Lecture 19 in the Ramadaan series:
UNPACKING THE MOST INTRIGUING QUESTIONS IN THE QURAN
Wednesday 13 May 2020 (20th Night of Ramadaan 1441)
Ahlul Bait (a.s) Masjid, Ottery, Cape Town
Mowlana Syed Aftab Haider
IS IMAMAT AS A PILLAR OF BELIEF ESTABLISHED FROM ONE SOLITARY VERSE IN QURAN?
Another important question I would like to address is based on Imamate and Wilayah being a pillar of our belief system as Shia Muslims. There is a Hadith we have recorded, where Rasulullah (SAWA) said that there is no more important pillar of Islam than the pillar of Imamate and Wilayah.
The question we get asked is that we want to establish such a crucial system of Imamate based on a solitary verse of the Holy Quran ie. verse 124 of Surah Baqarah. Surely, this is not sufficient, compelling evidence for the crucial matter of Imamate, which we regard as the life and death of a society.
Our response to this is to refer to the previous lecture, where we discussed 12 verses where the term Imam is mentioned, of which eight referred to Imamate of human beings.
Furthermore, we also discussed verses which explain Wilayah. In part 3, we will have a more extensive discussion on Khalifat in the Quran. So, it is not only one verse which we are basing the whole institution of Imamate on.
We will understand the philosophy of Imamate when we discuss the issue of divine khilafat further in part 3. For the sake of argument, even if everything on Imamate centred around one verse of the Holy Quran, it does not dilute the compelling nature of the argument of this fundamental issue.
The way that the Holy Quran has been compiled cannot be compared against any other book, for conclusions to be drawn by statistical data. Let us study an example we are all familiar with – Ayatul Kursi (verse 255 of Surah Baqarah). We all know this by heart. Let us look at this excerpt:
وَسِعَ كُرْسِيُّهُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ ۖ
His throne includes the heavens and the earth
“Kursi” in this sense, meaning the chair of Allah (SWT), is only mentioned once in the Holy Quran. Now, if we study the compilations of Hadith on the great detail regarding “Kursi”, we will encounter chapters upon chapters and multiple debates and discussions on what is meant by the term Kursi of Almighty Allah (SWT).
It is recorded in Hadith compilations of both Sunni and Shia that this is the greatest verse of the Quran after Bismilla – and it is mentioned only once!! So, this shows the unique nature of the Holy Quran, that importance of issues cannot necessarily be mentioned by its frequency. Hence, this objection is not a strong one.
