| Author: Farouq Mollazehi | Date: 2015-01-02 |
Does His Honor Mansoor Hashemi Khorasani consider us more knowledgeable and better than the predecessors?!
| Answer to question: 2 | Date: 2015-01-02 |
If by “us” you mean yourself or some other particular people around you, His Honor Mansoor Hashemi Khorasani does not have any special information about you, and therefore, he does not judge whether you are more knowledgeable and better than the predecessors or not, but if you mean posterity in general, then according to the intellectual and religious reasons he has stated in the book Return to Islam[1], he considers it possible for posterity to be more knowledgeable and better than the predecessors in general, and believes that it is neither self-evident nor definite that all the predecessors are more knowledgeable and better than all posterity, contrary to the belief of the Salafists, and therefore, imitating them based on the conjecture that they were more knowledgeable and better is not obligatory, rather it is not permissible due to the invalidity of conjecture in Islam. Anyway, it is obvious that the predecessors, meaning the first three generations of Muslims, were not infallible Prophets so that it would be self-evident and definite that they were more knowledgeable and better than posterity, and imitating them would be obligatory or permissible.
However, His Honor Mansoor Hashemi Khorasani accepts the possibility that the predecessors were more knowledgeable than posterity, but he considers the transfer of their knowledge to posterity in a correct and perfect manner to be questionable, rather unacceptable, and believes that there have been many political and sectarian impediments to it, which leave no room for certainty about its correctness and perfection, and it is clear that conjecture about its correctness and perfection is not sufficient due to the invalidity of conjecture in Islam; as he believes that the superiority of the predecessors over posterity means that their reward in the Hereafter is greater, and it does not necessarily prove that imitating them is obligatory or permissible.
Therefore, the result of his words in this regard is that, firstly, it is not proved intellectually and religiously that the predecessors were more knowledgeable and better than posterity, but it is only possible, and this possibility is not sufficient for imitating them, and secondly, assuming that they were more knowledgeable than posterity, it is not proved that their knowledge has been transferred to posterity in a correct and perfect manner so that imitating them based on it would be possible and necessary, and assuming that they were more knowledgeable than posterity, it means that their reward in the Hereafter is greater, and this alone does not entail the obligation or permissibility of imitating them. Therefore, it is obligatory for Muslims to follow the Book of God and the certain Sunnah of the Prophet, peace and blessings of God be upon him and his family, instead of following the predecessors; as the predecessors tried to do the same and did not follow their predecessors, nor did they order posterity to imitate them, rather they may have prohibited them from doing so, and this is a fact which is not hidden from people of knowledge and fairness.
May God grant success to all Muslims to abandon prejudice and imitation and to adhere to the pure and perfect Islam, free from all passions and newly created sects.