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Did the Prophet (s) Appoint a Successor? (al-Islam.org) O Messenger,
Proclaim what has been sent down to you from your Lord; and if you don't
do it, you have not delivered His Message (at all); and Allah will
protect you from the people (Qur'an:
Chapter 5, Verse 67) The
Shi'ah believe that the proclamation mentioned by the Qur'anic verse was
fulfilled by the Prophet (s) when he appointed Imam 'Ali bin Abi Talib
(a) as his successor on the day of Ghadir Khumm. What
happened on the day of Ghadir Khumm? Ghadir
Khumm is a location some miles from Makkah on the road to Madinah. When
the Prophet (s) was passing by this place on 18 Dhu'l Hijja (10 March
632) on his return from the Farewell Pilgrimage, the verse "O Messenger, Proclaim what has been sent down..." was revealed.
He therefore stopped to make an announcement to the pilgrims who
accompanied him from Makkah and who were to disperse from that junction
to their respective destinations. By
the orders of the Prophet (s) a special pulpit made of branches of trees
was erected for him. After the noon prayer the Prophet (s) sat on the pulpit and
made his last public address to the largest gathering before his death
three months later. The
highlight of his sermon was when, taking Imam 'Ali (a) by the hand, the
Prophet (s) asked his followers whether he was superior in authority (awla)
to the believers themselves. The
crowd cried out in one voice: "It is so, O Apostle of Allah".
He
then declared: "He of whom I
am the master (mawla), of him
'Ali is also the master (mawla).
O God, be the friend of him who is his friend, and be the enemy
of him who is his enemy." Immediately
after the Prophet (s) finished his speech, the following verse of the
Qur'an was revealed: Today I have
perfected your religion and completed my favor upon you, and I was
satisfied that Islam be your religion.
(Qur'an
5:3) After his speech, the Prophet (s) asked everybody to give the oath of allegiance to 'Ali (a) and congratulate him. Among those who did so was 'Umar bin al-Khattab, who said: "Well done Ibn Abi Talib! Today you became the master of all believing
men and women." An Arab, having heard of the event of Ghadir Khumm, came up to the Prophet (s) and said: "You commanded us to testify that there is no deity but Allah and that you are the Messenger of Allah. We obeyed you. You ordered us to perform the prayers five times a day and we obeyed. You ordered us to observe fasts during the month of Ramadhan and we obeyed. Then you commanded us to offer pilgrimage to Makkah and we obeyed. But you are not satisfied with all this and you raised your cousin by your hand and imposed him upon us as our master by saying 'Ali is the mawla of whom I am mawla.' Is this imposition from Allah or from you?" The Prophet (s) said : "By Allah who is the only deity! This is from Allah, the Mighty and the Glorious." On
hearing this reply the man turned back and proceeded towards his
she-camel saying: "O Allah! If what Muhammad said is correct then
fling on us a stone from the sky and subject us to severe pain and
torture." He had not reached his she-camel when Allah flung at him
a stone which struck him on his head, penetrated his body and left him
dead. It was on this occasion that Allah, the exalted, caused to descend
the following verses: A questioner
questioned about the punishment to fall. For the disbelievers there is
nothing to avert it, from Allah the Lord of the Ascent.
(Qur'an 70:1-3) Do
the Sunni scholars consider this event authentic? The
number of Sunni authorities who narrate this event, both in detail and
in summary, is mind boggling! This
historic event was narrated by 110 Companions of the Prophet (s), 84
Successors from the following generation and then by many hundreds of
scholars of the Islamic world, from the first to the fourteenth century
AH (seventh to twentieth century CE). These
statistics only include transmitters appearing in narrations recorded by
Sunni scholars! A
very small selection of these sources is given below. Many of these scholars not only quote the Prophet's
declaration but also call it authentic: q
alHakim alNaysaburi, alMustadrak
`ala al-Sahihayn (Beirut), volume3, pp. 109-110, p. 133, p. 148,
p. 533. He expressly states that the tradition is sahih
in accordance with the criteria of alBukhari and Muslim; alDhahabi
has confirmed his judgment. q
alTirmidhi, Sunan
(Cairo), vol. 5, p. 633 q
Ibn Majah, Sunan,
(Cairo, 1952), vol. 1, p. 45 q
Ibn Hajar al-'Asqalani, Fath
al-Bari bi
Sharh Sahih al-Bukhari, (Beirut, 1988), vol. 7, p. 61 q
Al-'Ayni, 'Umdat
al-Qari Sharh Sahih al-Bukhari, vol. 8, p. 584 q
Ibn al'Athir, Jami`
al'usul, i, 277, no. 65; q
Al-Suyuti, al-Durr
al-Manthur, vol. 2, p. 259 and p. 298 q
Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, Tafsir
al-Kabir, (Beirut, 1981), vol. 11, p. 53 q
Ibn Kathir, Tafsir
Qur'an al-'Azim, (Beirut), vol. 2, p. 14 q
Al-Wahidi, Asbab
al-Nuzul, p. 164 q
Ibn al-'Athir, Usd
al-Ghaba fi Ma'rifat al-Sahaba, (Cairo), vol.3, p. 92 q
Ibn Hajar al-'Asqalani, Tahdhib
al-Tahdhib, (Hyderabad, 1325), vol. 7, p. 339 q
Ibn Kathir, al-Bidayah
wa al-Nihayah, (Cairo, 1932), vol. 7, p. 340, vol. 5, p. 213 q
Al-Tahawi, Mushkil
al-Athar, (Hyderabad, 1915), vol. 2, pp. 308-9 q
Nur al-Din al-Halabi al-Shafi'i, al-Sirah
al-Halabiyya, vol. 3, p. 337 q
Al-Zurqani, Sharh
al-Mawahib al-Ladunniyya, vol. 7, p. 13
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