 As-salamu alaykiyya, As-salamu alaykiyya Just before the event of Ghadir, so the year prior to that, Imam Amirul Mu'min As-salam had been sent by the Holy Prophet As-salam on a deputation to Yemen. At that time, Imam Amirul Mu'min As-salam had dealt with certain people in that way, in Yemen, where some people had complaints about the way that he had dealt. When they complained to the Holy Prophet As-salam, the Holy Prophet said, you should deal with Imam Amirul Mu'min As-salam directly and whatever he's done. I agree and I support him in whatever he has done. So some people make this argument that because there was this disagreement or people were not happy with him during his deputation in Yemen, this is why the Holy Prophet As-salam made this announcement at Ghadir. This is easily dismissed as a point because of the ayat of Quran which is revealed regarding the event of Ghadir. For example, the ayat Surah 5 verse 67 which is revealed saying, Ya Rasulullah, you have to deliver that which has already been revealed to you. If you don't deliver it, it's as if you didn't deliver the message at all. That means that whatever is being announced at the day of Ghadir is not some little misunderstanding that has been clarified. It's something very significant, very important, very real in terms of having an effect on the whole ummah. Number one. Number two, after the Holy Prophet As-salam makes this announcement and he says that Ali is the Maula of all the believers after me, the first person to congratulate is the second Khalifa who says that congratulations to you, our son of Abu Talib. Today you've become the Maula of all the believing men and women. That means that it's not referring to friendship. This congratulations in itself is an indication that it's something to do with superiority and authority that's being congratulated. You will not congratulate, oh congratulations you became this person's friend. It doesn't make any sense. Number three, the person who came and he asked the Prophet whether he had appointed Imam Ali As-salam from Allah or from his own self was clear that this is to do with succession and to do with authority and not to do with friendship, otherwise he would not have asked this question. There was no reason for him to bring any objections. Number four, as I said, when people pledged their allegiance they were also very clear about what was going on. After that, when Imam Amirul-Mu'min As-salatu Salam comes into Medina and then the people, the Khidafat is usurped from him, he goes round to all the houses in Medina of the Mahajir-e-Ansa and he knocks on the doors and he asks them that have you forgotten what happened at Khadir and they all say that no we remember but we're too scared to speak out. If Khadir was nothing to do with succession, he would have said, Ya Ali, that was just a misunderstanding, that was just a little issue that had been created. Why are you referring to Khadir when it's to do with succession? So all of these points make it very clear that to say that it was just a little misunderstanding and that was being clarified and this is what the Holy Prophet was saying is a disingenuous way of sidestepping the actual reality and importance and significance and superiority of Khadir and of Imam Amirul-Mu'min As-salatu Salam as a whole. And it's indeed acceptable intellectually because one thing that we often invite people to reflect upon is that in our day-to-day lives when people have businesses, when they have organizations, when they come to the end of their life they start thinking about who will run it after them. They start thinking about who will ensure that they continue whatever they have set out, especially if they care about it, especially if they have a strong affinity towards it and they think it's going to even grow or it's beneficial. It's very unlikely that they will say, I'm not worried about what's going to happen. You decide after me and they'll just leave it as that. And that's very normal human behavior to make sure we appoint people to run the affairs when we're not there. In fact, we do it when we are away on a trip, for example, or when we retire, for example, from a particular duty or responsibility there's somebody who must step in and continue our work. Similarly, it can be therefore understood that Allah SWT is saying to the Prophet or Messenger, you must declare this to the people because without this declaration to ensure somebody looks after the religion after you and is the best person after you to do this, then it will all go completely haywire. It will not necessarily fulfill the objective that the religion will not continue to expand, will not continue to be received by the people and it will not guide mankind. Therefore, intellectually it's accepted. Similarly, it's accepted through the countless narrations that point to the incident of Ghadir as the cause of the revelation of these verses. In Surah 5, Ayat number 3, the Tafseer of Taqrib al-Quran al-Adhan by Ayatullah Shirazi, he mentions the Tafseer of this ayat. He says, this day, which means the day of Ghadir, I have perfected for you your religion, which means I have appointed Ali, peace be upon him, after the Holy Prophet as a vice-gerent, as a Khalifa. And completed my favor upon you. This favor was not only the favor of Islam. Islam is the first thing, correct, the Shahadah, but we also have the third Shahadah. I bear witness that Ali is the vice-gerent of Allah SWT. So the favor of Allah SWT, when I have completed my favor, is the nama of the willaya. The favor, the grace of the leader of Ali, peace be upon him, the iman of the Amir al-Mu'min, peace be upon him. This is the great grace and nama of Allah SWT. Islam is to make you a pure believer in Allah SWT, but you alternate iman. So the nama of Allah, the grace of Allah is the iman, is the faith in the willaya of Amir al-Mu'min, peace be upon him. That's very