This Is My Faith - Al-fatlawi, Ali - الصفحة ٢٣٩ - What is the Imam’s Source of Knowledge?
make the Imam distinguished with the characteristics we mentioned earlier:
· The purpose of Prophecy to fulfill the spirits and arrive at perfection, and so is the purpose of Imamate which is a natural continuation of Prophecy or Prophethood. Moreover, just as it is of necessity for the prophet to have the best characteristics among people, the same goes for the Imam.
· It is shameful to let anyone precede the Imam, that is, it is reasonably and lawfully shameful that someone would be better than and superior to the Imam, as they need to be the best of all in their time.
· If the Imam were not superior in his community, people would not follow him. This way, the Divine purpose, that is guiding people and preserving the religion, cannot be served.
· If the Imam were to do abominable acts, they could be subjected to harm and harassment and this is absolutely rejected as the Almighty Allah put it in the Noble Quran:
(And those who malign believing men and believing