Shias and Sunnis believe that “those in authority amongst you” (ulil-amri minkum) in ʾĀyah 4:59 refers to contemporary human leaders and historical Sunni/Shia Imams. This command is actually a scripted imperative for the period of the Hour, when the “Unseen” becomes physically manifest and the Messenger and the angels are physically present among the believers.
Refutation of Human Authorities/Imams of Today
The Period of the Fatra: The current era is a “hiatus” or “internum” (fatra), a vacuum of power where no divine messengers or sanctioned authorities currently walk the earth. Therefore, “those in authority amongst you” cannot refer to leaders today, as current authoritative institutions (including sectarian imams) are part of a mass delusion and cabala designed to gatekeep the Unseen and replace divine authority with human rituals.
ʾĀyah 5:19: “O People of the Scripture, there has come to you Our Messenger to make clear to you… after a period of suspension (fatra) of messengers”
Corruption of Amr (Command): Amr isn’t a political leadership, but a divine decree carried out by angels. ʾĀyah 2:210 is shows that the amr is decided only when the angels descend in the shadows of clouds, an event explicitly linked to the Hour, not to the current world.
ʾĀyah 2:210: “Do they then wait for anything other than that Allah should come to them in the shadows of the clouds and the angels? (Then) the case would be already judged (quḍiyal-amru)”
ʾĀyah 97:4: “The angels and the Spirit descend therein by permission of their Lord for every matter (amr)”
Significance: These ʾĀyāt tie the “Command” (Amr) to the physical descent of angels. Therefore, the “possessors of the command” (ulil-amri) are the high-ranking angels who execute Allah’s decrees during the Hour, not human priests or imams.
The True Identity of Ulil-Amri
Angels as Possessors of the Command: In the Quranic hierarchy, the Malāʾikah (Angels) are the ones who carry out every command (amr) by Allah’s permission. During the Hour, they descend in succession to aid the Messenger. The ulil-amri refers to these high-ranking angels who will be physically present to enforce the Standardized Test of the Hour.
“Amongst You” (minkum) in the Future-Present: The “you” in “amongst you” refers to the entire community of believers who will be present during the Hour. Because the Messenger is the Discloser of the Hour who returns as a witness, the command to “obey the Messenger and those in authority” applies literally when they are physically in the believers’ presence.
ʾĀyah 73:15: “Indeed, we have sent to you a messenger as a witness upon you, just as We sent to Pharaoh a messenger”
Timelessness and the Prophetic Perfect Tense
Allah’s Perspective: Because Allah is outside of space and time, the Qurʾān speaks from a perspective where the “Big Finale” of history is already settled. This explains why imperatives or future events are often mentioned as if they are currently happening or have already passed.
Natural Reading vs. Sectarian Reinterpretation: Sects like the Shias go against the natural reading of the text by shrinking eternal, cosmic instructions into fleeting, passing, temporary traditions that will be obsoleted. While they treat the Qurʾān as a historical book, it is actually a literal user manual for the upcoming practical examination.
Cross-Verse Evidence: Similar to how ʾĀyah 54:1 says “the moon was split” (Prophetic Past Tense) regarding a future phenomenon, the command in 4:59 is an imperative that “comes to life” only when the conditions of the Hour allow it to be physically fulfilled. Other examples include the Messenger’s future testimony in 25:30 (“My Lord, my people have taken this Qurʾān a thing abandoned”) which is written in the past tense because, from Allah’s view, the desertion is a recorded fact of our future.
ʾĀyah 54:1: “The Hour has come near, and the moon was split”
Significance: This is a primary example of using past/imperative forms for future events. Just as the moon appears whole now despite the “past tense” split, the command to obey authorities “amongst you” refers to the community of believers who will be present when the veil is lifted during the Hour.
The address Ya ayyuha: This uniquely grammatically addresses a group associated with the subject (e.g., “Whichever of her of the Discloser”), meaning the command applies to the specific collective present with the Messenger during the final examination.
Conclusion and Summary of the Ulil-Amri identity
Angels as Successors: ʾĀyah 43:60 states, “And if we willed, we could have made some of you angels to be successors (yakhlufun) on the earth“.These sectarian groups misuse the word ulil-amri to demand loyalty to a fake “Imaami” priesthood (based on false lineages and successions), whereas the Qurʾān is actually disclosing the future arrival of divine agents. The command to obey is for the time when the veil is lifted and the authority of Allah and His angels is no longer a matter of faith in the Unseen, but a witnessed physical reality. True ulil-amri are the angelic forces that will enforce the Standardized Test of the Hour.
So as per the Sunnis and Shias if Uli Al-Amr aren’t the angels since it’s in imperative form so it’s only referring to the present tense and allegedly the angels aren’t amongst us right now, then what is this belief of both the Sunnis and Shias that we’re currently in this test whereby the angels are amongst us sat on our shoulders recording every single little thing we do like how much we cut our hair, what hand we eat with, which foot we stepped in the house with first?
The Sunnis and Shias are contradicting their own beliefs, secondly they’re wrong all the way anyway, because – since we’re in a fatra (hiatus) period, the test isn’t yet, so there’s nothing for the angels to record, and so it means that the ʾĀyāt about the angels recording our deeds during a test, observing us in the examination, is during The Hour, and that’s when they will be amongst us not just metaphysically but also physically, enforcing the test on us by Allah’s command and recording our deeds. Hence, if you believe otherwise, you haven’t understood the Qurʾān.