A Critique on the Interpretive Narrations of the Quran in Proving the Imamate of the Pure Imams With an Emphasis on Verse 36 of Surah At-Taubah

The imamate of the twelve Imams is one of the principal beliefs of the Imamieh Shia. This belief is documented by rational principles, verses and narrations. Meanwhile, referring to few narrations, some of the Shia Scholars have dealt with interpretation of the verse “Lo! the number of the months with Allah is twelve months…” to apply it to prove the truth that the Shia Imams are twelve. They have attributed the word “year” to the holy prophet, “twelve months” to the twelve imams and “the four of shrines” refers to the four Imams whose name are Ali. Nowadays, some scholars have written books by referring to these narrations about “the Twelve Imams in the Quran”. These inappropriate and complex interpretations will damage the main and principal belief of Shia. In this paper, the document of the mentioned narrations and their resources are studied, then, by proving the invalidity of some of them, weakness of the document, inconformity with rational principles and the fact that great commentators and theologians of Shia have not utilized the interpretation of the above verse, it has been declared that there is no need to prove Imamate by such kinds of interpretations.