[Sūrah xxv]. 74: “Make us a model to the pious.”
Muḥammadans use the term in the following senses:—
(1) The Imām, or K͟halīfah, of the Muslim people. The author of the Hidāyah says, by the rightful Imām is understood a person in whom all the qualities essential to magistracy are united, such as Islāmism, freedom, sanity of intellect, and maturity of age, and who has been elected into his office by any tribe of Muslims, with their general consent; whose view and intention is the advancement of the true religion, and the strengthening of the Muslims, and under whom the Muslims enjoy security in person and property; one who levies title and tribute according to law; who, out of the public treasury, pays what is due to learned men, preachers, qāẓīs, muftīs, philosophers, public teachers, and so forth; and who is just in all his dealings with Muslims; for whoever does not answer this description is not the right Imām, whence it is not incumbent to support such a one, but rather it is incumbent to oppose him, and make war upon him until such time as he either adopt a proper mode of conduct, or be slain; as is written in the Maʿdinu ʾl-Ḥaqāʾiq, copied from the Fawāʾid. (Hidāyah, vol. ii. p. 248.)
THE IMAM LEADING PRAYERS AND RECITING THE FATIHAH OR FIRST SURAH OF THE QURʾAN.
(E. Campbell.)
For a discussion of this meaning of the title, refer to the article on [KHALIFAH], which is the term used for the Imām of the Sunnī Muslims.
(2) The Shīʿahs apply the term Imām to the twelve leaders of their sect whom they call the true Imāms [[SHIʿAH]], and not using the term K͟halīfah for this office as the Sunnīs do. The Shīʿah traditions are very wild on the subject of the Imāmate, and contrast unfavourably with those of the Sunnīs.
In the Ḥayātu ʾl-Qulūb (Merrick’s edition, p. 203), Muḥammad is said to have related: “On the night of the ascension, the Most High commanded me to inquire of the past prophets for what reason they were exalted to that rank, and they all testified, We were raised up on account of your prophetical office, and the Imāmate of ʿAlī ibn Abī T̤ālib, and of the Imāms of your posterity. A divine voice then commanded, ‘Look on the right side of the empyrean.’ I looked and saw the similitude of ʿAlī and al-Ḥasan, and al-Ḥusain, and ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusain (alias Zainu ʾl-ʿAbidīn), and Muḥammad al-Bāqir, and Jaʿfar aṣ-Ṣādiq, and Mūsā al-Kāz̤im, and ʿAlī ibn Mūsā ar-Riẓā, and Muḥammad at-Taqī, and ʿAlī an-Naqī, and al-Ḥasan al-ʿAskarī, and al-Mahdī, all performing prayers in a sea of light. These, said the Most High, are my proofs, vicegerents, and friends, and the last of them will take vengeance on my enemies.”
(3) The Imām, or leader, of any system of theology or law. Abū Ḥanīfah and the other three doctors of the Sunnīs are called Imāms, and so are other leading doctors of divinity. The term is still used for a religious leader. For example, the head of the Wahhābīs on the North-West frontier of India is called the Imām, and so is the chief of Najd.