 As-Salamu Alayk Ya'al As-Salamu Alayk We recognize that there is a concept which is known as the days that belong to Allah, God the Almighty, Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. So in Surah Ibrahim, Allah, Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, says, Wa dhakirhum bi'ayat Allah. It's a command to the prophets to remind people about specific days that belong to Allah. Of course, every day belongs to Allah, like every human being is a servant of God. But there are individuals who recognize this and work towards actually earning that particular description to be known as Abdullah. Similarly, there are special days of the year in which the Almighty Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala has blessed and has made so significant because something happened on that day which brings people closer to God, which somehow establishes the whole objective of creation. And indeed, we are told that these days are days that are to do with the strengthening of faith, to do with the reminder that people should have about Allah, Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. There is no doubt, of course, that amongst the greatest days that the history of the mankind has seen is the day of Ghadir, the 18th of the holy month of the Al-Hudja, 10 years after the migration of the holy prophet. In today's society, in the modern world, Ghadir is referred to as an event that took place after the prophet's final Hajj, where he came to an area known as Ghadir-e-Khum, which is named Juhafa. This is about approximately 70 days before the prophet's death. And it was a place where he gathered all the Muslims that were with him, which were numerous. We're looking at 100,000, 100,000 people. Some narrations say 120,000, some up to 125,000 people. But at least 100,000 people were there. And that in itself is a significant number because there's no event, no hadith, and no gathering that's larger than that in the time of the holy prophet, As-Salaam. Ten years after the migration of the prophet, peace be upon him and his family from Mecca to Medina, the holy prophet, after those years, and conveying the message of Allah, they resulted, he went for his final Hajj, which is known as the farewell Hajj, Hajjatul Widaa. And he had two main objectives for this pilgrimage. Number one was to teach people, the Muslims in that time, the Hajj rituals as an obligatory act within the Sharia. And number two, to appoint the commander of the faithful, Ali ibn Abi Talib, peace be upon him, as his vice-gerent and his successor and Khalifa of his departure. So those two main objectives were achieved by the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him and his pure family. So it is described as the day. And this day is significant, significant Quranically because it highlights, it is not only a 24 hour so to speak time span, but rather it is an indication of a period of time which is very, very delicate, significant, sacred and important. Similar to how the Almighty says, I've created the heavens and the earth in six days. It is not the days that people are used to, but rather periods of time. And therefore Quranically the concept of day is significant. It is similar to the Quran saying the day of Qiyamah, the day of judgement, referring to a time of real importance. Similarly the same can be said about the day of Ghadir. On the journey to Hajj, know that because there's so many things to do in a very short period of time, everyone is worried about regarding the Hajj and making sure that it's correct and everything that they do ends up being correct and accepted and they don't do anything that will necessitate them giving Qafara, for example, invalidating the act or so on and so forth. So for example, if we look at the Hajj, it's divided into two distinct parts. There's the first part of the Hajj, which is the Umrah Tamato. When you reach, you go towards the Ka'aba, you go towards Masjid Haram, you do the Tawaf, you do the Sa'ee from Safa to Marwa and back. And then you do the Salat of the Tawaf and after completing the Sa'ee, you do your Taqseer and that completes your Umrah Tamato, which is the first part of the Hajj. Then you start the second part of the Hajj, which is going towards Arafa on the day of Arafa, usually on the night of Arafa, but the wujub is from the day of Arafa. So in the day of Arafa, and then from Arafa to go towards Mash'ar, which is also called Wasdalifah, and then from there to go to Mina in order to stone the Shaitaan and to offer Qurbani. And then show your head at Mina and then you've completed your Hajj to then go back towards Makkah, towards Masjid Haram and do your Tawaf and your Sa'ee and your Tawaf on Nisa to complete the Hajj. Now the Holy Prophet of Islam takes people on this journey of Hajj after having completed their first part of the Umrah Tamato now when you're going towards the Hajj at Tamato, to go towards Arafa, to go towards Mina, towards Masjid Alifah. All of these places are very important places. The Holy Prophet of Islam stops in these places and he delivers sermons. He tells us, he tells the