Basic Issues Concerning Imamate Studies in the Works of Sheikh Mofid

Examining the basic issues of Imamate from the view point of Sheikh Mofid, this paper deals with how Sheikh Mofid, an Imamites theologian and a great scholar, depicts Imam with his rationalist method and explains the necessity of the existence and characteristics of Imamate. Carried out through an analytical-descriptive method, this paper shows that he agrees with other Imamites theologians on many issues of Imamate, but some differences are revealed in two challenging issues, i.e. infallibility and knowledge of Imam. According to the rationalist approach of Sheikh Mufid, the necessity of the existence of Imam is due to the grace and mercy of God, not His justice. The pure infallibility of Imam is related to his Imamate era, and before his Imamate, committing an inadvertant sin which does not lead to his disgrace and disputation is permissible. Knowledge of the unseen and non-religious matters have no rational necessity for Imam. In all these issues, the traditional evidence is sometimes for and some other times against the rational perspective. Depending on the validity of the tradition, Sheikh Mofid's method in contradictory cases involves inclusion or exclusion.