The-Eclipse-of-Islam-What-happend-to-Islam-after-Umar-by-G-A-Parwez-Tolue-Islam-Trust

The Elipse of Islam________________________________________________________various ways and means. At this moment, we will remunerate some morequalities of these Imams.Imam Jafar said “we are…the persons whose following is a duty (who mustbe obeyed). There is no alternative for the people but to accept our divineknowledge, it is not acceptable to be ignorant about us. The person whorecognized us is a momen and who rejected us is a kafir (infidel). Whoeverneither recognized nor rejected us is a disillusioned person unless hereturns to our obedience as ordained by God”. Imam Baqer said, “our love isfaith and our rejection is kufr. (Ash-Shafi, vol. I, p. 215-16)According to another tradition about Amirul Momenin (Ali) ImamMohammad Baqer said:After the Prophet, obedience of Ali is a must just like that of theProphet…disobedience of his commands – however small - tantamounts todisbelief. The Prophet was the Gate to God through which entry isobligatory; he was a path that whoever followed reached God. AmirulMomenin was just like that. After him, successive Imams enjoyed the samestatus. (Ash-Shafi, vol. I, p. 227)For Muslims, the Quran was, and remains, the authority for Deen. But ImamMohammad Baqer says: ‘Nobody has the power to claim that he hascomplete knowledge of the external or literal (Zahir) and hidden or esoteric(Batin) meaning of Quran, except the Osi’as (Imams)’. (Ash-Shafi, vol. I, p.261) Here, the word Batin (hidden) is used that we will explain later.About the knowledge of Imams, it is believed that their knowledge isgreater than those of the Prophet i.e. Knowledge began with the Prophetbut it reached its climax with the Imams.In Al Kafi it is narrated: ‘I heard Imam Jafar saying “Knowledge would haveended if it had not been increased by us”. I asked, “Is there any knowledge______________________________________________________________What happened to Islam after Umar? [ 61 ]