people about the importance of these particular places. So there's a sermon of the Holy Prophet at Arafa, there's a sermon at Mina and all of these sermons are hinting towards the same message that's going to come at the end of the Hajj as well. That this is my final journey. I'm about to leave you, what's going to happen after I leave, what's your responsibility and what do you need to do after I go. All of these things are subtly being delivered by the Holy Prophet of Islam during this time where he's going through the Hajj rituals. Of course to perform, to act the Hajj rituals with the Holy Prophet of Islam is a special kind of blessing in that there is a 100% guarantee that every single ritual that I'm doing, whatever I'm doing is as Allah SWT wants me to do it, that I'm watching the Holy Prophet of Islam and I'm imitating the Holy Prophet of Islam in doing so. So the Holy Prophet of Islam is now traveling back to, having completed the Hajj, traveling back to Medina from Makkah. But the reason he goes towards this area, this place is because there's crossroads of people leaving towards their various different destinations towards the south of Arabia and Yemen, towards the east and towards the west. All of the pathways are separating from this particular place. The area or the actual place, we know that it was a station where people who were traveling would come to this point and there were pathways going towards the north, the south, the east, the west. So everyone would kind of collect there. And it was an area of saying farewell and saying goodbye. So if people came from far, you would accompany them to Ghadirahum and from there you would say your farewells and your goodbyes and you'd let them go ahead. So it was like a meeting, greeting and a farewell station similar to an airport because obviously people from airports travel here and there and you'll see people are arriving. So you welcome them and also people are departing. So you'd say goodbye at the airport, your final goodbye. So Ghadirahum was something like that. So the Holy Prophet of Islam is now complete the Hajj. Now he's going towards Medina and he stops at this place which is known as Ghadirahum. Ghadir means a pond in Arabic. And because there's a pond there and this is Khum. Again, some of the people who've been for Hajj will know that one of the places where you can initiate your Ahram, the Miqad, is called Juhfa which is the place where the event of Ghadir took place. And therefore many of the Mu'mineen like to use that Miqad of Juhfa in order to put on the Ahram to go for Hajj. The Holy Prophet, peace be upon him and his family, ordered Bilal to announce that all Muslims should gather in a place called Ghadirahum, a place in the middle of the desert with a pond of water, a few palm trees together there for an important event. So those who were going back to their locations had to come back again to this place and those who were still in Mecca to actually join those who are in Ghadirahum and wait for the Prophet's arrival to announce an important announcement. And of course, when the Holy Prophet, peace be upon him, reached in Ghadirahum he ordered that Muslims would collect the saddles of the camels and to form something like a pulpit, a member, so they can go up over that member and appoint Ali, peace be upon him, before the eyes of thousands and thousands of Muslims and Sahaba. So everyone would have a look and view this event. So nobody would say, I didn't see the Prophet raising the hand of Ali, who was just giving a sermon, I didn't see anybody with him. So everything was there to be seen and recorded for the cause of history, for the cause of humanity after thousands of years to know that this bay'ah and this allegiance took place and all the Sahaba, even the women, witnessed and saw that the Holy Prophet raised the hand of Ali, peace be upon him and appointed him as his vice-journalist Khalifa after him. So in terms of the actual landscape of Ghadirahum, there's an oasis, there's a pond, there's palm trees up, but there's also two raised wells. Now these two wells were dug up by Abd Shams, son of Abd Munaf. He dug these two up. So I'm not sure, I've never been so I can't tell you if that created a value of any sort or this or that, but there was water there available. So it makes sense why people would come to this place. It makes sense why there's water there. If there's a pond there, there must be some sort of stream or some sort of spring or something and the fact that there are two raised wells creates a small little value as well. And it adds to that, you know, why people would come to that destination to bid their farewells and meet in Greek people. The reason for stopping at Ghadirahum is because of the crossroads of pathways going towards the south of Arabia, towards the east, towards the west. And it's not just the fact that people from the caravan of Hajj are going to separate and go there in respective ways, but also it is the fact that there's going to be people passing by that particular area, that particular crossroads. And they're also going to