They were extremely cautious of the warnings contained in the breaches, and extremely apprehensive of the consequences. They feared the worst, and the ruin in individual and social life. The conscience of the Islamic nation translated this awareness, this caution, and this apprehension. In what all Islamic sects agreed upon, the possession of knowledge was made a fundamental condition for anyone nominated as an Imam for the nation to manage its affairs and ensure the application of Sharia in its life. This condition is an expression of the nation's belief that knowledge should be the basis of people's lives, and that scholars should be the guides of individual and social conduct in the nation. And there is great wisdom in the Muslims' setting of this condition for those who assume the rule of Muslims, as it guarantees the primacy of knowledge over people's lives, given that the Greater Imamate is the position from which the life of society is directed, and it possesses the means of guidance, implementation, and influence that are not available elsewhere. This condition was observed throughout the Rightly Guided Caliphate. The Caliph was chosen on bases that included knowledge of jurisprudence, and the people were guided by the Book of God and the Sunnah of His Messenger, and their affairs were conducted according to the straight path of Sharia, not deviating from it in war or peace, in hardship or prosperity. This was only because they entrusted their affairs to scholars of religion, experts in the paths of truth when the paths became confused, and they would guide the nation to them and steer them away from the pitfalls of falsehood into which the non-scholars often fell. However, the situation changed after the Rightly Guided Caliphate, when rule became a monarchy based on inheritance, not on inherent qualities, chief among them being knowledge. From that time, a bitter separation occurred between rule and knowledge, and scholars were distanced from the position of the Greater Imamate. They remain distanced to this day. And if this distancing occurred in the early period according to the course of events without theoretical foundational principles, then in recent times it has been carried out on false theoretical principles derived from the theory of secularism, which is based on the principle of separation between religion and politics.