Imam (religion)

Imam (in Arabic: إمام‎, romanized: imām, "who preaches the faith"), also written as imam, is a leadership position in Islam.

The term is used to call the person who leads collective prayer in a mosque and in a Muslim community among Sunni Muslims. In this context, imams can lead worship, serve as community leaders, and provide religious guidance. Beginning in the 9th century, the term has also been used to designate outstanding Sunni religious scholars. More frequently, however, the term refers to caliphs in Sunni juridical literature. In Yemen, the title was once given to the country's king.

For Shia Muslims, Imams are the guides or leaders of the Islamic community or umma after the Prophet. The term can be applied only to the members of Ahl al-Bayt, that is, to the family of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad and in particular to the descendants of his daughter Fatima, who are designated as infallible..

The word imam is an Arabic term that means leader, model, authority or exemplary. The term occurs in the Quran, for example in 2ː124, in reference to God's promise to make Abraham a "magnet for the people," and in 11ː17 and 46ː12, where the "Book of Moses" It is characterized as a "magnet." In ancient theological and juridical literature, the Qur'an and the sunna are sometimes called "imán," although the Quran does not describe itself in such terms.

Sunni imams

The Sunni branch of Islam does not have imams in the same sense as the Shiites, an important distinction that is often overlooked outside of the Islamic religion. In everyday terms, the imam for Sunnis is the one who leads formal Islamic prayers (Fard), even in places other than the mosque, whenever prayers are done in groups of two or more people, one person leading (imam) and the others following him, copying his ritual cult actions. Very often, Friday sermons are given by a chosen imam. All mosques have an imam to lead (congregational) prayers, although sometimes this is only a member of the assembled congregation rather than an officially appointed, salaried person. The position of women as imams is controversial. The person who should be chosen, according to the Hadith, is the one who has the most knowledge of the Quran and the Sunna (prophetic tradition) and who is of good character.

It is often thought that imams are the equivalent of a rabbi or priest. However, this is not the case: Sunni Islam lacks a clergy and an imam, in principle, can be anyone who knows the ritual of prayer well. He stands in front of the other faithful in the mosques and serves as a guide to carry out the prayer ritual, although it is not mandatory to follow him. It is often stated that every Muslim can be his own imam, provided he knows how to pray correctly, and that the office of imam exists only as long as the prayer lasts.

Although technically this is the case, in practice there is a certain professionalization. There are people who follow specific studies to dedicate themselves to this task. The election of an imam falls in principle to the community that will follow him, although state or other powers frequently try to intervene in the appointment of imams to keep the mosques under control, especially since the rise of Islamism. Despite everything, the system is highly decentralized compared to that of Christian churches or Judaism, since, from a strictly religious point of view, there is no higher authority that must ratify the formation of a community.

The term is also used to refer to schoolchildren or recognized religious authorities in Islam, often with respect to the founders of Sunni madhhabs or schools of jurisprudence (fiqh). It can also refer to the Muslim scholars who created the analytical sciences related to the Hadith or to the leaders of Muhammad's family in his generational times.

Also called "magnet" to a central figure in an Islamic movement, as in the case of Imam Nabhawi in Syria, and that of Ahmad Raza Khan in India and Pakistan.

The position of imam in Türkiye

The Turkish state appoints imams to work in mosques and they are required to be graduates of an İmam Hatip secondary school or have a university degree in theology. It is an official position regulated by the Presidency of Religious Affairs of Turkey and only men are appointed, while the officers of the same state organization work as preachers and tutors of courses on the Koran, experts in religious ceremonies. These officers are expected to belong to the Hanafi school of the Sunni branch.

The Shiite Imamate

Among the Shiites, the term imam, apart from referring to the guide of a community, is the title held by the supreme leaders of the entire Shiite community (the equivalent of the Sunni caliph). Imams have a more central meaning to the belief, and refer to community leaders (umma). In Shi'ism, an imam is not only presented as the man of God par excellence, but also as a full participant in the names, attributes and acts usually reserved for God alone. The Shia Imamis (Twelver) and Ismailis believe that these Imams are chosen by God to be perfect examples of the faithful and to lead humanity in all aspects of life. They also believe that all the chosen imams are free from committing any sin, an impeccability that is called ismah. These leaders must be obeyed because they were appointed by God.

