Hazrat `Ali - Part 2 - Gadir-i Khumm and the hadith al-thaqalayn

Part 2 - Gadir-i Khumm and the hadith al-thaqalayn (i.e., the Tradition of the Two Significant or Weighty Things)

In 632 C.E, Prophet Muhammad made his final or farewell pilgrimage to Makkah. He was accompanied by thousands of pilgrims from all over the Arabian peninsula. On their return journey, on 18 Dhu'l-Hijjah (10th March, 632), the Prophet called a halt at a place called Gadir-i Khumm. It was a marshy area with a pool and some shady trees, a few miles from Makkah on the road to Madinah. It was from there that the pilgrims dispersed in all directions to return to their homes. The reason for this halt was that Prophet Muhammad wanted to tell them some important news before they departed for their homes – news for which he had received the following revelation:

"O Messenger! Convey that which hath been revealed unto you from your Lord, for if you do it not, you will not have conveyed His message and Allah will protect you from humankind. Lo! Allah guides not the disbelieving folk". (Surah 5:67) Jalalu'd-Din Suyuti, a Sunni commentator says in his Tafsir-i Durr-i Mansur, (Misr, n.d.) III, 398 that this verse used to be recited during the life time of the Prophet as follows: "Ya ayyuha'r-rasulu ballig ma unzila ilayka mir-rabbika anna `Aliyyan mawla'l-mu'minina, wa il-lam taf`al fa-ma ballagta risalatahu wa'llahu ya`simuka mina'n-nas" = O Messenger! Convey the command that has been revealed to you about `Ali, that he is the Mawla (master) of the mu'mins. For, if you do it not, you will not have conveyed His message and Allah will protect you from humankind."

Messengers were sent to gather the pilgrims together. A special pulpit (minmbar) from camel and horse saddles was erected for the Prophet. The Prophet praised Allah and led the huge crowd in congregational prayer. When the prayers were over, he made his last public address to the largest gathering before his death three months later.

He took Hazrat `Ali by the arm and made him stand next to him, and said:

"O people, know that what Aaron was to Moses, `Ali is to me, except that, surely, there shall be no Prophet after me, and he is (my) Plenipotentiary (wali) to you after me. Therefore, he to whom I am Master (mawla), `Ali is his Master. Then he lifted the arms of `Ali, until the whiteness of his armpits was visible (to the people assembled) and said to them: O God, be affectionate to him who is devoted to `Ali, show enmity to him who is his enemy, give victory to him who helps `Ali, and forsake him who forsakes `Ali, and turn the truth in whatever direction he turns."¹³

The Prophet continued his address by pronouncing the hadith al-thaqalayn as follows:

"I am leaving two important things among you: the Book of Allah and my progeny (`itrah), the people of my House. If you hold on to both of them you will never go astray, for they are not going to separate till they will come to me at the Pond (Kawthar)."

The Prophet ended his discourse by commanding the gathered assembly, including several of his wives, to give bay`ah to Hazrat `Ali. Amongst those who congratulated Hazrat `Ali profusely was `Umar b. al-Khattab, who is recorded as having said: 'I congratulate you O `Ali today. Hail to you O `Ali. Bravo, bravo `Ali, you have become my master and the master of every believing man and woman'.

Hassan bin thabit, who was the Prophet's official poet, composed some verses spontaneously to mark this historic occasion.

The Prophetic Tradition declared at Gadir-i Khumm

'Man kuntu mawlahu fa `Aliyyun mawlahu. Allahumma wali man walahu wa-`adi man `adahu'. 'He of who I am the Mawla, of him `Ali is the Mawla. O God, be the friend of he who is his friend, and be the enemy of he who is his enemy', is widely accepted by Muslims of all schools of Islam.

According to Ja`fri: "A contemporary scholar, Husayn `Ali Mahfuz, in his penetrating researches on the subject of Gadir-i Khumm has recorded with documentation that this tradition has been narrated by at least 110 companions, 84 tabi`un (those who followed the companions), 355 `ulama', 25 historians, 27 traditionists, 11 exegetists, 18 theologians and 5 philologists. Most of them were later counted by the Sunnis as among their own number".¹⁴

