The divine guidance to humanity, be that through an apostle or through a deputy of His, is a continuous process decreed by the grace of the all merciful Lord. Every apostle of God, at the very start of his apostolic mission, announces his immediate successor so that the followers after him might not be beguiled by an imposter.

Al- Imamah, or the Divine guidance, is the institution inaugurated by god himself for the guidance of man. He conferred this upon his own chosen one among his apostles like Abraham, although Abraham later proved himself worthy of it, by passing through a test.

The following verse of the holy Qur’an declares the actual position of Imamah, and the Imam :

“And remember when the lord tried Abraham, with certain words, then he fulfilled them, He said, “verily, I make thee an Imam for mankind; (Abraham) said, “ And of my” off spring? He said, “ My covenant reaches not the unjust.” (2: 124)

The Imamah was conferred upon Abraham and continued in his seed to those who were pure, physically and spiritually, and it reached the holy prophet Mohammed (peace be on him and his holy family.) with the conclusion of the Apostle ship with the holy prophet of Islam, the Imamah continued in the holy’ Ahlul-Bait, whom God has declared he has purified Himself: –

“Verily, verily God intends but only to keep from you (every kind of) uncleanness O, ye the people of the House, and purify you (with) a thorough purification.”

Mohammed’s Successors

Most early in his preaching of Islam, when he invited his kith and kin to a feast, the holy prophet declared for the first time. “Ali is my deputy, my Vicegerent and my Successor. Hear him and obey him”(9)

Under the command from God, the holy prophet, appointed Ali as the lord, Guardian, Master, Imam and the Amir of the faithful people.

“O our apostle (Mohammed)! Deliver thou what has been revealed unto thee from thy lord, and if thou does it not, then (it will be as if) thou has not delivered his massage (at all) and surely god will protect “thee from (the mischief of men) verily, god guides not an infidel people.”

(Holy Qur’an 5;67)

History reports all the details how the holy prophet returning from last pilgrimage stopped the caravan; delivered a long sermon on an improvised pulpit and before the mammoth assembly of the thousand of the believers, called Ali on the pulpit, and raising Ali’s hand declared:

“O people ! of whosoever I am the master Ali is his master God ! Be Thou a master the one who takes Ali as his master be Thou and enemy to the one who is the enemy of Ali. Help Thou the one who helps Ali. And discard Thou the one who discredits Ali.,, (10)

Immediately as he came down from the pulpit, the holy prophet ordered every one to pay homage to Ali and to address him thereafter as Commander of the Faithful (Amirul-Momenin).

Besides the above historic ceremonial event, there are other innumerable instances when the holy prophet gave the practical demonstration of Ali’s position as the only one next to him, and made innumerable verbal announcements about the unique position of Ali (a.s.) in relation to him. A few of those instances are:-

Ali was left in the bed of the holy prophet on the eve of his migration to medina.(11)

Ali was entrusted with the deposits of the people of Mecca, who were with the holy prophet, and were to be restored to the respective owners, on the next day after the migration. (12)

Ali was declared as the Brother of the Holy prophet, when at Madina each believer, according to his personal merits, was made the brother to another like him.(13)

Ali was given the hand of the holy lady Fatima the only surviving child and the most loved one of the holy prophet.(14)

Ali was sent by the holy prophet himself to take away the verse of the Doorah al-Baraat the 9th chapter of the Qur’an, from Abu-Bakr, who had already been sent to read it out to the infidels in Mecca.(15)

Ali was left in charges of the affairs at Madina in the place of the holy prophet while the latter was on the expedition to ‘Tabook’ (about 200 miles from Madina ). The holy prophet’s declaration are:

“Ali and I are of one and the same Divine light.,, (16)

“O, Ali ! Thous art to me as Haroon was to Moses, save that there is no apostle after me.” (17)

“I am the city of knowledge and Ali is it’s Gate”. (18)

“O Ali ! Thou art my brother in this world and in the next”. (19)

“He who has loved Ali, has loved me and he who has hated Ali, has hated me, and hated the lord”. (28)

“The most judicious among you is Ali”. (29)

“The Truth will always be with Ali, and Ali will always be with the Truth”. (30)

Besides the above instances, there are many other events and declaration demonstrating clearly the unique position of Ali in relation to the holy Prophet, which has a special significance from Islam and Muslim. It is now for the impartial, wise and learned scholars to judge if after the historic declarations of the holy prophet at the very outset of his apostolic mission, and at the end of his apostleship; it could ever be justly be said that the holy prophet did not nominate any one as his successor and left the matter to the people’s choice. Could such an unjust accusation, unwarranted by the evidence of the historic events and the universally acknowledged declaration, purpose to blame the Holy prophet for all the bloodshed and chaos created in the name of succession?.

