Administration of the Qur’an and the Sunnah.

By Aneela Sultan.

If we look at authority in the western way, lets say the Prime minister, he always has a deputy to take over his duties should the need arise, this person even if he is not called to stand in for the Prime minister is still seen as the deputy prime minister and when the Prime minister departs, his deputy immediately takes on his role.  Islamically, the one we see as an authority is the Prophet and the one who would come after him obviously would be his deputy-also an authority, the question is was there a deputy?  We Shia and also it is narrated in the Sunni sources know who was the deputy minister of the Prophet (Imam Ali AS). When the Prophet departed, the one to take over in authority after him would of course have been his deputy, in order that no conflict and no dispersion would arise.  
 
Our Prophet (pbuh) was a prophet, a messenger and an Imam (both spiritually and politically), and we know that after him there would be no prophet or messenger, but we cannot state that there would be no Imams.  
 
This Imam, which most would call an Amir, whom would have responsibility over the Muslims, would need to administer the law as prescribed by Allah, obviously the Qur’an and the Sunnah, and no individual who deviated from this could be given this position. Why?  Because, if other than this person were to rule, the Qur'an and Sunnah would be at risk of being misinterpreted and the practices of Islam would also be at risk of change, through his own self, which evidently would cause quarrel and confusion.  When Allah states that He does not wish His servants to fall into this state, then could this issue be an issue left aside in order for the people to differ and then we set the blame upon Allah for being negligent of this?  
 
The Qur’an and the Sunnah was the most important thing needed for the Muslims to carry out their duties, and saying that the matter of leadership carried no significance in this is just like stating that the matter of following our religion is of no significance, because if any of Tom, Dick or Harry was to be taken in authority after the Prophet and then that person carried out practices against the precepts of the religion, twisting and misinterpreting the Qur'an and also propagating it, would the religion remain as one? Would it not result in a scattering, some people doing the right thing and some people following the corrupt leader and following ways other than prescribed by the Holy Qur'an, ultimately fading out the real Islam as originally taught? Was it not incumbent to have an authority that we could turn to provide us with the truth? Also we have to recognise that Allah sets forth everything required but the question is do we obey it?  
 
This last part, which has been mentioned in my book, Succession of the Prophet, which inshallah will be published soon.

Just imagine, the Prophet stood amongst his people stating I leave you the Qur'an and the Sunnah and you being stood amidst the people, would you have known how to follow everything in the Qur'an and would you have known the Sunnah to be able to carry out your religious obligations? When a teacher is ill and tells his or her students that he or she will not be in tomorrow, does he or she state, I leave you the Book you all were working on and what I have stated to you, or does a stand in teacher come in to help the students with the Book and what the teacher had expressed? What if a new student started, where would that student start without the guidance of the teacher?  This is how important the leadership (what is recognised as the Imamate) is after the Prophet (pbuh) and the Prophet never stated that the whole of the Ummah is perfect and knows everything and everyone after him is perfect and knows everything and we have no problem. The Shia recognise that there are chosen ones - Imams, for this task and not everyone is an idyllic model for society to carry this duty out, and taking from these people will keep one aloof from the misinformed practices.  
 
This is only a brief short note, but Imamate itself is a big issue and understanding it can take time, but logically, the Imam is an idyllic leader for the society of the Muslims, and can never be a mere formality and can never be stated as trivial, when it is for something, which is marked as an authority who would most definitely have the responsibility of keeping the Qur’an and the Sunnah in tact.