The Holy appoints his Successor ACCORDING TO THE divinely...

The Holy appoints his Successor ACCORDING TO THE divinely decreed course (the Sunnat-e-IIahiah) which never chanaes (17:77),at the very inauguration of his apostolic mission under the command from the Lord: "warn thy nearest kith and kin" (26:214), the Holy Prophet invited his kith and kin to a feast and with the declaration of his nearest apostleship, also declared Ali as his Deputy, Vicegerent and Successor. (TB., IA., AF, GB,.

WS., AA., and others.) The above incident has been of such a prominence and signi- ficance and was so ever-fresh in the memory of the people that it could not be missed by the historian be he a Muslim or a non-Mus- lim.

History gives a vivid description as to how the Holy Prophet repeatedly asked the assembly as to who among them would be his Deputy, his Vieegerent, and his Successor and Heir, and how at every time, none but Ali, stood up offering himself to the office, which then was only a hopeless proposition, and how ultimately the Holy Prophet called Ali to him, before the assembly of the veterans of the Town (Mecca) and embracing him declared openly in clear - cut words:- This is my Deputy, my Vicegerent and my Successor; Hear him and obey him.

This is what Carlyle in his 'Sartor Resartus' says: " "After some three years of small success, he invited forty of his chief kindred to an entertainment; and there stood up and told them: what his pretention was; that he had this thing to promulgate abroad to all men; that it was the highest thing, the one thing which of them would second him in that?

Amidst the doubt and silence of all, young Ali, as yet a lad of sixteen, impatient of the silence, started up, and exclaimed in passionate fierce language, That he would! The assembly, among whom was Abu Taleb, Ali's father, could not be un- friendly to Mahomet; 'yet the sight there, of one un- lettered elderly man, with a lad of sixteen, deciding on such an enterprise' against all mankind, appeared ridiculous to them ; the assembly broke- up in laughter.

Nevertheless, it proved not a laughable thing; it was a very serious thing! 'As for this young Ali, one cannot but like him. A noble- minded creature, as he shows him- self, now and always afterwards; full of affection, of fiery daring. Something chivalrous in him ; brave as a lion; yet with a grace, a truth and affection worthy of Christian knighthood.