muhammad Ibn Ali, and then his son Ali Ibn
Muhammad, then his son Hassan Ibn Ali, and his Son as
the twelve Imam and the last one Mahdi.2

1
. See Sahih Muslim, Vol. 3, P 1453, & Amini, Ibid, P 108.
2
. See Gayatul Maram, Vol. 1, P 106, & Amini, ibid, p 110, &
Allameh Majlesi, Biharol Anwar, Vol. 36, P 286.
136

As Shia Imamyieh believe the number of Imams are

twelve and the last one, that is Imam Mahdi is alive and
in great occultation and will reappear in the future. The
first Imam was Ali Ibn Abitaleb who was born in Mecca
and was lived with Muhammad most of his lifetime and
got married with his only daughter Fatimah. He was
martyred in the year 40 Ah in the Morning Prayer by one
of his enemies after about 30 year Imamate. Ali,
meantime, was as fourth Muslims caliph in last five years
of his lifetime. The second Imam was Hassan Ibn Ali,
great son of Ali. He has the position of Imamate after Ali
and was living during Muavyieh as the first caliph of
Bani Umayieh Empire. The third Imam was Hussayn the
brother of Imam Hassan. He was lived during Muavyieh
and his son Yazid and martyred by his enemies in the
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fourth Imam, Ali Ibn Hussayn, son of Imam Hussayn,
who was lived in Medina after martyrdom of his father,
then Imam Baqer and Imam Sadeq were as fifth and sixth
Imams during Bani Umayieh Empire. They had a great
role in forming and developing of Shia Imamyieh beliefs
and Islamic sciences like theology, jurisprudence, hadith,
interpretation of the Quran and empirical sciences like
137

chemistry, and they left worthy heritage of Islamic

sciences among Muslims. The seventh to eleventh Imams
were Imam Musa Kazem, Imam Reza, Imam Muhammad
Javad, Imam Hadi, and Imam Hassan Askari who were
living during Abbasid Empire and had many great
restrictions in publishing of Shia beliefs and all of them
martyred by their enemies.
14. Imam Mahdi

In Shia theology Imam Mahdi is as the last Imam of chain
of Imamate, and they believe he is alive now and
according to God's destiny will return and reappear in the
future in order to save the world from evilness and
oppressions and establish the Godly and justly
government for taking real happiness of all humans.
Believing in above notes was caused to form the theory of
Mahdaviat among Shia Muslims and they try to argue this
by transmitted and intellectual arguments.
According to Shia history, Imam Mahdi as the son of
Imam Hassan Askari, was born in fifteenth of month of
Sha'aban of 255 (AH), in the city of Samerra in Iraq
during of Abbasid empire. He has many names like
+RMMDW4D¶HP6DKHED]=DPDQDQGVRRQ+HZDVERUQLQ
138

hiding because of affording of Abbasid Empire to find the

son of eleventh Imam in order to kill him. He was
appointed as Imam when he was five years and his father
was died in 260 AH, while there were few Shia people
and followers of him who had knowledge about him and
his Imamate.
The time of Imamate of Imam Mahdi was in two
separated parts, first the time of lesser occultation and
second the time of great occultation. The lesser
occultation took 69 years until to 329 AH, and after that
time his great occultation was started and has continued
until now and will continue as far as God wants. In the
time of lesser occultation, there were four persons who
were his representatives for making relations between
Imam and Shia Muslims, they are Osman Ibn Sa'eid,
Muhammad Ibn Osman, Hussayn Ibn Ruh Nubakhti, and
Ali Ibn Muhhamad Samari who died in 329 AH and was
started the time of great occultation. According to Shia
Islamic beliefs, in the age of great occultation, there are
religious scholars and jurisprudents who are reference
139

and responsible to religious questions and needs of

Muslims.1
15.Mahdaviat in Islamic Thought and the Quran

Mahdaviat is one of the most important and essential
alive beliefs and teachings in the theology of Shia, hence
they try to argue it by using of intellectual and transmitted
reasoning and show its functions at present time and its
most basic role for the future of humankind. First of all
things, Shia theologians show the Mahdaviat as a global
and universal ideal for all people in the world including
Christians, Jews and other religions. For this fact, they
use some verses of Old Testament, the Bible and
Zoroaster books. For example we read in the chapter 24
of the Bible of Matthew:
when the lightening appears from east to the west is
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will see the son of human ride on the clouds of heaven
with power and greatness.2

