Does not Imam Ali (PBUH) consider the caliphate as his right in Nahj al-Balagha?
Answer
From the Shia point of view, the caliphate and Imamate are divine and appointed duties, but after Uthman, Imam Ali (PBUH) refused to accept the caliphate until it was people’s turn to insist. The Imam replied, “Leave me and go to another, it is better for you if I am a minister and advisor than an emir and a ruler.” (Speech 92 of Nahj al-Balagha)
This misgiving is raised by Wahhabism that if the caliphate and Imamate are divine and appointed duties, why did Imam Ali (PBUH) refuse to accept them?
In response to this misgiving, it should be noted that the issue of Imamate is separate from the issue of governance; because Imamate is a post from God; but governance is one of the virtues of Imamate. Therefore, whomever God appoints to this high position (Imamate) is an Imam; whether the people want it or not. The will of the people has no role in determining an Imam; just as it has no role in determining a Prophet. However, the fact that the Imam did not want allegiance does not contradict the right of Imamate of that Imam; because allegiance to the people (government) requires the attention and readiness of the people. However, the Imamate appointed by God Almighty does not need the luck and readiness of the people; and it is like the prophethood of the Prophet (PBUH) in that sense.
Proof of the Divinity of Prophet’s Succession:
When your Lord said to the angels, ‘Indeed I am going to set a viceroy on the earth,’ [Al-Baqarah, verse 30]
We made them Imams, guiding by our command [Al-Anbiya, verse 73]
It is narrated from Zahri that the Holy Prophet (PBUH) came among the tribe of Banu Amer Ibn Sa’sa’ah and invited them to God Almighty. A man from that tribe, who was called “Beihara Ibn Firas”, said: If we pledged allegiance to you and God made you victorious over the opponents, would the government after you become ours? The Prophet (PBUH) said: The command of governance is with Allah, He assigns it with whomever He wills.
Ibn Hisham Humairi, Abdul Malik, Al-Sira Al-Nabawiyyah, in the Library of Muhammad Ali Subaih and Children, vol. 2, p. 289.
Tabari, Muhammad ibn Jarir, Tarikh al Omam va Molouk, vol. 2, p. 350.
Ibn Athir Jazri, Ali Ibn Muhammad, Al-Kamil Fi Al-Tarikh, vol. 1, p. 687.
There are other (Sunni) verses and narrations that prove that Imamate is a divine position.
One of the main misgivings that the Wahhabis have about this sermon (sermon 92) is why did the Imam (PBUH) refuse to accept the caliphate at the beginning of his apparent caliphate even though the Imamate is considered as an appointed matter (in Shiasm), and rejecting it is considered as opposing the order of God?
Devious changes during the caliphate were one of the reasons for Imam Ali’s rejection of the caliphate.
Imam Ali’s refusal to accept the caliphate is in fact an allusion to those who went to the three previous caliphs before coming to him!
In fact, the Imam says that you who went to others before me, should go to others now! How come you did not come to me all this time when the Islamic caliphate could easily have been established and it was possible to have established the religion in its place; but you have come to me now and you want my caliphate!
If the skeptic had studied the devious changes of the time of the three caliphs, he would never have doubted this. Moreover, he would have known that the rejection of the caliphate on that day was not a reason that the Imamate of that Imam was not prescribed; rather, it was because the conditions of the Islamic government present at the time of the Prophet (PBUH), had completely changed (at the time of the Imam). In addition, the capacity and readiness of the people to accept Imam Ali’s method and justice had been lost; just as he says in the continuation of this sermon: “We welcome something that has aspects and colors.”
He said this at a time when the Islamic society was facing crises. The changes and transformations that took place during the caliphate of Uthman, faced the ummah with serious difficulties; therefore, the Imam said: “We are experiencing adventures that have different faces. Be aware that if I accept your request, I will treat you as I know and I will not listen to the words of the reproachers and so and so.”
Imam (PBUH) knew very well that the Muslim people had distanced themselves from the true Islam during the time of the caliphs, especially during the time of the third caliph. The arbitrary division of posts and positions of the Islamic government and the extravagance and unjust distribution of the treasury according to personal desires, which had reached its peak during the time of the third caliph, had accustomed the people to face strong opposition if one wanted to follow the Prophet’s tradition precicely. In fact in the later years, subsequent events (such as the opposition of the Naketheen, Qaseteen and Mareqeen) also proved the correctness of the prediction of the Imam (PBUH); therefore, when the people wanted to pledge allegiance to the Imam, he said as a warning: “Leave me alone, because you can not bear my execution of right and justice.”
This speech of the Imam (PBUH) becomes quite clear to us only when we understand the historical situation of that time and know that after the assassination of Uthman, some of the old companions and followers who had gathered to pledge allegiance to the Imam, tried to pledge allegiance the same way as they had done to the previous caliphs. In such a manner, the caliph derives the legitimacy of his caliphate from the allegiance of the people, and such a caliphate is other than the divine Imamate, which was specified by the Prophet (PBUH) at multiple occasions (such as “Yam al-Dar” and “Ghadir Khum” and …), and which had made the status of Imamate evident to the Imam (PBUH). Because the people who wanted to pledge allegiance in such circumstances had only thought of appointing a caliph, without paying attention to the divine explicit ruling of Imamate for Imam Ali. So it was really not about the Imam having a say or the authority to accept or reject this position but rather God’s will.
The society, after the rule of the three caliphs, was not prepared for such an approach. Just as the people of Mecca were not ready for an Islamic government thirteen years before the emigration of the Prophet (PBUH), so the Prophet (PBUH) did not form an Islamic government in the city of Mecca.
In many sermons of Nahj al-Balagha, we see that the Imam (PBUH) explicitly considers the Imamate as his right and does not consider others worthy of it.
1. In Sermon 3, Imam Ali explicitly criticizes the previous caliphs and considers them all as usurpers, and criticizes the opponents of his government. “Be aware, I swear to God, Abu Bakr forcibly put on the garment of the caliphate, while he knew that my position in relation to the Islamic government was like the axis of a mill to a mill that moves around it. He knew that a flood of science was flowing from the hillside of my mountain, and that the ambitious birds of thought could not fly as high as my value.”
2. In the sermon 144, he says: Indeed, the Imams were all from Quraysh, whose tree was planted in the family of Bani Hashem. The position of guardianship and Imamate is not worthy of others, and other claimants to power do not deserve it.”
3. In letter 36, he says: “O brother, leave the Quraysh to go astray, and wander in separation, and live in rebellion and enmity. Indeed, they united in the war against me, as they had coordinated before me in the battle against the Messenger of God (PBUH). May God punish the Quraysh for the ugliness of their deeds; they cut off my kinship, and they stole the government of my mother’s child (the Prophet PBUH) from me.”
The acknowledgment of Amir al-Mu’minin of the right of his caliphate and Imamate can be seen in many other places in Nahj al-Balaghah, but we have only limited them to these three cases.
Therefore, if Imam Ali (PBUH) did not immediately accept the allegiance of people when they first gathered to pledge allegiance to him and said: “Choose other than me”, it is not a reason for lack of authority; rather, with such encounters, the Imam wanted to express his displeasure with the wrong ways of the past and to warn off the difficulties of the future and prepare them for it. It is very clear that the allegiance of people removes the obstacles present on the path of the implementation of a government and prepares the foundation for the formation of a government, and is not there to legitimize the ruling of an Islamic governor.
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