ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books The Voice of Human Justice (Sautu'l 'Adalati'l Insaniyah) Ali is my brother In order to indicate at which level spiritual brotherhood existed between the Prophet and Ali, to what extent Ali inherited the virtues of the Prophet, how Ali's soul acquired the colour of prophethood, how much he was loved by the Prophet and to what extent he respected and honoured the Prophet with his heart and tongue, it is necessary that a few traditions may be quoted.

Only then we can conclude that in accordance with the sublime rules which became the source of strengthening the religion of Islam, the Prophet was paving the way for the caliphate of Ali. And he was doing so, because he could see his own face in the mirror of the person of Ali and the good qualities possessed by him were also possessed by Ali as will be explained later. Tabarani has quoted Ibn Mas'ud as saying that the Prophet said: “Looking at Ali's face amounts to worship”.

And Sa'd Ibn Abi Waqas quotes the Prophet as saying: “Whoever hurts Ali hurts me”. Ya'qubi has quoted in parts of his history that when the Prophet was returning to Madina from the “Farewell pilgrimage” he stopped on the 18th day of Zil-Hajj at Ghadir al-Khum near Johfah, delivered a sermon and then held the hands of Ali and said: “Of whomsoever I am the master, Ali too is his master. O God! Love him who loves Ali and be inimical towards him who is inimical towards Ali”.

Fakhruddin al-Razi has quoted in Tafsir al-Kabir that thereafter Umar son of Khattab greeted Ali and said to him: “O Ali! You have become my master as well as master of every Muslim man and woman”. This hadith has been quoted from sixteen companions of the Prophet by the ulema and historians like Tirmizy, Nasa'i and Ahmad bin Hanbal, and has also been verified by many poets, the foremost among them being Hassan bin Thabit Ansari.

He says: “On the day of Ghadir the Prophet called the people at Khum and made his voice reach the ears of all and said: Who is your chief and master? The people did not feign ignorance and said: Your God is our master and you are our Prophet and we are not disobedient to you”. Then the Prophet said to Ali: “Rise; for certainly I have chosen you to be the Imam and the guide after myself. Hence, of whomsoever I am the master this Ali, too, is his master.

You should, therefore, be his true friends and supporters”. Abu Tamam Tai is one of the poets who have mentioned the event of that day.