The history of Shi'ism is marked by numerous disagreements regarding the precise identity and number of imams, as well as how the authority and functions of imams should be defined. Many of these disagreements have continued to this day. today. The Imamis, who have become the largest group among the Shiites, believe in twelve imams, hence their common nickname of "Ithna' 'asharis’" or "Twelfth." The Imamis consider that the title of Imam is hereditary, and that its last representative, the twelfth Imam Muhammad al Mahdi, according to tradition, "disappeared" in the year 873 and has lived since then in hiding (the mahdi or hidden imam), ruling the destinies of the community from the shadows. As for the Ismailis, all their variants tend to generally accept the same four imams that the Zaydi Shiites accept and the first six imams of the Twelver. The Nizari and Musta'li variants are collectively known as Fatimid Ismailis or Fatimids, in contrast to the Septimian Ismailis. Zaydis consider Zayd ibn Ali to have been the fifth imam, rather than his brother Muhammad al-Baqir, which is accepted by Ismailis and Imamis (Twelver). The Twelver accept Musa ibn Ja'far as the successor of Ja'far as-Sadiq, while the Fatimids consider that it is his elder brother Isma'il ibn Ja'far who was the next imam., followed by his son Muhammad ibn Isma'il. The Septimans consider that Isma' il ibn Yá' far (or his son Muhammad ibn Isma' il) was the last Imam and hidden Mahdi

The imamate is one of the pillars of Shiism, which separates it from the majority interpretation of Islam in which all believers are equal before God. For the Shiites, God cannot allow man to walk towards his perdition, and that is why he sent the prophets to guide him. Muhammad's death, however, ended the prophetic cycle according to the general belief of Islam. Since there are no prophets, a spiritual guarantor of human behavior is necessary, who is at the same time proof of the veracity of the religion and guide of the community: the imam.

The person worthy of the position must have a series of characteristics that make him the most perfect man of his time: versed in religion, fair, devoid of defects. Furthermore, he has a certain supernatural endowment granted by the prophet and by the preceding imam. The imam is infallible, and must be a direct descendant of Muhammad (Hussein, the third imam, was the son of Ali and one of the prophet's daughters, Fatima). This demand, which originally had a political nature, over time acquired an important theological dimension.

The imamate embodies both spiritual and earthly powers. However, since the imam is hidden, the members of the community are free to adopt whatever attitude they wish towards the existing earthly power.

