The Status of the Prophet and the Imam: A Comparative Study of the Views of Seyyed Morteza and Hamid al-Din Kermani

Knowing the divine messengers and their successors is one of the most important issues of the divine religions. This issue has not been far from the battle of Islamic thinkers and always been considered in the history of Islamic thought. Its importance became more apparent when different Islamic sects commented and formed epistemological systems on it. Using the descriptive-analytical method, this research has been done based on  library sources examining the opinions of Imami and Ismaili theologians on the mentioned issue with the focus on views of the Shiite scholar, Seyyed Morteza Alam al-Huda and the prominent Ismaili thinker, Hamid al-Din Kermani. Findings show that the epistemological system of Seyyed Morteza and Hamid al-Din Kermani about the Prophet and the Imam, while having many similarities such as the superiority of the prophets over the angels, the infallibility of the prophets and imams, the end of prophecy, the succession of Ali (AS), the necessity of prophecy and the obligation of faith in all the divine prophets, also has fundamental differences that the one concerns the number, periods and titles of the prophets and Shiite imams.