Response to: Infallibility, as per Sahih Bukhari

The following is a response to SlaveOfAhlubait’s article entitled “Infallibility, as per Sahih Bukhari”. The article can be found here.

SoA quotes a narration and comments:

Volume 9, Book 89, Number 306:
Narrated Abu Sa’id Al-Khudri:
The Prophet said, “Allah never sends a prophet or gives the Caliphate to a Caliph but that he (the prophet or the Caliph) has two groups of advisors: A group advising him to do good and exhorts him to do it, and the other group advising him to do evil and exhorts him to do it. But the protected person (against such evil advisors) is the one protected by Allah.’ “
the hadeeth is self explanatory.

Indeed, the text is self explanatory. The protected one from evil advisors is one who is protected by Allah. It does not mean that those that are protected are infallible. It almost seems as if SoA put the word “ma’soum” in the search engine, and found this hadith, which has nothing to do with the Shia perception of infallibility.

The very context of the narration implies a fallible nature to these prophets and caliphs, since they are all susceptible to the advice of the evil cohorts. Moreover, according to the Shia understanding of Imamah, the Imam does not need good advisors, or any advisors at all in the first place. So as we can see, the topic has nothing to do with the Shia concept of infallibility.