How Is the Vicegerent of God on His Earth Recognized in Every Era?

How Is the Vicegerent of God on His Earth Recognized in Every Era?

The most important ways for recognizing the vicegerent of God on His earth are:

The First Way

The means by which the angels identified Adam was through the explicit designation. God explicitly designated Adam and declared that he is His vicegerent on the earth: “When your Lord said to the angels, ‘I am placing a vicegerent on the earth.’ They said, ‘Will You place someone therein who will cause corruption and shed blood while we declare Your praises and sanctify You?’ He said, ‘I know what you do not know.’”^[96]

Even after Adam, explicit designation remained the way by which God’s vicegerent on the earth is known. However, each divine designation was conveyed through the preceding vicegerent in a testament to his community, naming by God’s command the vicegerent who would succeed him.

It is not the earlier vicegerent who chooses the one after him. Rather, God is the one who appoints His vicegerent on the earth in every age, and the earlier vicegerent’s role is simply to deliver that divine designation through his testament. For this reason, God’s vicegerents on the earth among the prophets and messengers are called successors, because each one leaves a testament concerning the one who follows.

There has never been a prophet or imam who was not explicitly designated by the one before him. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the prophets of the Children of Israel designated Moses and appointed him to the people. Moses and the prophets designated Jesus. Jesus designated Muhammad. Muhammad designated Ali and, from his descendants, the Imams and the Mahdis. Therefore, there is no vacancy for anyone else to fill.

Yet their communities turned away from them. Consequently, scholars who acted upon their knowledge arose among them, guiding people back to the path of the designated successors and urging them to follow them and receive knowledge from them alone. At the same time, scholars who did not act upon their knowledge also arose, attempting to assume the role of the designated successors, just as Ibn Abu Quhafa had done.

The Commander of the Faithful said:

By God, Ibn Abu Quhafa seized it for himself, even though he knew full well that my place in relation to it was that of the millstone’s axle.^[97] The flood pours down from me, and no bird can soar up to me. So I drew a veil over it and turned aside from it, considering whether to charge with a crippled hand or bear a blinding darkness in which the old are worn down, the young go gray, and the believer toils until he meets his Lord. I came to see that patience here was the sounder course. So I remained patient, though there was grit in the eye and choking in the throat, while I watched my inheritance being plundered…^[98]

The Second Way

The second way to recognize the vicegerent of God on His earth is knowledge and wisdom, which are the weapons of the prophets and successors.

This is known through their words and the way they deal with problems and real-life events as they arise.

A person must free himself from desire so that the wisdom and knowledge of the prophets and successors may become clear to him. By this, God established His proof against the angels: “He taught Adam all the names, then presented them to the angels and said, ‘Tell Me the names of these, if you are truthful.’”^[99]

This, then, is the best proof of God’s vicegerent on the earth.

The Third Way

The third way of recognizing God’s vicegerent on the earth is the banner that calls for allegiance to God, or "Sovereignty belongs to God.” God Almighty asked for this regarding His first vicegerent, Adam: “When I have created him and blown some of my Spirit into him, fall down in prostration to him.”^[100]

That is, obey him and follow his command, for he is My vicegerent. God said: “Say: ‘O God, Master of all Sovereignty, You give the kingdom to whom You will and remove the kingdom from whom You will.’”^[101]

He also said: “Master of the Day of Judgement.”^[102]

In the proclamation of the Hajj pilgrimage, we say: “Sovereignty belongs to You; You have no partner.”

Thus they do not seek anyone's favor at the expense of this truth, even if they are accused because they bear it. In earlier times, they accused Jesus of seeking sovereignty of the Children of Israel, the very sovereignty that the dysfunctional scholars had forfeited by appeasing the Romans.

The same was said of the message of Muhammad: “There is neither Paradise nor Hell, only sovereignty,” meaning that Muhammad had come to claim rule for himself and his descendants.

Concerning Ali, they said, “He is intent on sovereignty,” though they heard him say, “What has Ali to do with sovereignty that does not last?”

They saw his asceticism and renunciation of the attractions of worldly life. The same was plainly true of Jesus, and likewise of Muhammad.

The prophets and successors pay no heed to popular opinion, unlike the dysfunctional scholars who seek people’s approval at the cost of the Creator’s displeasure. This is why people follow dysfunctional scholars and fight against the prophets and successors, who call for God’s sovereignty on His earth in both legislation and governance, that is, in both the constitution and the ruler. The constitution must be divine, and the ruler must be appointed by God. This does not appeal to most people, who follow their desires and seek well-being in this world at the expense of well-being in the Hereafter.

The All-Knowing, the All-Aware has informed us of the majority of people in several instances:

If you obey most of those on the earth, they will lead you away from the path of God.^[103]

But most of the people do not believe.^[104]

Most of the people, even if you are eager, will not be believers.^[105]

Most of them have already strayed.^[106]

We did not create them except in truth, but most of them do not know.^[107]

Say: “Praise belongs to God,” but most of them do not know.^[108]

Say: “Praise belongs to God,” but most of them do not reason.^[109]

They say: “If we follow the guidance with you, we will be snatched away from our land.’ Have We not established for them a secure sanctuary to which fruits of every kind are brought as a provision from Us?” But most of them do not know.^[110]

People do not need more than these three signs to recognize God’s vicegerent on the earth, and their convergence is found only in him.

But people are divided concerning him, just as the first assembly split when God tested it. The angels believed and prostrated, but the Devil disbelieved, became arrogant, and would not accept a mediator between himself and God: God’s vicegerent on the earth.

