Hujjah

--

Hujjah

al­ Qunduzi in Yanabi al-mawaddah, from al-Hasan ibn Ali, contain the following statement of the Prophet which signifies the perpetuity of the Imamate:

"O God, You don't let the earth remain devoid of Your Proof over Your creation so that Your proofs should not become invalid or that Your friends should go astray after You have guided them. They (the Proofs of God) are few in number but great in worth near God, Almighty and Glorious. Indeed, I had prayed to God, Exalted and Blessed, to place knowledge and wisdom in my descent and the descent of my descendants, and in my seed and the seed of my seed, until the Day of Resurrection, and my prayer was granted."

Imam Ali says in Nahjal­ Balaghah (Hikam:147):

"But the earth is never devoid of him who stands for God with a proof (qa'im li'Ilah bi hujjatin). He is either manifest and well-known or afraid and concealed, so that God's proofs and His clear signs should not become invalid. How many are they and where are they? By God, they are few in number, but great in esteem before God. Through them God maintains His proofs and signs till they entrust them to others like themselves and plant them in the hearts of their likes. Knowledge has led them to the reality of understanding and they have attained the spirit of certitude. That which is hard upon the seekers of comforts comes easy to them. They endear what the ignorant regard with aversion. They live in the world with their bodies, but their spirits are in a higher realm. They are the vicegerents (khulafa') of God in His earth and His callers to His Din. Oh, how much I yearn to see them!"

This tradition of Ali has been widely reported and recorded by Shia and non-Shia traditionists and historians, including:

Ibn Abd Rabbih in al-Iqd al-farid, i, 265, 293; al-Yaqubi in Ta`rikh, ii, 400; al-Harrani in Tuhaf al-uqul, 169; al-Saduq in al-Khisal, i, 85 and Ikmal al-Din, 169; Abu Talib al-Makki in Qut al-qulub, i, 272; al-Khatib al­-Baghdadi in Ta'rikh Baghdad, vi, 389; al-Razi in al-Tafsir al-kabir, ii, 192; Ibn Abd al-Barr in al-Mukhtasar, 29 and Jami bayan al-ilm; al-Khwarazmi in al-Manaqib, 390 and al-Azhari in Tahdhib al-lughah, vi, 70.

--