notice that there's something going on. If you stop at a crossroads and there's something happening, there's a particular event going on, there's a demonstration, there's a group of people gathered. From all sides, people will see, they will stop to see what's going on, what's happening. So this is also a part of the way of bringing Ghadir to all the people. The reason I've stopped here is so that a maximum number of people can witness, can see, can hear, and then later on go and ask questions like what was going on there, what happened there, what did the Holy Prophet say there, so on and so forth. So for this reason, the Holy Prophet, the Holy Prophet of Islam chooses this place. It's a desert, it's an oasis, there's only a pond. It's very hot, it is the middle of the day when the Holy Prophet of Islam stops at Ghadir. Yet, he does all of this in order to make sure it becomes memorable. If you stop in the middle of the day in Arabia when it's the hottest part of the day when there's no oasis, not much water around, no trees around, so on and so forth, it is going to be something that's going to be memorable. You'll not easily forget what happened on that day when we had to stop and listen to the Holy Prophet of Islam standing in the sweltering heat and there was nowhere to even take shelter or go under shade or tree. So all of these things make the event of Ghadir and also of Ghadir particularly memorable. In terms of religious significance, the religious significance came at the time of the Rasul of Islam when he was actually speaking or was ordered by the angel, Jibrail, to deliver this sermon. So this is why it has religious significance. Also, certain eyes of the Quran were revealed there as well. And in today's day and age, there is a mosque constructed where a lot of people will actually go to Masjid al Ghadir to actually put on their haram before they go on any form of pilgrimage whether it be Umrah or Hajj. When the Holy Prophet completed his Hajj on the last days of his completion of his Hajj rituals and specifically on the day of Arafah and on the mountain of Arafat, the angel, Jibrail, descended and brought the great message from Allah, the exalted, to appoint Ali, alaihi salam as his vice-jarrant. And thus this Holy Verse was revealed. Deliver what has been revealed to you from your load. And if you do not, then you have not delivered his message. And surely Allah will not guide the unbelieving people. This Holy Verse was revealed and ordered the Prophet of Islam, peace be upon him and his pure family to appoint the Khalifa after him, the one who will succeed him in leadership of Muslims because as Allah appoints prophets he also appoints the vice-jarrants, the Khalifa, the wazir as with Haroon and Musa, peace be upon them both. So the Holy Prophet was ordered to appoint Ali, alaihi salam on his way back to Medina from Mecca. So the reasoning behind the event of Ghadir and its importance and the reason why the Holy Prophet of Islam ensures that this is something that needs to happen is of course that the first thing that Holy Prophet of Islam in line with all the previous prophets who made this announcement of who their successor was going to be each of the previous prophets before they passed away, they made this announcement, it made it very clear this is going to be the person who is coming after me. Holy Prophet of Islam is no exception a particular rule from Allah SWT that we have to appoint a successor you have to make people know that this person is the one who is going to come after me. Holy Prophet of Islam does this on a number of occasions throughout his life finally at the day of Ghadir he makes this very apparent and clear. The consensus of the Muslim mufasereen on the fact that this verse was revealed with regard to appointing Ali alaihi salam in various shia and non-shia tafsir that this ayah revealed was with regard to appointing Ali alaihi salam for the Khilafah or messenger deliver has been revealed to you from your load and it was exclusively revealed for appointing Ali alaihi salam as a Khalifa and leader of course وَإِلَّمْ تَفْعَلْ If you do not deliver this message Allah's message the leadership of Ali alaihi salam to the people fearing of let's say people, the hypocrites, others the muafiqeen فَمَا بَلَّقْتَرْسَالَتَهُ It is as if you have not delivered the whole message of Islam I don't want to say this was a threat from Allah but Allah is stating this fact that it is a real it is a very important message from Allah that the Khilafah itself was very important and it is required to be appointed by the Holy Prophet and delivered to the people that they must follow and confess to the fact that he is the Khalifa of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam One important point to highlight is every single word in the Quran has its usage and has its particular application and purpose the Quran says this is chapter 5 verse 67 O messenger inform and declare to people what Allah has commanded you to declare and if you don't do so then you have not fulfilled or have not declared the message or the entire