Must the imam be infallible?

Ibn al-Mutahhar al-Hilli made the imam's infallibility his first rational proof of Ali's imamate. Ibn Taymiyya replied that the infallible one who must be obeyed is the Messenger, and that the imamate of a hidden, awaited imam does not achieve what the imamate is for. ^{1 2}

In the first chapter of his treatise, as Ibn Taymiyya quotes it, al-Hilli states that when God sent the prophets He made them infallible, so that trust in their words and deeds would not be lost. God then followed prophecy with the imamate, appointing infallible guardians so that people would be safe from their mistakes, lapses and errors, and the world would not be left without His favour and mercy. ³ In the third chapter he grounds the proof in the claim that man is social by nature. No one can provide alone what he eats, drinks, wears and lives in, so each needs the help of others, and society therefore needs an imam. He concludes that the imam must be infallible, and that if so, the imam is Ali. ¹

Ibn Taymiyya says that he accepts what the proof requires, if it is sound: the Messenger is the infallible one, obeying him is due from everyone at every time, and the community knows his commands and prohibitions better than individual subjects know the commands of a hidden imam such as the awaited one. ² He holds that an imam is needed for two things: for knowledge, to convey and teach it, and for action, to help people through his strength and authority. The awaited imam, he says, serves neither purpose, and a means is wanted only for its end. ⁴ He adds that the Imamiyya took from the Mu'tazila the doctrine that God must enable and empower people and grant them the favour (lutf) that brings those under obligation closer to right conduct. ⁵

He also argues that scholars took knowledge from the known scholars of the community, such as Ibn Abbas and al-Shafi'i, because they found in them something to learn, and that noble lineage helps a person be heard but is no substitute for knowledge. ⁵

Imami texts on infallibility and divine favour taken directly from their books have not yet been added, nor the positions of other Sunni schools on the conditions of the imam, nor academic readings of the doctrine of infallibility.