Imamah

The term imamate or imamah (Arabic: إمامة‎, imāmah) means "leadership" and refers to the office of an imam or a state ruled by an imam.

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Sayyed Mohammad Al-Musawi, Sayyed Mohammad al-Musawi is originally from Iraq and heads up the World Ahlul Bayt Islamic League in London. Other than being involved in various humanitarian projects, he frequently responds to... Answered 11 months ago

The number of the twelve Imams is mentioned in Quran when mentioning the divine leaders after Prophet Musa (Sura Al-Maa'idah , verse 12).

Allah (SWT) Mentioned that Prophet Muhammad is sent to people as Prophet Musa was sent. (Sura Al-Muzzammil , verse 15.

'From these two Quranic verses we know that the divine successors of the Proohet Muhammad are twelve just like the divine successors after Musa.

'Mentioning the names of the twelve Imams explicitly is not our job to ask as Allah did not mention explicitly the numbers of units of our most compulsory daily prayers and left if to the Prophet (SAWA) to explain. Allah Knows what to mention and not.

'As the Prophet Muhammad (SAWA) mentioned the number and the names of the twelve Imams, every Muslim must believe and follow the Prophet (SAWA).

Wassalam.

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Same question should be put for Sunni books of Hadeeth. Thousands of narration were been fabricated by Sunni narrators for different reasons, so how Sunni Ulama identify the authentic? Our Shia scholars do thorough research on every narration and all its narrators. We don't accept but the narration which is according to Quran and authentic Hadeeth and which has been narrated by authentic narrators one after another. Our main books of Hadeeth have much more authentic Hadeeths that what our Sunni brothers have in their books of Hadeeth.

Wassalam.

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Sayyed Mohammad Al-Musawi, Sayyed Mohammad al-Musawi is originally from Iraq and heads up the World Ahlul Bayt Islamic League in London. Other than being involved in various humanitarian projects, he frequently responds to... Answered 1 year ago

Allah (SWT) Has ordered us in Quran : O you who believe , Obey Allah and obey the Messenger and your divine leaders. Sura 4, verse 59.

'This verse is very clear that it is obligatory to obey Allah absolutely and always, and to obey the Messenger absolutely and always and the divine leaders absolutely and always. This means that all their orders are according to Allah and the Messenger Hesse it is obligatory to obey them as we are ordered to obey Allah and the Messenger. This means that these divine leaders are fully pure and never commit any sin otherwise if they possibly commit any sin then Allah will never Order us to obey a person who might commit a sin as such order can lead to commit a sin which is impossible.

'Sura 33, verse 33 is also clear that Ahlul Bayt are fully purified from any sin or error.

'With out the fact of the infallibility of Ahlul Bayt (Aas) it will be possible to follow any sinful act of the leaders. This is impossible to order Muslims to obey a sinner. Allah says in Quran: : My promised authority will never reach to sinners. Sura Baqara, verse 124, which is very clear that divine leaders can never be sinners.

Wassalam.

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Amina Inloes, Amina Inloes is originally from the US and has a PhD in Islamic Studies from the University of Exeter on Shi'a hadith. She is the program leader for the MA Islamic Studies program at the... Answer updated 1 year ago

I am not aware of any narrations on this matter, although it is something you could deduce through historical records and calendrical calculations (and others have done this in the past - you can search online for the results).

However, there is a narration between Imam al-Sadiq (A) and an astrologer in which Imam al-Sadiq (A) associates Imam 'Ali and the awsiya' with Saturn. (This is not a zodiacal sign, obviously, but is thematically related.) You can read it here (part 12, number 69): https://www.al-islam.org/al-khisal-numeric-classification-traditions-cha...

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Sayyed Mohammad Al-Musawi, Sayyed Mohammad al-Musawi is originally from Iraq and heads up the World Ahlul Bayt Islamic League in London. Other than being involved in various humanitarian projects, he frequently responds to... Answered 1 year ago

All Muslims used to refer to Imam Ali and Fatima Al-Zahra and Imam Hasan and Imam Husain as AS. You can ask your friend to read Bukhari book where he can find  him referring to Ali as AS عليه السلام. Till today, there are big Sunni scholars refer to Ahlul Bayt as AS.

‘We are the real followers of Quran and the Prophet and find in Quran Salaam on true believers and no one doubts that Ahlul Bayt (AS) are the best believers.

Wassalam.

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Sayyed Mohammad Al-Musawi, Sayyed Mohammad al-Musawi is originally from Iraq and heads up the World Ahlul Bayt Islamic League in London. Other than being involved in various humanitarian projects, he frequently responds to... Answered 1 year ago

Islam came to a world full of slavery as part and parcel of the whole social and economical systems which was practiced for thousand of years. Islam started the procedure to gradually melt slavery system. The result of the Islamic anti slavery rules, slavery decreased among Muslims till it became very rare among Muslim communities till today while slavery was practiced in Europe and Americas one thousand years after that and till the 19 th century.

'Islamic rules were the best practical rules which dealt with the slavery and diminish it if few centuries.

Wassalam.

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Sayyed Mohammad Al-Musawi, Sayyed Mohammad al-Musawi is originally from Iraq and heads up the World Ahlul Bayt Islamic League in London. Other than being involved in various humanitarian projects, he frequently responds to... Answered 1 year ago

You need first to know the meaning of the term (Imam). Imam means a divine leader. The divine leader for human beings can be the Prophet of his time, or a successor of a Prophet. Prophet Ibrahim was appointed by Allah as divine leader (Imam).  (2:124). This appointment came long after he was appointed as a Prophet then a messenger.

