from being sins and render them matters open to independent legal reasoning, in which the qualified jurist receives two rewards if he is correct and one reward if he errs.

Most of the reliably transmitted reports concerning the Rightly Guided Caliphs fall into this category. Even if any of these matters is deemed an actual sin, that does not detract from their well-known virtues, their precedence in faith, or their being among the people of Paradise, for punishment in the Hereafter for an actual sin may be averted through numerous causes.

Among them (1) is repentance, which effaces sin. It is established that the Imams of the Imāmiyya (2) repented of the sins known of them.

Another is the good deeds that efface sins, for good deeds erase evil deeds. Allah Most High says:

“If you avoid the major sins you are forbidden from, We shall expiate your misdeeds.”

[Surah al-Nisā’ 3]

Another is affliction that expiates sin.

Another is the believers’ supplication for one another and the intercession of their Prophet. There is no means by which blame and punishment may be lifted from anyone in the Muslim community (3) except that the Companions have a greater claim to it. Thus, compared with all those who came after them in the Muslim community, they have a greater claim to every form of praise and to exemption from every form of blame.

[A Comprehensive Principle: “A person must possess universal principles to which particular cases may be referred so that he may speak with knowledge and justice.”]

[Discussion of whether qualified jurists are correct or mistaken and whether they incur sin in subsidiary and foundational questions]

We shall now present a comprehensive principle in this regard, applicable to them and to the rest of the Muslim community. We say:

A person must possess universal principles to which he may refer particular cases so that he may speak with knowledge and justice. He must then ascertain how those particular cases actually occurred. Otherwise, he will remain mired in falsehood and ignorance concerning the particulars, and in ignorance and injustice concerning the universal principles, [giving rise to grave corruption] (4).