A Critical Studying of the Implication of the Verse "لا ینال" on Prophets' Infallibility

This paper examines the implication of the verse ‘ عهدی الینال الظالمین] ‘which means: ‘My covenant does not include the unjust’] on the prophets’ infallibility. According to the verse, God’s covenant (i.e., prophethood or Imamat) does not include the unjust people. On religious definition, committing a sin is an instance of injustice. Hence, the meaning of the verse is thatthe one who attains prophethood has never committed a sin. This implies the infallibility of the prophets. A controversial case in here would be a man who has committed a sin and then repented of his sin. Does the term ‘unjust’ describe this man after his repentance? Most of Shiite theologians claim that the word ‘ الظظظالظمظیظن) ‘the unjust) is a general and logically universal word which involves any unjust person who has committed a sin, even if he has repented. The author, however, is against this reasoning.The word ‘ الظالمین ‘is a derivative noun. According to the discussion of derivative in Ilm-u Al-Usoul, the true meaning of the derivative nouns is when an instance of that noun has actually that attribute. Accordingly, an unjust person is a person who is unjust now, not a person who has committed a sin but has now repented of it and never committed a sin again. In sum, the paper argues, the verse ‘ ینال ال ‘does not imply the absolute infallibility of the prophets; it only implies that the prophets had not been unjust at the time when they attained prophethood.