as God Almighty has said: ﴿وَأَنَّى لَهُمُ التَّنَاوُشُ مِنْ مَكَانٍ بَعِيدٍ﴾[1]; “And how can they reach it from a faraway place?!” This is why He has considered his warning limited to those who were alive in his time and said: ﴿لِيُنْذِرَ مَنْ كَانَ حَيًّا وَيَحِقَّ الْقَوْلُ عَلَى الْكَافِرِينَ﴾[2]; “To warn those who are alive and to justify the word against disbelievers,” but rather He has considered his reminder beneficial only to those who act according to mutawatir narrations form him based on the intellect or according to what they hear from him in his presence based on the sense, so He has said: ﴿إِنَّ فِي ذَلِكَ لَذِكْرَى لِمَنْ كَانَ لَهُ قَلْبٌ أَوْ أَلْقَى السَّمْعَ وَهُوَ شَهِيدٌ﴾[3]; “Indeed, there is a reminder in it for whoever has the intellect or gives ear while he is present,” not to those who hear a narration from him in his absence and attribute it to him from a faraway place; as He has said in objection to them: ﴿أُولَئِكَ يُنَادَوْنَ مِنْ مَكَانٍ بَعِيدٍ﴾[4]; “They are being called from a far-off place,” and said: ﴿وَيَقْذِفُونَ بِالْغَيْبِ مِنْ مَكَانٍ بَعِيدٍ﴾[5]; “And they accuse the unseen from a far-off place,” and this is while mutawatir narrations from him are not sufficient for those after him, and hearing from him in person is not possible for them, and this is a manifest hardship for them.

[It is obligatory for God to appoint a Caliph for the Prophet]

It is hereby understood that it is obligatory for God to enable subsequent generations to have access to the Sunnah of the Prophet in a certain manner; because the need for the Sunnah of the Prophet is not limited to people of his time, but rather it includes subsequent generations; considering that subsequent generations, too, like people of his time, will not achieve certainty about details and examples of the rulings of God without having access to his Sunnah in a certain manner, nor will they be able to establish Islam in a pure and perfect manner without achieving certainty about them, and therefore, they will not reach their perfection and salvation from annihilation;