I think part of the reason some things are not mentioned by God in the Qur’an is not because they aren’t true but they were originally (before the main Hadith collections) reserved for a certain elite who would be capable of directly contextually understanding them first hand from within the realm of the Prophet (saw), the Ahlulbayt and the Sahaba.
This does seem to largely be the case between Prophet Muhammad (saw) and the twelve Imams, who bare the most intimate of initiatory lineages.One of the reasons for keeping certain things secret is the inevitable obsession and destructive tendencies within the mind of man(kind) when given to the wrong people. Another reason is that some things are too “out-there” for certain types of people to contemplate (one example easily accessible to Christians is how Pharisees prepared to stone him after proclaiming the deeply eStoteric statement “I and the father are one”), and another reason is that people have the habit of developing false hopes through false (and often fanatical) interpretations.
Things such as knowledge of the Mahdi (Qa’im), Barzakh, et al are clearly esoteric or occult, and deal with concepts that are not relatable to the layman.The Qur’an gives allusions constantly to many things but at the same time God revealed the Qur’an for all of mankind. Because of this, the role of something like Sunnism becomes obvious as it caters to the average layman audience, regardless of cultural background. It’s understandings are sweet, simple and uncontroversial to itself. It’s aims have zero to do with spirituality (Ihsan) and the esoteric (batin), with exception of Sunni Sufis, and all instead to do with the overimportance of morals, discipline and ethical customs.
The role of Shi’ism prior to the modern era stands in stark contrast, having been one of central esoteric (batin) initiation, one that looks very deeply at the philosophical and esoteric truths that Sunnism only lightly touches the surface of – as to say, that Shi’ism has a much more sophisticated metaphysical understanding of the same universally-Islamic ontology (all grounded in Tawhid, which is the Unity of God).I think the Sunni/Shi’i divide (as it is commonly framed as) is more than just politics or even spiritual succession, it is the relating in an obscure way to who deserves what knowledge. Sunnism serves as a gatekeeping for the masses, a way of ensuring the layman stays focused at the most basic aspects of faith (Iman). This likewise also relates to a Sunni’s (sometimes detrimental) understanding of their own doctrines – as a result it creates a politicising reaction to Shi’ite doctrine because they lack the knowledge (‘ilm) and wisdom (hikmah) to process and evaluate that which they have no knowledge – as to say, the process of understanding a word, idea, symbol and scripture is left in it’s surface aspect for need of cohesion and social stability.
Such states of mind can be seen, for instance, between the average Protestant Christian and the monastic monks of Catholic Orders. The comparison is radical but it does a good idea at demonstrating what the divide really entails, in it’s purer form. In one hand the monk says “I only want to be with God and experience God’s presence” and on the other hand the Protestant sees any attempt at connecting with God as evil and “Unbiblical” since ‘belief alone’ in the Protestants mind is the be-all-end-all of their religion.God keeps things ambiguous often in the Qur’an because many passages, many Surah too, are referring to multiple things at the same time. It has a doctrinal axis pole (qutb) that is firm, but it’s surrounding contents are rather like a prism wherein light shines through from different angles and gives different colours, such angels are embodied in the unfoldment of the Shi’ite Imams and their relation to the Qur’an. Such initiatic figures as the Imams represent the continued divine guidance from God to mankind, not in the form of Nabi or Rasool but rather the Wali (Walaya).
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