The belief that the Earth is never void of HujjatAllah

[الأعشى]

[ALIGN=CENTER]The belief that the Earth is never devoid of HujjatAllah[/ALIGN]

[ALIGN=LEFT]This is a basic belief of the 12evers echoed through their texts:

Narrated that Abu Abdullah –as- (i.e the 6th Imam) said: “The earth is never devoid of a hujjah (clear proof) who makes the Halal and Harram known and calls people to the way of Allah (Ghaybat-ul-Numani 8/138)

Narrated that Al-Hussain Ibn Abi Alal asked Abi Abdillah –as- : “ Will the earth be devoid of Imam?” He said: “No” (Bihar-ul-Anwar 23/55 , 1/117)

Narrated Abu Basir that Abi Abdillah –as- said: “ Allah is greater and above leaving the earth without a just Imam” (Kafi 1/178)

The question arises however, how can such texts be applied on the 12th Imam during ghaybatul-kubra ( greater absence), for he has no representatives and hence cannot show Hallal and Harram nor can he call people to the way of Allah nor can he show what is bidaa’ or establish a sunnah.

How the 12th Imam be a Hujjah (clear proof) for Allah on humanity if humanity are completely isolated from him?

I could be an Ithani Asheri (12ever) Shiite believing in the existence of this 12th Imam and his abscene (ghayba) and know the purpose of his absence, which is his fear of murder, as the big Shiite scholar Al-Tusi mentioned but this does not explain the contradiction I just mentioned.

A debate reported in Al-Tabarsi’s Al-Ihtijaj (2/125-128) sheds more light on the role of a Hujjah:

Hisham asked the head of the Mutazilites: “Do you have an eye?
He said: Yes
Hisham said: What do you do with it?
He said: I see with it colours and people.
Hisham said: Do you have a nose?
He said: Yes
Hisham said: What do you do with it?
He said: I smell with it.”

And the dialogue continues to include questions about the tongue, ear, hand, feet, and mouth. And then it moves to the heart (we can replace this today by the brain):

“Hisham said: Do you have a heart?
He said: Yes
Hisham said: What do you do with it?
He said: I distinguish the senses I receive from these body parts.
Hisham said: Can these body parts do without the heart?
He said: No.
Hisham said: How come, since they are functioning properly?
He said: My son if the body parts are in doubt of a thing it smelled or tasted or seen it would refer to the heart to be sure and get rid of the doubt.
Hisham said: Then Allah has only created the heart for the body’s doubt!
He said: yes
Hisham said: The heart is necessary otherwise the body will not be sure.
He said: yes
Hisham said: O Abu Marwan! Allah – Most High- did not leave the body parts without a leader (Imam) who corrects them and rids them of doubt, and you think he would leave all of humanity in doubt, dilemma and confusion without an Imam to get back to when in doubt while giving you a leader (Imam) for your body parts!”

Similarly today we are in doubt and confusion so where is this Imam who would correct us and rid us of our doubt?

If the answer is that he is absent, so what is his benefit, we are still in doubt and cannot refer to him. Would Allah leave humanity all of these 1200 years without an Imam to refer to while He gave us an Imam in our body (i.e the brain) for the body parts to refer to when in doubt?!


The example of Issa - Alyhi Assalam- is sometimes used by the twelvers to explain this dilemma, but when scrutinized one finds that there is a big difference.

Issa – Alyhi Assalam- is Allah’s Hujjah for Beni Israel exclusively and for the rest of humanity he is a great sign and an advent to the last hour. When Allah raised him, the earth was devoid of a Hujjah as explicitly stated by the Shiite scholar Al-Sadooq in his book Kamal Al-Din :

“The Messiah –as- has several ghaybas were he walked on earth and his people and shia did not know were he was, and then he appeared and made Simon ben Hamon his successor, and when Simon died the hujjas disappeared after him and the search was strong and the calamity was great such that the religion was fading and the rights were lost, and the obligations and sunnahs disappeared and people went right and left not distinguishing them from each other and the ghaybah lasted 250 years.”

It should be realized that the ghaybah of the 12th Imam would lead to the same confusion: “the calamity was great such that the religion was fading and the rights were lost, and the obligations and sunnahs disappeared and people went right and left not distinguishing them from each other” and this contradicts what is attributed to the 6th Imam: “The earth is never devoid of a hujjah (clear proof) who makes the Halal and Harram known and calls people to the way of Allah”.

And is such a ghaybah not befitting the Greatness and Majesty of Allah for the 12evers attribute to Imam Abu Abdillah the saying that: “ Allah is greater and above leaving the earth without a just Imam” ?

Accordingly, it is possible for the earth to be devoid of an infallible Imam making the Halal and Harram known, calling people to the way of Allah, showing what is bidaa’ and establishing what is sunnah ) for 1200 in these late eras, the people of which are more in need of such attributes than the earlier generations who live close to the Prophet’s time. If this was made possible, then it is more so possible in the earlier generations prior to the so called “ghayba”, and hence the claim that the Imams are infallible is invalid. Alhamdulilah for his guidance.

It is this same confusion mentioned by Al-Saqooq which forced Khomeni to invent the principle of “Wilayat Al-Faqih” (The government of the Scholar), or else a society in need of civil and social order cannot exist with an abscent Imam. In fact “Wilayat Al-Faqih” is a clear proof that people do not need an infallible Imam to continue with their lives since Allah has completed his religion and promised to protect it.

Mohammed.







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