Prophethood and Walayat

The renowned philosopher and exegete of our age Allamah Tabatabai says "A part of the teachings of Islam constitutes social regulations which apparently are the product of social thinking. Their relation to the felicity and distress of the next world, or in religious terms, to the rewards of Paradise and the punishments of Hell, is due to certain phenomena which come into being and grow imperceptibly as one acts upon or contravenes these regulations. After a person is shifted to the life of the next world and the curtain of ego is torn asunder, this relationship is unveiled and becomes manifest to him. Hidden under the wrappings of social life, passed strictly in accordance with the religious teachings, there exists a living reality—an esoteric life from which the eternal blessings of the next world originate and they are, in other words, its manifestation. This is a reality which is called Walayat. Prophethood is a reality which receives Divine commands and injunctions in regard to life and conveys them to the people, and Walayat is a reality, which comes into being as a result of acting upon the Divine commands received through Prophethood".

"Adapted from Master and Mastership"