Recognition of Imam Part I - All Things are Encompassed in the Light of Imamat
All Things are Encompassed in the Light of Imamat
In verse (36:12) God says: “Lo! We it is Who bring the dead to life. We record that which they send before (them) and their traces. And all things (in the form of spirit and knowledge) We have encompassed in the manifest Imam (Imam-i mubin).”
The ta'wil of this verse is that only when someone attains the Imam of the time's recognition can he be revived in the spirit of knowledge and wisdom from the death of ignorance and enjoy the bounties of this world and the next. In this verse God has first mentioned the bringing of the dead to life and then the deeds which are sent to the next world and the traces in this world and finally He says that all these are gathered in the blessed personality of the manifest Imam. Thus, it is clear how the dead come to life and how benefit can be obtained from one's deeds for the next world and the traces left in this world [and how] all these can be observed in the light of the manifest Imam's recognition.
Imam-i mubin means the manifest Imam and the speaking Imam, that is, the ever-living and the ever-present Imam whose holy light in the form of the Universal Intellect and the Universal Soul encompasses both the worlds within itself. Both the worlds contain everything and nothing is outside them.
In the sense of mubin, the Imam is manifest and speaking in two forms: corporeal and luminous. That is, he is manifest both in the human form and in the luminous form. Similarly, he speaks in both the physical hudud as well as in the spiritual hudud.
| Chapter Index | Previous Chapter | Next Chapter |