It is a disgraceful matter the most of the western writers, either willfully bully Islam or ignorant of Islamic History, betray their prejudice of the ignorance of the truth by criticising the holy prophet as the one responsible for leaving his people in chaos and confusion about his succession which resulted in political upheaval and bloodshed. Reports based on mere folklore can never be history. Scholarship is not qualified scholarship if it passes any judgements without studying all of the facts and scrutiny of collected data. History clearly asserts that the holy prophet informed the people about his succession in every necessary and desirable way possible from the very beginning of his mission to its conclusion.

Appointment of Abu-Bakr

But unfortunately, the people who waited only for the prophet’s departure from this world in order to control the vast Muslim-Empire, began quarrelling among themselves as to who should hold the Authority-Supreme, before the Holy prophet drew his last breath.

The muhajers (the immigrant Meccans) and Ansar’s (the supporter of Madinites) deserted the holy prophet on his deathbed and assembled at a place called Saqeefah-Bani-Sa’edah. The contest between the Muhajers and Ansa’rs started, and at a stage a reconciliatory proposal was made that there should be an ‘Amir’ or the ruler from each of the groups, hut ultimately Omar ibne-Khattab voted this and enforced his own personal decision by holding the hand of Abu-Bakr declaring him as the Amir or the caliph, paying his allegiance to him.

Dispute

Here and intelligent scholar of Islamic history, particularly a true Muslim. Will naturally ask what happened to the ‘Amir’ appointed by the holy prophet at the very outset of his apostolic mission?.

If this event was too distant for his companions to remember it, what about the recent appointment of Ali only ten weeks before the dispute when the holy prophet declared it officially in the historic assembly convened by him the command of the lord? For what quality did Abu-Bakr have that they (few immigrants) appointed him as a ruler?

If they wanted one with the highest knowledge to rule over them, there was none but Ali about whom the holy prophet said:

“ I am the city of knowledge and Ali is its Gate.” (31)

if they wanted the most judicious one to be their ruler, then Ali was he, for the people knew that the holy prophet had said:

“The most judicious among you is Ali”. (32)

if they wanted the bravest one to rule over them, then Ali was he, for the holy prophet had declared at the battle of Khaiber:

“Ali is the repeated attacker who knew no running away”.

“There is no youth (braver) than Ali”. (33)

“Ali is the lion of God”. (34)

if the nearest to the holy prophet was the one wanted who else was there sae Ali (cousin and son-in-law), about whom the prophet had said openly:

“ I and Ali are of the same Divine light” O, Ali ! Thy flesh is my flesh and thy blood is my blood and thou are my brother in this world and in the next, (35) coming back to Saqeefah even if we were to grant it was the voice of the Madinites, who chose Abu-Bakr, what about the opinion of the multitudes of Muslims in other parts of the Muslim world? Most of the people even though they are not all assembled in the Saqeefah, willingly or howlingly agreed to the appointment made by Omar. However, the Hashimites, who remained with the holy prophet’s family, and a group of the Ansa’rs, who supported their chief Sa’ad ibne Oba’dah did not accept it until the end of their chiefs Sa’ad ibne Oba’dha did not accept it until the end of their chief’s life. In this state, Abu Sufian went to Abbas (uncle of the prophet) and told him “These people have taken away the Caliphate from Bani Hashem’ you are uncle of the apostle of god and oldest among the Quraysh, you have been kind it them also. They will accept your lead. Let you and I swear allegiance to Ali. If any body opposes us we shall kill him”.

They both came to Ali and Abu-Sufian told him: “Ali ! if you like I shall overflow Madina with infantry and cavalry, accept our proposal, put out your hand, let us swear the oath of allegiance”. Hearing this Ali replied, “Abu-Sufian, I swear by God the Almighty that you want to create serious dissension amongst the Muslims by their proposal. You have always tried to harm Islam. I do not need your sympathies and your help.”

