An Approach to the Subject of Imamah and Wilaya in Theory of Bektāshīyah Ṭarīqah (with Emphasis on Written Heritage of Bektāshīyah in Turkey)

One of principles of Alawis beliefs is Imamah. Anatolia Alawiness rests on a belief system based on friendship with Ali (pbuh) and Ahl al-Bayt (the Imams). Bektāshī Alawis like Twelver Imāmiyya Shia have twelve infallible Imams. From the viewpoint of Bektāshīyah, Imam means someone who is free from any kind of mistake, failure, and sin. Imam is the inner meaning of Quran, the religious scholar, and the leader of society. According to beliefs of Bektāshīs, the Prophet (s) has introduced Ali (pbuh) as the successor, after himself; but after the decease of the Prophet (s), the succession of Ali (pbuh) was ignored and right of Ali (pbuh) was usurped by the triple caliphs. Alawis believe that Muslims were divided to 73 sects only one of which is right and the rest belong to fire. Followers of Ahl al-Bayt (pbut) and the twelve Imams (pbut) are the saved group and sect. It seems the concept of Imamah to Bektāshīyah has had an evolutionary movement and supposedly after the penetration of Hurufism thought in Bektāshīyah Ṭarīqah in the fifteenth century, which was influenced by Neoplatonic philosophy of Ismailism, Shīʿī teachings like Imamah, given the new interpretation influenced by the complicated mystical understandings of Hurufism, has gradually taken distance from Twelver Shia’s definitions; although there is not seen such change in the principle friendship with Ahl al-Bayt (pbut) and the twelve Imams (pbut) and belief in the principle Imamah, and this characteristic is stable in belief tradition of Alawis and Bektāshīs.