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Imam
1) The prayer-leader of a mosque.
2) A title given to various Muslim leaders. Applied to:
The Caliph, as sovereign of the community, and (now or formerly) to other independent princes, e.g. the leader of Oman.
The twelve leaders of Islam recognised by the Twelver Shi’a Mulsims, of whom Ali, Hasan, and Husain were the earliest.
The founders of the four orthodox sects of Muslims.
The author of the leading treatise on any subject.
How this term should be used
The word Imam should only be applied if the individual being described is acknowledged or referred to as an Imam by the community or congregation or else has the title by way of qualification. Casual use of the term and its application to anyone who is viewed in a position of leadership or a prominent figurehead of groups considered extreme should be avoided.
Imam (leader) is a word that has a variety of different applications. In Sunni Islam, it usually refers to the person who leads the congregation in prayer, which usually also entails delivering a sermon on every Friday. Historically, the title could also be used to refer to the political head of the Sunni Muslim state. The founders of the major schools of Fiqh are also referred to as imams though this is primarily an honorific title.
In Shia Islam, by contrast, the imam is the spiritual leader and derives his authority from his lineage as a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad. In Shia doctrine, attributes of the imam include sinlessness, infallible judgment, closeness to Allah and knowledge of the unseen.
Furthermore, according to the Oxford Dictionary of Islam, in Twelver Shiism, following the disappearance of the twelfth and last imam, the jurists (fuqaha) have assumed the title imam. Hence, Khomeini after the Iranian revolution in 1979 was given the title imam, following the practice of the Arab Shiis, who have always called their religious authorities imams.4