certain privileges, qualifications and attributes that distinguishes him from other people.
Anwar:No doubt in that; it is actually self-evident.
Hasan:The spiritual attributes and moral qualities that a prophet is characterized by are as the following:
· Infallibility: it is the power that prevents a person from making mistakes and committing sins.
· Honesty and integrity attract people to the prophet and his message.
· The prophet must be better and having more knowledge than anyone else so they follow him and no other way round.
· Having unique capability in leadership, management and decision making.
In other words, he needs to be characterized with internal and external perfection.
Anwar:Would you explain each one of these characteristics in brief?
Hasan:Yes, Sure. Let’s begin with infallibility.
Beside what we have just said in this regard, theologians define infallibility as a form of grace that the Gracious Allah bestows upon a person in a sense that he neither refrains from obedience nor commits sins although he is capable to do so.
There are also three levels to infallibility:
· Preserved from committing sins and disobeying Divine commands.
· Preservation in receiving revelations, realizing them and delivering them to people.
· Preservation from making errors when implementing the Shari’a as well as in individual and social affairs.
Anwar:Is it true that there are two types of infallibility?
Hasan:Yes, there is essential infallibility and deeds infallibility.
Anwar:Can you explain them a bit?
Hasan:Of course!
Essential infallibility:is purity from committing sins or making mistakes intentionally and unintentionally. This
type of infallibility is restricted to Prophets and Imams (PBUT).
Deeds infallibility:is purity from committing sins or making mistakes only intentionally. Every person is capable of achieving this type of infallibility through self-restraint and righteousness. Abi-l-fazl Al-Abbas and his sister Zainab, Fatima Al-Ma’souma, Ali Al-Akbar and others (PBUT) are crystal clear examples for people who could attain deeds infallibility.
Anwar:Will you explain the process through which one attains infallibility?
Hasan:Briefly, infallibility is a high form of piety that one can obtain via absolute awareness about the consequences of committing sins and their ugliness as well as pure love for the Creator and worshipping Him. This is how one can turn away from committing sins or making mistakes.
Anwar:This was very brief, yet very beautiful and useful. However, could you please present us with evidence to the necessity of infallibility?
Hasan:As you know, proofs to infallibility are either
purely reasonable or a combination of reasonable evidence and evidence from Islamic law or Shari’a. These proofs or evidence can be put as the following:
· No infallibility leads to refutation of the purpose. In other words, the idea and the purpose behind sending the Prophets to people is to guide them to the right path, to prevent them from going astray, to educate them and to steer them to proper perfection. If we assume prophets forget or make mistakes, how can we possibly expect them to lead humanity towards what the Glorious Allah desires?
· Infallibility is the best and the most preferable means to achieve the purpose. Thus, it must be given preference and priority over other means in this regard.
· Lack of infallibility would cause people to turn away from the words of a prophet as this attribute gives them peace and tranquility.
· If a prophet were not infallible, he would face denial due to falling into abominable acts. This would not only lead to people turning away from him but probably offending him as well.
· No infallibility means possibility of committing sins which accordingly leads to prohibiting people from following him. This is because infallibility and committing sins are contradictory to each other.
Anwar:Now, I understand why many Verses from the Noble Quran urge people to follow the Prophets (PBUT) and to completely obey them.
Hasan:Yes, exactly. At the same time, we have still a lot more to say on infallibility.
Anwar:I have a question in mind, please.
Hasan:Let’s take a break first.
Symposium 34
Is Infallibility Against Free Choice?
Anwar:Dear sir, is infallibility contradictory freedom of choice?
Hasan:No, it is not. This freedom cannot be taken away even with the infallible Prophets.
Anwar:So, we can say that they are able to commit sins
Hasan:Yes, for sure. However, what prevents them from doing so is related to what we have discussed earlier; it is that level of piety and awareness about the consequences of committing sins as well as their love and devotion for the Most Exalted Allah.
Anwar:Can you give us examples?
Hasan:I will give you a couple of examples. Fathers do not even think of killing their children although they have this ability to do so. This is because simply they love their children. Moreover, reasonable people do not drink poison for the knowledge they have about the consequences although they are able to poison themselves.
Anwar:Sometimes, it is inferred from some texts or scripts that infallibility is a Divine gift. In this case, the infallible prophets are not really distinguished people. How can we respond to that?
Hasan:This is how we respond:
· Sheikh Al-Mofid – God bless his soul – says:“Infallibility (‘Isma) is a grace from Allah to a person that He knows he will grasp at this ‘Isma”.
· As-Sayyed Al-Mortaza([7]) – God bless his soul – says:“Infallibility is a act of gracefulness from the Glorious Allah, then it is the slave’s choice not to carry out ugly deeds”.
[7]As-Sayyed Al-Mortaza (966 – 1044) was the greatest shiite scholar of his time. He was student of sheikh Al-Mofid.
In short, the Almighty Allah knows about people’s intentions and their future and so He knows that when this gift is bestowed to them, they will use it for the sake of obeying the Most Gracious Allah freely and without any restraints.
Anwar:Are heredity and education or good breeding influential factors in this matter?
Hasan:Of course, they are. Although they are external factors that cannot be chosen by an individual, yet they attribute to this matter in a sense that these factors help that person to achieve infallibility through self-restraint and righteousness. Thus, without self-restraint and righteousness, heredity and education are useless factors; they are, in fact, requisite factors but not compulsory.
Anwar:What do you mean by ‘requisite factors but not compulsory’?
Hasan:I mean they can lead to either perfection or deficiency but these two factors do not force an individual who has them towards perfection or deficiency.