1
2
. Matthew; 24:27-30.
140

There are, also, some verses in the Quran show the

importance of Mahdaviat, for example: Surahs Anbia;
Qesas and Tubah have some notes about this. In Surah
Anbia, we read:
We have written in the psalms, after the remembrance:
'the righteous among my worshipers shall inherit the
earth.1
In Surah Qesas, there is this verse:
But we wanted to be gracious to those abased in the
land, and to make them leaders and inheritors.2
And Surah Tubah, says:
It is he who has sent forth his messenger with guidance
and the religion of truth to uplift it above every religion,
no matter how much the idolaters hate it.3
In addition to the Quran, we can see many hadiths of Shia
and Sunni viewpoints which show the importance of
Mahdaviat, for example this word of the Prophet
Muhammad was narrated by Sunni scholars:

1
. Quran, 21:105.
2
. Quran, 28:5.
3
. Quran, 9:33.
141

If there is only one day until to the Day of Judgment, God

will send a man for my household to establish justice as
previously oppression was there.1
16.Some Properties of Mahdi in Shia Point of View

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Imam as Mahdi, and believe that he will be born in the
future, but Shia theologians by using of authentic
narrations and evidences, argue that the son of eleventh
Imam is Mahdi who will reappear in the future.
About the lifetime of Mahdi there are some questions,
how is it possible to live long? We should notice that
having long life is of natural impossibilities not essential
or rational ones, like God's miracles, then, having long
life is possible according to miracles of God.
The merit of believing in the existence of Mahdi is to
strengthening hope of waiting for his reappearance and
preparation for participating in plans for reformation of
the world. His plan includes ousting monarch
governments and eradicating their oppression forever,
establishing a single Islamic government and developing

1
$\DWXOODK-D¶IDU6XQKDQL$O(ODK\LDW4RP,PDP6DGHT
Institute, 1417Ah, Vol. 4, P 133-134.
142

justice, promoting Islam throughout the world above

other religions, complete eradication of infidelity and
enforcement of Islamic verdicts and removing poverty
and deprivation forever.1
We can ask: what causes has lead to Mahdi's absence? It
seems God knows the original causes of Mahdi's absence,
DQG ZH GRQ¶W NQRZ LW FHUWDLQO\ EXW E\ FRQVLGHULQJ RI
some Islamic teachings, we can find some reasons, like
this:2
1. Escaping of martyrdom by enemies: we know if Mahdi
had lived like previous Imams, he such as them had been
killed by Abbasid governments, then divine wisdom has
necessitated that he has hided from most of people until
God wants, because if he had been killed, God's will to
establishing global justice was failed.
2. Divine examination for Muslims: it means that by this
absence, God examines Muslims in order to distinguish
true believers from weak ones, Imam Sadeq says:

1
. See: Amini, Ibid, P 327.
2
143

As the occultation of Mahdi will continue in order to

clear truth and the faith of true believers from those who
are unbelievers.1
The Prophet Muhammad said:
By Allah, who appointed me for giving good tiding,
Mahdi from my progeny will hide because of a promise.
Then most of the people will say: Allah does not need the
household of Muhammad. Some others will doubt about
his birth altogether. So everyone who is present in
occultation time should attempt in maintaining his
religion and avoiding satanic temptations. He may get
you out of my religion, as he drove your parents away
from paradise before. Allah has given guardianship of the
disbelievers to Satan.2
3. Refutation of oppressive governments: it means that
Mahdi, in the contrary to previous Imams, is not
determined to tolerate some oppressive governments, but
he can fight to all unbelievers and tyrants when he will
return.

