{"id":17914,"date":"2023-05-13T07:52:27","date_gmt":"2023-05-13T06:52:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/shiastudies.com\/en\/?p=17914"},"modified":"2023-05-13T07:52:27","modified_gmt":"2023-05-13T06:52:27","slug":"shia-doctrine-imam-need-just","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shiastudies.com\/en\/17914\/shia-doctrine-imam-need-just\/","title":{"rendered":"Shia doctrine: Does the Imam need to be just?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/strong>Occasionally, in Sunni\u2019s theological books we read: \u2018the\u00a0Imam<\/em>\u00a0who is appointed by the selection of the people cannot be removed for being corrupt or a wrongdoer, for financial corruption, torturing and killing the innocents, abolishing people\u2019s rights, or violating the Divine Laws. No one is allowed to revolt against him; he is only to be advised and admonished. Moreover, people can only disobey him when he commands to sin.\u2019<\/p>\n

Sunni scholars took this view of the Imam as a rule. A rule which emphasizes that, since the Imam is nothing more than a secular president or prime minister, he must always be obeyed and followed \u2013 he is not to be removed.<\/p>\n

It should not be deemed that such view on the status and nature of the Imam only belongs to Abu Bakr B\u0101qill\u0101n\u012b, who discussed it in his\u00a0Tamhid<\/em>, but that the majority of the books written by Sunni scholars hold the same view. Some of these books are listed below:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Maqalat Al-Islamiyyun<\/em>\u00a0by Abul-\u1e24asan Al-Ashari (d. 324\/936)<\/li>\n
  2. Al-Aqaid Al-\u1e6ca\u1e25awiyyah\u00a0<\/em>by Abu Jafar Al-\u1e6ca\u1e25awi (d. 321\/933)<\/li>\n
  3. U\u1e63ul Ad-Din\u00a0<\/em>by Mu\u1e25ammad b. Abd Al-Karim Bazdudi (d. 493\/1099)<\/li>\n
  4. \u02bfAqaid Al-Na\u1e63afi<\/em>\u00a0by Amr b. Mu\u1e25ammad Al-Nasafi (d. 573\/1142)<\/li>\n
  5. Shar\u1e25 Aqaid Al-Na\u1e63\u1e63afi\u00a0<\/em>by Sad Al-Din Al-Taftazani (d. 791\/1390)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    In all of the above books, the Imam\u2019s indifference towards Islamic laws and principles is not considered a valid reason for his removal. Again, this is because the Sunni concept of the Imam only treats him responsible for the material welfare of his subjects. Meanwhile, the\u00a0Imamiyya<\/em>\u00a0define the role and the reality of the Imamate in a very different way. They regard the Imam as the one who is able to fulfil the roles of the Prophet (PBUH) in his absence, except for those of receiving prophetic revelation.<\/p>\n

    According to the\u00a0Imamiyya<\/em>, the Imam is supposed to continue fulfilling all the duties and functions of the Prophet. Moreover, they stress that the Imam must be infallible in order to protect the religion of Islam from distortions. Therefore the Imam, as described by the\u00a0Imamiyya<\/em>, would never violate the laws or act against justice.<\/p>\n

    Source: shafaqna<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    \u00a0Occasionally, in Sunni\u2019s theological books we read: \u2018the\u00a0Imam\u00a0who is appointed by the selection of the people cannot be removed for being corrupt or a wrongdoer, for financial corruption, torturing and killing the innocents, abolishing people\u2019s rights, or violating the Divine Laws. No one is allowed to revolt against him; he is only to be advised […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":17915,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7456],"tags":[13763,12921,8154,14551,7573,9546,7943,19858,7563,10822,19669],"class_list":["post-17914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-infallibles","tag-ahl-al-bayt-a-s","tag-ahlul-bayt","tag-allah","tag-ethics","tag-imam-ali","tag-islam","tag-jurisprudence","tag-morality","tag-quran","tag-shaistudies","tag-shia-studies-world-assembly"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shiastudies.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shiastudies.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shiastudies.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shiastudies.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shiastudies.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shiastudies.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17914\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shiastudies.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shiastudies.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shiastudies.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shiastudies.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}