Among the important principles in the exegesis of the Noble Qurʾan is a principle set out by Imam Muhammad al-Jawad (a), namely that Allah the Exalted has put forward in His Mighty Book arguments to people on the subject of the prophets, so that they may arrive at a clear conviction and a firm faith in them, and He made the patterns (sunan) of that operate in what appeared in their reality,
so the lives of the prophets and the miracles that appeared from them were witnesses to their truthfulness. And since the Imamate is an extension of Prophethood, and the two are a single light, He made the patterns of the prophets operate in the Imams and made their proof like the proof of the prophets. Imam al-Jawad expressed this in a hadith in which he said: (Indeed Allah has argued concerning the Imamate with the like of that with which He argued concerning Prophethood).
Thus we have a great Qurʾanic wealth concerning the Imamate and its teachings.
It is narrated from ʿAli ibn Asbat, who said: I saw Abu Jaʿfar (a) when he came out to me, and I began to look at him intently; I began looking at his head and his feet so as to describe his stature to our companions in Egypt. While I was thus, he sat down and said: O ʿAli, indeed Allah has argued concerning the Imamate with the like of that with which He argued concerning Prophethood. He said: “And We gave him judgement while still a child” (Qurʾan 19:12), “When he came of age” (Qurʾan 12:22; 28:14), “and reaches forty years” (Qurʾan 46:15). So it is possible that he be given wisdom while he is a child, and it is possible that he be given it when he is forty years old. (al-Kafi, vol. 1, p. 384).
On the basis of this important principle, the narrations concerning the Imamate—its reality, its special characteristics, its features and its roles—can be presented to the verses of the Noble Qurʾan that applied to the prophets, so that the idea is brought closer, the intellect comprehends it and the heart affirms it; then one applies it to the reality of the Imam in his knowledge, his excellence and the miracles and wonders (karāmāt) that appeared from him. Thus this principle becomes one of the ways of presentation to the Noble Qurʾan as regards the doctrinal narrations that have come concerning the Imamate. It is also proof that what some imagine in rejecting the matters of the Imamate on the basis of a rational argument is nothing but pure illusion, with which reason has no connection, because its patterns are established in the Noble Qurʾan, having applied to the prophets of Allah Almighty.
In another application of the aforementioned principle, Imam al-Jawad (a) mentions a precise application that reinforces the principle; indeed, he establishes that the model of the Imamate has been applied in the Noble Qurʾan in the case of the Commander of the Faithful (a), in that Allah the Exalted made apply [to him] what He made apply to the Prophet Muhammad (s). Imam al-Jawad (a) used it as proof of the Imamate in his own case, since he was young in age when he assumed the Imamate.
It is narrated from ʿAli ibn Ibrahim, from his father, who said: ʿAli ibn Hassan said to Abu Jaʿfar (a): O my master, the people object to your youthfulness. He said: And what do they object to in that? The saying of Allah Almighty: Allah Almighty said to His Prophet (s): “Say, ‘This is my way. I summon to Allah with insight—I and he who follows me.’” (Qurʾan 12:108). By Allah, none followed him but ʿAli (a), and he was nine years old; and I am nine years old. (al-Kafi, vol. 1, p. 384).
Before that, it was narrated from Imam al-Rida (a), the father of Imam al-Jawad, in applying this principle—from the verse “our souls and your souls” (Qurʾan 3:61)—to the superiority of the Commander of the Faithful (a), that he said: (So he was his soul by the decree of Allah Almighty. It has been established that no one of the creation of Allah the Exalted is more majestic and more excellent than the Messenger of Allah (s); hence it necessarily follows that no one is more excellent than the soul of the Messenger of Allah (s), by the decree of Allah the Exalted). (al-Bihar, vol. 10, p. 350).
Thus this application is proof of (Indeed Allah has argued concerning the Imamate with the like of that with which He argued concerning Prophethood), as Imam al-Jawad (a) said.
Sayed Mahmoud Al-Mosawi
30 Dhu al-Qaʿda 1442 AH
