Given the fact that in Islam there is no ruling saying that giving
charity while in rokoo’ (bowing in prayer) is preferred as mustahabb or
wajib, one can easily conclude that this verse is pointing to an event
that occurred only once. This verse is speaking of the time in which
Imam Ali was praying in the masjid. When he went down to rokoo’, a
beggar came up to him asking for help, Imam Ali pointed to his finger
and the beggar approached him, took off the imam’s ring and left. [8]
Thus, the verse is saying that religious authority and supervision of
the Islamic ummah are solely [9] for Allah, His messenger and Imam Ali
(A.S), and other than them, no one has any authority.
So, till
now we have concluded that the imams’ names have been mentioned by the
Prophet (PBUH) and Imam Ali’s wilayah has clearly been pointed to in the
Qur’an, such that an unprejudiced and unbiased researcher really
searching for the truth, can easily reach the conclusion that the
Prophet’s (PBUH) standpoint on those succeeding him, was that Imam Ali
(A.S) and his children are to succeed him after his passing away. But
why haven’t Imam Ali and the other imam’s names been explicitly
mentioned in the Qur’an? There can be two reasons behind this issue:
1-
“The Qur’an usually speaks in a very general way and mostly teaches us
principles, ways and methods (instead of getting very specific) as it
has regarding the osool (pillars) and foroo’ (branches) of Islam.” This
is what Imam Sadiq (A.S) has said.[10] He goes on to give us three
examples: a) Salat. The Qur’an has been general regarding salat; not
being specific about how long it is supposed to be and how it is
supposed to be performed. On the other hand, the Prophet of Islam (PBUH)
has clearly illustrated how to perform it for us and how many rak’ats
each prayer should be. b) Zakat. In the Qur’an, zakat has only been
mentioned as an Islamic ruling. It was the Prophet who expressed which
things have zakat and what the criteria for zakat becoming wajib for
each one is.
c) Hajj. The Qur’an says that Hajj is wajib and no more, but the Prophet has explained how it is supposed to be performed.
Therefore,
it is wrong to expect to be able to find every detail in the Qur’an. So
it is a big mistake not to follow the imams just because of the fact
that none of their names have come in the Qur’an. That’s why no one says
that noon prayers (which are 4 rak’ats) have to be prayed 2 rak’ats
just because the Qur’an hasn’t mentioned how many rak’ats each prayer
is.
2- In issues like this, in which there are big chances that
others will disagree, it is much better for the Qur’an to express the
truth implicitly rather than explicitly, otherwise there is a high
possibility that they will end up denying the Qur’an as a whole. It’s
very obvious that such a problem isn’t to the benefit of the Muslim
ummah. Of course, the Qur’an says: “Surely we have revealed the Reminder
(the Qur’an), and We will most surely be its guardian” [11], but one
should remember that one of the ways of protecting the Qur’an and not
letting others falsify or change it, is for it to speak in a way that
others (such as the hypocrites who show that they are Muslims on the
outside even though they aren’t within) don’t get sensitive and
provoked. In this way, the high respect and value of the Qur’an will be
kept, and certain individuals won’t think of changing or falsifying it
in a way that will comply with their personal desires and wicked goals
or just because they disagree with something. [12]
Shahid
Ayatollah Motahhari answers this question in the following way. He says:
“The answer to the question that why hasn’t Imam Ali’s khilafah and
imamat been mentioned in the Qur’an, is that 1- The Qur’an usually
expresses general laws. 2- The Holy Prophet (PBUH) or Allah (s.w.t.)
didn’t want such an issue in which people are sensitive about and prefer
their own desires (to what Islam wants), to be presented explicitly,
and although it wasn’t, people still went against it and falsely
interpreted the Prophet’s sayings to their own benefit. In other words
even if the Qur’an had clearly stated that Ali (A.S) is successor to the
Prophet they still would have found a way around it. The holy Prophet
(PBUH) said: (Ali is his Mawla). How much more clear can one get? (Yet
they interpreted what he said falsely and according to their will.)Yet
there is a big difference between ignoring what the Prophet (PBUH) has
said after him passing away regardless of all of its clarity and
ignoring what the Qur’an has been completely clear about one day after
his demise. That is why I have narrated in my book “Khilafah and
Wilayah” that once during Imam Ali’s reign, a Jew wanted to attack and
criticize the Muslim ummah for undesirable events that took place in the
beginning of Islam. He told Imam Ali (A.S) (and of course what he said
really was a negative point) that you (the Muslim ummah) started
quarreling over your prophet even before completely burying him after
his death. Imam Ali answered: We argued about what he had instructed,
not over the Prophet himself, but you (meaning the Jews) disregarded the
most important principle of your religion which is tawhid (oneness of
God), and asked your prophet to build an idol for you to worship. So
there is a big difference between you and us; we didn’t argue about our
prophet, we argued about what the interpretation of his saying was (and
what he wanted us to do after his death). These two vary tremendously.
