303 A.H./915-16 CE.) has narrated this event through several...

303 A.H./915-16 CE.) has narrated this event through several chains of narrators in his al-Khasa ’is, one of which is as follows: Abu’t-Tufayl said that Zayd bin Aqram said, “When the Prophet returned from the last pilgrimage, and stayed at the pond ( Ghadir ) of Khumm, he ordered the place to be swept. Then he said: ‘It is as though I have been called (back by God, meaning that death is soon approaching) and I have accepted that call.

And I am leaving among you two weighty, precious things, one of them is greater than the other: the Book of Allah and my descendants, my family-members. So look out how you deal with them after me because they will not separate from each other until they come to me at the fountain (of kawthar , on the Day of Judgement). I am the master ( wali ) of every believer’. Saying this, he took the hand of ‘Ali (Allah be pleased with him) and said, ‘Whomsoever’s master I am, this (‘Ali) is his master.

O Allah! Love the person who loves ‘Ali, and be the enemy of one who has enmity towards him”. Abu’t-Tufayl says, “I asked Zayd, ‘Did you hear it from the Messenger of Allah (s.a.w.w)?’ He said, ‘There was no one in the oasis but saw him with his eyes and heard him with his ears,’”.[^7] This tradition is known as “the tradition of two precious things”.

In the same book, Imam an-Nasa’i quotes another similar hadith from Zayd bin Aqram which contains these words from the Prophet: “Don’t I have more authority on every believer than his own self?” They replied, “Surely, we bear witness that thou hast more authority upon every believer than his own self”.

The Prophet then said, “So, verily, he whose master ( mawla ) I am, this is his Master ( mawla ).” Saying this he took the hand of ‘Ali.[^8] This tradition is known as “the tradition of mastership”. The traditions of “two precious things” and “mastership” are jointly and severally narrated by hundreds of traditionalists.

The famous Wahabi scholar, Nawwab Siddiq Hasan Khan of Bhopal, says: “Hakim Abu Sa‘id says that the traditions of ‘two precious things’ and ‘whose master I am, ‘Ali is his master’ are Mutawatir [^9] because a great number of companions of the Prophet have narrated them.