Wecan concludefromthese versesandthehadith mentionedabove
that the Ahlu ’l-bayt are the divinely appointed commentators of the
Qur’ān,andthemostauthenticandthebestsourceforthesunna.Itisfor
this reason that we prefer them to all other sources.
EvenwhenwequoteahadīthfromtheImamsofAhlu’l-bayt,itisac-
tuallythe hadīthof theProphet whichtheyhavepreserved asthetrue
successorsofthelastMessengerofGod. ImamJa‘faras-Sādiq(a.s.),the
sixth Shi‘ite Imam, says:
Myhadīthisthehadīthofmyfather,thehadīthofmyfatheristhatof
my grandfather, the hadīth of my grandfather is that of Husayn [bin
‘Ali],thehadīthofHusaynisthatofHasan[bin‘Ali],thehadīthofHas-
anisthatofAmiru’l-mu’minīn[‘AlibinAbiTālib],thehadīthofAmīru
’l-mu’minīnis thatof the MessengerofGod(s.a.w.), andthehadīth of
the Messenger is a statement of Allāh, the Almighty, the Great.”[21]
Thehistoricalcircumstancesdidnotallowtheopportunitytothefirst
threeImamsofAhlu’l-bayttoformallyteachandtraintheirfollowersin
the matters of the sharī‘a. It was after the tragedy of Karbala that the
Imams,especiallythefifthandthe sixthImams,gotthe opportunityto
formallytrain theirfollowers inthe sharī‘alaws.The training bythese
Imamsactuallylaidthefoundationforthedevelopmentofijtihādamong
the Shi‘as after the occultation of the twelfth Imam Muhammad al-
Mahdi (a.s.).
* * *During the Minor Occultation (ghaybat) of the Present Imam, it was
stillpossiblefortheShi‘astopresenttheirproblemstotheImamthrough
his specially appointed representatives. These representatives were
‘Uthmān bin Sa‘īd al-Amri (260-265 AH), Muhammad bin ‘Uthmān
al-‘Amri (265-305 AH), Husayn bin Rūh (305-326 AH), and ‘Ali bin
Muhammad al-Samiri (326-329 AH).
However, afterthe Imam wentinto the MajorOccultation, theprob-
lems of the sharī‘a were resolved through the process known
asijtihādandtaqlīd—the two most important ways of living by the
sharī‘a.Ijtihād,inShī‘ajurisprudence,means“theprocessofderivingthe
lawsofsharī‘afromitssources.”Apersonwhocandoijtihādisknown