If Leadership Is Part of Islam, Was It Announced?

[ServantOfMahdi]

 

  اللهم صل على سيدنا و مولانا محمد و اله الطاهرين و عجل فرجهم والعن عدوهم

 

Question: Does every religion have successors to its Prophet (صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم)?

Answer: Yes. (Qur'an 13:7; Hadith: "Whoever dies without a pledge of allegiance dies the death of ignorance.")

Question: Was it obligatory upon the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم) to fully clarify the religion?

Answer: Yes. (Qur'an 5:67)

Question: Had the religion been fully clarified before the Prophet's passing?

Answer: Yes. (Qur'an 5:3)

Question: Does that mean the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم) publicly announced his successor(s)?

Answer: Yes.

Question: What about the narrations that are used to argue that the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم) did not publicly announce his successor(s)?

Answer: If those narrations are not rejected as false, then one would have to accept that the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم) did not fully clarify the religion despite being commanded to do so.

Question: If those narrations are false, then what authentic reports prove that the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم) publicly announced his successor(s)?

Answer: The most widely transmitted (mutawātir) hadith, narrated through the chains collected by Ibn Jarir al-Tabari from over 110 Companions, reports that during the largest gathering of his lifetime at a ground near the Khumm Pond (Ghadir Khumm)—following the conclusion of his Farewell Hajj attended by approximately 124,000 pilgrims—the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم) first obtained the people's testimony by asking:

"Do I not have greater authority over you than you have over yourselves?"

They replied:

"Indeed, you do."

He then proclaimed:

"Whoever has me as his Mawla*, then Ali is his Mawla. And he is this one."

Then, raising Ali's (عليه السلام) hands, he presented him to the people. Afterwards, people came forward one by one to congratulate Mawla Ali (عليه السلام). Among them, Umar ibn al-Khattab reportedly said:

"Congratulations, O son of Abu Talib! Today you have become the Mawla of every believing man and woman."

(Reported in Musnad Ahmad and graded authentic by al-Albani in Silsilat al-Ahadith al-Sahihah.)

At the same gathering, the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم) also declared:

"I am leaving among you two weighty things (al-Thaqalayn): the Book of Allah and my Itrah (bloodline), my Ahl al-Bayt. If you hold fast to them, you will never go astray after me. The two shall never separate until they return to me at the Pond."

(Sunni-Shia consensus on transmission and authenticity)

Taken together, these declarations indicate that the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم) not only completed the religion, but also publicly identified both the leader of the believers and the enduring sources of guidance for the Ummah after him.

 

(*Note: Mawla can indeed carry several meanings, including friend, ally, patron, or master depending on the context. However, in the statement preceding Ghadir Khumm, the Prophet first asked: 'Do I not have greater authority over you than you have over yourselves?' The concept being discussed was authority, not friendship. In that context, the most natural meaning of mawla is one vested with authority, not merely a friend.

Furthermore, the reported congratulations to Ali make little sense if the announcement was only about friendship, since Ali was already a beloved companion and friend of the believers long before Ghadir. The congratulations are meaningful only if the declaration conferred upon him a new status—namely, leadership and authority over the believers.)

 

For a comprehensive understanding of this topic:

 

 

 

Edited June 5 by ServantOfMahdi