Imam

An imam (Arabic :إمام plural ائمة A'immah, Persian :امام) is an Islamic leadership position, often the leader of a mosque and the community. Similar to spiritual leaders, the imam is the one who leads the prayer during Islamic gatherings. More often, the community turns to the mosque imam if they have an Islamic question. In smaller communities an imam could be the community leader based on the community setting.

Shi'a imams

In the Shi'a context, imam has a meaning more central to belief, referring to leaders of the community. Twelver and Ismaili Shi'a believe that these Imams are chosen by God to be perfect examples for the faithful and to lead all humanity in all aspects of life. They also believe that all the Imams chosen are free from committing any sin and have a status directly parallel to those of a prophet, infallibility which is called ismah. These leaders must be followed since they are appointed by God.

Twelver

Here follows a list of the Twelvers Imams:

Fatimah, also Fatimah al-Zahraa, daughter of Muhammed (615–632), is also considered infallible but not an Imam. Many Shi'a believe that the last Imam will one day return.

See Imamah (Shi'a Ismaili doctrine) for Ismaili list of Imams

Sunni imams

The term is also used for a recognized religious leader or teacher in Islam, often for the founding scholars of the four Sunni madhhabs, or schools of religious jurisprudence (fiqh). It may also refer to the imams of the sciences related to Hadith or to the heads of the Prophet's descendants in their times. In other words, Imam Ali is a phrase used by both Shi'a and Sunni Muslims, though with different connotations.

The Sunni sect does not have imams in the same sense as the Shi'a sect. The imam in the Sunni sect of Islam is the leader of prayers; the sermon is most often given by the Sheikh.

However, there are some people whom Sunnis call "Imams" who are not prayer leaders. They are not Imams in the Shi'a sense of the word, but they are those who started the four Sunni Madhabs. List:

Zaidi imams as rulers of Yemen

In the Zaidi Shiite sect, Imams were temporal as well as spiritual leaders who held power in Yemen for more than a thousand years. In 897, a Zaidi ruler, Yahya al-Hadi ila'l Haqq, founded a line of such Imams, a theocratic form of government which survived until the second half of the 20th century. (See details under Zaidi, History of Yemen.)

Translation

The word "Imam" occurs as such in the following languages: English, Bosnian, Catalan, Welsh, Danish, German, French, Indonesian, Icelandic, Malay, Dutch, Norwegian (Bokmål), Polish, Simple English, Swedish.

Translation(s) in other languages: Arabic: إمام, Bulgarian: Имам, Czech: Imám, Estonian: Imaam, Spanish: Imán (religión), Esperanto: Imamo, Persian: امام, Korean: 이맘, Italian: Imām, Hebrew: אימאם, Georgian: იმამი, Kurdish: Îmam, Lithuanian: Imamas, Hungarian: Imám, Japanese: イマーム, Portuguese: Imame, Russian: Имам, Slovak: Imám, Slovenian: Imamiti, Serbian: Имам, Finnish: Imaami, Telugu: ఇమామ్, Turkish: İmam, Ukrainian: Імам, Chinese: 伊玛目.