This article critically reassesses the claim of the “divinity of the Imam” in the works of Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi by examining the status of the Imam in Imami theology during the first three Islamic centuries. It evaluates the assertion that early Shiʿism attributed a divine rank to the Imams in ontological, epistemological, and devotional domains. Using a descriptive-analytical method and an intratextual re-reading of key traditions, the study scrutinizes the textual foundations of this claim.

The analysis shows that, ontologically, traditions of luminous creation and the Tree of Walāya—while affirming the sacred and pre-temporal status of the Ahl al-Bayt—clearly preserve the Creator–creature distinction through repeated references to creation, origination, divine permission, and primordial servitude. These texts indicate exalted rank and hierarchical mediation rather than divinity. Epistemologically, knowledge of the Imam is portrayed as a necessary path to guidance toward God, not as identical with knowledge of the Divine Essence, revealing a conflation between mediation and ontological identity in some readings. Devotionally, the evidence for attributing worshipful divinity to the Imam lacks sufficient textual and historical support. Overall, the sources align more coherently with devotional monotheism and a doctrine of mediated guidance than with any transfer of divinity or worship to the Imam.