> I think Shi`ah consider the `ismah (infallibility) of `ali, Fatimih,
> Imam Hasan, Imam Husayn, etc., etc. on par with the infallibility of
> the Prophet Muhammad. I guess the Shaykhi school adopts a very
> extremist view of the exalted station of imams. But I think
> Baha'u'llah does
not
> accept that the infallibility of the imams was on the same level of
> the Prophet's infallibility, the Most Great Infallibility. IshrAqAt
> expatiates on this.
Dear Iskandar,
Baha'u'llah does talk about different levels of infallibility, but I think
when He refers to the Most Great Infallibility of the Manifestations He
means that They Themselves are the balance of right and wrong, not just that
what they do is right.
warmest, Susan
Dear Iskandar and Susan, may you succeed in your studies. During the period
of the so-called Ghaybat e Kubraa [Greater Occultation] ie 260 AH 1260 AH,
the Ulama of the Shi'ih maz.-hab, more particularly the Us.uuli 'ulama
relied on some traditions narrated of the Imams. On the basis of these three
traditions somehow the umbrella of "inerrancy" of not "infallibility" was
extended to the 'ulama. One very sad consequence of this was these Us.uuli
'ulama would anathematize and excommunicate other 'ulama of the
akhbaari/sufi/other denominations.
It is this particular extension of the umbrella of inerrancy that the
Manifestations of the exalted Bab and Baha'u'llah say its day is not now. A
New Day has dawned, with new norms new balances.
This is Baha'u'llah's call to the 'ulama
***Say: O leaders of religion! Weigh not the Book of God with such
standards and sciences as are current amongst you, for the Book itself is
the unerring balance established amongst men. In this most perfect balance
whatsoever the peoples and kindreds of the earth possess must be weighed,
while the measure of its weight should be tested according to its own
standard, did ye but know it.
The eye of My loving-kindness weepeth sore over you, inasmuch as ye
have failed to recognize the One upon Whom ye have been calling in the
daytime and in the night season, at even and at morn. Advance, O people,
with snow-white faces and radiant hearts, unto the blest and crimson Spot,
wherein the Sadratu'l-Muntaha is calling: "Verily, there is none other God
beside Me, the Omnipotent Protector, the Self-Subsisting!"
O ye leaders of religion! Who is the man amongst you that can rival Me
in vision or insight? Where is he to be found that dareth to claim to be My
equal in utterance or wisdom? No, by My Lord, the All-Merciful! All on the
earth shall pass away; and this is the face of your Lord, the Almighty, the
Well-Beloved.
We have decreed, O people, that the highest and last end of all
learning be the recognition of Him Who is the Object of all knowledge; and
yet, behold how ye have allowed your learning to shut you out, as by a veil,
from Him Who is the Day Spring of this Light, through Whom every hidden
thing hath been revealed. Could ye but discover the source whence the
splendour of this utterance is diffused, ye would cast away the peoples of
the world and all that they possess, and would draw nigh unto this most
blessed Seat of glory.
Say: This, verily, is the heaven in which the Mother Book is
treasured, could ye but comprehend it. He it is Who hath caused the Rock to
shout, and the Burning Bush to lift up its voice, upon the Mount rising
above the Holy Land, and proclaim: "The Kingdom is God's, the sovereign
Lord of all, the All-Powerful, the Loving!"
We have not entered any school, nor read any of your dissertations.
Incline your ears to the words of this unlettered One, wherewith He
summoneth you unto God, the Ever-Abiding. Better is this for you than all
the treasures of the earth, could ye but comprehend it.
(Baha'u'llah: Gleanings, Pages: 198-199)
For a discussion of the Us.uuli view of those three hadiths [the Tawqii' &
the H.anzala Maqbula of Umar ibn Hanzala] see
http://al-islam.org/shiapoliticalthought/4.htm
presumably this why the Faith is called "revolutionizing"
world Religion, intensely alive, challenging in its claims, revolutionizing
in its tenets, struggling against overwhelming odds
(Shoghi Effendi: God Passes By, Page: 61)
author of a hundred volumes, repositories of the priceless pearls of His
Revelation, may be said to have practically terminated - volumes replete
with unnumbered exhortations, revolutionizing principles
(Shoghi Effendi: God Passes By, Page: 220)
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