revelation there is the description which is found in the Quran which is Arabic and if we reflect on the Quran what does it say it says reveal to people or tell people what has been revealed to you from your Lord in Arabic normally normally that means Arabic is additional because what has been revealed to you it's a foregone conclusion it has to be from Allah because the Prophet wasn't being revealed to by anyone else it's all from Allah but why is it saying from your Lord it's certainly a tool of affirmation and confirmation and emphasis to say this is not from the Prophet himself this is not the Prophet choosing his cousin or his son to make him as the vice-gerent this is from Allah this is divine selection it is not some choice at least that the Prophet of Islam had and the evidence is found in the life of the Holy Prophet importantly because we are told in some occasions some tribes came to the Holy Prophet and said look if you guarantee that one of our tribes would become your successor we would support you some of them were huge that wasn't a number and that's all they wanted they wanted after the Prophet to be given that particular honour to be the tribe that had the success of the Prophet they would say it's not me who chooses it's Allah who chooses and it makes perfect sense because the religion of Islam it's the perfect religion it's the last religion and it is their religion and it's there for the salvation of mankind and therefore it must be something that Allah himself wants to protect and ensure reaches mankind and stays protected until the day of judgment so the actual sermon of Ghadir you can split up into 10 parts at the beginning Rasulullah s.a.w he praises Allah s.w as if he's trying to remind the people of who Allah s.w is and his authority over the whole of the universe and our obligation of obedience to Allah s.w then the second part is he tells them why he's doing this sermon he hasn't come to the point of why he has declared Imam Ali as the successor and as the guardian of the ummah but he's telling them why he's going to do it so he's saying that I have been informed by Allah s.w that I need to convey this message to you if I do not it is as if I have not even delivered anything to the ummah as if to say that all my efforts have been wasted and that your religion your religion is incomplete without this final you could say information or this final obligation or this final understanding that after me there is someone else in charge who takes lead of the ummah and who is there to take care monitor to sustain and to maintain the perfect Islamic conduct amongst the whole of the ummah so if we look at the sermon of Ghadir itself it's a very long sermon probably three three and a half hours long in which the Holy Prophet s.w. summarises all of his preaching everything that he preaches in the sermon of throughout his 23 years of preaching is summarised within the sermon so he says you know I was sent by Allah SWT to preach this message and then I came and I preached the message this is what I did this is the difficulties that I went through these are the realities that happened and now I've come to the stage and time where I'm going to leave this world at which point he there's somebody from the crowd who stands up and asks that Ya Rasulullah if you're going to leave if you're going to go then who do we turn to after you what do we do after you and the Holy Prophet s.w. takes two of his index fingers both of them and he joins them together and he says that after me I'm leaving behind these two things and he joined his fingers together like this he says I'm leaving behind two weighty things the Book of Allah and my Ahlebat if you stick with them if you adhere to them then you will never go astray after me the narration itself explains the reason why I've brought these fingers together because they're both the same size. So I want you to recognize that the Quran is as important as Ahlul Bayt. Ahlul Bayt are as important as Quran. These are the two things that I'm leaving behind for you, that if you adhere to them, if you stick to them, if you follow them, then you will never be misguided after me. This is one. Then throughout the sermon, the Holy Prophet of Islam reminds the people about the greatness of Allah SWT, about his own message and mission and preaching, and then he reminds them about the superiority of Imam Amirul Mu'minin, Ali Ibn Al-Italiba, over everybody else. He tells them about the verses of Holy Quran which are revealed about him. So he tells them that Surah 5 verse 55, for example, is revealed about him. Surah 42 verse 23 was revealed about him. Surah 33 verse 33 was revealed about him. So on and so forth, and he tells them about the verses of Quran, about the Ahadith that he himself had said about Imam Amirul Mu'minin, through out his life. And then he concludes and summarizes the sermon by announcing Imam Amirul Mu'minin as the Maula and the authority and the guide over the believers. This is important, of course, as we've mentioned previously, this is important because it's the responsibility of the Prophet