1
. Allameh Majlesi, Baharul Anwar, ?????, Vol. 52, P 101.
2
. Isbatul Huda, Vol.6, P 386.
144

17.Imamate's Functions in the Age of Absence

Occultation of Mahdi does not mean that he is not among
Muslims absolutely, but he lives among people but they
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have faith in the high level. It means that Mahdi lives in
this world between Muslims and sees their behaviors and
in some cases solves their problems. Of course most of
Shia people can refer to religious scholars and ask their
religious requirements in these situations.
One of the most important works of followers of Shia
Muslims is to expect and wait for manifesting of Mahdi
by doing true Islamic teachings. Imam Sadeq says:
Whoever of you died while he was waiting for
manifestation of Mahdi, he is like someone who seats
nearby Mahdi and is like someone who fights nearby
Mahdi to his enemies and is like someone who fights
nearby the Prophet Muhammad to his enemies and was
martyred.1

1
. Allameh Majlesi, Ibid, Vol. 52, P126.
145

18.The Life of Mahdi and His Reappearance

There are some questions about the long life of Mahdi,
and some people ask: how is it possible to live about
1000 or more years? It is logical and rational to live more
than thousands years by will of God, and there were
people who had long life such the Prophet Noah.
About the reappearance of Mahdi, there are many words,
but we concentrate on hadiths of Imams and the Prophet
Muhammad which are certain. It is clear, Mahdi will
return to revive Islamic teachings and laws, and destroy
oppression and develop divine justice in all areas of the
world. It seems that, his divine revolution is not limited to
a region, but is a global one and encompasses all nations
and people in the universe. In fact, disbelievers will be
eradicated and Islam will overcome other religions, and
the holders of heavenly religions will live together
peacefully.
146

Chapter 5
Resurrection
1. Introduction
When we think about the end of our life, and know that
our natural life is not immortal, we are encountered with
the importance of death as the end of empirical living and
the hereafter life as another universe next to this life. In
fact, the principle of resurrection answers most of our
questions about the meaning of material life, nature of
dying and purpose of human's works in this world. In
other words, believing in resurrection can make sense
whole life of human, and can reply human's goals which
are formed in the mundane universe, since humankind is
an existent that has many material and spiritual aims
which the latter one can be actualized only in the Day of
Judgment. So, believing in resurrection and hereafter
provides a comprehensive point of view for human by
147

which he can consider the end of his activities and real

happiness. In fact, there is a deep and essential relation
between mundane and hereafter life, so that this world is
introductory stage of that universe, that is, it is our works
in this world which makes our happiness or unhappiness
in the Day of Judgment. Then a human who believes in
resurrection, considers mundane life as a farm of the Day
of Judgment, and maintains that final reward and
punishment of our works will be appeared in that day,
hence, human rationality commands us to search and
study about the nature and properties of resurrection.
2. The Place Resurrection in Islam

Islam as the last divine religion pays the most attention to
the problem of resurrection, so far as, believing in
resurrection is one of three principal beliefs in Islam. It
means that, if somebody does not believe in resurrection,
he certainly is not a Muslim. Hence, there are many
verses of the Quran in which God describes most virtues
of resurrection and the Day of Judgment. The Quran
speaks of both the possibility and necessity of
resurrection through many methods, and answers to
unbelievers' questions, and explains the quality of
148

bounties and harms of paradise and hell in order to aware

human about the end of his/her actions and to direct them.
Due to the principal important of resurrection in Islam,
Islamic theologians consider it as one of the three
principal beliefs in Islamic theology, and try to explain
most of its aspects by using of the Quran's verses, the
Prophet's sayings and traditions. In fact so far most of
issues are related to resurrection, are about the future
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correctly, in Islamic theology, most of these issues are
discussed in transmitted method not rational one1.
3. Meaning of Resurrection
In Islamic literature the word Ma'ad is used as
Resurrection. Ma'ad means returning, and believing in
Ma'ad means human maintains that his/her soul will
return to his body and they will be presented to God in
the Day of Judgment. Hence, according to Islamic
teachings, we can say Ma'ad means believing in that
human's life is not ended by natural death, but he will
transfer to another universe and will be responsible for