important. We shouldn't stop up to only the two Shahadah. Yes, the Shahadah will stop us from being non-believers. It will make us pure, as a Muslim. But we also have to proceed to the level of the iman by submitting to the willaya of Ali, peace be upon him, and his pure family as well. Then the ayah says, and approved for you Islam as religion, وَرَضِيتُ لَكُمُ الْإِسْلَامَ دِيْنَا So Allah is pleased when you reach the stage of the willaya believing in the iman of Ahl al-bayt, the iman of Ahl al-bayt. So Allah is pleased when the Muslim submits to the willaya and the vice-gerency and the khilafa and the iman and the leadership of Ali, peace be upon him. وَرَضِيتُ لَكُمُ الْإِسْلَامَ دِيْنَا He becomes pleased. In other words, if I stop up to the second Shahada and I ignore the iman of Ahl al-bayt, peace be upon them all. It means that Allah won't be satisfied, won't be pleased with this Islam, which is an incomplete Islam. The complete Islam, and that's what Allah says in the beginning of the ayah, اَلْيَوْمَ اَكْمَاتُ لَكُمْ دِيْنَا I completed your religion, perfected your religion with the willaya of Ali, with his appointment of the iman of the leadership of the Prophet, peace be upon him. Without it, Islam is incomplete, imperfect and God forbid that might lead that person to the Hellfire. So the whole Ghidhi sermon, if you look at it, is very, very hard to misinterpret or to misunderstand the context of the situation and what Rasulullah s. s. s. was trying to actually declare. For those people who think that Ghidhi wasn't about the establishment of a successor or the declaration of willaya, they say that it was about clarifying the status of Ali ibn Abi Talib amongst the Sahaba and to make sure that people understood his status and to make sure that people understood that he was a friend of Rasulullah and not an enemy of Islam. I think the Ghidhi sermon is very clear. The fact that Rasulullah s. s. s. starts off with praising Allah s. w. t. talking about the authority of Allah s. w. t. And then talking about how Allah s. w. t. ordered him to give this sermon and to announce his successor. The fact that he talks about how Ali ibn Abi Talib is the successor and this is the decree of Allah s. w. t. The fact that he talks about giving allegiance to Ali ibn Abi Talib s. w. t. is like giving allegiance to Allah s. w. t. directly. The fact that Rasulullah s. w. t. mentions the hypocrites in the Quran, he mentions the enemies of the Ahlulbayt. And then finally Rasulullah s. w. t. to dictate and narrate to the people to repeat after me what I'm saying and pledging allegiance to Ali ibn Abi Talib as a whole community, as a whole ummah. There is no room for misinterpretation or misunderstanding the context. The context is clear that this was to do with the succession after Rasulullah s. w. t. The whole Qadir sermon was to declare the successorship, to declare the new leader of the ummah. And also if you were not to accept and you weren't to acknowledge and you were to go and do your own thing what the consequences were. If it was just a sermon of Qadir and three hours standing in the heat then yes it was possible for somebody to make this argument that maybe somebody because of the heat because of the fact they were standing for so long they misinterpreted or they didn't understand it properly or they didn't get what the Holy Prophet was trying to say what the meaning would have been if it was just that. However after the sermon for three days when there's a gathering of people and each one of them is coming and they are doing Salam, As-Salamu Alaikum Amir al-Mu'mineen, pledging allegiance to Imam Amir al-Mu'mineen in that very specific way and it's not just one or two or a couple of people who do this every single person who's there they all come including the women they all come and they pledge allegiance to Imam Amir al-Mu'mineen in that way. It shows that it's not something that is that they would not have understood or they didn't know or they didn't understand if they hadn't understood it until that point then there was no doubt after that that this is the reason why the Holy Prophet of Islam brought them there, stopped them there made them listen to the sermon and then took each one of them to pledge allegiance to Imam Amir al-Mu'mineen in that specific way and of course nobody afterwards after pledging allegiance asks this question or says that Ya Rasulullah what did you mean was it this we didn't understand it wasn't clear for us can you explain it further there's no account of that ever happening There is a lot of discussion today to say that this whole event was an announcement of the friendship of the Prophet with Commander of the Faithful and this is because the word Maula and Walee in Arabic has so many different meanings 19 some say and one of them is friendship one of them is to be a servant or master and so on and so forth but of course the way we know what it actually means is by looking at the context and the Prophet peace and blessings be upon him actually starts off by saying I have complete authority over all of you this is found in Musnad Ahmad ibn Hanbal he doesn't start off immediately by saying he actually says to people I am a person with that authority over you as the Quran says so he sets the scene he allows people to understand what this will I actually refers to so if we look at the conclusion of the event of Qadir so the Holy Prophet Islam makes this announcement and he everybody is now ordered after the announcement to come and offer allegiance to Imam Amirul Muhammad this takes three days obviously 100,000 people coming one by one to offer allegiance including the women who were ordered for the first time they had to offer allegiance so they needed to know how would they do it so a bowl of water was placed and Imam Amirul Muhammad would place his hand in the water and then the women would come and they would