According to the Encyclopaedia of Islam

"Most of those sources which form the basis of our knowledge of the life of the Prophet (Ibn Hisham, al-Tabari, Ibn Sa`d, etc.) pass in silence over Prophet Muhammad's stop at Gadir-i Khumm, or, if they mention it, say nothing of his discourse (the writers evidently feared to attract the hostility of the Sunnis who were in power, by providing material for the polemic of the Shi`is who used these words to support their thesis of `Ali's right to the Caliphate). Consequently, the western biographers of Prophet Muhammad whose work is based on these sources equally make no reference to what happened at Gadir-i Khumm. It is, however, certain that Muhammad did speak in this place and utter the famous sentence, for the account of this event has been preserved, either in a concise form or in detail, not only by al-Ya`qubi, whose sympathy for the Alid cause is well known, but also in the collections of traditions, which are considered canonical, especially in the Musnad of Ibn Hanmbal; and the hadith are so numerous and so well-attested by the different isnads (chains of transmission) that it does not seem possible to reject them".¹⁵

It is clear from the above discussion that the ahadith of Gadir-i Khumm are too often cited by reputable historians to be denied or doubted by even the most conservative of Sunni authorities. Nevertheless, the real disagreement between the Sunnis and the Shi`as hinges on the interpretations of certain words.

In the famous declaration: 'He of who I am the Mawla, `Ali is his Mawla', the word which is interpreted differently is 'Mawla'. Arabic is a rich language, in which many words have numerous meanings, including totally opposing ones. The word 'Mawla' has over twenty different meanings, including the opposite ones: 'Master' and 'slave'.

The Sunnis interpret the word 'Mawla' as meaning 'a friend' or 'nearest kin' and they assert that the whole event of Gadir-i Khumm was staged by the Prophet simply to exhort the Muslims to hold his cousin and son-in-law in esteem and additionally to silence the murmurs of protest and criticism of Hazrat `Ali, who on the recent successful expedition to Yaman had been extremely strict and scrupulous about the division of the gains.

The Shi`a maintain that it is irrelevant to enter into discussions about the semantic diversity of the word 'Mawla'. It is far more important to examine the context in which it was used. The Prophet first attributed the word to himself and then applied it to Hazrat `Ali. Therefore, it is absolutely clear that the Prophet did not wish to convey any of the other meanings of the word 'Mawla', except the one which described his relationship with the Muslims, which, without the slightest dispute, was one of being their 'Master' as affirmed by the Qur'anic verse 33:6, which states: "The Prophet has a greater right (awla) over the souls of the believers than they themselves, ..." Therefore, according to the Shi`a, the Prophet addressed this, the largest gathering shortly before his death, for the single purpose of declaring Hazrat `Ali his successor. As is evident from the various ahadith about Hazrat `Ali, the Prophet had on numerous occasions, indicated that Hazrat `Ali was his 'brother', 'executor' 'successor', 'as Aaron was to Moses' etc., etc.

In the case of the hadith al-thaqalayn, the word whose use is disputed is `itrah (progeny). The Sunnis claim that the Prophet used the phrase 'my Sunnah (traditions)'. Even if this argument were accepted, it was widely known that the person who was best aware of the Prophet's Sunnah was none other than Hazrat `Ali, who had been so close to the Prophet throughout his life. In the years immediately following the Prophet's death, there was no written Sunnah. The Sunnah was best known to those closest to him, such as Hazrat `Ali.

The Shi`a believe that after the Prophet had declared Hazrat `Ali as his successor, the following verse of the Qur'an was revealed: "This day I have perfected your religion for you and completed My favour unto you and have chosen for you as religion al-Islam (5:3)."¹⁶

Shi`as believe that the Imam of the age provides fresh guidance according to the requirements of the time. The above verse meant that no more obligatory commands would be revealed by Allah through a Prophet. In other words, the cycle of Nubuwwat or Prophethood was drawing to an end and Allah had 'perfected' the religion for the Muslims by commanding the appointment of the Imams, one after another, from the progeny of Prophet Muhammad and Hazrat `Ali, to guide and teach the people according to the time and place. Prophet Muhammad had completed the work of receiving the revelation of the tanzil or exoteric of the holy Qur'an and with the appointment of Hazrat `Ali he ensured that the task of the ta'wil or esoteric meaning of the Qur'an would be continued by him and the Imams from his progeny, thus making the Divine message dynamic, that is, extending and developing with science, knowledge, art and industry.

¹³'The Book of Faith' from the Da`a'im al-Islam by al-Qazi al-Nu`man – tr. by A.A.A Fyzee, page 20. Note: The underlined phrase has been wrongly translated by Fyzee. See S. Makarem.
¹⁴S.H.M Ja`fri: 'Origins and Early Development of Shi`a Islam', London, 1979.
¹⁵Encyclopaedia of Islam, p. 993.
¹⁶'The Book of Faith' from the Da`a'im al-Islam by al-Qazi al-Nu`man – tr. by A.A.A Fyzee, page 18.

TEST یہ دنیا ہے۔

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