So these three signs are a complete proof from God, exalted is He, identifying His vicegerent on the earth.

Still, in His all-encompassing mercy, God Almighty reinforced the prophets and successors with many signs, among them miracles, visions seen by believers, and other matters that I do not intend to survey or discuss here. Whoever wishes may refer to what the brothers among the supporters of Imam al-Mahdi have written, may God protect them and grant them success in every good in this world and the Hereafter.

However, I will briefly discuss one aspect of the miracles, which supported the prophets, because of its importance and because people are largely unaware of it: the issue of ambiguity in the miracle and the purpose behind it.

People know that one of Moses’s miracles was the staff that turned into a serpent, and that this came at a time when magic was widespread. One of Jesus’s miracles was the healing of the sick, and that came at a time when medicine was widespread. One of Muhammad’s miracles was the Quran, and that came at a time when eloquence flourished. A person who does not know the truth may imagine that the miracle took a form resembling what was common in its own time only so that it might surpass the magicians, the physicians, or the eloquent, and thereby demonstrate its miraculous character. Yet the truth hidden from people, even though the Quran states it, is that the material miracle came in a form that is ambiguous for those who know nothing beyond the material world. God does not accept a faith confined to the material. Faith must be in the unseen:

Those who believe in the unseen, establish prayer, and spend out of what We have provided them.^[111]

You can only warn those who follow the Reminder and fear the Most Merciful in the unseen. So give him glad tidings of forgiveness and a noble reward.^[112]

Who fears the Most Merciful in the unseen and comes with a repentant heart.^[113]

We sent Our messengers with clear proofs and sent down with them the Book and the Balance so that people may uphold justice; and We sent down iron, in which there is great strength and benefit for people, so that God may know who supports Him and His messengers in the unseen. Indeed, God is Powerful and Mighty.^[114]

Faith in the unseen is what is required, and it is what God desires. The miracle He sends must therefore leave room for faith in the unseen, which means that it will contain a measure of ambiguity. For that reason, it often came in a form resembling what was prevalent at the time it was sent: “Had We made him an angel, We would have made him a man, and We would have clothed them in the very confusion in which they are clothed.”^[115]

For this reason, materialists, those who know nothing beyond matter, found in that ambiguity an excuse for their mistake. “When the truth came to them from Us, they said: ‘Why was he not given the like of what Moses was given?’ Did they not previously disbelieve in what Moses was given? They said: ‘Two magicians supporting one another,’ and they said: ‘We reject them both.’”^[116]

That ambiguity thus became their pretext for saying, “Two magicians supporting one another,” and, “We reject them both.”^[117]

The Commander of the Faithful said, describing one of the hypocrites: “He makes doubts an excuse for his failure.”^[118]

If, on the other hand, the miracle were overpowering and bore no resemblance to the practices of the time, there would be no room left for faith in the unseen. It would simply compel and force faith. That would be neither true faith nor submission, but mere surrender, and that is not what God desires, approves, or accepts.

God said: “Then We brought the Children of Israel across the sea, and Pharaoh and his soldiers pursued them in tyranny and hostility until, when drowning overtook him, he said: ‘I believe that there is no god except the One in whom the Children of Israel believe, and I am of those who submit.’”^[119] Pharaoh believed and submitted, or rather surrendered, just before he died. But God neither approves nor accepts such faith or such submission, and He replied to him: “Now? When before this you disobeyed and were among the corrupters.”^[120]

This is because such faith arises from an overwhelming miracle, which does not allow those who only know the material world to reinterpret it, nor can doubt enter the heart after believing it. Thus, no room remains for the unseen, which God intends people both to believe in and to come to faith through. At that point, faith is not accepted, because it becomes compulsion and coercion, not [true] faith:

God said: “Do they wait except that the angels come to them, or that your Lord comes, or that some of the signs of your Lord come? The day some of the signs of your Lord come, no soul will benefit from its faith if it had not believed before or earned good through its faith. Say: ‘Wait; indeed, we are waiting.’”^[121]

“Say, ‘The day of victory will not benefit those who disbelieved their faith, nor will they be reprieved.’”^[122]

Had God wished to compel and coerce people to believe, He would have sent His prophets with miracles so overpowering that no one could say, “Two magicians supporting one another,” or, “confused dreams. He has fabricated it. He is only a poet. Let him bring us a sign like those given to those before.”^[123]

God said: “If your Lord had willed, everyone on the earth would have believed altogether. Would you then compel people so that they become believers?”^[124]

He also said: “If their turning away is grievous to you, then if you are able, seek a tunnel into the earth or a ladder into the sky to bring them a sign. Had God willed, He would have gathered them upon guidance; so do not be among the ignorant.”^[125]

So praise belongs to God, who accepts faith in the unseen and made faith arise through the unseen. He does not accept faith based on the material, nor did He make faith arise through matter. Thus, those whose hearts are alive with penetrating insight are distinguished from those who are spiritually blind and whose hearts are sealed.

There is much more that could be discussed on this subject, but I will leave it at this. I have opened the way and I will leave it to the believers to expand on the rest.

Returning to the central point, I say that what has been shown makes it clear that striving with God’s vicegerent on His earth, and under the vicegerent’s command, is the truth, and all else is empty vanity.

Aban ibn Taghlib said: “Whenever there was mention of people being killed on the frontier, Imam Abu Abdullah would say: ‘Woe to them, why are they doing that? They are hastening death in this world and in the Hereafter. By God, the only martyrs are our followers, even if they die on their beds.’”^[126]