The historians relate that one day ‘Ali...

The historians relate that one day ‘Ali, peace be upon him, said in the course of a sermon he was delivering at this mosque, “O Muslims, I adjure you by God: is there among you any who witnessed what transpired at Ghadir Khumm, who heard the Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him and his family, proclaiming me to be his successor, and who observed the people paying allegiance to me?

Stand up and give witness!” At this point thirty men out of those present stood up and in a loud voice testified to what they had seen at Ghadir Khumm.

Another telling of this same incident relates: “Many people stood up to give witness.”(3) This testimony to what had transpired at Ghadir Khumm was given at the mosque in Rahbah during the caliphate of ‘Ali, peace be upon him, in the thirty-fifth years of the Hijrah, while the proclamation of ‘Ali’s successorship at Ghadir Khumm in the course of the Farewell Pilgrimage had taken place in the tenth year of the Hijrah, i.e., twenty five years earlier.(4) Taking into consideration the fact that many elderly must have died during this quarter century, that many casualties had been incurred during the wars that took place during the rule of the first three caliphs, and that many surviving were not present in Kufah, being scattered in other cities, the significance of this historic testimony to what had happened at Ghadir Khumm is obvious.

Ahmad b. Hanbal writes: “Only three men did not rise to their feet, although they too had been present at Ghadir Khumm. ‘Ali, peace be upon him, cursed them and they were afflicted.”(5) Abu al-Tufayl says: “When I left the mosque at Rahbah I asked myself how the majority of the ummah had failed to act in accordance with the hadith of Ghadir Khumm. I met Zayd b.

Arqam to discuss the matter with him and told him, ‘I heard ‘Ali, peace be upon him, say such-and-such.’ Zayd replied, ‘The truth of what he says is undeniable; I too heard it from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him and his family.”(6) ‘Ali, peace be upon him, adduced the hadith of Ghadir Khumm in support of his claims on numerous other occasions.