To obey Ali is to obey me and to obey me is to obey Allah.

To obey Ali is to obey me and to obey me is to obey Allah.” [^4] Imam Sadiq (AS) has been reported by al-Mufaddhal ibn Umar as saying: “God Almighty has chosen Ali as an emblem and standard between Him and His creatures. No one has such a position. Therefore, whoever obeys him is a believer and whoever denies him is an unbeliever.

Whoever denies him will enter fire.” [^5] The Imam (AS) has also been reported as saying that when Gabriel appeared to the Messenger of Allah (SAW), he said: “O Mohammad! Allah sends you greetings and says: I have created the seven heavens and what is there in them…and I have not created any place higher than the Rokn (the corner of the Kaaba) and the Maqam (the place where Prophet Abraham (a.s.) used to offer prayer).

If any one of my servants call Me and meets Me (dies) while he denies the Imamate of Ali, I will throw him into the fire on his face.” ^6 Imam Ali (AS) has been reported as saying: “There is no heresy unless a Sunnah (prophetic norm) is abandoned (by it). Therefore, keep away from heresy. Walk on a sound way, for long-cherished orders (orders of God and the Messenger) are the best.

What heresy has produced will be the worst.” [^7] After warning the people of Basra about what was to occur, Imam Ali (AS) says: “Whoever can, at this time, keep himself clinging to Allah should do so.

If you follow me, I shall certainly carry you, if Allah so wills, on the path of paradise, even though it may be full of severe hardship and of bitter taste….You should adhere to the Book of Allah because it is the Strong Rope, a clear light, a benefiting cure, a quenching for thirst, protection for the adherent, and deliverance for the attached. It has no any curving to be straightened, and does not deviate from the truth.

Whatever it is repeated and whatever it knocks the hearings, it does not become old. Whoever speaks according to it, speaks of the truth and whoever acts according to it shall advance (to success).” A man stood up and said: ‘O Ameerol Mo'minin! Tells us about the disturbance and whether you enquired it from the Holy Prophet (SAW)’.

Thereupon Ameerol Mo'minin said: “When Allah, the Glorified sent down the verse: ‘Do men think that they will be left alone on saying, we believe, and not be tried?’ [^8] I came to know that the disturbance would not befall us so long as the Prophet is among us. So I said: O Messenger of Allah, what is this disturbance of which Allah, the Sublime, has informed you?