The cardinal point wherein the Shí’ahs (as well as the other
sects included under the more general term of Imámites) differ from the Sunnís
is the doctrine of the Imámate. According to the belief of the latter, the
vicegerency of the Prophet (Khilafat) is a matter to be determined by the
choice and election of his followers, and the visible head of the Musulman
world is qualified for the lofty position which he holds less by any special
divine grace than by a combination of orthodoxy and administrative capacity.
According to the Imámite view, [the Shí’ahs] on the other hand, the vicegerency
is a matter altogether spiritual; an office conferred by God alone, first by
His Prophet, and afterwards by those who so succeeded him, and having nothing
to do with the popular choice or approval. In a word, the Khalífih of the
Sunnís is merely the outward and visible Defender of the Faith: the Imám of the
Shí’ahs is the divinely ordained successor of the Prophet, one endowed with all
perfections and spiritual gifts, one whom all the faithful must obey, whose
decision is absolute and final, whose wisdom is superhuman, and whose words are
authoritative. The general term Imámate is applicable to all who hold this
latter view without reference to the way in which they trace the succession,
and therefore includes such sects as the Báqirís and Isma’ílís as well as the
Shí’ah or ‘Church of the Twelve’ (Madhhab-i-Ithna-‘Asharíyyih), as they are
more specifically termed, with whom alone we are here concerned. According to
these, twelve persons successively held the office of Imám. (Excerpt from “A Traveller’s Narrative,” Note O, pp. 296–99, quoted by Shoghi Effendi in the Introduction to the Dawn-Breakers’)