Prophet Muhammad (SAWA) is greater than Prophet Ibrahim and he Ws appointed as the divine leader for all human beings. His twelve successors are the Imams after him. Imam does need to be a Prophet but divine leader.

Wassalam.

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The authentic Prophetic Hadeeth states that Allah (SWT) Has Granted Ali (AS) all the tributes and virtues which He Granted the Prophet Muhammad (SAWA) except the prophethood. Ali (AS) was gifted everything the Prophet (SAWA) was gifted but Ali (AS) is not a prophet because Muhammad (SAWA) is the last and final prophet and no phrophet after him.

‘The Prophet gets the message from Allah (SWT) to convey it to people. Imam preserves the religion and the message of the Prophet and protects the religion from deviation and teach people the real Islam. Imam continues and preserves and protects the religion.

‘Imam Ali (AS) was taught by the Prophet Muhammad (SAWA) every matter in Islam, that is why, no one can know the real Islam after the Prophet but only by taking the knowledge from Imam Ali (AS). The famous authentic Hadeeth from the Prophet say: I am the city of the knowledge and Ali is it’s gate.( Mustadrak Al-Haakim; Hadeeth number 4693 and 4612 and 4613 and 4614).

Wassalam.

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Amina Inloes, Amina Inloes is originally from the US and has a PhD in Islamic Studies from the University of Exeter on Shi'a hadith. She is the program leader for the MA Islamic Studies program at the... Answered 1 year ago

In the modern era, some Muslims have become very sensitive to the question of shirk by considering any number of physical objects to be shirk. This includes sacred objects, shrines, etc.

(This idea primarily comes from Wahhabism and Salafism, but some other Muslims have taken it on board too.)

Similarly, Wahhabism and Salafism reject most forms of intercession as shirk, whereas many Muslims before that accepted the idea of intercession.

The Qur'an itself does not state that the notion of sacred objects is shirk. Rather, shirk is when you directly worship beings other than Allah.

So, keeping an alam, in and of itself, is not shirk.

Possibly, some views are cultural. Since alams are most common historically in Iran and the Indian Subcontinent, it has been more common for Shia in other regions, where alams were not common, to criticize the practice. (That is, it was seen as being culturally different and hence suspicious - man is an enemy of what he does not know.)

On the flip side, some Muslims in the Subcontinent have felt cautious about the cultural influence of Hinduism, and so for this reason try to avoid physical objects in devotional practices. (We tend to be most cautious about the things we are closest to, which might be seen as a competitor.) Although I think this is less common.

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Amina Inloes, Amina Inloes is originally from the US and has a PhD in Islamic Studies from the University of Exeter on Shi'a hadith. She is the program leader for the MA Islamic Studies program at the... Answer updated 1 year ago

The Qur'an speaks of some people other than prophets who receive inspiration or messages from God; for instance, the mother of Moses, who is told to put Moses in the river; or when the angel Jibra'il appeared to the Virgin Mary.

So in and of itself, receiving a message from God does not classify a person as a prophet in a traditional theological sense.

Sometimes, there is an expectation that prophets, by definition, are those who are supposed to take the message and then instruct others to act on it in a new way (such as to encourage people to board Noah's ark), or may present a revealed scripture; for instance, the Qur'an.

According to Twelver Shi'i hadith, the Imams had access to knowledge transmitted through God through various means, and this enabled them to serve as representatives of the Prophet's teachings, to better explain them according to the times, and to demonstrate their authority after the time of the Prophet (S) to those who doubted them.

However, they never claimed to be prophets and throughout Twelver Shi'i hadith, there is an emphasis that the Prophet Muhammad (S) is the final prophet. Rather, their role was to explicate the teachings of the Prophet (S) in the best and most accurate manner. They also did not provide a new scripture to the people. So they are not classified as prophets.

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Sayyed Mohammad Al-Musawi, Sayyed Mohammad al-Musawi is originally from Iraq and heads up the World Ahlul Bayt Islamic League in London. Other than being involved in various humanitarian projects, he frequently responds to... Answered 1 year ago

There are many verses in Quran about Imam Al-Mahdi (AS) despite the fact that asking about evidence from Quran only with out the Prophet is not the proper way which we should take because it can mean under estimating the authority of the Prophet and even the Quranic order to take whatever the Messenger says. (Sura Al-Hashr, Verse 7). These are some Quranic verses about Imam Al-Mahdi (AS) e.g.

1. Sura Al-Anbiyaa', verse 105.

2. Sura Al-Qasas, verse 5.

3. Sura Al-Noor, verse 55.

4. Sura Al-Tawbah, verse 33.

5. Sura Al-Saff, verse 9.

6. Sura Al-Israr', verse 81.

7. Sura Al-Anfaal, verse 7 and 8.

and many other Verse.

Wassalam.

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Zaid Alsalami, Shaykh Dr Zaid Alsalami is an Iraqi born scholar, raised in Australia. He obtained a BA from Al-Mustafa University, Qom, and an MA from the Islamic College in London. He also obtained a PhD from... Answered 1 year ago

Bismihi ta'ala

It is highly recommended for both men and women to recite Adhan and Iqamah, especially if they are praying on their own, and not in jama'ah. 

Of course, the difference is that a female should recite in a low voice in the presence of a non-mahram. As for performing jama'ah prayers, of course a female can do loud Adhan and a female can lead jama'ah prayers if they are all women. 

And Allah knows best