He then said...

He then said: "I ask in the Name of Allah each Muslim who heard what the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) said on the Ghadir Day to stand and testify to what he heard.

Nobody should stand except those who saw the Prophet with their own eyes and heard him with their own ears." Thirty sahabis , twelve of whom had particiated in the Battle of Badr, stood and testified that the Prophet (pbuh) took ‘Ali by the hand and asked people: "Do you know that I have more authority over the believers than the believers themselves have?" They answered in the affirmative.

He, peace be upon him and his progeny, then said: "To whomsoever I have been mawla , this (‘Ali) is his mawla ; O Lord! Befriend whoever befriends him, and be the enemy of whosoever chooses to be his enemy." You know that accusing thirty sahabis of being liars is rejected by reason; therefore, the achievement of consecutive reporting through their testimony is an irrefutable and undeniable proof.

The same hadith was transmitted from those thirty sahabis by all those crowds who were then present at the Rahba, and who disseminated it after their dispersal throughout the land, thus providing it with extremely wide publicity. Obviously, the Rahba incident took place during the caliphate of the Commander of the Faithful (as) who received the oath of allegiance in the year 35 A.H. The Ghadir event took place during the Farewell Pilgrimage, 10 A.H.

The time period separating the first date from the second is twenty-five years during which many events took place such as a devastating plague, wars, the opening of new countries, and the invasions contemporary to the three righteous caliphs.

This time period, one fourth of a century, merely due to its duration, wars and invasions, in addition to a sweeping and devastating plague, had ended the lives of many of those who had witnessed the Ghadir event, especially the elderly among the sahabah as well as their youths who were eager to meet their Lord through conducting jihad in His way, the Exalted, the Omniscient, and in the way of His Messenger, peace be upon him and his progeny, so much so that their dead outnumbered their survivors.

Some of them were scattered throughout the land, and many of those were not present at the Rahba except those who kept company with the Commander of the Faithful (as) in Iraq, and these were only males.