and in it he follows his saying the best and most knowledgeable. and why should he not complete the goal of knowledge with the best of the people of the time just as he completed the goal of power with the strongest of the people of the time and the most brilliant of the people of the time and the most competent of them in opinion and insight the goal of sufficiency? so his state will not cease to be surrounded by a strong king from the kings who supports him with his power and a competent one from the competent of the time who undertakes his ministry and supports him with his opinion and guidance and a scholar who is advanced in the sciences who conveys to his presence what appears of the issues of the shariah in every incident. if someone said this it would be derived from the decisive evidence and proofs that are permissible. its use in places of certainty and conviction so how about in places of conjecture and guesswork? most of the issues of the imamate and its rulings are conjectural jurisprudential issues in which judgment is based on the majority opinion. what i have mentioned is a clear path in it but i do not prefer to be isolated from the past or to deviate from the path of the extinct imams because isolation in opinion and deviating from the agreement of the masses does not cease to arouse the hearts aversion. however i request permission for a path taken from the words of the aforementioned imams and i say that people differed in that if the people of choice concluded the contract of allegiance to the less preferred and turned away from the more preferred would the imamate be established with agreement that giving precedence to the better when able is an obligatory duty. then the majority went to the fact that if it is contracted for the less preferred with the presence of the better it is contracted and it is not permissible to remove him for the reason of the better. and from this i create and say that we have returned it in the principle of the appointment between a mujtahid in the sciences of the sharia and between one who is deficient in it so it is necessary to give precedence to the mujtahid because following the observers own knowledge has a rank advantage over following the knowledge of others by imitation and advantages and there is no way to neglect them with the ability to observe them. but if the imamate is contracted by the pledge of allegiance or by appointment the covenant is for the one who has abandoned the rank of ijtihad and for whom a thorn has been established and to whom necks have submitted and hearts have inclined towards him. if time is devoid of a qurayshi ijtihad who gathers
فيتبع فيه قوله الافضل الاعلم ولم لا يكون مكملا بافضل اهل الزمان مقصود العلم كما كمل باقوى اهل الزمان مقصود الشوكة وبادهى اهل الزمان وأكفاهم رأيا ونظرا مقصود الكفاية فلا تزال دولته محفوفة بملك من الملوك قوى يمده بشوكته وكاف من كفاة الزمان يتصدى لوزارته فيمده برايه وهدايته وعالم مقدم في العلوم يفيض ما يلوح من قضايا الشرع في كل واقعة إلى حضرته هذا لو قال به قائل لكان مستمدا من قواطع الادلة والبراهين التى يجوز استعمالها في مظان القطع واليقين فكيف في مواقع الظن والتخمين واكثر مسائل الامامة واحكامها مسائل فقهية ظنية يحكم فيها بموجب الراى الاغلب وما ذكرته مسلك واضح فيه ولكنى لا اوثر الاعزاب عن الماضين ولا الانحراف عن جادة الائمة المنقرضين فان الانفراد بالراى والانسلال عن موافقة الجماهير لا ينفك عن اثارة نفرة القلوب لكني استميح مسلكا مقتبسا من كلام الائمة المذكورين واقول اختلف الناس في ان اهل الاختيار لو عقدوا عقد البيعة للمفضول واعرضوا عن الافضل هل تنعقد الامامة مع الاتفاق على ان تقديم الافضل عند القدرة واجب متعين ثم ذهب الاكثرون إلى انها اذا عقدت للمفضول مع حضور الافضل انعقدت ولم يجز خلعه لسبب الافضل وانا من هذا انشئ واقول أن رددناها في مبدا التولية بين مجتهد في علوم الشرع وبين متقاصر عنها فيتعين تقديم المجتهد لان اتباع الناظر علم نفسه له مزية رتبة على اتباع علم غيره بالتقليد والمزايا لا سبيل إلى إهمالها مع القدرة على مراعاتها أما إذا انعقدت الإمامة بالبيعة أوتولية العهد لمنفك عن رتبة الاجتهاد وقامت له شوكة واذعنت له الرقاب ومالت اليه القلوب فان خلا الزمان عن قرشي مجتهد يستجمع