Recognition of Imam Part I - The Imam is the Fountainhead of Guidance
The Imam is the Fountainhead of Guidance
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In verse (28:41) God says: “And We made them the Imams who invite unto the fire and on the Day of Resurrection they will not be helped.”
This verse reveals the wisdom that the Pharoah and Haman and other disbelieving leaders were such that they were inviting and leading people unto the hell-fire. This clearly shows that even though disobedience, deviation and disbelief are easy, they are still not possible without a chief or leader. If this is the case, how can obedience, guidance and faith [which are very difficult to attain] be possible without a guide or an Imam?
Further it is important to recognise that, if it is a necessity of Divine law for there to always be a person among the people to mislead and show them the path of hell, in contrast to this it is more necessary that there must always be a person in the world who is able to guide people on the straight path and make them enter Paradise. Such a person is only the Imam of the time.
When God makes a person the leader of disbelief, he is not a head merely in name, without any means. Rather, God gives him the external and material means of pomp and show, variety of riches and secular knowledge and skill, only then can he succeed in leading people astray from the true path and make them walk on the path of hell. As the holy Qur'an says: “And Musa said: Our Lord! You have given Pharoah and his chiefs splendour and riches in the life of the world, that they may lead men astray from Your way” (10:88). If this is the case, it is also necessary for God to give some kind of riches to the head of faith, namely the Imam, so that he may be able to guide the people. This is because by nature people do not pay attention to someone who has nothing at all. Thus, God has given the true Imam spiritual wealth and kingdom, which are in the form of knowledge and wisdom and due to which the people of intellect and wisdom turn towards him.
Among the wisdoms of the above verse, it is also said that on the Day of Resurrection, namely the cycle of spirituality, the chiefs of disbelief will not be helped. This implies that on the contrary, the heads of belief, the Imams will be helped, that is, victory, succour and predominance will be granted to the holy Imams and their followers.
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