place their hand in the water and that would symbolize the fact that they had made bay'ah on the hand of Imam Amirul Muhammad after the sermon of the Prophet and announcing the leadership to Ali there were three ways of the Holy Prophet took bay'ah from the people to offer allegiance number one he took it verbally he said they said yes he confirmed that so he took the bay'ah verbally first and then he said a tent for three days Muslims came and gave bay'ah to Ali and the Holy Prophet the women were provided with a water bucket and they used to put their hands inside the water bucket and then the Imam comes later on and he puts his hands inside the water as well as a means of bay'ah with the women because it is not allowed for the strange women to shake hand with the strange men only relatives and daughters and so forth so the bay'ah with the women was in this way once this was happening there's a person who comes to the Holy Prophet of Islam Harith ibn-Nu'ma and he says to the Holy Prophet of Islam that you told us to pray and you told us to fast and you told us to do all these things and we did all of them now you forced your brother Ali a.s. on to us so is this from Allah or is it from your own self the Holy Prophet of Islam replies every single commandment that I gave you including this one is all from Allah so he leaves and as he's leaving he says that if you're speaking the truth then may Allah send down punishment on me and if you are lying then may Allah send down punishment on you as soon as he left area of Radir and he got onto his horse there was a small stone pebble that came down from the heavens and the verses of Quran were revealed the opening verses of Surat Al-Ma'arij says someone asked someone asked someone asked someone asked for the punishment of God and he received the punishment of God and we are told the rocks that fell from the heavens and immediately this individual was killed when he challenged the Almighty and when he clearly disbelieved and rejected the truthfulness of the Prophet in which the Prophet of Islam does not speak anything from himself it's all purity, it's all nobility it's all Haqq is Ma'asum when he challenged it before people Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala showed that this man this ignorant individual was wrong he was false and the Prophet of Islam what he said was absolute truth and it is something that must be followed you became my master and the master of the mu'mineen so he gave you the bay'a he shook the hand but sadly you see the history over turns and as the Quran says that you turned on your hills you turned on your hills and they failed to actually implement the instructions of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala the order of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala with regard to the Khilafah of Imam Amir al-Mu'min alaihi salam now we have Allah Ma'amini says 60 scholars, 60 from the Ahl al-Sunnah they actually narrate what happened next and this you know includes the companions such as Ibn Abbas Abu Huraira, Zaid Ibn Arqam they all narrate that one of the first things that happened there is that the second Khalifa came and said to the commander of the faithful he said to him congratulations congratulations to you Ali you have become my Mawla and the Mawla of every believing man and woman now this is certainly not meaning that he said you have become my friend and the friend of every believing man and woman the text is that the prophet has identified what the word Mawla in reality means in his book Al-Ghadeer which are now over nine volumes of the Ghadeer book he had collected all the sources of the non-Shia i.e. the Ahl al-Sunnah books who narrate the event of Ghadeer they narrate also this specific text of Al-Mawla so there is some kind of consensus very frequent and well known by the non-Shia scholars that the event of Ghadeer took place there were more than 110 Sahabi and companions who recorded this event and almost 83 of the Tabe'een and 360 Sunni scholars for the past centuries who recorded the event of Al-Ghadeer and it could be one of the most authenticated Hadith within the Muslim world Hadith Al-Ghadeer is one of the well known Hadith one of the famous Hadith within the Hadith and a famous event that took place in the history of Islam an objective analysis of the collection of narrations and Hadith that we have in the Muslim world today would bring anybody who sits there with an open mind to the conclusion that the narration is present that point to the incident and the event of Ghadeer have reached the level of complete authenticity known as Tawatur and when we look at scholars who have conducted the research in order to come to this conclusion we have the example for instance of Al-Lama Amini now Al-Lama Amini may Allah bless his soul he traveled to Egypt to many parts of the Muslim world to collect these narrations and he has 11 volumes known as Al-Ghadeer the collection of the books that grouped together the narrations and he has come to the conclusion that the incident and the narration of Ghadeer is narrated by over 110 companions of the Holy Prophet 84 of the Tabe'een those who came after the companions and he has put down detailed evidence with names and references of 360 scholars from the school of Khilafa from the Ahl al-Sunnah detailing how they have narrated that this incident actually happened and what actually occurred on the day itself names of companions who have narrated this particular event include Abu Sa'eed al-Khudri Jabir ibn Abdullah al-Ansari ibn Mas'ood ibn Abba Zaid ibn Aqq you have scholars such as and others now when we look at for example books such as Shawaahad al-Tanzeel by Hasekani, Sunan ibn Maja they have given extensive details of what actually happened on the 18th of the Hajj and how the Prophet of Islam peace and blessings be upon him and the Holy Progeny made this declaration