A003
Surah: 032 - Ayah: 003
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32:03
Q. 11 Would you kindly cite a Quranic verse regarding the validity of the Ismaili point of view?
A. There are numerous verses in this regard. One of them, for instance, “and hold fast, all of you together, the Rope of Allah, and do not be scattered” (3:103). In this verse is mentioned, on the one hand, the disease of scattering into sects, and on the other, its remedy. And the remedy of (the disease of) scattering into sects is to remain holding fast, all together, to the Rope of Allah. According to us the Rope of Allah is first the prophet and then the chain of Imamat. Thus if the people after the prophet had held the holy skirt of the Imam, like the Ismailis, they would not have disobeyed this Divine command by scattering into sects. Contrary to this, if according to someone only the Quran and Islam are the rope of Allah, then why are the Muslims scattered into sects, despite holding the Quran and Islam, while the nature of the Rope of Allah is such that if people hold it they remain united and in agreement?
Another verse in this connection is: “And he who holds fast to Allah, he indeed receives the guidance to a right path” (3:101). Here it is important to know this that had it been possible to hold to God without a means (wasilah) then there would not have been the need of holding the Rope of Allah. Leaving Allah himself. Rather, this verse shows that holding to Allah means holding to His rope, and this is what God has answered in the verse (3:103) to the question which arises in the verse (3:103). And the answer is that the Rope of Allah is His representative and that is the chain of Imamat; therewith is connected the Devine guidance.
The third verse in this respect is: “O ye who believe: Obey Allah, and obey the messenger and those of you who are in authority” (4:59). In this command three kinds of obedience are made obligatory: the obedience to God, the obedience to the messenger and the obedience to those who are in authority. The third kind of obedience which is the obedience to the Imams of guidance (a’immah-I huda) is spread in a long chain; in which each imam, as the sahib-I amr (Lord of the command), has the right to issue also his own farmans concerning the new problems, so that the mumins obeying the Imam of their own time may fulfill this Divine command, wherein the obedience to the Imam of the time is made obligatory, in addition to the obedience to God and the Prophet. This is the Ismaili view point in brief.
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