1
. Saeidi Mehr, Ibid, Vol. 2, p 207.
149

his/her works and actions which achieved in the natural

world, then humans will divided into two parts of the
good people who go to paradise, and bad people who go
to hell.1
4. The Nature of Death

In Islamic teachings human death is his/her certainly
destiny and there is no choice to remove it. It means that
all human beings as they are born in a day, will die in a
day, and nobody can be eternal in this material world. By
this fact, it seems that living in this world is not eternal
anGKXPDQV¶ILQDOJRDOEXWWUDQVIHUULQJWRDQRWKHUZRUOG
for eternal living is the basic aim. Then for definition of
death, it can be said, it is the separation of human's soul
from his/her body, and transferring soul to spiritual
universe. So human death is not the end of his/her life
absolutely, but it is a stage by which he/she passes this
mundane universe and goes to another world1.
There are two kinds of viewpoints among Islamic
theologians about kinds of death. They say, in the first
kind, human's body separates from soul because of some

1
. Abdul Razzaq Lahiji, Sarmaye Iman, P 159.
150

problems in human's body or its wear, then, it loses its

pretence to be accompaniment of soul. In the second
kind, human's soul separates from body since the soul
gained some spiritual perfection by them it does need to
body and must go to another world, this kind of death is
called natural death.2
5. Human's Death in the Quran

Because of most importance of death, the Quran pays
more attention to that, and describes its necessity, virtues
and quality of living in paradise and hell. The Quran at
first emphasizes that wherever you are, death finds you,
and there is no everlasting life for anybody in this
mundane universe. In this case, we see these verses:
1. Wherever you are, death will overtake you, even if you
shall be in the fortified, high towers.3
2. We have never assigned immortality to a human before
you, therefore, if you yourself die, will they live for ever?4

1
. Saeidi Mehr, Ibid, Vol. 2, p 227.
2
. Allameh Tabatabaei, The origin and end of human, Trans by
Sadeq Larijani, Tehran, Alzahra Press, 2000, P 207-214.
3
. Quran, 4, 78.
4
. Quran, 21, 34.
151

3. All that live on it will perish, yet the face of your lord
will abide forever, majestic and splendid.1
There are another verses of the Quran in which indicate
that death is nothing except transferring of human's soul
to another world and you will be presented before your
God. It means that by death all people go to the future
world and have another life according to their actions in
the natural world, then some of them are happy and some
are sad. The Quran also says that human death is similar
to his sleep, since in both God takes away human's soul,
but in death this taking away is absolutely but in sleeping
is not. In these cases we can see some verses like this:
Ͳ Upon that day the driving shall be to your lord.2
Ͳ O' satisfied soul, return to your lord well pleased, well
pleasing.3
Ͳ Who watch over you until death comes to one of you,
when our messengers take him, and they are not
neglectful.4

1
. Quran, 55, 26-27.
2
. Quran, 75:30.
3
. Quran, 89:27-28.
4
. Quran, 6:61.
152

Ͳ Allah takes away souls at the time of their death (the

temporary death of sleep), and those who do not die
during their sleep he withholds that upon which he has
decreed death, but turns lose the other till a stated term.
Surely, there are signs in this for a nation who
contemplate.1
6. Some Properties of Death in the Quran and

Tradition
We can find virtues of death by using of the Quran and

Islamic tradition. They explain some processes of human
death and differences among people who die, as follow:2
A. God and angles as receivers of human's soul: the

Quran mentions that God, and in some cases, angles take
away human's soul and separate their spirit from body:
Allah takes away souls at the time of their death.1
Until death comes to one of you, when our messengers

take him and they are not neglectful.2

1
. Quran, 39:42.
2
. Saeidi Mrhe, Ibid, P 229-233.
153

Say: the angel of death, who has been given charge of

you, will gather you then to your lord you shall be
returned.3
B. Creation of death by God: the Quran clearly asserts

that God himself creates death for all existents including
humankinds, as He created life of them:
Who created death and life that he might examine which

of you is best in deeds, and he is the almighty, the
forgiving.4
C. Certain and conditional moment of death: the

Quran mentions that there are two kinds of certain and
conditional moment of death. It means that some people
can change the time of their conditional time of death by
worshiping and purifying and servitude to God's
commands:

