Listen to him and obey him.

Listen to him and obey him." The group stood up laughing and telling Abu Talib (Father of Ali) that Muhammad had ordered him to listen to his son and obey him." The words "Wasi'i wa Khalifati" (My successor and my caliph) have been recorded also in "Tareekh" of Tabari (Laden, Germany, 1879, page 1,173) and in Sirat of Ibn- Is-haque.

It is interesting to note that in the Cairo edition of Tareekh-e-Tabari (1939), which claims to be checked with the Laden edition, the important words (My successor and my caliph) have been changed to 'Kadha wa kadha' (so and so)! How sad it is to see the academic world sacrificing its honesty on the altar of political expediency! This was in the beginning. In the last months of his life, the Prophet declared Ali to be his successor and Master of the Muslims, in Khum.

The event is recorded in countless Sunni Books. At present I would like to refer to such Sunni authorities as Kanz-ul-ummal (Vol. VI, p .397, 399) and Al-Khasais (by Imam Nasai) p.48. They have conceeded that the Prophet conferred the Khilafat, in Khum, upon Ali. The following words of the Prophet are most important: "I am leaving behind, among you, two most precious things....................1) the Book of Allah...........and 2) my descendants who are my family members.

They will not be separated from each other until they come to me near Kauther (in Quiyamat). Verily, AlIah is my Master and I am the master of every believer. (Then he took the hands of Ali and said) Everyone whose Master am I, Ali is his Master." These two traditions are referred to as the traditions of Two precious things' and of 'Vilayat' (Mastership). They are jointly and severally narrated by hundreds of traditionalist.

Nawwab Siddique Hassan Khan of Bhopal, says : "Hakim Abu Said says that the traditions of Two precious things' and of 'Whose Master am I, Ali is his Master' are 'Mutawatir' (i.e. narrated by so many people that no doubt can be entertained about their authenticity), because a great number of the companions of the Prophet have narrated them. So much so that Muhammad bin Jarir has written these two traditions by 75 different chains". (Manhaj-u!-wusul, p. 13).

Al-Amini, the Shia author, has classified the narrators of this tradition and has found that among them are 120 (one hundred twenty) of the Prophet, 84 Tabein (their deciples). The number of famous traditionalists who have narrated it reaches up to 360.