Ali Ibn Abi Talib - Volume 2 of 2

'Ali ibn Abi Tiilib 335
saying: "There is no issue that is emphasised as much in Islam as
imamate," and by other words of theirs, such as the text quoted
above, to which the narrator added: "I said: 'Which is the best of
these?' He said: 'Imamate is the best."'z79
Al-Majlisi said: "No doubt belief in the imamate of the Imams
and submitting to their authority are among the fundamentals of faith.
and better than all physical acts of worship because these are the
starting point."280
Al-Mudhaffar, - who is one of their contemporary scholars,
says: "We believe that imamate is one of the fundamentals of
religion, and that faith is not complete without believing in it. It is not
permissible to imitate parents, family or educators, no matter how
great they are; rather it is essential to examine the issue, just as it is
essential to examine the issues of tawheed and prophethood."281 The
reports go even further than that, as they say: "The Prophet f&)
taught more about the imamate of 'Ali and the Imams who came after
him than he taught about obligatory
These reports of the RZ& Shia, and others like them in the
books of the R%i& Shia, were enough to make the issue of imamate
the criterion to judge whether a man was a believer or a disbeliever,
and to leave the Muslim exposed to accusations of disbelief for
merely differiug with the Imami Shia with regard to the issue of
imamate, in which they believe. Hence we see some senior Shiite
scholars, both earlier and later, frankly stating this bitter truth,
Ibn Bzbawayh al-Qummi said, in his essay al-l'tiqzdzt: "Our
belief about those who deny the imamate of Amir al-Mu'mineen 'Ali
ibn Abi T2ib (&) is the same as that about one who denies the
prophethood of all the prophets, and our belief about the one who
affirms the imamate of 'Ali and denies one of the Imams who came
after him is that he is like one who affirms all the prophets but denies
the prophethood of Muhammad (@)."283