With the Imams عليهم السلام are the Scriptures Revealed to the Prophets

Al-Imāma wa’l-Tabṣira min al-Ḥayra|Volume 1|Book 3|Chapter 14

With the Imams عليهم السلام are the Scriptures Revealed to the Prophets

سعد، عن علي بن محمد، عن حمدان بن سليمان، عن عبداللّه بن محمد اليماني، عن منيع بن الحجّاج، عن حسين بن علوان، عن أبي عبداللّه عليه السلام، قال: إنّ الله فضّل اُولي العزم من الرسل بالعلم على الأنبياء. وورثنا علمهم، وفضّلنا عليهم في فضلهم، وعلّم رسول الله صلّى الله عليه وآله ما لا يعلمون، وعلّمنا علم رسول الله صلّى الله عليه وآله فروينا لشيعتنا. فمن قبل منهم فهو أفضلهم، وأينما نكون فشيعتنا معنا.

Saʿd, from ʿAlī b. Muḥammad, from Ḥamdān b. Sulaymān, from ʿAbd Allāh b. Muḥammad al-Yamānī, from Munayʿ b. al-Ḥajjāj, from Ḥusayn b. ʿUlwān, from Abī ʿAbd Allāh , who said: “Allāh favoured those with determination [1] among the Apostles, through knowledge, over the Prophets. We have inherited their knowledge, and He favoured us over them with respect to what they were favoured with. The Apostle of Allāh was made to know that which they had not known, and we were made to know the Apostle of Allāh’s knowledge, which we transmit to our Shīʿa. Whoever among them accepts it is the best of them, and wherever we may be, our Shīʿa are with us.”

[1] Traditions in vol. 2 of al-Kāfī indicate that this refers to Nūḥ, Ibrāhīm, Mūsā, ʿĪsā and Muḥammad صلوات الله عليهم, all of whom were both Prophets and Apostles, and favoured above their peers in both categories on account of their knowledge (as is explicitly laid out by Imam al-Ṣādiq صلوات الله عليه in this tradition). The traditions in al-Kāfī explain that Nūḥ, Ibrāhīm, Mūsā, ʿĪsā and Muḥammad صلوات الله عليهم were designated as “those with determination” on account of them having been sent forth by Allāh with both scriptures and legal systems that were binding on all Prophets, Apostles and knowing, conscious peoples until the emergence of the next “one with determination.” And, because Muḥammad صلى الله عليه وعلى آله was the last Prophet, the last Apostle and, most importantly, the last of “those with determination,” the scripture and the legal system he came forth with is binding until the Day of Judgement.
Author: Haseeb Hassan