The Need for the Imam — Page 16
16 been created for this purpose will only invite people’s derision. He will be quite like a foolish mendicant who had invited ridicule in the presence of a king. The story goes that there lived a certain holy man in a city, who was righteous and God-fearing, but was quite ignorant. The king had faith in him, but his min- ister, who knew of his ignorance, did not. Once, when the king and his minister went to see him, the mendi- cant, dabbling in Islamic history, said to the king, 'Alexander of Rome, too has been a great king in this umma. ' This provided the minister an opportunity to criticise. Promptly he submitted: 'Your Majesty, in addition to his spiritual expertise, the Fak i r is also a great scholar of history!' Therefore, when confronting his opponents and or- dinary seekers, the Imam of the age does not require revelation as much his intellectual ability, for there are all kinds of people who criticize the shariah on the basis of medicine, astronomy, physics, geography and authentic Islamic literature, as well as reason and tex- tual knowledge. The Imam of the age is called the defender of the light of Islam. God Almighty pro- nounces him to be the gardener of this garden. He is obliged to refute every objection and silence every critic. Not only that, but also has to demonstrate to the world the beauty and excellence of Islam. Hence, such a person is worthy of great veneration and is a