1
. Quran, 39:42.
2
. Quran, 6:61.
3
. Quran, 32:11.
4
. Quran, 57:2.
154

It is he who has created you from clay. He has decreed a

term for you and another one set with him. Yet you are
still in doubt.1
D. 'LIIHUHQFHV EHWZHHQ EHOLHYHUV DQG XQEHOLHYHUV¶

death: some verses of the Quran show that there are some
GLIIHUHQW YLUWXHV RI EHOLHYHUV DQG XQEHOLHYHUV¶ death, so
that, believers accept death with hospitality and
welcoming by some angles, but second group are forced
to die while their death are accompaniment by some pains
and harms:
Whom the angels take while they are goodly, saying:

'peace be on you, enter paradise for what you were
doing.1
E.Fearing of death: the Quran and other Islamic

teachings show that most of humans fear of death because
of its big terrible virtues, and some people try to conquer
or forget the remembrance of death. The Quran says there
are some reasons for fearing of death including:
1. Extreme dependency to mundane life,

1
. Quran, 6:2.
155

2. Unawareness of reality of death,
3. Fearing of auditing of humans actions.
About the first reason, the Quran mentions that because

of extremely human's tendency to material life, in most
time he considers it as final goal and ignores spiritual life.
Then, the Quran in some verses mentions the valueless of
mundane living and authenticity of spiritual life, for
example:
Say, 'the pleasure of this life is little. the everlasting life is

better for the cautious.2
7. Some virtues of Isthmus
Islamic teachings tell us that humans after dying and

before the Day of Judgment will stay in a place and stage
is called Isthmus (Alame Barzakh), which is the first
stage of human life after dying until the great
resurrection. We can call Isthmus as lesser resurrection.
Imam Sadeq says:

1
. Quran, 16:32.
2
. Quran, 4:77.
156

Isthmus is the tomb from the time of death until great

resurrection.1
It seems hat we can argue the being of isthmus by

accepting spirituality of human's soul, it means that, by
considering abstraction of human's soul, it must be
accepted that human's soul will not be perished after
his/her death and can continue its living in another
universe which can be named as Isthmus, since the time
of great resurrection is not reached. By paying attention
to abstraction of human's spirit, it seems that human life
in the isthmus is a kind of spiritual and ideal one, which
has some virtues of matter like shape, measure and color
DQGGRQ¶WKDYHVRPHYLUWXHVOLNH weight, bulk and body.
Some Islamic thinker maintain to a kind of ideal body for
humans in isthmus which is accompanied with soul.
There are many verses in the holy Quran which explain

most properties of isthmus, the quality of bounty and
harm, torment of the tomb, grave question and so on. The
Quran mentions the word Isthmus repeatedly and says

1
. Kulaini, Usule Kafi, Qom, Elmieh Islamyieh Press, 1979, Vol.
3, P 242.
157

that after dying and entering to isthmus, coming back to

mundane life is impossible.
Until, when death comes to one of them he says: 'my lord,

let me go back, that I should do righteousness in that I
forsook. ' No! it is only a word which he will speak.
Behind them there shall stand a barrier till the day that
they shall be resurrected.1
Some verses of the Quran argue that humans have a kind

of awareness and life in isthmus, and they live in that
happily or sad based on their works in previous universe.
You must not think that those who were killed in the way
of Allah are dead. But rather, they are alive with their
lord and have been provided for, rejoicing in the bounty
that Allah has given to them and having glad tidings in
those who remain behind and have not joined them, for
no fear shall be on them neither shall they sorrow.2
In addition, there are some words of the Holy Prophets

that indicate dead people can aware of the quality of alive
people, and in isthmus some believers are happy because

1
. Quran, 23:99-100.
2
. Quran, 3:170.
158

of blessings of their relatives in this world. The Quran

shows that there is a kind of paradise and hell in isthmus
for dead persons in which God rewards believers and
punishes unbelievers. In fact, people before the Day of
Judgment, imagine badness and goodness of their actions
in isthmus.
8. Corporeal or Spiritual Resurrection
Because of generous and most importance of