to announce his successor. This succession in the past, prophethood itself, was not left in the hands of the people. Allah SWT would decide and appoint and make sure that this person was worthy for the task. And therefore, the Holy Prophet of Islam has also the responsibility to announce the succession and make sure that that person is worthy and up to the task of succeeding the Holy Prophet of Islam himself. And then the third part is the actual commencement and declaration specifically saying that Ali Ibn Abi Talib, alaihi salam, is the next successor. And Rasulullah Sossum does it in a way, he doesn't just say, you know, I'm going to Maulah, I'm going to Maulah. Okay, that's so we can all go home now. It's not like that at all. What he does is that he says, specifically, if you read the sermon, he says that this is the will of Allah SWT. Allah SWT has decreed Ali Ibn Abi Talib to be your leader. And it is an obligation to follow him, whether you are a helper, like the Ansar or whether you are an immigrant, like the Muhajir, or whether you are an Arab or a non-Arab, whether you are old or young, male or female, whatever tribe, whatever caste, whatever color, it is an obligation to follow Ali Ibn Abi Talib as the successor of Rasulullah Sossum. So of course, Musnad Ahmed said that the Prophet of Islam, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, repeated this four times, Maulah, Fahadah, Ali, Maulah, then he says, Allahumma wali man wala wa Allah, support to him, so he ever supports Ali, wa adi man adabi against anyone who objects to and rejects Ali. One surman Nasrah, grant victory to Ali, wa khzul man khadal and disgrace and humiliate anyone who does not associate himself with that particular important declaration. Now the Khilafa and the Imamah. Imamah is the divine leadership from Allah SWT. It is a divine leadership and the Khilafa is, the Khilafa is when you actually appoint somebody after you. Maybe my son would be my Khalifa when I leave my home or my office or my work to be my Khalifa, to be my vice-jarrant in my position when I leave. So the Khilafa means is to leave somebody in your place, when you're away from your position. So the Imamah is the leader, is a divine leadership. Yes we have the Imam of Jama'ah but the actual Imamah, the meaning of the Imamah and in the Holy Quran, Allah says to Ibrahim, I appoint you, I assign you as an Imam over the people. So the Imamah here is a divine appointment, an assignment. So the Imamah is a vast supreme leadership over the people, over everything, not only people, over the whole universe and Khilafa is the vice-jarrancy of the Holy Prophet SWT. The Khilafa in Najaa Annak Khalifatan as the Quran states that we made you Khalifa as well. So the Khilafa is to appoint somebody as well. So all these appointments required to be done divinely by Allah SWT. And then after the declaration of Ali Ibn Abu Talib, alaihi salam, the Prophet then goes on to talk about how the declaration of the successor and the appointment of Ali Ibn Abu Talib as the next leader is the completion of the Islamic religion that he's in al-Swasa wa-as-salam testifies that O Allah, be witness that I have given your message and I testify that the ayah in regards to today I have perfected your religion and completed my faith upon man is related to Ali Ibn Abu Talib and is related to his appointment as the successor and that without this willaya, no form or any other form of Islam that does not include the willaya of Amir al-Mu'minin is not accepted and that on the day of judgment that none of these people, good deeds, none of their good wishes or intentions will be accepted unless it is with the willaya of Amir al-Mu'minin. And this is Rasulullah SWT saying this. It's not something that we heard and we derived from narrations or from texts that okay it says this line that today I've perfected your religion, okay that must mean willaya is perfect and if you don't have it then you don't have a perfect reason. No no no, Rasulullah SWT is talking directly to the people saying that if you do not have the willaya of Amir al-Mu'minin in your Islam, your Islam is not complete, if you do not have the willaya of Amir al-Mu'minin then your a'ama will be accepted. Rasulullah SWT. One of the Quranic verses that has been disputed and very much the subject of much discussion related to the day of Ghadir, the 18th of Dal-Hajjah in accordance with the opinion of many scholars within the religion of Islam is indeed verse number three of Surat al-Ma'idah chapter number five. That is because the verse first of all talks about the prohibition of certain products meats, swine, etc. that cannot be consumed. Then says 3 things are categorically established to have happened in a period of time on a particular day. First of all there is the completion of the favors of the Almighty Subhanahu wa ta'ala perfection of the religion as well as God the Almighty saying I am now pleased for you to have this religion, you know to have this complete religion for you. The question that of course we have to ask when we study the Holy Quran it invites us