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The word
Imamate is an Arabic word (
from ImamAn imam is an Islamic leadership position, often the worship leader of a mosque and the Muslim community. Similar to spiritual leaders, the imam is the one who leads Islamic worship services. More often, the community turns to the mosque imam if they have a religious question...
) with an
English languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
suffixIn linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns or adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs...
(
ate) meaning
leadership. Its use in
theologyTheology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
is confined to
IslamIslam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
.
Theological usage
The term
Caliphate, an
anglicanizedIn linguistics, romanization or latinization is the representation of a written word or spoken speech with the Roman script, or a system for doing so, where the original word or language uses a different writing system . Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written...
Arabic word from
Khilafah meaning
succession, is often used interchangeably with the term
Imamate. Both terms, not always but most often, refer to the position of
Succeeding and Leading the
Muslim communityUmmah is an Arabic word meaning "community" or "nation." It is commonly used to mean either the collective nation of states, or the whole Arab world...
after the death of the Prophet Muhammad.
- Imamah (Shi'a doctrine)
Imāmah is the Shia doctrine of religious, spiritual and political leadership of the Ummah. The Shīa believe that the A'immah are the true Caliphs or rightful successors of Muḥammad, and further that Imams are possessed of divine knowledge and authority as well as being part of the Ahl al-Bayt,...
- A divine institutionAn institution is any structure or mechanism of social order and cooperation governing the behavior of a set of individuals within a given human community...
which succeeded the institution of ProphethoodIn Islam, Nubuwwah means "Prophethood" and denotes that God has appointed perfect Prophets and Messengers to teach mankind Gods religion. Nubuwwah is among the five Shi'a Roots of Religion....
. Its appointees (Imams) are divinely appointed; e.g. ProphethoodIn Islam, Nubuwwah means "Prophethood" and denotes that God has appointed perfect Prophets and Messengers to teach mankind Gods religion. Nubuwwah is among the five Shi'a Roots of Religion....
and Prophets.
- Imamah (Shi'a Twelver doctrine)
Imāmah means "leadership" and it is a part of the Shi'a theology. The Twelve Imams are the spiritual and political successors to Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam, in the Twelver or Ithna Ashariya branch of Shia Islam....
- The doctrine of Imamate according to the Twelvers.
- Imamah (Shi'a Ismaili doctrine)
The Ismaili view on the Imamah differs from the Twelver Shi'a view, in particular because the Imam in Ismailism is the Noor of God . Ismailis believe that the Noor of God is present in the Imam, and that there is only a Ẓāhirī difference between each one...
- The doctrine of Imamate according to the Ismailis.
- Zaydi - The doctrine of the Imamate according to Zaydis.
- Caliphate
The term caliphate, "dominion of a caliph " , refers to the first system of government established in Islam and represented the political unity of the Muslim Ummah...
- A non-divine institutionAn institution is any structure or mechanism of social order and cooperation governing the behavior of a set of individuals within a given human community...
which succeeded the institution of ProphethoodIn Islam, Nubuwwah means "Prophethood" and denotes that God has appointed perfect Prophets and Messengers to teach mankind Gods religion. Nubuwwah is among the five Shi'a Roots of Religion....
. Its appointees (Caliphs) are not divinly appointed; e.g. an Islamic scholarUlama , also spelt ulema, refers to the educated class of Muslim legal scholars engaged in the several fields of Islamic studies. They are best known as the arbiters of shari‘a law...
.
- Khalifatul Masih
Khalifatul Masih sometimes simply referred to as Khalifah is the elected spiritual leader of the worldwide Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and is the successor of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian...
- Successor of the Messiah - A divine institutionAn institution is any structure or mechanism of social order and cooperation governing the behavior of a set of individuals within a given human community...
in Ahmadiyya Muslim CommunityThe Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is the larger of two communities that arose from the Ahmadiyya movement founded in 1889 in India by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian . The original movement split into two factions soon after the death of the founder...
which succeeded the institution of ProphethoodIn Islam, Nubuwwah means "Prophethood" and denotes that God has appointed perfect Prophets and Messengers to teach mankind Gods religion. Nubuwwah is among the five Shi'a Roots of Religion....
. Its considered to be the second manifestation of God's power. Its appointees (Caliphs) are divinly appointed.
Theological literature on the Imamate doctrine
- Imamate and Leadership
Imamate and Leadership: Lessons on Islamic Doctrine is a book by Islamic scholar Mujtaba Musavi Lari.-Editions:*English version translated by Hamid Algar *1996, Foundation of Islamic Cultural Propagation in the World.-External links:...
- by Mujtaba Musavi Lari-Works:*Ethics and Spiritual Growth *God and His Attributes: Lessons on Islamic Doctrine *Imamate and Leadership: Lessons on Islamic Doctrine *Resurrection Judgement and the Hereafter: Lessons on Islamic Doctrine...
- Imamate: The Vicegerency of the Prophet - by Sa'id Akhtar Rizvi
Sayyid Sa‘eed Akhtar Rizvi was an Indian born, Twelver Shī‘ah scholar, who actively promoted Islam in East Africa.He spoke Urdu, English, Arabic, Persian, Swahili and knew Hindi and Gujrati....
Historical usage
- Caucasian Imamate - a state during the early and mid-19th century in the Eastern Caucasus
The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...
.