Resurrection nearby divine religions and believers, in
particular Islam and Muslims, there are two different
views about spirituality or corporeality of that. Islamic
theologians with accepting the reality of resurrection, try
to understand and argue some of its virtues like
corporeality or spirituality. The meaning of corporeal
resurrection is that in the hereafter, humans will be
presented with their material and corporeal body and will
be rewarded or punished corporeally. But spiritual
resurrection indicates that humans will be rewarded and
punished with their spiritual existence and they will get
spiritual enjoyments or pains.
There are some theological, philosophical and Quranic

signs and proofs for supporting corporeality and
159

spirituality of resurrection in Islam. Some of Islamic

theologians by referring to verses of the Quran and
arguing that returning of human's body after his/her death
is impossible, try to demonstrate corporeal resurrection.
They argue after human death, and in the Day of
Resurrection, God will gathered all parts of his/her body
and form the previous body again, in order to reward or
punishment.1 Most of Islamic philosophers, in the
FRQWUDU\GXHWREHOLHYLQJLQKXPDQ¶VDEVWUDFWVRXODUJXH
that the origin of him is his soul who after getting some
perfections, separates from body, then the human soul is
just responsible to all his good or bad actions, and the
body plays role as an instrument. So, the resurrection of
soul must be spiritual not corporeal. But there is the third
viewpoint that believes in both corporeality and
spirituality of resurrection which is more compatible with
teachings of Islam. They maintain that resurrection has
two material and immaterial virtues and humans will be
appeared with their both corporeal and spiritual
dimensions. Most of Islamic philosophers and
theologians including Shia ones support this point of

1
. Fazel Meqdad, Ershad Altalebin, P 406-409.
160

view.1 It seems that because of close relation between

body and soul for taking human happiness or
unhappiness, it should be rational that in the Day of
Judgment both of them are responsible for their actions.

1
. Taftazani, Sharhol Maqased, Part 5, P 88, and Mulla Sadra,
Asfarul Arba'a, Vol. 9, P 165.
161

162

Resources
Ͳ Abobakr Baqelani, Tamhidul Avael, Beirut, Cultural

books Institute, 1407Ah.
Ͳ Ali Rabbani Golpayegani, Discursive Beliefs, Qom,

Hajar Press, 2011, Vol.1.
Ͳ Ali Rabbani Golpayegani, Introduction to Theology,
Qom, Darolfekr Press, 1999.
Ͳ Ali Rabbani Golpayegani, Theological Schools and
Sects, Qom, Al Mustafa University, 1998.
Ͳ Allamah Helli, Kashful Morad, translated and
interpreted by Ali Shirvani, Iran, Qom, Darolfekr
publication, 2010.
Ͳ Allamah Muhammad Rida Al Muzaffar, The Faith of
Shia Islam, Qom, Ansariyan Publications, 2008.
Ͳ Allamah Sayyid Muhammad Husayn Tabatabaei,
Shia, Translated by Sayyid Husayn Nasr, Qom,
Ansariyan publications, 2009.
Ͳ Allamah Tabatabaei, Al Mizan fi Tafsir Al Quran,
Vol. 12.
163

Ͳ Allameh Helli, Kashful Morad, Translated and

commentary by Ali Shirvani, Qom, Darulfekr, 2010,
Vol. 1-2.
Ͳ Allameh Majlesi, Biharul Anwar, Vol. 68.
Ͳ Allameh Tabatabaei, The origin and end of human,
Trans by Sadeq Larijani, Tehran, Alzahra Press, 2000.
Ͳ Ash Shaykh Saduq, A Shi'ite Creed, translated by Asaf
A. A. Fyzee, Tehran, World Organization of Islamic
Services, 1999.
Ͳ Ayatullah Ibrahim Amini, Imamate and the Imams,
translated by Hamideh Elahinia, Qom, Ansariyan
publications, 2011.
Ͳ Ayatullah Ibrahim Amini, Introduction to Islam, trans
by Sayyid Athar Husain Rizvi, Ansariyan
Publications, 2000.
Ͳ Ayatullah Ibrahim Amini, Knowing God, translated by
Sayyid Athar Husain Rizvi, Ansariyan publications,
2011.
Ͳ Ayatullah Ibrahim Amini, Prophethooh and the
Prophet of Islam, Sayyid Athar Husain Rizvi, Qom,
Ansarian publication, 2011.
Ͳ Ayatullah Ja'far Sobhani, Charter of Imamyah Beliefs,
Qom, Imam Sadeq Research Institute, 1997.
164

Ͳ Imam Ali, Najul Balagheh.

