Love versus allegiance

Love for the great personalities and individuals with a mission is not only an emotion but a stance. This is the difference between being a loving person and being a proponent follower: allegiance is a stance while love is emotion. It is natural that the situation must live the emotion and move by it, but it should move beyond it to open up to the whole of the message through opening up to the bearers of the message, who represent its legitimacy.

Yes! The value of what Ahlul Bayt (as) say and do is that it represents the whole legitimacy. When a person takes words of knowledge or rulings, or follows a line of conduct which can be right or wrong, he will be puzzled as to the legitimacy of what he has seen or heard; but if he depends on infallible examples who have been purified from abominable acts, then there can be no place for falsehood, and no place for injustice. He will have taken the truth from a pure fountain, in which nothing can muddy its purity. Imam al-Sadiq (as) said: 'My hadith is the hadith of my father, and my father's is that of my grandfather, and my grandfather's is that of al-Husain, and al-Husain's is that of al-Hasan, and al-Hasan's is that of the Commander of the Faithful, and the Commander of the Faithful's is that of the Messenger of Allah, and the Messenger of Allah's is the word of Allah the Great and Almighty.'

Adapted from the book: "Fatimah (as); a role model for men and women" by: "Sayyid Muhammad Husayn Fadlullah"