A Book That Keeps Us Away from Deviation
If someone chosen as a guide falsely claims to know the path, he would lead us astray.
The Quran is a guide that has been sent by God, the Omniscient, who knows the right path very well and can show it to us. The Holy Book shows us the best path to God and never leads us astray.
One of the descriptions that Imam Ali (AS) uses for the Quran is that it never leads us stray. The Commander of the Faithful (AS) says in Sermon 133 of Nahj al-Balagha: “(The Holy Quran) does not create differences about Allah nor does it mislead its own follower from (the path of) Allah.”
The Quran is a book whose verses have no differences and contradictions because otherwise, it would not be considered a book from God. This is stressed in Verse 82 of Surah An-Nisa: “Will they not contemplate upon the Quran? If it had been from other than Allah, they would surely have found in it many contradictions.”
About Imam Ali’s (AS) description of the Quran, mentioned above, Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi notes that anyone who sticks to the teachings of the Holy Book will never go astray and anyone who pins hope on the Quran will not be disappointed.
Some may ask what about some memorizers and reciters of the Quran who have gone astray? For example, one night Imam Ali (AS), accompanied by Kumayl, was going home when he heard someone reciting the Quran in one house. Kumayl liked the Quran recitation very much but said nothing. A long time after that during the battle against the Khawarij, Imam Ali (AS) pointed to a dead body from the enemy and told Kumail: This is the same man whose Quran recitation attracted you that night.
So how come a man who recites the Quran at night is ultimately killed in a battle against the Wali of God?
The Quran is a guide of course but it is the Imam who will guide us by the Quran. No one has knowledge about the Quran as much as the Infallible Imams (AS) do. So it is the understanding of the Imam from the Quran that guides and saves us.
The Holy Prophet (PBUH) has mentioned this in the Hadith of Thaqalayn:
“I am leaving behind among you two precious things (Thaqalayn), as long as you adhere to them you will never go astray after me. The Book of Allah and my Itrah, my Ahl-ul-Bayt. They will never separate till they come unto me near the Pond, so look how you are going to treat them after me.”