Ͳ Kulaini, Usule Kafi, Qom, Elmieh Islamyieh Press,
1979, Vol. 3.
Ͳ 0RKKDPDG $OL 6KRPDOL 'LVFRYHULQJ 6KL¶L ,slam,
London, Centre for Cultural and Ethical Studies, 2010.
Ͳ Motahhari, Collections of Works, Tehran, Vol. 3.

Ͳ Muhammad Reza Al Muzaffar, The Faith of Shia
Islam, Qom, Ansariyan publications, 2008.
Ͳ Muhammad Reza Kashefi, Theology of Shia, Tehran,
Research Institute for Islamic culture and Thought,
2007.
Ͳ Muhammad Sa'aidi Mehr, Islamic Theology, Taha
publications, 2002. Vol. 1&2.
Ͳ Murtada Motahhari, Understanding Islamic Sciences,
translated by R. Campbell & others, Islamic Center for
Advanced Studies, London, 2002.
Ͳ Sayyid Muhammad Husayni Beheshti, God in the
Quran, translated by Ali Naqi Baqershahi, Tehran,
International publishing Co, 2002.
Ͳ Sayyid Muhammad Rizvi, Shi'ism: Imamate and
Wilayat, Qom, Ansariyan publications, 2007.
165
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Shia Islamic Beliefs

Qodratullah Qorbani (PhD.)

Assistant Professor of Philosophy,

Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran

Chapter 2: Unity of God

ϵ͘ Divine Life and Eternity 71

Chapter 3: Prophecy or Prophethood

11.Aspects of the Quran's Miracle 107

4. Hadith of Kawsar or Seqelayn 132

Dr. Qodratullah Qorbani has Ph.D. Degree in

Religious Science Theories. He has almost written 30

In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate and the

It seems that contemporary world has been involved in

need to publish and extent all aspects of Islamic teachings

The book, Shia Islamic Beliefs, tries to picture summary

I hope I can do my religious task to explain Shia theology

Qodratullah Qorbani (Ph.D.)

General Notes about Islam and Shia

of Mecca, first, and Medina and other cities of Hijaz and

backgrounds of real happiness of mundane and spiritual

Ϯ͘ Some Universal Properties of Islam

nearby God. The Quran emphasizes that Ibrahim was not

religion and the best way to understand God and getting

ϯ͘ Fundamental Beliefs in Islam

ϭ͘ 7DZKƯG (Unity): The Oneness and Unity of Allah.

resurrection. Here we give some information about these

3.1. Unity of God

He sent Prophets to all nations to instruct and guide

beliefs in Islam, which without accepting it, nobody can

ϰ͘ Islamic Theological Schools

4.1. Sunni Schools

Wahhabism. They refuge the value of human reason, and

argued that their beliefs about most of theological issues,

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4.2. Shia Schools

ϱ͘ General Properties of Shia Theology

the distinctive institution of Shia Islam. Sunni Muslims

Then Shia theology was started from the time of the

revelation determined them for explaining Islamic

By considering above notes, we can give a complete

fact, they are Guardians of people that have right to

So, it can be said that, Shia theology is raised from

can determine the identity of Shia theology by

It is known that Shia Muslim consider Imamate and

ϲ͘ The Causes and Origins of Shia Theology

6.1. The personality of Ali

trained him for several years. In addition, Ali was one of

6.2. The verses of the Quran

6.3. The place of Ali nearby Prophet Muhammad

knower of the Quran and so on which none of

6.4. Clear religious texts

words of the Prophet and Imams are death with a rational

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