Regarding Whoever Associates an Imam of Guidance with an Imam Not Appointed by Allāh تعالى

Al-Imāma wa’l-Tabṣira min al-Ḥayra|Volume 1|Book 2|Chapter 22

Regarding Whoever Associates an Imam of Guidance with an Imam Not Appointed by Allāh تعالى

Hadith #1

محمّد بن يحيى، عن محمّد بن الحسين بن أبي الخطاب، عن محمّد بن سنان، عن طلحة بن زيد: عن جعفر، عن أبيه عليهما السلام، قال: من أشرك مع إمام—إمامته من عند الله—من ليس إمامته من عند الله كان مشركاً بالله.

Muḥammad b. Yaḥyā, from Muḥammad b. al-Ḥusayn b. Abī’l-Khaṭṭāb, from Muḥammad b. Sinān, from Ṭalḥa b. Zayd, from Jaʿfar (al-Ṣādiq), from his father , who said: “Whoever associates an Imam whose Imamate is from Allāh with one whose Imamate is not from Allāh, has made himself an associator of Allāh with those other than Him.”[1]

[1] English fails to capture the semantic flexibility of the root « ش-ر-ك », which, in its original Arabic, allows Abū Jaʿfar al-Bāqir صلوات الله عليهما to apply it both to association of true, Divinely appointed Imams with false ones, and polytheism in regard to Allāh تبارك وتعالى Himself. The point is that by wilfully rejecting a Divinely appointed Imam in favour of a pretender, one has made oneself the ultimate cosmic judge in Allāh’s place.
Author: Haseeb Hassan