Imam ‘Ali b. Abi Talib
A momentous event took place at a place called Ghadir Khumm on the way back from the Last Pilgrimage (hajj) of the Prophet Muhammad [s]. the sources that record it, the people who narrated it from the time of the Companions of the Prophet [s] to recent times, and the fate of those who knowingly denied it.
Purpose
The Ghadir Khumm site is the result of a project that has been going for over a year, and is still continuing. It attempts to capture all the detail associated with this historic incident of the designation of Imam ‘Ali [a] by the Prophet [s] as his immediate successor – and to make it easily available to world. All the sources of this incident in books of Qur’anic commentary (tafsir), tradition (hadith), history (ta’rikh), and other academic books from scholars of Islam will be captured. As much as possible, each narrator – from the time of the Prophet [s] and his Companions down to our recent times – would be identified and comments about his/her biography and reliability would be made available. Most of this material would be in Arabic, and we hope to get the essential parts translated into English with your help.
We would like to locate each of the references and make the relevant pages available through the Islamic Sources Repository which would be linked from the relevant parts of the Ghadir Khumm site. This would allow a researcher to verify the quotation and possibly help him or her to locate the books themselves. Many narrations are already linked in such a way to the image of their source. With your help, we aim to locate as many of them as possible, both published works as well as manuscripts, from libraries and private collections throughout the world.
The research that is the basis of this data bank of information has been done by some of our great scholars (see below). Through this particular endeavour, we hope to make this information ‘come alive’ and become much easier to access and digest. We hope that this will help gulf the terrible lack of information that persists among the majority of Muslims regarding this momentous and historic event.
Progress so far
It is difficult to be precise about what percentage work is completed and how much is outstanding. This is because of the complexity of the project and the range of sources being used. However, we estimate that about 30-40% of the available narration data has been captured so far. There is also a lot of biographical information for the transmitters that has not yet been captured. In addition, a detailed discussion on the meaning and implication of Ghadir Khumm is currently being prepared.
Those who explore this site in detail will be able to see the wide range of sources and contexts that even the 30-40% of data covers.
Acknowledgements
The credit for the wealth of detail contained within this site goes primarily to the works of three great Shi’ah scholars:
Sayyid Hamid Husayn Musawi Lakhnawi (d. 1306 AH)
(author of ‘Abaqat al-‘Anwar)
The great scholar `Allamah Aqa Buzurg Tehrani, who is the author of al-Dhari`ah ila tasanif al-Shi`ah, wrote about Sayyid Hamid Husayn and his masterpiece ‘Abaqat al-‘Anwar:
(He is) one of the greatest of Imami theologians (mutakallimun) and one of the greatest and deeply learned of Shi`i scholars who lived in the early part of this century. He was profoundly learned, and had extensive knowledge and mastery over the Islamic traditions and heritage and attained such a station in it that none of his contemporaries or anyone of those who came after him, or even most of the celebrities of the preceding centuries, have been able to attain. He spent his entire noble life in fathoming the mysteries of religiosity and in the defence of Islam and the realm of sincere religion. I don’t know of anyone in the latter centuries who waged a jihad like him and sacrificed everything in his possession in the way of everlasting truths. The times, in all ages and periods, will never see a compeer of him in his research, his extensive knowledge, his precision, intelligence, and the immensity of his memory and retention.
Aqa Buzurg Tehrani says about the `Abaqat: “It is the greatest of books compiled on the subject (ie. Imamate) from the outset of the Islamic era to the present.” And what he says about the author and his book is perfectly representative of the opinion of leading Shi`i scholars on this matter.
Alī b. Abī Ṭālib (Arabic: علي بن أبي طالب) known as Imam ʿAlī (a) (b. 23 BH/600 – d. 40/661) is the first Imam of all the branches of the Shi’a, a companion, a narrator, and a scribe of the Qur’an. He is the fourth caliph of the Rightly Guided Caliphs in Sunni Islam. ‘Ali (a) is the cousin, and son-in-law of the Prophet (s), the husband of Lady Fatima (a), and the father of the rest of the Imams of the Shi’a. According to Shi’i historians and many Sunni scholars, he was born inside the Ka’ba. He was also the first convert.
Based on evidence from the Qur’an, hadith, and history, the Shi’a believe that ‘Ali (a) was the direct designated successor of the Prophet (s). Some verses of the Qur’an point to his infallibility. According to Shiite and some Sunni sources, roughly three-hundred verses of the Qur’an were revealed with regards to his virtues. When the Quraysh plotted to assassinate the Prophet (s), it was ‘Ali (a) who slept where the Prophet (s) used to sleep, and thus helped the Prophet (s) to secretly leave for Medina. In the pact of brotherhood in Medina, the Prophet (s) chose ‘Ali (a) as his brother. Except for the Battle of Tabuk when he stayed in Medina as the deputy of the Prophet (s), ‘Ali (a) was with the Prophet (s) in all the battles. He was the most proud commander of Islam.
After the Prophet’s (s) demise, a group of people pledged allegiance with Abu Bakr in Saqifa as the caliph contrary to what the Prophet had explicitly stipulated in Ghadir. 25 years later after the caliphate of Abu Bakr, ‘Umar and ‘Uthman, ‘Ali (a) accepted the caliphate at the overwhelming insistence of the Muslims. During his short rule, he was faced with three rebellions and was ultimately assassinated by one of the Kharijites while praying in the Mihrab (the prayer niche) of the Kufa Mosque, and was then secretly buried in Najaf.
Ali (a) is considered as the father of many Islamic sciences including Arabic literature, Islamic theology, jurisprudence, and exegesis. Scholars of different sciences have tried to trace back the chain of their hadiths to him. Nahj al-balagha is a selection of his speeches and letters.
shiastudies.com
