Although there are slight discrepancies among them...

Although there are slight discrepancies among them, all the reports agree on the main facts: that the Messenger of Allah, sallallahu ‘alaihi wa alihi , first sent Abu Bakr, then sent Amir al-Muminin, ‘alaihi al-salam , in his stead, and then announced and applied Hadith al-Ada . These ahadith are the most authentic reports on that incident, due to their sihat (reliable chains) and mutual corroboration.

The hadith proves a fundamental point: there are certain roles and functions in this Ummah that only the Prophet of Allah can discharge. This is by Allah’s Decree. Moreover, there are others that can be discharged either by him or any other Muslim. When Surah al-Tawbah was first revealed, it was of the “general” class. However, Allah abrogated that status and placed it on the exclusive list of His Messenger.

As a result, it technically became illegal for any creature to convey it to the people except the Prophet. However, Allah also makes a very special exception to this rule. In any case that His Messenger is unable to discharge his exclusive function for any reason, then the job falls on a male member of his . But, it is not just any male relative of his. The man must be from him (i.e. the Prophet), and he too must be from the man.

Other than such a man, no one else has any right or legitimate authority to act on behalf of the Messenger in any matter on his divinely-designed exclusive list. He also specifically named ‘Ali. Therefore, as long as ‘Ali was alive, no one else could fulfil that role. It is further noteworthy that the Prophet mentioned “discharge” without qualifying it. If he had said “discharge my duties”, then his liabilities would have been excluded and vice versa.

By leaving it unrestricted, the Messenger of Allah – in his great wisdom – includes anything and everything that he could discharge exclusively. As such, all his exclusive duties, responsibilities, liabilities and so on are fully covered by Hadith al-Ada . Duties, responsibilities and liabilities that have been limited exclusively to the Messenger of Allah – in the Qur’an and Sunnah – are several. However, we will focus on one of them here.

Is judicial sovereignty over the believers an exclusive title of the Prophet? Or, is it a shared authority?