ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books ‘Ali: The Best of the Sahabah Hadith Al-Qadha, ‘Ali’s Superior Knowledge Of The Qur’an And Sunnah ====================================================================== There is no dispute about the fact that Amir al-Muminin, ‘alaihi al-salam , was the most competent in justice dispensation among all the Sahabah. In fact, he is the best judge in our whole Ummah till the Day of al-Qiyamah after its Prophet, sallallahu ‘alaihi wa alihi .

On a specific level, he was better - in terms of justice dispensation - than Abu Bakr, ‘Umar and ‘Uthman. So, what is the direct implication of this?

In Islam, justice dispensation is based squarely upon the Qur’an and Sunnah: فاحكم بينهم بما أنزل الله So, judge between them by what Allah has revealed .[^1] The Qur’an itself, in its entirety, is described as “a judgment” by its Master: وكذلك أنزلناه حكما عربيا And thus We have sent it down as a judgment in Arabic[^2] As such, complete knowledge of everything in it is required for effective justice dispensation.

Moreover, the Sunnah is the divinely inspired explanations of this “judgment” called al-Qur’an: وأنزلنا إليك الذكر لتبين للناس ما نزل إليهم And We have sent down unto you (Muhammad) al-Dhikr (i.e. the Qur’an) that you may explain clearly to mankind what is sent down to them.[^3] Apparently, a person does not know the Book of Allah until he has known its explanations by the Messenger of Allah.

These explanations, according to the same Book, only originated from the Lord as well: وما ينطق عن الهوى إن هو إلا وحي يوحى He (Muhammad) never speaks of (his own) desire or caprice. It is nothing but a wahy that is revealed (to him) .[^4] It is obvious. If anyone were more knowledgeable of the Qur’an and Sunnah than ‘Ali in this Ummah , he (‘Ali) would not have been its best judge.

It is simply unfathomable that Allah and His Messenger would have conferred upon him such a rank while there was/is another – in the Ummah as a whole - who was/is more competent with the tools of justice dispensation than he was! It is noteworthy that knowledge of the revelations of Allah surpasses mere knowledge of al-halal (the permissible) and al-haram (the prohibited). It covers everything from the Lord to humanity.

Most importantly, merely knowing the legal status of a thing is not enough for justice dispensation.