From here, it is understood that Allah, the Just and Merciful, has not granted the possibility of attaining certainty about Islamic beliefs and deeds, and of achieving unity in the religion, only to the companions of His Prophet; rather, He has bestowed it upon all Muslims until the Day of Judgment, so that no generation of them would have any argument against Him or be able to offer the excuse: “Had we met the Prophet, we would have attained certainty about our beliefs and deeds and would not have differed among ourselves”; as Allah Almighty has said: ﴿وَأَقْسَمُوا بِاللَّهِ جَهْدَ أَيْمَانِهِمْ لَئِنْ جَاءَهُمْ نَذِيرٌ لَيَكُونُنَّ أَهْدَى مِنْ إِحْدَى الْأُمَمِ ۖ فَلَمَّا جَاءَهُمْ نَذِيرٌ مَا زَادَهُمْ إِلَّا نُفُورًا﴾[1]; “And they swore by Allah with their strongest oaths that if a warner had come to them, they would surely have been more guided than all the nations; but when a warner did come to them, it increased them in nothing except aversion.” Similarly, those who met the Prophet did not attain certainty about their beliefs and deeds and differed among themselves, just like these people, so that the first and the last of this nation would be equal[2]. In any case, Allah’s justice requires that He provide later generations with all the necessary means for attaining certainty that He provided for the first generation, so that all are equal in this regard and their superiority over one another becomes clear; as He has said: ﴿إِنَّمَا أَنْتَ مُنْذِرٌ ۖ وَلِكُلِّ قَوْمٍ هَادٍ﴾[3]; “You are only a warner, and there is a guide for every people.” This means that in every generation of Muslims, there exists a living guide whom Allah has appointed and about whom His Prophet has informed; accordingly, his statements and actions reveal those of Allah and His Prophet. It is the duty of every Muslim to know this guide through explicit statement or sign, and to refer to him alongside the Book of Allah. Therefore, a belief or deed that is not based on this is not accepted, even if it is based on narrations—except for narrations that are mutawatir, as they rationally lead to certainty, and certainty can be the basis for a Muslim’s belief and deed; or narrations that are transmitted from a living guide to the Muslims in his time, so long as those Muslims are not at fault in failing to access him[4]—given that narrations from a living guide, whenever they are contrary to reality, are typically identified and corrected by him, since attributing lies to the living is not easy and can be easily identified and corrected by them[5]—unlike narrations from past guides, who are not able to identify and correct them.

↑[1] . Fatir/ 42

↑[2] . Likewise, it has been narrated from the Prophet that he said: «مَثَلُ أُمَّتِي مَثَلُ الْمَطَرِ لَا يُدْرَى أَوَّلُهَا خَيْرٌ أَوْ آخِرُهَا» (Musnad of Abi Dawud al-Tayalisi, vol. 2, p. 38; Musnad of Ahmad, vol. 19, p. 334); “The example of my community is like that of rain; it is unknown whether its beginning is better or its end.” Perhaps this is a figurative expression indicating that they resemble one another in every aspect.

↑[3] . Ar-Ra‘d/ 7

↑[4] . What attests to this is a narration from Ja‘far ibn Muhammad al-Sadiq, that he asked his father about a group of extremists who followed what al-Mughirah ibn Sa‘id narrated from him. His father then said: “Will they not come to me, so that I may inform them?!” (Rijal al-Kashshi, vol. 2, p. 493).

↑[5] . An example of this is a narration from Anbasah ibn Mus‘ab, who said: “Abu Abdullah—meaning Ja‘far ibn Muhammad al-Sadiq— said to me: ‘What have you heard from Abu al-Khattab—meaning Muhammad ibn Miqlas al-Asadi?’ I said: ‘I heard him say that you placed your hand on his chest and said to him: “Understand and do not forget,” and that you know the unseen, and that you said to him: “He is the repository of our knowledge and the place of our secret, entrusted with our living and our dead.”’ He said: ‘No, by Allah! No part of my body ever touched his body except his hand. As for his claim that I said: “I know the unseen”—then by Allah, besides Whom there is no god, I do not know the unseen. May Allah grant me no reward regarding my dead nor bless me regarding my living if I ever said that to him. And as for his claim that I said: “He is the repository of our knowledge and the place of our secret, entrusted with our living and our dead”—then may Allah grant me no reward regarding my dead nor bless me regarding my living if I ever said anything of this to him at all’” (Rijal al-Kashshi, vol. 2, p. 579). Likewise, Mu‘awiyah ibn Ammar al-Dahni narrated, saying: “Reports reached me from Abu al-Khattab, so I went to Abu Abdullah . Abu al-Khattab then entered while I was with him—or, I entered while he was with him. When only he and I remained in the gathering, I said to Abu Abdullah: ‘Abu al-Khattab has narrated such-and-such from you.’ He said: ‘He has lied.’ Then I began recounting, one by one, what he had narrated—things we had heard and found objectionable—and each time I asked about any of them, he would say: ‘He has lied.’ Abu al-Khattab then crawled forward until he reached out his hand toward the beard of Abu Abdullah . So I struck his hand and said: ‘Take your hand away from his beard!’ Abu al-Khattab said: ‘O Abu al-Qasim, will you not rise?’ Abu Abdullah said: ‘He has a need.’ Abu al-Khattab repeated this three times, and each time Abu Abdullah said: ‘He has a need.’ Then he left. Afterward, Abu Abdullah said: ‘He only wanted to say to you: “He informs me and conceals it from you’” (Rijal al-Kashshi, vol. 2, p. 583). Zurarah ibn A‘yan also narrated, saying: Abu Abdullah said: “Indeed, Abu al-Khattab has lied about me and said that I instructed him and his companions not to perform the Maghrib prayer until they see a certain star called al-Qandani. By Allah, that is a star I do not even know” (Rijal al-Kashshi, vol. 2, p. 494).