Recognition of Imam Part II - The Status of attaining Light
The Status of attaining Light
In verse (57:19), God says: “And those who duly believe in Allah and His messengers are the truthful (siddiqun) and the martyrs (shuhada') with their Lord; they have their reward and their light”.
This glorious verse contains many great and profound wisdoms. One of them, which has already been alluded to, is that faith (iman), from its beginning to the end, has many stages. Among these stages, one is truthfulness (sadaqat), an attribute attainable when the faith becomes perfect. Further, truthfulness has many ranks, when it becomes perfect, the zeal for jihad and yearning for martyrdom (shahadat) are created in a true mu'min. Martyrdom also has many stages. Then come the stages of reward (ajr). Reward too has many stages and at the end of all these stages (or virtues), the door of light opens.
Thus, it is evident that the highest stage of the spirituality of a true mu'min, is the one where he can be blessed with the miraculous didar (vision) and the soul-exhilarating observation of the blessed and holy light of the true Imam. This is the place of oneness, where the souls of the true mu'mins merge in the light of the holy Imam and become one with it. It is in this sense that the Qur'an says that those who have duly believed in Allah and His messengers, are like siddiqs (truthful ones) and shahids (martyrs, witnesses) with their Lord. That is, such mu'mins have merged in the light of the asases and Imams. For, in the language of ta'wil, asases are called siddiqun and the Imams shuhada'. It is in this sense that each of the six natiq messengers had an asas (who used to confirm the truthfulness of the Prophethood and the Messengership of the natiq by doing the ta'wil of the Book and the shari`at).
The asas of the last natiq, the holy Prophet Muhammad(s) was Mawlana Ali(`a), who through the ta'wil of the Qur'an and the shari`at, confirmed the truthfulness of his Prophethood and Messengership, not only personally in his own time, but also forever by keeping the door of ta'wil open through the chain of Imamat of his pure progeny. It is in view of this need of the ta'wili affirmation of the Prophethood for every natiq that a siddiq was appointed by God, as siddiq means the one who confirms and establishes the truth. The Imams are called shuhada' (witnesses) in the sense that they are witnesses over the deeds of the people of this world. For, they live and are present successively in this world and in all times.
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