Читать книгу A Short History of the Fatimid Khalifate онлайн

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The Second Grade. When the disciple had fully adopted the ideas taught in the first grade, and was convinced that men have fallen into error by accepting the traditional teachings of Islam, the daʿi used the ordinary arguments to persuade them that there was need of an authoritative teacher, and without such a teacher men are unable to please God or obey His laws. Great stress was laid upon the unreliability of private judgment and the need of guidance and authoritative teaching.

Third Grade. The daʿi next proceeds to point who can be accepted as the desired teacher and infallible guide, the Imam of Islam. There have been seven such Imams, as worthy of reverence by their religious characters as by their number, for the most important things in the universe, such as the planets, the heavens (Qur. 2, 29; 67, 3), the earths (id. 65, 12, of Bukhari Sahih 59, 2) are invariably in sevens. He then enumerates the seven Imams, the first six being ʿAli to Jaʿfar as-Sadiq, the seventh al-Kaʾim, “the chief,” whom some understand to be Jaʿfar’s son Ismaʿil, others his grandson Muhammad, whilst others again regard these two as but one. He next endeavoured to show that the other Shiʿites, who regard Musa as the seventh Imam, cannot be correct as they do not limit the Imams to the sacred number seven, but continue until twelve are reckoned in all. He then was accustomed to speak against the character of Musa, the son of Jaʿfar, asserting that Ismaʿil had deep knowledge of secret things, whilst Musa possessed no such supernatural enlightenment: he told anecdotes which placed Musa in an unfavourable light, and even attributed to him grave sins, so that it was impossible to regard him as the true Imam. Moreover it was agreed that, since Husayn, the Imamate can only be passed by direct succession, so it is not possible that it could be taken from one and given to his brother. The Ismaʿilians alone have inherited the accurate knowledge of secret mysteries bequeathed by Jaʿfar as-Sadiq to his son Ismaʿil.