Recognition of the Imams in The Light of Traditions

Recognition of the Imams in The Light of Traditions.

Imamate and leadership are among the significant
issues of which every Muslim should have a clear
understanding and to which should recognize his/her
responsibility.

 Imamate is a subject to which the Holy
Prophet has paid special attention.
The Prophet has mentioned it frequently in his speeches and it has been discussed in various times and places and in
different ways.

Its significance is to such an extent that according to traditions, agreed upon by the Shia and the Sunni—some of which will follow—the great Prophet of Islam (a.s) warned sharply: “One who dies
without knowing the Imam of his age dies as a pagan,” and hence will be raised beside apostates and disbelievers on the Resurrection Day.

Moreover, the Muslim community would have naturally faced this Issue after the tragic demise of the Holy Prophet (a.s),
since the question then was that who would be the Prophet’s successor and how the Muslims’ affairs should be managed.

Therefore, seeking and finding the truth about Imamate, unscathed by pagan bias, is an inevitable necessity for the Muslims.

Discussions on Imamate 

are presented in three main ways, each having its own characteristics.

These are as follows:

1. Logical Method: In this method, the necessity of Imamate and Imam’s infallibility is proved via for example Lutf (benevolence) principle and logical
understanding and then by this principle and its results, consequences of Imamate are stated.

2. Miracle Method: Here, individuals make sure of the Imams’ truthfulness by seeing directly or getting information about their miracles.

3. Nass (wording) Method: In this case, the Imams’ Imamate is determined by the Prophet’s introduction or stipulation or each Imam’s introduction of his next
successor (s).


In various books written about Imamate, Imam Ali’s leadership after the Prophet (a.s) has been stated in all the above-mentioned ways.
But the leadership of other Imams has been proved via the first (Logical) and the
second (Miracle) methods.

The purpose of this book is to prove
Imamatevia the third method (Nass) and mostly traditions narrated by the Sunnis and is organized in such a way to be
helpful for most people.

To begin with, is there any leadership after the Prophet (a.s) at all? Attempts to find the answer to this question is the start of our research.

In this view, this issue is proved by presenting various traditions and we will find out that Imamate existed after the
Prophet (a.s) and this continued through the ages.

Whenever a bright star from thisHousehold of the Holy Prophet (the Ahl al-Bayt) set, another would rise and hence the earth would never be without a Hujjah.

Then in proceeding with this research, we deal with our Imams’ characteristics in order to distinguish them.

So, Imamate is first proved as a vast circle and then this circle is gradually reduced to include only the Twelve Imams.

With this introduction, the issues
will be discussed in the following order:
-The meaning of Imamate and leadership,
-The continuation of Imamate and the necessity of knowing the Imam,
-The number of the Imams and that they are twelve in number and all from Quraysh,
-The Ahl al-Bayt (a.s) and Imamate,
-The intended concept of the Ahl al-Bayt (a.s)
-The leadership of the Ahl al-Bayt (a.s)
-Presence of people from the Ahl al-Bayt (a.s) until the Resurrection Day,

Belonging of Imams to the Prophet’s Household (a.s),
-Names and identity of Imams.

Before getting to this last step and finding the names and identification of the Imams in ahadith (traditions of the Holy Prophet), traditions from Sunni books have been used.

In each chapter, care is taken as to include stipulation of Sunni clerics for at least some of the traditions.
This makes the Sunni readers realize that even in the most authentic books of their owns, there are successive traditions clearly proving Imamate of the Twelve Imams, and that in spite of all the political, cultural,
financial and physical pressures for
diminishing the light of the Ahl al-Bayt and eliminating such traditions from the hadith lexicon of the Prophet, and secluding their traditions, the ray of truth is glittering from the most certified Sunni hadith books, saturating everyone who has insight, knowledge and conscience.

 It will also increase the belief and
strengthen the faith in the hearts of the Shia readers, since they realize that the
Ahl al-Bayt’s Imamate is provable even through the books of those who do not believe in them.
But in this last step, although some wordings (nass) of Imams are narrated by the Sunni and are mentioned in many
sources, including the present book, for more certitude, a few of the traditions of the Shia, though little more than a drop in the ocean, are given.

It is worth mentioning that for investigating into the authenticity of such traditions and selecting the most authentic ones, we should go to traditions whose narrators are among document chains of jurisprudence
traditions, for clerics expert in Rijal(knowledge of distinguished hadith narrators) have paid more attention to them and hence they can be more easily
recognized.
With regard to the excess of traditions in
the present topic and the existence of
various indications, of course, there is no need for investigating any documents.

In any case, in writing this book nearly fifty books of both the Sunni and Shiite have been used, the most important of which are as follow:
Ithbat Al-Hudat, Ghayat Al-Maram, Muntakhab Al-Athar,
Aman Al-Ummah, Jami’ Al-Ruwat and Tanqih Al-Maqal
from the Shia, and Sahih Al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim,
Mustadrak, Sunan Al-Tirmidhi, Sunan Al-Nisa’i, Sunan
Abi Dawud, Sunan Ibn Majah, Musnad Ahmad, Al-
Mu’jam Al-Kabir, Al-Sawa’iq Al-Muhriqah, Kanz Al-
Ummal, Lisan Al-Mizan, and Tahdhib Al-Tahdhib from
the Sunni.
To bee continue......