سورة العنكبوت

Imam Baqir (peace be upon him): Abu Basir said: I heard Imam Baqir (peace be upon him), upon hearing the verse: بَلْ هُوَ آیَاتٌ بَیِّنَاتٌ فِی صُدُورِ الَّذِینَ أُوتُوا الْعِلْمَ [Nay! these are clear communications in the breasts of those who are granted knowledge], point with his blessed hand to his own breast.

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): Abd al-Aziz al-Abdi said: Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him), regarding the verse: بَلْ هُوَ آیاتٌ بَیِّناتٌ فِی صُدُورِ الَّذِینَ أُوتُوا الْعِلْمَ [Nay! these are clear communications in the breasts of those who are granted knowledge], said: "They are the Imams (peace be upon them)."

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): Muhammad ibn Fudayl said: I heard Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him) say concerning the verse: بَلْ هُوَ آیَاتٌ بَیِّنَاتٌ فِی صُدُورِ الَّذِینَ أُوتُوا الْعِلْمَ [Nay! these are clear communications in the breasts of those who are granted knowledge]: "They are exclusively the Imams (peace be upon them)."

Imam Baqir (peace be upon him): بَلْ هُوَ آیَاتٌ بَیِّنَاتٌ فِی صُدُورِ الَّذِینَ أُوتُوا الْعِلْمَ [Nay! these are clear communications in the breasts of those who are granted knowledge], what is meant by this verse is only we, the family of Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family).

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): Ali ibn Asbat said: A man asked Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him) about the verse: بَلْ هُوَ آیاتٌ بَیِّناتٌ فِی صُدُورِ الَّذِینَ أُوتُوا الْعِلْمَ [Nay! these are clear communications in the breasts of those who are granted knowledge]. He said: "We are those very ones."

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): Sadir al-Sayrafi said: Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him) said regarding the word of Allah: بَلْ هُوَ آیاتٌ بَیِّناتٌ فِی صُدُورِ الَّذِینَ أُوتُوا الْعِلْمَ [Nay! these are clear communications in the breasts of those who are granted knowledge]: "We are those very ones to whom knowledge has been given, and Allah meant us."

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): Sadir said: I asked Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him) about these two verses: بَلْ هُوَ آیاتٌ بَیِّناتٌ فِی صُدُورِ الَّذِینَ أُوتُوا الْعِلْمَ [Nay! these are clear communications in the breasts of those who are granted knowledge]; and: "Say: this is a great news from which you turn away" (Sad/68-67). He said: "الَّذِینَ أُوتُوا الْعِلْمَ [those who are granted knowledge] are the Imams (peace be upon them), and the news (naba) is the Imamate."

Imam Baqir (peace be upon him): Abd al-Rahim narrates from Imam Baqir (peace be upon him) that he said: "This knowledge (the knowledge specific to the Imam) has come down in a verse of the Qur'an." Then he closed his fingers together and said: بَلْ هُوَ آیَاتٌ بَیِّنَاتٌ فِی صُدُورِ الَّذِینَ أُوتُوا الْعِلْمَ [Nay! these are clear communications in the breasts of those who are granted knowledge].

Imam Baqir (peace be upon him): Abu Basir said: Imam Baqir (peace be upon him) recited this verse and then said: "By Allah, O Abu Muhammad! Allah did not say in this verse that the Qur'an is what lies between the two covers [rather, He said: it resides in the breasts of those who have been granted knowledge]." I asked the Imam (peace be upon him): "Who are these people of knowledge?" The Imam replied: "Who could they possibly be other than us?"

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): Abu Basir said: I asked Imam Baqir (peace be upon him) about the verse: بَلْ هُوَ آیاتٌ بَیِّناتٌ فِی صُدُورِ الَّذِینَ أُوتُوا الْعِلْمَ [Nay! these are clear communications in the breasts of those who are granted knowledge]: "Are you the ones to whom the knowledge has been given?" He replied: "Who else could it be, when we are the ones firmly rooted in knowledge, as stated in the Quran: الرَّاسِخُونَ فِی الْعِلْم [those firmly rooted in knowledge]."

Imam Baqir (peace be upon him): Zayd ibn Sallam al-Ju'fi said: I came to Imam Baqir (peace be upon him) and said: "May Allah keep you well, Khaythama told me that he asked you about the verse: بَلْ هُوَ آیاتٌ بَیِّناتٌ فِی صُدُورِ الَّذِینَ أُوتُوا الْعِلْمَ وَ ما یَجْحَدُ بِآیاتِنا إِلَّا الظَّالِمُونَ [Nay! these are clear communications in the breasts of those who are granted knowledge; and none deny Our communications except the unjust], and you told him that this verse was revealed exclusively about you, the family, and that you are the ones to whom knowledge has been given." He said: "By Allah, Khaythama has spoken the truth; that is exactly what I told him."

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): Ali ibn Asbat said: A man asked Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him) about the words of Allah the Mighty and Majestic: بَلْ هُوَ آیاتٌ بَیِّناتٌ فِی صُدُورِ الَّذِینَ أُوتُوا الْعِلْمَ [Nay! these are clear communications in the breasts of those who are granted knowledge]. The Imam (peace be upon him) said: "They are us." The man said: "May I be your ransom! Until the rising of al-Qa'im (may Allah the Exalted hasten his noble relief)?" He said: "All of us, one after another, are upholders of the command of Allah the Mighty and Majestic, until the Master of the Sword comes; and when the Master of the Sword comes, a different command arrives."