to reflect, to ponder, not just to simply take what has been perhaps passed on to us, perhaps we have just picked it up and we consider it to be the understanding of what that verse means. We must ask this question. This is so important this day that the Quran is saying with this day the religion is complete, the favors of Allah is perfected. Now what is exactly that day? There are three possibilities if we study the Quranic commentary books from all Muslims Sunni and Shi'a we come across only three likelihoods. Most of them have come to one of those three. The first is some have said well that's the day when Almighty Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala made certain meats prohibited but that doesn't make much sense and the reason behind it is we cannot accept a day in which the certain prohibitions have been passed along to be the perfection of religion and the completion of God's favors. It is one of many other prohibitions or many other parts of Sharia Allah that have been stipulated in the Holy Quran. There is no way of actually coming to that conclusion. The other problem of course with this type of thinking is that there are other laws that have been passed on throughout the the life of the holy prophet. None of them perhaps some of them even more significant than the prohibition of certain meats. Why does the Almighty say well with this the completion of the religion has occurred. So the intellect together with the wealth of narrations historical records that we have would reject this type of idea or this insinuation that the religion has been perfected due to prohibition of certain meats. The second opinion by some commentators like this Fakhru Dinarazi and others very well known commentator of the Quran. He says well this is in relation to the delivering of the message. So the prophet is being told you have to deliver the message of Islam. So when the prophet when the read the Quran it says Ya ayyuha rasool, ballagh ma'unzila ilaykama rabbik or messenger inform people what God the Almighty has commanded you to deliver. And if you don't do so it is as if you have not complete you have not delivered the message. So he said well when we put this together we see that this is Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala saying to the prophet you have to deliver the message of Islam because if you don't then you have not achieved anything. This unfortunately is flawed why because you can't say the Quran is saying oh prophet deliver the message of Islam because if you haven't delivered the message of Islam you haven't delivered Islam. It is very straightforward. There must be something from within the teachings of the religion that must be delivered hence without it the whole teachings of the religion will not have been fulfilled or not have been passed on or disseminated. It can't be the whole of the religion because it doesn't make sense it would cancel each other out by saying make sure you teach people Islam because if you haven't you haven't taught people Islam it's a very basic straightforward argument and therefore the only strong credible established understanding of this verse that we have in the Quran based on the intellect based on in addition very importantly the narrations that we have is the fact that it was related to this glorious very important significant event in Islamic history and that is to affirm and to declare that the vice-gerent and the successor of the Holy Prophet is none other than the commander of the faithful Amir al-Mu'mineen Ali Ibn Abi Talib peace and blessings be upon him. After the appointment of Ali al-Salam on the day of Ghadir this verse was revealed this day I have perfected your religion for you and complete my favor unto you and have chosen for you as religion al-Islam. Now in the Tafsir al-Gummi a narration by Imam al-Baq, peace be upon him, he says that the last obligatory duty that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala sent was al-Wulayah. Al-Wulayah is the leadership that's why we have the verse which says the priority in authority so the Wulayah and the Wali is the one who has the priority in authority in leadership. Sadly some of the non-Shia scholars described as a friend or cousin. Wali in this verse and these verses means the leadership it means the authority so the Imam salamullah says the last obligatory duty that Allah sent down was al-Wulayah then he sent down this verse the verse this day I have perfected for you your religion and then the Imam says salamullah once the messenger of Allah established it in Juhfu area just three miles from Makkah so Ahl-bayt salamullah alayhim they also confirmed that this verse was the last Faridah was the last compulsory act which Allah had descended upon his prophet to deliver to the people and then afterwards the religion was complete al-Yawma akimatu the religion was completed was perfected with the Wulayah and the leadership of al-Ali alayhi salam it is impossible to have somebody leaving his position as a leader or as a manager or as a company owner and leaves this his office without appointing a deputy