نشریه امامت پژوهی
پیاپی 9 (بهار 1392)

Ghadir is the reminder of Imamate of Amir al-Mumenin Ali (AS) and his official appointment to this office. Like prophethood, Imamate is also a heavenly covenant signed by the Lord and no one would be honored to this title unless His Majesty has already willed it. From the earliest days of his prophecy, Prophet Muhammad (SAW) always did take the occasion to recall the people both communally and individually to the Imamate of His Holiness Ali (AS) and communicated this Divine Message to his nation in various phrases and words; until in Ghadir the Prophet (SAW) expressed all he had stated about the Imamate and Welayat of Ali (AS) here and there in one assembly. This essay discusses of sextuple stages of announcement of vicegerency of Imam Ali (AS) and regards Ghadir as the last one of these stages of public announcement of Vicegerency of His Holiness. Having related the Ghadir occasion, the essay turns to the phraseology of Ghadir Sermon particularly the term "Maula" and its application to Imam Ali (AS) and then answers some doubts casted by Sunnite scholars.

The idea of passive obedience from Imam is among the beliefs that Shiite has always been attached to since the earliest days on, and has divulged it through different historical periods in various forms. The evidences that bespeak of the history of emergence of Imamate in Muslim society show that the belief in obedience from Imam had invariably dominated Shiite minds throughout all Shiite Imams Imamate. Even the deviations seen from Shiism are not related to the essence of this belief; rather they are concerned with extensions of application of this belief. Thus, this idea has been exposed to various vicissitudes due to socio-political circumstances that have led to its various divulgences while it remains intact in its essence. This essay seeks to substantiate this latter claim through available evidences.

Zeyd and his son both did acknowledge the primordial knowledge of Imams (AS); however some evidences demonstrate that they did not believe in canonical necessity of obedience from Their Holinesses. Their successor from Bani al-Hassan descent besides denying divine Welayat of Prophet's Household did also renounce the belief in divinity of Imam's knowledge. The evidences show that during the first half of second century the followers of Prophet's Household were distinguished from Zeydis not only through their belief in the divinity of Welayat of Prophet Muhammad's descendents but also by their stances toward Sheikheyn as the Zeydis of Kufah insistently showed their adherence to Sheikheyn; this adherence was a witness to their belief that Sheikheyn did not violated Ali's right. According to some evidences, to reciprocate the fault of these people of Kufah, Abulkhatab renounced any adherence to the Sheikheyn and revealed his loyalty to Imam al-Sadegh (AS) and gradually he began to tread the path of extremism.

The Welayat of Holy Imams has two dimensions – i.e. generation and legislation. Each one of these aspects can be examined via rational, traditional and historical approaches. The present essay studies the issue of "legislative Welayat of Imams (AS)" through a tradition-based approach in the domain of varieties of legislative Welayat. This article is concentrated on the following categories: Welayat to legislation or conferment of legislation to Imams, exegetical Welayat or scientific and religious authority, social Welayat or leadership of society. Traditional texts have proven the legislative Welayat of Prophet's Household in all these cases and eventually they demonstrate that Imams have the same status as that of Prophet Mohammad (SAW) in all affairs of Welayat but prophecy.

Generic Welayat is an existential aspect of Prophet's Household (AS) the scope of which is a matter of dispute among scholars. Thus some traditionists who had narrated Imam's dignities and divine gifts were accused of exaggeration. This research is an attempt to evaluate this issue in the light of two ancient Shiite tradition books, i.e. Usul al-Kafi and Basaer al-Darajat. By comparing the scope of generic Welayat of Prophet's Household (AS) in these books it becomes clear that their Welayat encompasses various domains. Safar has broadly narrated the traditions pertaining such categories as reviving the dead, earth traveling in a moment, healing the ills and the like and in most cases set an independent chapter for each one; but Kuleini, in Usul al-Kafi, although he has related traditions concerning almost all of these domains, however as compared to his master, neither has he opened an independent chapter for them nor did he relate traditions as much as the master.

The term 'conferment' is sometimes used in a sense counter to arbitration and sometimes it implies the assignment of at least some affairs to a noble man by God. The latter sense of the term is being classified in two general forms of generic and legislative. Conferment in legislative sense means that the Lord has assigned the institution of some judicial and public laws to Immaculate Imams without being preceded by any revelation or inspiration. This is called Welayat to legislation or legislative Welayat. This essay has examined this sense of conferment according to Imamyah point of view and concluded that Imamyah approach has given rise to three theories in this regard each one of which has its own proponents and can be categorized in two groups of theories respectively insist on the commonality of legislation and those that see the latter an specificity of Divine Essence. Both theories ground themselves in Quranic documentations; however, it seems that the theory of commonality represents the dominant view of scientific community of Imamyah. This theory is of two kinds in respect of its scope, i.e. minimal and maximal, the former one of which insists on legislative conferment as a specific gift of the Prophet while the latter regards it as a common gift of the Prophet and Imams and both defend their stances with verses of Quran and prophetic traditions.

The conferment of religious affairs to prophet and Imams is among the controversial issues that has been the battle ground of scholars and theologians since the early days of Islam on and the proponents and opponents have substantiated their views through rational and traditional documents. The exposition of issue helps the scholars to have a clear view of the debate and not to be trammeled in intellectual impasses in their positive or negative arguments. In doing so, we seek to tile the path for a better understanding of the issue and the Gordian knot that has preoccupied scholars for a while and to challenge those who has regarded this issue a verbal dispute and denied the right of legislation of Prophet and Imams. Finally we are to prove that this is a dynamic debate between scholars and needs to be demarcated in a more precise manner.

This is a Persian translation of a chapter of the following book: The Charismatic Community: Shiite Identity in Early Islam.

Abu Mohammad Ibni Jurayri Tabari is a renowned historian and exegete of the third century and a public scholar. This essay seeks to offer an overview of his distortions and misrepresentations and his frequent reference to unreliable narrators in his renowned exegetical and historical books, i.e. Jami ul-Bayan An Tawili Ayat al-Quran and Tarikh al-Umam wa al-Muluk. At the same time the reader shall be provided with an introduction of the personality and ideas of Tabari.