The
Relationship between the Qur'an
and the Progeny of the Prophet
The hadith concerning the
"two weighty trusts" known as hadith al-thaqalayn is one of the most
widely accepted and authoritative of all the traditions narrated from the Prophet, peace
and blessings be upon him and his family, and it has also been recorded in the principal
Sunni books of tradition. It possesses the highest degree of authenticity and acceptance.
The text is as follows:
"I leave among you two
precious and weighty trusts, on being the Book of God and the other my Progeny. These two
legacies will never be separated from each other, and if you lay firm hold of them you
will never go astray."[64]
Certain Sunni scholars even add
the following sentence at the end of the hadith: "Ali is always with the Qur'an and
the Qur'an is with Ali; they too will not be separated from each other."[65]
Hadith scholars attribute
the transmission of this tradition to roughly thirty Companions of the Prophet.[66]
According to numerous hadith
scholars and historians, Shi'i and Sunni alike, the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon
him and his family, never failed at different times in this life, including its difficult
last moments, to draw people's attention to the profound link between these two great and
authoritative sources of Islam, the Qur'an and his Progeny (Ahl al-Bayt), tracing
out thereby an entire program for the future of Islam in a single instructive sentence.
Small differences are to be seen in the form of the relevant traditions, some being
detailed and others concise depending on the occasion, but the content and meaning are
always the same: the profound and indissoluble link between the Qur'an and the Progeny of
the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him and his family, the absolute interrelatedness
of the two.
Ibn Hajar, a Sunni scholar,
writes:
"We have mentioned earlier
different versions of this hadith. Some of them relate to the utterances made by
the Prophet at Arafah in the course of his Farewell Pilgrimage; others to pronouncements
made while he was on his deathbed in Madinah, surrounded by the Companions; another to his
address at Ghadir Khumm; and yet another to statements made while returning from
Ta'if."
He then adds: "None of these
versions contradict each other, for there is no reason why he should not have repeated the
same truth on all these occasions, and on others as well, given the great significance
that both the Qur'an and his Progeny possess.[67]
In another tradition known as the
hadith of the Truth (hadith al-haqq), the Prophet, peace and blessings be
upon him and his family, says: "Ali is with the truth and the truth is with Ali;
wherever the truth is, Ali will incline to it."[68]
We know that the verses of the
Noble Qur'an form a compendium of the divine commands and laws of Islam; the teaching
contained in them are a guarantee for man's happiness and salvation. However, the
interpretation and exegesis of the Qur'an have to be undertaken by persons who are
acquinted with the language of revelation and who fully possess the necessary competence,
in terms of both knowledge and conduct. The Shi'ah therefore believe that those who
possess this competence must be identified by the Prophet himself and appointed by him to
administer the affairs of the people and guide them. It is they who understand the
language of revelation and can properly acquit themselves of the task of interpreting and
explicating God's verses. The juxtaposition of the Progeny of the Prophet with the Qur'an
is thus due to the need of the Qur'an for an exegesis that will set forth its purposes and
regulations.
If we look carefully at the
content of the hadith, we will see that to separate the Qur'an from the Progeny of
the Prophet and to follow the utterances and views of persons unacquainted with its
symbols and truths is bound to lead to error and misguidance. The tradition therefore
implies that only the Progeny of the Prophet can establish the firm and categorical
meaning of the verses in God's Book that are allegorical.
The fact that the Prophet places
the Qur'an and his Progeny side by side indicates that both are advancing in the same
direction and toward the same goal: the Qur'an is a divine law and book, and the Progeny
are its interpreters, executors and guardians. To separate and distance oneself from the
Progeny is therefore to invite destruction.
The decline and deviance of the
Muslims began when such a separation started to occur and men attempted to hold on to each
one separately. The thesis, "God's Book alone is enough for us" came to prevail
in their religious thinking, leading to the emergence of such schools as the Ash'ari and
the Mu'tazilite. It was as if they knew the value of God's Book better than the Prophet
himself and better comprehended its significance!
It is possible to understand the
Qur'an and explain the knowledge it contains only by referring to the utterances of those
persons upon whom knowledge has been directly bestowed by God, or at least whose knowledge
is derived from instruction by a particular source. Such persons can be only the Inerrant
(ma'sum) Imams of the Prophet's Progeny.