Ali loved Islam as intently as the holy prophet had love it. He could not, therefore, endanger Islam for the sake of a worldly kingdom. he knew fully well that a civil war at this stage would allow the various tribes to take advantage of the situation, the Jewish clans on one side, and the Christian tribes, supported by the Byzantine armies on the other, and the hypocrites and fresh coverts on the third. If they found the Muslims busy killing each other, they would literally cut them to pieces and Islam would totally disappear as a messenger of peace. He wanted the “Arabs to remain in the fold of Islam even though they desired to make their worldly position good. He wanted the enemies of Islam to realize that Islam was powerful enough to defend itself, even after the sad demise of the Apostle of God. Hazrat Ali (a.s) remained silent for some time, out of consideration for Islamic unity.

According to the famous Muslim philosopher, mathematician and physician, Avicenna (Bu-Ali-Sina), the Holy Qur’an and Ali were the two miracles of Muhammad, the Apostle of God. The life of Ali at every stage was a mirror like reflection of the life of the holy prophet. The days of the battles at Badr, Hunain, and Khaibar were not long passed and Ali still had the same courage, valour, bravery and strength with him. He could have used his above power to grab the caliphate, but had he done so, he would not have been Ali, son of Abu Talib, the men, “Who love God and His Apostle and was loved by God and His apostle.”

When Abu-sufian found that Ali was not paying attention to him, he tried to get in the good books of the government, and his eldest son Yazeed was appointed as the governor of Syria and on his death his brother, Mu’aviah was appointed to the same post.

Appointment of Omar.

When on 13 AH (636 A.D.), Abu-Bakr fell ill with no hope of recover, he nominated Omar in his place.

Dispute

Any enlightened person would ask, what happened to the principal of election resorted to in choosing the first caliph? On what Qur’anic authority or prophet’s Tradition or political principle was the appointment of the successor to the first caliph based?!. Omar’ before his death adopted a new system and appointed a committee of six persons to decide among themselves as to who should be the caliph after him. (The veto was not given to Ali but to Abdur Rahman ibne Awf, (Omar’s sister’s husband) ). He appointed the six as follow:

Ali, Zubair, Abdur Rahman ibne Awf, Osman and Saa’d ibne Abi Waqqas. The terms of reference of this council were:

if they unanimously select a person, he will be designated as the caliph.

If there is no unanimity, then person will be he for whom Abdur Rahman and his party vote.

If any five of them agree on one man and the sixth disagrees, then the dissenter should be immediately killed.

If any four of them agree on one man and two disagree, then those two should be kill.

If there is equal division, then the casting vote would be that of Abdullah ibne Omar (his son)

Abdul Rahman ibne Awf was cousin of Osman and the husband of the aunt of Saa’d, Zubair, was son in law of Abu Bakr.

Appointment of Osman

The council opinions were equally divided in favour of Ali and Osman, Abdur Rahman laid down an unwarranted condition of his own that the successor of Omar should abide by the holy Qur’an, and the traditions and methods laid own by the previous caliphs. The offer was made to Ali, and anybody who aspired for the supreme authority of the state would have readily accepted the condition, whether to act according to the terms or not. But Ali, who detested the worldly glory, could never accept it when it included the acceptance of new authority, set up parallel to the word of God and the Tradition of the Holy prophet. Ali said he would rule the state by the traditions of the former caliphs were opposed to those two authorities, they would naturally be unworthy to follow. Abdur Rahman insisted upon his own innovated condition. And Ali rejected the offer, which was diametrically opposed to the spirit of Islam

Osman accepted the condition and Abdur Rahman appointed Osman as the Caliph. Abdur Rahman knew that Ali would never accept anything, which oppose Islam.

During the later days of Osman’s caliphate, the people of the entire Islamic world. viz, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Hejaz and Yemen, rose against him, and deputed their representatives to Madinah to require into some allegation against the governing authorities.

Osman however did not allow the deputies to redress their grievances against this mal administration, which resulted in the murder of Osman.

Appointment of Hazrat Ali (a.s)

After the death of Osman, by a unanimous election in which representatives from the whole Muslim world were present, Ali was elected as a Caliph, 34 AH and he issued a circular to all governors to swear allegiance to him.

They offered allegiance to Ali, except Mu’awiyah, the governor of Syria, because he had long been against Ali, and in his province, he had been carrying on anti Ali and anti Hashimites propaganda.