THE LAST OF THE RASHIDUN

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Shiite Muslims believe that Ali b. Abi Talib should've been the first Caliph instead of Abu Bakr. We believe that, after the discontinuation of nubuwwah, this office was replaced by an ancillary position called imamah. God would appoint a person from the Prophet's household to act as an infallible successor to Muhammad. We call this divinely-chosen person an imam. This Imam doesn't receive wahi from the Lord, neither he has any authority to make changes in the shari'ah. But he does possess a great amount of inherited knowledge passed down by the Prophet to his descendants. He can listen to the angelic discourse but is unable to watch them. He also has limited access to the Knowledge of the Unseen which he receives whenever God permits him. He is ma'sum so he can't make any mistakes or fall in error. We believe that our Imams are the rightful khulafa of the Prophet and Muslims were obligated to make them their political leaders. But Muslims preferred the mafdul over the fadil, a non-ma'usim statesman over a ma'sum one. That's how the Shiite-Sunni rift came into being when, right after the demise of Muhammad (صلی اللہ علیہ و الہ و سلم), the family of the Prophet learned that Abu Bakr had been chosen as the next leader of the Muslim community.

We believe that Ali, despite not being chosen to lead the ummah, was still the immediate successor of Prophet Muhammad. He was the best of all ashab of Allah's Apostle. The Prophet, at numerous occasions, had announced the superiority of his Ahlulbayt over other Muslims. The term Ahlulbayt (the People of the Household) refers exclusively to - as per Shiite Muslim definition - Ali, his wife and Muhammad's daughter Fatimah, and their sons Hasan and Husayn. We believe that God commanded the Prophet to declare the importance of following Quran and Muhammad's Ahlulbayt. This is called the Hadith of Thaqalayn (Two Heavy Objects) in which Allah's Apostle told Muslims that he was leaving behind the Scripture of God and the members of his Household for Muslims to follow. Shiites maintain that these instructions revealed the supremacy of the above-mentioned four beings and the need to elect them as the leaders of the Arabian Empire. But Ali had to witness the ba'yah of three friends of the Prophet before he could finally become the ruler of Muslims. After Muslims had killed Uthman, they surrounded Ali and convinced a hesitant Abu Turab to become the slain Caliph's successor. We believe that Ali was the chosen Imam even before he became the Caliph. After the death of Ali, his son Hasan was sworn allegiance to by the pro-Alid Muslims. Hasan abdicated the throne in favor of a relentless Mu'awiyah who initially wanted to avenge the blood of Uthman but had eventually been sworn as the challenging Caliph in Damascus by his Syrian army, two years prior to the assassination of Ali.

We believe that, even after he let the Umayyad Governor assume the role of khilafah (which was then transformed into a hierarchical dynasty), Hasan was still an Imam. It's because imamah is a God-gifted office which nobody can seize from you. It's like the position of wilayah (God's friendship); it's not a title that can be usurped by a tyrant. Hasan was poisoned and Husayn - his brother - became the next Imam. Shiites are divided into many sects regarding the nature of imamah after Husayn's untimely martyrdom in the Battle of Karbala (680). Twelver Shiites - as our name suggests - believe in a total number of twelve (12) Imams, starting from Ali and concluding with the Final Hujjah. The twelfth one is named Muhammad b. Hasan. We maintain that he is the promised Mahdi whose emergence was predicted by the Prophet in many sahih narrations. Our last Imam disappeared from public sight (i.e. stopped coming out in public) in the late 9th century CE when his father (the 11th Imam) died in prison. We believe that he's still alive and will return with Jesus - the promised Messiah - to establish a global Caliphate on earth. 

Now, what does the event of Ghadir has to do with all this theological rant? A few months before he passed away, the Prophet performed his final pilgrimage to Mecca. It was the 10th year of Hijrah (Migration), the colorful month of March, when Muslims finally had the entire sanctuary of Baytullah for themselves. Then Muhammad made his return trip to Medina after he had successfully announced the conclusion of his mission on earth (i.e. the Farewell Sermon). On the 18th day of the last month of that lunar year, the Prophet asked the pilgrims to halt at the brink of a pond (Arabic: Ghadir) named Khumm and listen to his sermon. In that sermon, the Prophet was reported to have said: People! I am but a human being. Soon, a messenger from God (Gabriel) will come to me and I will accept (the invitation). I am leaving behind you two heavy objects. The first of them is God's Word in which there's guidance and light. So, hold the God's Word and adhere to it. And my Ahlulbayt. Remember God regarding my Ahulbayt. That's how a companion Zayd b. Arqam remembers the entire incident. He was asked by a person regarding the identity of the Ahlulbayt. Zayd replied that they were the Hashimite cousins and descendants of the Prophet, not his wives.

Muhammad repeated the last sentence thrice. Afterwards, he raised the hand of Ali b. Abi Talib and announced before the sight of his audience: Whose master I am, Ali is his master. This is the translation of the Arabic inscription in the image at the top. It reads: man kuntu maula'hu fa'haza Ali'un maula'hu. That's how we believe Ali's fadl was established and the ummah was directed to take him as their next leader. The Prophet died next lunar year (in the month of June) while he was stopped from penning down his last will to the people - an event known as the Thursday. Ali was busy in the burial ceremony of Muhammad when he heard that Abu Bakr had been chosen as the Caliph. Ali initially refused to accept the legitimacy of that election. He faced threats of arson and violence but he didn't want to easily relinquish his claims on the throne. Then his wife Fatimah died - who was displeased with Abu Bakr for allegedly refusing to give her a fair share from Muhammad's inheritance - and Ali felt he could no longer survive being a social outcast. So, he approached Abu Bakr and surrendered before his authority.

We believe that Ali made the right call. He didn't place political ambitions before the collective good of all Muslims. God hadn't obligated Ali to forcefully acquire political power. That's why Ali didn't bear arms. He became an advisor to Abu Bakr and later served as Umar's most trusted counselor. Umar even made him a caretaker Caliph when he visited Jerusalem to sign a peace treaty with the local population. He helped Uthman by mediating between him and the anti-Umayyad rebels. He fought against the Syrians to secure his political supremacy but didn't treat them like kuffar, maintaining that a rebel doesn't necessarily becomes a non-Muslim; unlike the first Caliph who'd accused his rebels of apostasy. Shiite Muslims consider him to be an ideal politician in the Muslim Civil War. Sunni Muslims also believe that Ali was the last of the Rashidun Caliphs. After him, his son Hasan and an Umayyad Caliph named Umar II are the only people whom one can refer to as the Rashidun. 

This is the month of hajj in the year 1441 of the lunar calendar. I am writing down these words as the Sacrificial Festival approaches. May God make Muslims follow in the footsteps of Abu Turab! He's an inspiration for us all.