The Prophetic Mission And The Leadership Of Imams Are...

The Prophetic Mission And The Leadership Of Imams Are Continuous Approximately three years after the appointment of the great Prophet, this verse was revealed, “Admonish your close relatives with the threat of divine torment (and invite them to worship God).” [^2] In the exegesis of this verse, the commentators have pointed out that, on the day when the great Prophet was called on by God to invite his close relatives, he asked ‘Ali who was barely fifteen years old to prepare food, then he invited the progeny of ‘Abd al-Muttalib who numbered about forty to announce his mission to them.

On that day, Abu Lahab the Prophet’s uncle disrupted the reception with irrelevant remarks. The great Prophet held another session and after the meal was served announced his invitation and said, “I have been appointed by God and herald the best of this world and the hereafter for you and God has called on me to invite you to His dominion…” Then, at the same reception the great Prophet observed, “Who among you is ready to stand by me, to be my brother and successor?” ‘Ali rose and voiced his readiness.

The great Prophet told him to sit down and repeated his invitation three times. No one answered him except ‘Ali, every time he announced his invitation, then he turned to those who were present and said, “This youth, ‘Ali, is my brother and successor among you, obey him and listen to his remarks.” This incident, about its authenticity there is no doubt neither in the accounts of the Sunni nor Shi’ah, clearly demonstrates that the prophetic mission and the leadership of Imams are not distinct and on the day when the divine Prophet was introduced to people, it is on the same day that his successor should be named and it should be known basically that the foundations of these two positions are the same and they are connected to one another like the links of a chain and the leadership of Imams is the continuation of the prophetic mission and the successor of the Prophet pursues the same goals as the Prophet but the distinction between them is that the Prophet is the founder of the religion but Imam is its explicator.[^3] The Hadith of Ghadir In the last year of his life, the great Prophet who was returning from the Hajj pilgrimage stopped at a place called Ghadir where pilgrims parted from one another.