Imam Baqir (peace be upon him): Humran and Abdullah ibn Ajlan narrated from Imam Baqir (peace be upon him) that regarding the verse: بَلْ هُوَ آیاتٌ بَیِّناتٌ فِی صُدُورِ الَّذِینَ أُوتُوا الْعِلْمَ [Nay! these are clear communications in the breasts of those who are granted knowledge], he said: "It is only us, the Imams." And "none grasp them except those who know" (Al-Ankabut/43) — he held that whoever recognises the Imam and the signs is among those who grasp this matter.

Imam Ali (peace be upon him): In Tafsir al-Nu'mani, in the chapter on the Qur'an, it is reported that Amir al-Mu'minin (peace be upon him) said: Faith, disbelief, polytheism, and their increase and decrease are as follows: Faith in Allah is the highest of deeds in rank and holds the loftiest station; no station is nobler than it, and its share is greater than that of all others. It was said to him: "O Amir al-Mu'minin (peace be upon him)! Is faith speech and action, or is it speech alone?" He said: "Faith is affirmation in the heart, acknowledgement on the tongue, and action through the limbs. Faith is entirely action. Faith is sometimes complete, sometimes half-complete, sometimes deficient, and sometimes greater — such that this deficiency and increase is plainly seen. Allah the Exalted has assigned to each of the human limbs and organs a duty that has no relation to any other organ. One of them is the heart of the human being, by which he grasps matters and by which his understanding and awareness function, by which he solves problems and understands its good and evil. The heart is the commander and chief of the body, and every action which the other limbs and organs perform is carried out at the command of the heart, and commands and prohibitions in the body are executed through the heart ... No one believes in Allah unless he believes in the Messenger of Allah and His proofs (hujjahs) upon the earth. Allah says: 'Whoever obeys the Messenger has indeed obeyed Allah' (Nisa/80). It is not that Allah places among the limbs and organs of human beings a leader and imam that removes doubt and uncertainty from them and establishes certainty for them — and that imam is the heart of the human being — yet leaves this matter unattended in the case of the proofs (hujjahs) ... Then He clarified the position of those in authority (wulat al-amr), who are among the people of knowledge, and made their rank plain, and said in His Book: If they were to refer the matters of dispute to the Messenger and to those in authority among them, those with knowledge would extract the truth and make the reality plain (Nisa/83). From this it is clear that people are incapable of the ta'wil (interpretation) of the Book, and only those in authority can derive it, for they are the ones deeply rooted in knowledge (al-rasikhun fi al-'ilm), and they are the trustworthy authority regarding the ta'wil of the Qur'an. And He said in the Qur'an: 'None knows its interpretation except Allah and those firmly rooted in knowledge' (Al-i Imran/7). And in another place He said: They are clear signs residing in the breasts of the people of knowledge. And seeking knowledge and virtue is better than worship.

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): In the book Da'a'im al-Islam it is narrated that someone asked Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him) a question, and he replied: If a speaker says, "What proof was there that Allah the Mighty and Majestic transferred the imamate from the children of Hasan (peace be upon him) to the son of Husayn (peace be upon him)?" we say: "The Book of Allah transferred it (the imamate)." If he says: "How is this, given that [the imamate] is by taking precedence [in religion] and being pure from the destructive sins that cause [entry] into the Fire, and after that, [the imamate] is by manifest knowledge?" he is told: "The imamate is by [possessing] all that the ummah needs of its lawful and unlawful, and knowledge of the Book of Allah — its particular and general, its outward and inward, its clear and ambiguous, its abrogating and abrogated, the subtleties of its knowledge and the wonders of its interpretation." The questioner said: "What is the proof that the Imam must have knowledge of these things you have mentioned?" He said: "[Its proof is] the word of Allah the Mighty and Majestic concerning those to whom He gave permission to rule and whom He made worthy of it, [where He says:] Indeed We sent down the Torah, in which was guidance and light, by which the prophets who submitted to the command of Allah judged for the Jews, and [likewise] the scholars and learned ones... (al-Ma'idah/44) — the scholars (al-rabbaniyyun) are the Imams, who are other than the prophets, who train the people with their knowledge, and the learned ones (al-ahbar) are others besides them (the Imams), who are the callers of the people [to the truth]. Then [Allah] the Mighty and Majestic informed and said: [The scholars and learned ones judged] by this divine Book which was entrusted to them and to which they were witnesses (al-Ma'idah/44); He did not say: 'by their ignorance [they judged].' Then He said: Are those who know and those who do not know equal? Only those endowed with understanding take heed. (al-Zumar/9) And He said: بَلْ هُوَ آیاتٌ بَیِّناتٌ فِی صُدُورِ الَّذِینَ أُوتُوا الْعِلْمَ [Nay! these are clear signs in the breasts of those who are granted knowledge]. And He said: And none understand them except those who know. (al-Ankabut/43) Then He said: Only those of His servants who have knowledge fear Allah. (Fatir/28) And He said: Is He who guides to the truth more worthy to be followed, or he who does not himself find guidance unless he is guided? What is the matter with you? How do you judge? (Yunus/35) These [verses] are the proof that the Imams must indeed be scholars (learned ones)."

Ali ibn Ibrahim (may Allah have mercy on him): وَمَا یَجْحَدُ بِآیَاتِنَا [And none deny Our signs] — meaning, none deny Amir al-Mu'minin (peace be upon him) and the other Imams (peace be upon them) except the wrongdoers.