Kitāb al-Ghayba

First Principle: Necessity of Imamate

قلنا: (قد)بينا في باب وجوب الامامة بحيث أشرنا إليه أن انبساط يده عليه السلام والخوف من تأديبه إنما فات المكلفين لما يرجع إليهم، لأنهم أحوجوه إلى الاستتار بأن أخافوه ولم يمكنوه فأتوا من قبل نفوسهم. وجرى ذلك مجرى أن يقول قائل: "من لم يحصل له معرفة الله تعالى في تكليفه وجه قبح" لأنه لم يحصل ما هو لطف له من المعرفة، فينبغي أن يقبح تكليفه.

The answer to this would be that, which we have explained in the context of necessity of Imamate; that his administration of affairs and fear of his reprimand are not availed by the duty-bound due to their own stance, because they forced him to go into hiding by threatening him and did not empower him to run the society. Therefore, this is an evil that they have caused themselves. This is similar to a case where someone says, “Religious obligations with respect to a person who does not have knowledge of the existence of Allah, the Exalted, is wrong, since he has not availed the knowledge that is a grace for him. Therefore, committing him to religious obligations is wrong.” In the same way our adversary would answer a question as such – that the infidel did that on his own, because Allah assigned ways to His cognition and gave him the capacity to attain belief, and if he did not respect that and did not attain faith, he did that on his own and this does not render his subjection to religious duties wrong.

Kitāb al-Ghayba

Book 1, Chapter #3