Number and symbol	Name	Title	Importance	Birth	Death
1	Ali Ibn Abi Talib	Amir al-mu'minin	The First Imam and the successor by right of Muhammad for the Shiites; the Sunni recognize him as the fourth caliph. It has a high status in almost all Sufi orders (Turuq); the members of these orders trace their lineage to Mohammed through it.	599 d C. Mecca (Saudi Arabia)	661 d C. Murdered in Kufa with a sword poisoned by the syrup Abd-al-Rahman ibn Mulyam.8 11 buried in the Mosque of the Ali Imam in Nayaf (Irak).
2	Hasan ibn Ali	al-Mujtaba	The youngest survivor, grandson of Mohammed through his daughter Fatima az-Zahra. It happened to his father as a caliph of Kufa, and on the basis of the peace treaty with Muawiya, he resigned from the control of Iraq.	624 d C. Medina (Saudi Arabia)	670 d C. According to Shia sources, he was poisoned in Medina by one of his women following Muawiya's orders. Buried in the Medinese cemetery of Al-Baqi'.
3	Husáin ibn Ali	Sayyid ash-Shuhada	Nieto de Mohammed and brother of Hasan ibn Ali. He opposed the validity of Yazid I's caliphate. As a result, he and his family were killed in the battle of Kerbala by the Yazid forces. After this incident, the commemoration of the Ashura has become a central ritual in the Shiite identity.	626 Medina (Saudi Arabia)	680 d C. Cayed martyr and then decapitated in the Battle of Kerbala. Buried in the Mausoleum of the Imam Husein of Kerbala (Irak).
4	Ali ibn al-Husáyn	al-Sajjad, Zayn al-'Abidin	Author of prayers in Sahifa Al-Sajjadiyya, known as "The Psalm of the Family of the Prophet"	658 d C. Medina (Arabia Saudí)	712 d C. According to the majority of the Shiite scholars, he was poisoned in order of the sixth omeya caliph Walid I Medina. Buried in the Medinese cemetery of Al-Baqi'.
5	Muhammad al-Baqir	Baqir al-Ulum	Sunni and Shia sources describe him as one of the first and most eminent legal scholars, teaching many students during their stay.	677 d C. Medina (Saudi Arabia)	732 d C. According to some Shiite scholars, he was poisoned in Medina (Saudi Arabia) Ibrahim ibn Walid ibn 'Abdallah, by order of the 10th Omeya caliph, Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik. Buried in the Medinese cemetery of Al-Baqi‘.
6	Ya‘far as-Sadiq	as-Sadiq	It established Jafari jurisprudence and developed the theology of Shiites. He taught many scholars in various fields, including Abu Hanifa and Malik ibn Anas in fiqh, Wasil ibn Ata and Hisham ibn Hakam in Islamic theology and Geber in science and alchemy.	702 d C. Medina (Saudi Arabia)	765 AD According to Shia sources, he was poisoned in Medina (Saudi Arabia) by order of Al-Mansur, second Abbasid caliph. Buried in the Medinese cemetery of Al-Baqi.
7	Isma'il ibn Yá'far	al-Mahdi the hidden	After the death of the sixth Imam in 765 Ja`far ibn Muhammad, he had appointed his firstborn Ishmael ibn Yá'far (Ishmael), but he died a few years before his father. The part of the Shia community that will later form the branch of the Imam decided that his other son, Musa al-Kazim, as the seventh magnet, would succeed. The group then called Ismailí, however, did not admit the death of Ismaíl and extended the belief that it had been hidden and that it would return at the end of time as al-Mahdi.	719 d C. Medina (Saudi Arabia)	No death date. According to the Seventh Ismaili doctrine this Iman has been hidden and will return at the end of time.
7	Musa ibn Ya'far	al-Kazim	Lead the Shia community during the Ismaili schism and other branches after the death of the former magnet, Ya’far as-Sadiq. It established a network of agents who collected khums in the Shiite community of the Middle East and the Great Jorasan. He had a high position in Mahdavia; the members of these orders trace his lineage to Mohammed through him.	744 d C. Medina (Saudi Arabia)	799 d C. Incarcerated and poisoned in Baghdad (Irak) by order of the fifth Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid. Buried at Kadhimiya Bagdadi Mosque.
8	Ali ibn Musa	ar-Rida, Reza	Made prince heir by the caliph Al-Ma'mun, and famous for his discussions with Muslim and non-Muslim religious scholars.	765 d C. Medina (Saudi Arabia)	817 d C. According to Shiite sources, he was poisoned in Mashhad (Iran) by order of the Al-Ma'mun caliph. Buried in the Mausoleum of the Imam Reza, in Mashhad.
9	Muhammad al-Yawad	al-Taqi, al-Jawad	Famous for his generosity and piety in the face of the persecution of the Abbasid Caliphate.	810 d C. Medina (Arabia Saudí)	835 d C. Poisoned in Baghdad by his wife Um al-Fazl, daughter of the caliph Al-Mamun, by order of the eighth Abbasid caliph, Al-Mu'tasim. Buried in the Kadhimiya Mosque (Bagdad).
10	Ali al-Hadi	al-Hadi, al-Naqi	It strengthened the network of deputies in the Chií community. He sent instructions, and received financial assistance from the faithful from the khums and religious promises.	827 d C. Surayya, village near Medina (Saudi Arabia)	868 d C. According to the Shiite sources, he was poisoned in Samarra (Irak) by order of the thirteenth Abbasid caliph, Al-Mu'tazz.33 Buried in the Samarra Al-Askari Mosque.
11	Hasan al-Askari	al-Askari	During most of his life, during the Abbasid Caliphate, Al-Mu'tamid restricted him after his father's death. The repression of the Shia population was particularly high at that time due to its large number and growing power.	846 d C. Medina (Saudi Arabia)	874 d C. According to Shia sources, he was poisoned in Samarra (Irak) by order of the Al-Mu'tamid caliph. Buried in Samarra Al-Askari Mosque.
12	Muhammad al-Mahdi	al-Mahdi (the hidden), Hidden Imam, al-Hujjah	According to the duodecian doctrine, it is a present historical personality and is the present magnet and the promised Mahdi, a Messianic figure that will return with the Messiah, Jesus Christ. It will restore the just government of Islam and fill the land of justice and peace.	868 d C. Samarra (Irak)	No death date. According to the Imam doctrine, since 872 he lives in a state of "hidden", which will continue as long as the divine will determines it.