Ali Ibn Abi Talib - Volume 2 of 2

470 'Ali's attitude towards the Kharijites and Shia
3.4.11. Their giving the Imams precedence
over the prophets and Messengers
The Messengers are the best of mankind and the most
deserving of being bearers of the message. Allah prepared them to
reach the highest level of servitude, conveying the message, calling
people and striving in jihad. dAllah knows best with whom to place
His Message& (Qur'an 6: 124). They are distinguished by the fact that
they, out of all mankind, attained the position of ~essenger,~~~ and
AUah enjoined mankind to follow them: BWe sent no Messenger, but
to be obeyed by Allah's leave,& (Qur'an 4: 64). No one among
mankind is to be given precedence over them.
At-Tahhiwi said, explaining the beliefs of Ah1 as-Sunnah:
"We do not give precedence to any one of the close friends of Allah
over any one of the Prophets (EL),). We say: One Prophet is better
than all the close friends of ~llah."'~~ Giving precedence to the
Imams over the Prophets is the way of the extreme Rifi&s, as was
pointed out by 'Abdul-Q& al-~a~hdadi,~~' al-Qidi and
Ibn ~ a ~ m i ~ This a h . particular ~ ~ ~ view became one of the
fundamentals of the Twelvers. The author of al-Was6'il stated that
giving precedence to the Imams over the Prophets is one of the
fundamentals of the Shiite madh-hab, which they attribute to the
Imams. He also said that the reports that they have concerning this
are innumerable.754
In BiGr al-Anwrir, alMajlisi wrote a chapter entitled "Giving
them (m) precedence over the Prophets and all of mankind" in
which it says that Allah took a covenant from the Prophets and from
the angels and all of creation, and that the Messengers of strong will
only attained that status because of their love for the Imams.755 This
view on which the Twelver madh-hab finally settled went through
changes and alterations that took it in the direction of extremism.
With regard to the issue of giving the Prophets precedence over the