customary patterns and unaware of the consistent operation of this firmly established rational principle.”

They said:

“Since this provides providential assistance in fulfilling religious obligations, it necessarily follows that it is obligatory.” They then mentioned the qualities he must possess, including infallibility and others.

A group among them then raised an objection against their own position, saying:

“If you maintain that the Imam is a form of providential assistance while he is absent from you, then what providential assistance is realized during his occultation? If his providential assistance is not realized during occultation, while moral accountability may nevertheless still be imposed, then the assertion that the Imam constitutes providential assistance in religion is invalidated. Consequently, the doctrine that the infallible one is the Imam is unsound.”

In response to this objection, they said:

“We say that the Imam’s providential assistance is realized during occultation for those who recognize him, just as it is when he is manifest. It is only those who do not affirm his imamate who are deprived of this assistance. Likewise, the providential assistance afforded by knowing Allah is not realized for one who does not know Allah Most High, but is realized for one who knows Him.”

They said:

“This resolves the objection and necessitates affirming the imamate of the infallible Imams.”

It was said to them:

“If providential assistance were realized during occultation just as it is when he is manifest, they would have no need for his appearance and would continue to follow him (1) until they died. Yet this contradicts the position they maintain.”

They replied:

“We say that, for one who recognizes him, the providential assistance that exists during his occultation consists in creating aversion to vile deeds and keeping him away from them, just as when he is manifest. However, we hold that his appearance is obligatory for another purpose: ending the usurpers’ control over the believers; taking wealth from the hands of tyrants and assigning it to its proper purposes; abolishing the realms of oppression (2), which we cannot abolish except through him (3); and waging jihad against the disbelievers, which is impossible unless he appears.”