I praise God because he has completed his message and his...

I praise God because he has completed his message and his blessings have ended for me and His satisfaction with my message and the wilayat of ‘Ali has been announced after me.” A great commotion appeared among the people and then they congratulated ‘Ali for the station he had been given.

Abu Bakr, Umar, in the presence of the crowd said to ‘Ali, “Congratulations to you, O son of Abu Talib, you have become my leader and leader of all of the people, men and women who have faith.” The above Tradition has been recorded in varying versions, some quite lengthy and some short, by many of the scholars of Islam in their books. This Tradition is greater than for one to deny or doubt that the Prophet said it.

The scholar, Allamah Amini, in his famous book al-Ghadir mentions 110 people among the and followers of the Prophet and 360 famous books on Islam in which it has been recorded and it has appeared in many of the books of the Sunni brothers on Traditions. Even a large group of the scholars of Islam have written independently about this Tradition, including Allamah Amini who himself has written an excellent, independent book about the particularities of this Tradition.

The names of 26 Islamic scholars have been included in a separate book. A number of the people who have seen this Tradition as being something which cannot be denied, have tried to deny it in discussing the issue of imamate and caliphate and have said that the word mula’ (master) here means friend whereas if one notes the Tradition with care, the conditions under which it was recorded and the place where it was recorded, it is clear that the intention behind it was none other than imamate and wilayat in the sense of leadership of the people: a.

The verse on endeavoring to have Islam be better understood, which we have presented in the previous discussions, and before this, the situation in which it descended with the strong tone of recitation which appeared in it, well shows that the words are not about friendship and normal or average honesty because the was no place for such concern and all of this importance and emphasis was not necessary.

Also the verse of Ikmal ad-Din which was revealed after that shows that the above issue was extremely important like the issue of leadership and the successor to the Prophet which was relevant. b.