Ibn Hajar also cites the
following sentence uttered by the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him and his family:
"Do not attempt to go beyond
these twin trusts (the Book and the Progeny of the Prophet), for that will lead you into
perdition, and do not fall short in adhering to them, for that too will encompass your
ruin. Do not imagine the People of the Prophet's House to be ignorant, for they are
infinitely more knowledgeable than you and understand well the language of
revelation."[69]
The Commander of the Faithful,
Ali, peace be upon him, said:
"You will never remain
faithful to your covenant with the Qur'an unless you recognize who it is that has betrayed
his covenant, and you will never lay firm hold of the Qur'an unless you recognize who it
is that has abandoned it. Seek the straight path of fidelity and the means of adhering to
the Qur'an from the people of the Qur'an, for it is they who keep alive knowledge and
learning and uproot ignorance. They it is by means of obedience to whom you become aware
of the knowledge they hold. You comprehend their silence from their speech and their outer
appearance from their inner state. They never rebel against the command of religion and
never fall into dispute. Religion is a silent and veracious witness dwelling in their
midst."[70]
What is meant here is that the
Progeny of the Prophet are free from sin and pollution and even minor errors, for it is
obvious that whatever is indissolubly linked to the Qur'an until both trusts are brought
together before the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him and his family, on the Day of
Resurrection must be followed and obeyed by mankind together with the Qur'an itself. God
cannot command men to obey one who is polluted by error and sin, nor can He create an
indissoluble link between the Qur'an and such a person Only those who are utterly beyond
the reach of impurity can be juxtaposed with the Qur'an, for those obedience to whose
commands God has made incumbent on all Muslims must be free of all defect.
Not content with his other
utterances on the subject, the Prophet declared the number of successors (khulafa')
who would come after him:
"This religion will endure
until the Day of Judgement, for as long as twelve persons from Quraysh rule over you as my
successors."[71]
"My successors will be
twelve in number, just like the chieftains of the Bani Isra'il, all of them from Quraysh
and (according to one version of this hadith) from Bani Hashim,"[72]
Abdullah relates the Prophet to
have said: "As long as there are two men left on the earth, leadership will remain
among the Quraysh."[73]
This mention of the twelve
successors can refer only to the Inerrant Imams from the Progeny of the Prophet, peace be
upon them, for neither were the first caliphs twelve in number, nor were the Umayyad and
Abbasid rulers. More importantly, the crimes those rulers committed, far from assuring the
welfare and happiness of the ummah, brought about the destruction of religion, so
that it is impossible in any way to consider them the successors of the Prophet.
Those who could not deny the
authenticity of the hadith concerning twelve successors but wished nonetheless to
avoid recognizing the Twelve Imams of the Prophet's Progeny were obliged to offer tortuous
explanations that were utterly irreconcilable with the text and content of the tradition,
for the first caliphs and the Umayyad and Abbasid rulers when added together come to a
total of some thirty people, so that the total number of claimants to the caliphate from
among the Quraysh exceeds the number specified in the hadith. If we refuse to
interpret the hadith as referring to the Imams of the Shi'ah, we are left with no
clear or reliable meaning for it whatsoever.
Shaykh Sulayman al-Qunduzi, a
Hanafi scholar, writes the following, in a vein free of all fanaticism:
"According to scholars, the
traditions that specify the successors to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him and
his family, to be twelve in number are well known and they have been narrated by different
chains of transmission. It became clear with the passage of time that what the Messenger
of God was referring to in this hadith were the twelve Imams from his Progeny. It
is impossible to refer it to the first caliphs, for they were only four in number, nor can
it be applied to the Umayyads, for they were more than twelve in number, apart from which
with the exception of 'Umar b. Abd al-'Aziz they were all tyrants and oppressors, and they
did not belong to the Bani Hashim, where as the Prophet had specified that his twelve
successors would be from the Bani Hashim. Jabir b. Samarah mentions that the Prophet spoke
this last part of the tradition softly, because not everyone was happy that the caliphate
would go to the Bani Hashim.
"Equally, this hadith
cannot apply to the 'Abbasids, because their number, too, is more than twelve; they did
not act in accordance with the verse enjoining love for the family of the Prophet;[74] and
they ignored the hadith of the Cloak (hadith al-kisa'). The hadith
must, then, refer exclusively to the Twelve Imams from the Progeny of the Prophet, for
they were superior to all others with respect to knowledge, moral virtues, piety and
lineage. They were a line who inherited their knowledge from the Messenger of God, peace
and blessings be upon him and his family, their great ancestor. This is confirmed by the hadith
concerning the two weighty trusts and numerous traditions that have reached us from the
Prophet."[75]
References:
Imamate and Leadership
By: Sayyid Mujtaba Musavi Lari
Translated by: Hamid Algar |
