Do Shia believe 12 imams are better than Ibrahim, what's is their proof from Shia sources?
"And when Abraham was tested by his Lord with certain commands and he fulfilled them. Then He said: Lo! I appoint you an Imam for mankind.”(Qur’an 2:124).
As we can see, Prophet Ibrahim was further tested by Allah during his prophethood, and when he successfully passed the tests (which were the test on his life, leaving his wife, sacrificing his son), he was granted the position of Imamat. This shows position of Imamat is higher in degree than prophethood which has been given to him later after acquiring more qualifications.
From what I gather, Ibrahim was one of the closest Prophets to imamate according to Shias but they believe that the imams have achieved much more.
Shia Muhaddith al-Hurr al-`Amili has a chapter in his book “al-Fusoul al-Muhimmah fi Usoul al-A’imah” vol.1 pg.403 called: “chapter 101: The Prophet and the twelve Imams (as) are better than all other creations from prophets and past successors and angels, and that the prophets are better than the angels.” Then he mentioned two narrations in it to prove this.
To summarise up, Shias believe that the 12 imams and the Prophet are superior to all other prophets and angels therefore they are better than Ibrahim but they regard Ibrahim as one of the closest to the power of the Imamate that they possessed.
“The Great Name” of Allah (swt) consists of seventy three “letters” in which Asef ibn Barqiya knew of one, Prophet Isa (pbuh) knew of two, Prophet Musa (pbuh) knew of four, Prophet Ibrahim (pbuh) knew of eight, Prophet Nuh (pbuh) knew of fifteen, Prophet Adam (pbuh) knew of twenty five and Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) knew of seventy two of them in which he passed on to the imams after him.
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