One who is more preferable to oneself than his own soul (in...

One who is more preferable to oneself than his own soul (in the matter of domination and superiority) is naturally in command of his worldly materials as well and when one is superior to oneself, he should have command over other people. For this reason, one should obey the orders of the superior one and not carry out what is inhibited by the superior one. This position was bestowed upon the Prophet (S) by Allah and previously he lacked such a position.

In other words, it was God who made the Prophet dominant over the believing peoples’ souls and properties and let him free to order people to do what was right and discourage them from doing wrong and any resistance towards the Prophet's orders was considered infidelity towards God's orders. Now that, through definitive reasons we have proved that by the word “Mawla” in this verse is meant “preferable” we shall conclude that Ali (as) will have the same position as the Prophet (S) had: i.e.

at his time, the Prophet (S) was the people's leader, dominant over people's souls and wealth; and this also applies to the Imamat, which is sometimes referred to as divine governorship. Now, we shall present some reasons and clues which will prove that by the word “Mawla” in this narration is meant nothing but “superior over people” in every aspect of their life.

Here are some of these reasons: On the day of the historic Ghadir event, Hasan Ibn Sabet, the Prophet's poet, rose, with the Prophet's permission, and wrote a piece of poetry on the content of the Prophet's message. The interesting point is that this eloquent poet, who knew all delicies of the arabic language, used the word “Imam” and “guide” in place of the word “Mawla”.

فقال له قم يا عليُّ فانني رضيتُكَ من بعدي اماماً وهادياً The meaning goes like this: the Prophet addressing people, told Ali: Rise up since I have appointed you as the Imam and people's guide after myself. [^4] As it is obvious Hasan, has used “Mawla” in the sense of “Imam” and “guide”. Not only has Hasan used the word “Mawla” in the sense of Imam, but so did other great poets of Islam, most of which were masters of Arabic literature.

In his poems which he wrote for Muawiyyah, Ali (as) referring to the Ghadir Event, says وأوجب لي ولايته عليكم رسولُ اللهِ يومَ غديرِ خمِّ “God's Apostle has made my governorship compulsory over you”. Who else except for the Imam himself, could ever explain to us the true meaning of this narration?