A Study of the Extensions of Sadiqin in the Verse Kunu ma`a al-sadiqin

The Almighty God, in the verse "Kunu ma`a al-Sadiqin," has absolutely called the believers to accompany with those called "sadiqin". The main question of the study follows as: is the word sadiqin in this verse general or particular? is general or specific? Given the latter, who may be taken as its extension that God has commanded believers to obey them absolutely? Shiite commentators, relying on fariqain narrations and rational proofs, have viewed Imam Ali (as) and his infallible successors as the extensions of sadiqin; Sunni commentators, however, have viewed differently; Muhajiran, muhajiran and Ansar, Khulafa`i Rashidin, those refusing of Tabuk and ahli hall wa `aqd and Imam Ali and his companions have been known as the extensions of the word by them. In the present study, different viewpoints have been re-analyzed by descriptive-analytic method and based on narrative and rational arguments, Imam Ali (as) and the Prophet's infallible household (as) have been introduced as the extensions of the word.