Hadith
Abū Hurayrah reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “Faith consists of seventy-odd branches. The highest of them is the statement: There is none worthy of worship except Allah, and the lowest of them is removing something harmful from the road. Modesty is also a branch of faith.”
وَعَنْ أَبِي هُرَيْرَةَ قَالَ: قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ " الْإِيمَانُ بضع وَسَبْعُونَ شُعْبَة فأفضلها: قَول لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ وَأَدْنَاهَا: إِمَاطَةُ الْأَذَى عَن الطَّرِيق والحياة شُعْبَة من الايمان "
Muttafaqun ʿAlayhi (Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim)
Ponder This Hadith
If the Prophet ﷺ was explicit in stating that something as small as removing something harmful from the road is a branch of faith, why is it so difficult to find any explicit statement from the Prophet ﷺ that Imamate is also a branch of faith – if that were indeed the case?