Grand Ayatollah Shirazi: Non-Infallible religious authorities are not examples of Imam of Time

The daily scholarly meeting of Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Sadiq al-Hosseini al-Shirazi was held on Tuesday, the 25th of Dhul Hajjah. In this session, like the previous meetings, the Marja answered the questions of the attendees about various jurisprudence issues.

Referring to the hadith of the Holy Prophet, peace be upon him and his family, “Whoever dies and has not attained knowledge of the Imam of their time, has died the death of the age of ignorance,” Grand Ayatollah Shirazi said: Imam of the time In this hadith means the Infallible Imam, and it includes every Infallible Imam of his time, for example, during the time of Imam al-Sadiq or during the time of Imam al-Hasan al-Askari or other Imams, peace be upon them, they were the Imams of their time.

On the ruling for attributing the title of Imam of the Time to non-Infallibles, his Eminence said: The authorities of taqlid and jurists are the representatives of the Infallible Imam, and although many of the authorities of the Ma’sum Imam have been assigned to them, they cannot be referred to as the Imam of the Time.

He went on to say: It is not necessary for a person to have Ma’rifa knowledge about the authority of taqlid and jurist, and it is only necessary to emulate them, because they are experts.