Imamah and the Quran - An Objective Perspective

Ayatollah Khomeini’s comments

A very similar view on the superiority of Imāmah in comparison to Prophethood was given by Ayatollah Khomeini in one of his speeches, all of which collected in the book “Hukumat- i-Islami” (Islamic Government). In this particular discourse, Khomeini says:

The spiritual status of the Imam is the universal divine viceregency that is sometimes mentioned by the Imams (peace be upon them). It is a viceregency pertaining to the whole of creation, by virtue of which all the atoms in the universe humble themselves before the holder of authority. It is one of the essential beliefs of our Shi'i school that no one can attain the spiritual status of the Imāms, not even the cherubim or the prophets. In fact, according to the traditions that have been handed down to us, the Most Noble Messenger and the Imams existed before the creation of the world in the form of lights situated beneath the divine throne; they were superior to other men even in the sperm from which they grew and in their physical composition. Their exalted station is limited only by the divine will, as indicated by the saying of Jibra'il recorded in the traditions on the mi'raj: “Were I to draw closer by as much as the breadth of a finger, surely I would burn.”¹⁵

So the same basic Shia opinion is noted here: Imāms have a position higher than that of Prophets. Some people who have read Khomeini’s work may object to this, given the translator Hamid Algar’s comment:

The statement here that no one can attain the spiritual status of the Imams, not even the cherubim or the prophets thus carries the strict sense that the Imams are superior to those prophets whose mission lacked the dimension of governmental leadership.¹⁶

However, what the translator is in fact saying is that the “12 Imāms” of the Ithna Ashariyah sect are lower than those Prophets who were also Imāms. The “12 Imāms” are still higher than those Prophets who did not have the “dimension of governmental leadership” (i.e. they were not Imāms). In essence, whether Ayatollah Khomeini’s statement is taken in itself or the translator’s footnote is included as scholarly evidence, it is still the case that the office of Imāmah is higher than the office of Prophethood.