Question: Why is Knowing The Imam of our Time so Important that the HOLY PROPHET (SAW) had to say, one who dies without knowing the Imam of his time dies the death of an ignorant! ( Mun Maata walam ya'rif Imam Zamanaeh Maata mital JAHILIYAH).
Answer:
(Remember) the day when We will call every people with their Imam...
and in another verse: And We made them Imams who call to the Fire, and on the day of resurrection they shall not be assisted in life, which will result in a painful chastisement if the wrong imam is followed. In order to protect ourselves from this, we must make a great effort to discover and know the imam of the age - our imam (as) - and follow him alone .It is worth noting, the verse indicates with their Imam; therefore the responsibility of knowing and following the Imam (as) is that of We see that on the Last Day, people are classified according to who they followedall people, not just all Shia or all Muslims, will be calledevery human being, irrespective of background.