The 18th day of the holy month of Zilhijja is the anniversary of the event of Ghadeer-e-Khum, which happened in the 10th year of Hijra. Various members of this forum have written about it in the last few days. I would like to highlight some of the events that followed the event of Ghadeer-e-Khum and had lasting effect on our history. Let me; first of all; briefly recap the event of Ghadeer-e-Khum as recorded in both Shi'a and Sunni sources. In the tenth year of Hijra, the Prophet of Islam proceeded to perform his first Hajj after the Hijra that would also be the last Hajj of his life. That news had brought a record number of Muslims to that Hajj. On the way back from Makkah, the Prophet stopped at a place called Ghadeer-e-Khum. He addressed a reported 120,000 Muslims and said: " I am leaving in your midst two valuable things, the holy book, Qur'an and my Ahlul‑Bayt. They will not separate from each other until they meet me at the Pond. So, if you attach yourselves to these two, you shall never go wrong after me." (Prof. Modarressi has quoted in his book titled AN INTRODUCTION TO SHI'A LAW, the names of 24 Sunni scholars who have reported the hadeeth ath-Thaqalayn, including such great names as Ibn Sa'd, Ahmad b. Hanbal, Muslim, and Haakim. Among the Shi'a, the most prominent one is Syed Hamid Husayn Moosavi of Lucknow who has devoted one entire volume of his famous work Abaqaat-ul-Anwaar on this one hadeeth.) Then he asked the crowd (an estimated 120,000 Muslims) who was the supreme authority over them after Allah, to which the crowd replied in unison: "You of course, O! Apostle of Allah " Then he held 'Ali by the hand and raising him said: " To whomever am I the Mawla (supreme authority) so is this cAli the Mawla. " This report does not appear in the first and foremost biography of our Prophet by Ibn Is-haaq, neither is it reported by Ibn Scad and Tabari, nor by any of the Hadeeth collectors of the first three centuries of Hijra. The first report we find of this event is by: Ahmad B. Hanbal (d.241 A.H.) In his MASNAD, and then the next report in chronological order is by Ahmad b. Sho'ayb An‑Nisai (d. 303 A.H.) In his AL-KHASAAIS. Then we find this report in many other books, like: 1. Sawa'iq-I-Muhriqa by Ibn Hajar Makki (10th c. Hijra) 2. Rawdhat-al-Ahbaab by Jamal‑ud Din Ataullah (11th c. Hijra) The Indian scholar Mawlana Hamid Husayn Moosawi compiled a book in 34 volumes titled ABAQAAT‑UL‑ANWAAR which lists all the historians, scholars, commentators of Qur'an and jurists who have reported this tradition with the full chain of transmitters and their antecedents (RIJAAL). Other recent works are: Amini's Al‑Ghadeer in 11 volumes and Taarikh ash‑Shi'a by Husayn 'Ali Mahfuz. This last work has enunciated that the tradition of Ghadeer‑e‑Khum has been transmitted by at least 110 CompÂanions of the Prophet, 84 Taabicoon (those who were born after the Prophet but had met the Companions), 355 cUlema, 25 historians, 27 traditionists, 11 commentators of Qur'an, 18 theologians and 5 philologists (Jafri, Origins and Early Development of Shia Islam, p 20). The commentators of Qur'an who have mentioned this report, have associated it with the sending down of the verse: "balligh ma unzila ilayka.............." (Q.5: 67) According to these scholars the Prophet was asked by Allah through the revelation of this verse to announce what he did announce at Ghadeer‑e‑Khum. Some others (e.g., Hafiz Ibn Mardwayh and Ibn Wadhih Yaqoobi) have added that after this announcement at Ghadeer the last verse of the Qur'an (in chronological order): "al-yawma akmaltu lakum deenakum ........." (Q.5: 3) was revealed. There are yet more reports describing the events following the Prophet's announcement at Ghadeer; among them are: (i) Ibn Hanbal's report that cUmar came and congratulated cAli on his appointment as the WALI of all Muslims, and, (ii) Thacalbi's report that a man named Harith b. Ncoman Fahri approached the Prophet after the announcement and asked him whether he had appointed 'Ali out of his personal whim or on Allah's command, to which the Prophet reported to have replied that it was on Allah's command; and Harith then asked the Prophet to pray for cazaab for him (that was the degree of hatred against cAli among some). The Prophet fulfilled his desire and a stone dropped from the skies which hit him over the head and passed through him, his saddle and his horse, killing him instantly. The revelation of the verse: "sa'ala saa'i‑lun bicazaabin waqicin..." (Q.70: 1,2) has been associated with this event. In those days such important events were recorded by the poets in odes (QASEEDAH) which would be composed and recited on the spot and then would pass on from generation to generation due to their excellent poetic quality and rhythm. Indeed we do find at least two such odes: one composed by the poet Kumayt (d. 129 Hijra) which has been studied by a number of German orientaÂlists; and the other is that by the famous poet Hassaan b. Thabit, who is reported to have been present at Ghadeer (Jafri, pp 20, quoting al-Ghadeer of Amini and Acyan-ash-Shica of Amilee). Modern Sunni writers usually reject the event of Ghadeer-e-Khum as fabrication. Let us look at one of the modern books on Islamic history. In his book: ISLAMIC HISTORY, A NEW INTERPRETATION by Prof. M. A. Shaban of the University of Exeter in England. Describing the events immediately following the passing away of our prophet he writes: "At sixty‑three he (the Prophet) was an old man, by the standards of time, and he knew that the end was near. Nevertheless he made no pronouncement on the question of how the UMMAH should continue after him. The famous Shi'ite tradition that he designated his cousin 'Ali as his successor at Ghadir Khum should not be taken seriously. Such an event is inherently improbable considering the Arab's traditional reluctance to entrust young and untried men with great responsibility. Furthermore, at no point do our sources show the Madinan community behaving as if they had heard of this designation........."( Shaban, Vol. I, pp.16) There is though another school of Sunni historians who actually accept the authenticity of the event of Ghadeer-e-Khum but actually reject its significance. They claim that some Muslims had clashed with Imam Ali on some minor matter. The Prophet of Islam made that announcement to diffuse the friction that had arisen. Ibn Atheer belongs to that group of historians. There is yet another group of modern historians who have looked at the report of Ghadeer-e-Khum from a totally detached point of view. Here is an example: The New Encyclopaedia of Islam published by Brille, Leiden in Holland has an article titled GHADIR‑E‑KHUM by Prof. Veccia Vaglieri of the University of Milan, Italy, in it. Prof. Vaglieri states very clearly that this event must have occurred as recorded in history with the said implications. Why then, Veccia Vaglieri reasons, it is not reported by some of the great early historians and biographers like Tabari, Ibn Sacad and Ibn Hisham? She answers her own question by asserting that: "(they) 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 Muhammad, whose work is based on these sources, equally make no reference to what happened at Ghadir Khum. 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 concise form or in detail, not only by Y'aqubi, whose sympathy for the 'Alid cause is well known, but also in the collections of traditions which are considered as canonical, especially in the MUSNAD of Ibn Hanbal; and the HADITHs are so numerous and so well attested by the different ISNADS (authorities) that it does not seem possible to reject them. What interests us most is the report by Ahmad bin Hanbal that Umar bin Khattab, one of the senior Companions of the Prophet, came and congratulated Imam Ali on becoming the Mawla of all the Muslims.