(Motahhari goes on to say that) there is a big difference between saying
that the people back then had misunderstood what the Prophet had said
and saying that the Muslims back then rejected what the Qur’an had
clearly stated or had falsified it.[13]
So one can say that the main reason behind not mentioning the names of
the imams, or at least Imam Ali’s name, is the protection of the Qur’an
from falsification and change, and that is why the verses of tathir[14],
tabligh[15], and wilayah[16] are all located between verses that are
either talking about the Prophet’s wives, different Islamic rulings, or
not being friends with The People of the Book (ahlul-kitab), which all
have nothing to do with the religious authority of the imams and Imam
Ali (A.S), yet the fair and unbiased researcher can with the least
consideration tell that this part of the verse is separate from the
verses before and after it and is located there for a certain
reason.[17]
References:
[1] Ibn-al Bitriq, Al-Umdah, pg.121 & 133, Seyyed Hashem Bahrani,
Ghayat-ul-Maram, pg. 320, Allamah Amini, Al-Ghadir, v.2, pg. 278.
[2]
This hadith is mutawatir (a hadith that has been narrated so many times
by different narrators that one becomes sure that it is authentic) and
has been narrated in both Shia and Sunni books. In the book Al-Ghadir,
the different “levels of narrators” of the hadith from the first till
the fourteenth century (lunar calendar) have been named, in which the
foremost are more than 60 narrators from the Prophet’s companions who
have narrated the hadith in Sunni books and whose names have been
recorded there. Also, in Mir Hamed Hussein’s book, Abaqat, it has been
proven that this hadith is mutawatir. See Al-Ghadir, v.1, pg.14-114,
Ibn-al-Maghazeli, Managheb, pg. 25-26, Motahhari, Emamat va Rahbari, pg.
72-73.
[3] Al-Umdah, pg.173-175, Ahmad-ibn-Hanbal, Musnad Hanbal, v. 3, pg.32, Al-Ghadir, v.1, pg. 51, v.3, pg. 197-201.
[4]
Many efforts have been made in both Al-Ghadir and Abaqat to prove that
the traditions concerning Imam Ali’s imamah are mutawatir.
Fazel-e-Qooshji, a Sunni scholar, doesn’t reject the fact that some of
these traditions are mutawatir. See Sharh-e-Qooshji bar
Tajrid-ul-I’tiqad, Khajeh al-Tusi.
[5] Muhammad-ibn-Hassan
al-Ameli, Ithbat-ul-Hudat, v.3, pg. 123, Suleiman-ibn-Qandoozi,
Yanabee’-ul-Mawaddah, pg. 494, Ghayat-ul-Maram, v.10, pg. 267 (as quoted
by Misbah Yazdi, Amoozesh Aqa’ed, v.2, pg. 185).
[6] “Nor does
he (The Prophet (PBUH)) speak out of desire, It (what he says) is
nothing but divine revelation (from Allah (s.w.t.))” Najm:3-4
[7]
See tafsir books, commentaries regarding this verse, such as
Fakhr-ul-Din Al-Razi, Al-Tafsir-ul-Kabir, v.12, pg. 25, Tafsir Nemooneh,
v.4, pg. 421-430, Jalal-ul-Din Al-Suyuti, Al-Durr-ul-Manthoor, v.2, pg.
393. Also, Sunni hadith references have narrated the hadith;
Muhibb-ul-Din Tabari, Thakha’ir-ul-Uqba, pg. 88, Jalal-ul-din Suyuti,
Lubab-ul-Nuqul, pg.90, Ala’ul-Din Ali Al-Muttaqi, Kanz-ul-Ummal, v.6,
pg. 391, and many other references in which Tafsir Nemooneh has pointed
to some of them.
[8] This analysis has been acquired from Shahid Motahhari’s book Emamat va Rahbari, pg. 37.
[9]
According to Arabic literature scholars, the word “innama” means “only”
and shows that what has been stated in the sentence is something
exclusively for the person(s) mentioned.
[10] Koleini, Osool-ul-Kafi, kitab-ul-hujjah, v.1, chapter Ma nassallahu wa rasuluhu alal-a’immah wahedan fawahedan.
[11]
This point was mentioned by Ayatollah Hadavi Tehrani in his classes of
The Theological Principles of Ijtihad, which will be printed in the
second volume of The Theological Principles of Ijtihad.
[12] Ibid
[13] Emamat va Rahbari, pg.109-110, 27th edition, Sadra Press, Tehran, 1381.
[14]
“Verily, Allah’s will is to remove all impurity from you, ye household
(of the Prophet) and to purify you thoroughly.” This part of the verse
has been placed between verse speaking about the wives of the Prophet
(PBUH). Ahzab:33
[15] “O Messenger! Proclaim the (message) which
hath been sent to thee from thy Lord. If thou didst not, thou wouldst
not have fulfilled and proclaimed His mission” This verse is in between
verses speaking about haram meat and animal corpses (which are haram).
Ma’idah:67
[16] “Verily your Waliyy is Allah and…” which is
located after verses regarding not being friends with the Christians and
Jews. Maidah:55
[17] This was also pointed to in one of
Ayatollah Hadavi’s classes on the theological principles of ijtihad
which will be printed in the second volume of the book.
Source: islamquest.net
http://english.tebyan.net/newindex.aspx?pid=286343
