Journal of Imamiyyah Studies

Journal of Imamiyyah Studies

Validating the Prophet’s Intellectual Heritage and Imam Ali’s Role in Transmitting the Specific Knowledge of Imams

Document Type : Original Article

Author
masomeh esmaeili
Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy and Theology, Huda College (Jamiʿat al-Zahra), Qom, Iran
10.22034/jis.2025.360040.1844
Abstract
According to existing classifications, the sources of the Imam’s knowledge, as the origins of the specific knowledge of the Imam, include several elements such as the Holy Quran, the knowledge of Prophet Muhammad, the knowledge of the previous prophets, the preceding Imam, the comprehensive book. al-Jāmiʿa), Jafr, the Holy Spirit, and divine inspiration. The central issue of this article is how the role of Prophet Muhammad as a source of the Imam’s knowledge compares to other sources, and how Imam Ali facilitates the transmission of this knowledge to the other Imams. Researchers typically list all the sources of the Imam’s knowledge as being on equal footing; however, this article argues that, firstly, the role and significance of the Prophet in the creation of these sources are not on par with other sources, and secondly, sources such as the intellectual legacy of the prophets, divine books, the knowledge derived from the Quran, the comprehensive book, and Jafr are not independent sources on the same level as Prophet Muhammad’s status as a source. Instead, all of these sources are, in fact, content derived from Prophet Muhammad’s heritage, which was transmitted to Imam Ali through him. Consequently, the sources of the Imam’s knowledge should be divided into two categories: the heritage of Prophet Muhammad and divine sources, rather than the two categories of "heritage sources" and "divine sources," because all the sources mentioned as "heritage sources" are, in reality, part of the single source known as the heritage of the Prophet. This issue is proven in the present article through an analytical method based on the hadiths found in Shia hadith sources.
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Keywords
Imam’s knowledge
Prophet Muhammad
Imam Ali
the Prophet’s intellectual heritage
Subjects
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