Imaamat: Successors of the Holy Prophet (S)

Aimmah = Plural of Imam

After the death of Prophet Muhammad (S) the duty of guiding the Muslims was the responsibility of the Aimmah (A).

Allah chose 12 Aimmah (A).

Imam Ali (A) was the first and Imam Mahdi (A) is the last Imam. By the will of Allah he is still alive today. He is the Imam (A) of our time.

One day a man made a very clever machine. Many people found the machine useful and used it all the time.

Before he died, the man taught his student how to fix the machine if it ever got spoilt. After his death, whenever the people had any questions about their machines, they would go to the student, and he would always answer their questions.

Similarly, although the Prophet (S) had brought all the laws of Islam, after his death there needed to be someone who could answer the peoples' questions. These were the Aimmah (A), who were chosen by Allah to carry on with the Prophet's (S) work.

Exercise: Imaamat

List the names of all our Aimmah in order. See how many you can remember by yourself before asking for help.

1^st Imam is Imam ________________________________________________

2^nd Imam is Imam _______________________________________________

3^rd Imam is Imam _______________________________________________

4^th Imam is Imam _______________________________________________

5^th Imam is Imam _______________________________________________

6^th Imam is Imam _______________________________________________

7^th Imam is Imam _______________________________________________

8^th Imam is Imam _______________________________________________

9^th Imam is Imam _______________________________________________

10^th Imam is Imam ______________________________________________

11^th Imam is Imam ______________________________________________

12^th Imam is Imam ______________________________________________