Ghadīr Khumm and the honouring of ʿAlī

Shaykh Yasir Qadhi explains:

One final incident of the Ḥajj must be mentioned, for it is a major point of controversy between the Sunni and Shīʿa schools. For the Shīʿa it is of the greatest importance, becoming the very basis of ʿAlī's right to the caliphate; for us the story is innocent, Ibn Hishām and others mention it almost in passing, its context plain, no great matter to be read into it. And let it be clear: the Sunnis do not alter history or hide anything, and the charge that we conceal the virtues of ʿAlī is false, ʿAlī raḍiya Allāhu ʿanhu is of the best of the Ṣaḥābah, the son-in-law and cousin and of the Ahl al-Bayt, his virtues beyond counting, and he deserved the caliphate and attained it in his time; but Abū Bakr and ʿUmar and ʿUthmān are also righteous, and Abū Bakr deserved it before him and was worthy of it, and we do not set them in competition.

❧The clothes from the Yemeni charity

So where had ʿAlī come from? Yemen, bringing its zakāh and ṣadaqah, and the hundred camels for the Prophet ﷺ. Excited to meet him, he rushed ahead and left a man in charge of his entourage; and that man decided to hand out new garments from the treasury of charity to the whole party, "this is our due, our pay; we should look presentable coming to the people", Yemeni cloth being famed as the finest. It was his own ijtihād, and it was not, technically, permitted. ʿAlī returned incensed: "how could you do this? Take the clothes off your backs and put them back into the ṣadaqah." And how would the men feel? Not pleased, grumbling, resentful, and as soon as the Ḥajj was finished they carried their complaint against ʿAlī to the Prophet ﷺ.

❧"Whoever's mawlā I am, ʿAlī is his mawlā"

So the Prophet ﷺ delivered the passage known as the Sermon of Ghadīr Khumm. In it he praised ʿAlī highly and defended his correct decision, and rebuked the complainers, for who were they to distribute the charity as they pleased?, saying مَنْ كُنْتُ مَوْلَاهُ فَعَلِيٌّ مَوْلَاهُ, "whoever's mawlā I am, ʿAlī is his mawlā," and that ʿAlī was to him as Hārūn to Mūsā; Allāh has protected ʿAlī, and Allāh loves ʿAlī, "so stop complaining to me about ʿAlī." And he said, "I leave among you two things: as for the first, hold fast to it, the Book of Allāh; and as for the second, fear Allāh regarding my family, fear Allāh regarding my family." Note it well: he did not say "hold onto my family," but "fear Allāh regarding them", treat them well, for to hurt ʿAlī is to hurt him ﷺ.

❧Why we read no politics into it

Every blessing named here is true, and we affirm all of it gladly. But the context is a dispute over garments, not a question of succession, and the simplest proof is this: when the Prophet ﷺ passed away only months later and the Ṣaḥābah gathered to decide who would lead, not one of them, not even the closest supporters of ʿAlī, so much as mentioned Ghadīr Khumm. It was not in their minds as a matter of the Khilāfah at all; it stood plainly in its context, "stop irritating me about ʿAlī; he is of my family and did the right thing, and you were wrong", nothing more to be read into it. And that itself is among the blessings of ʿAlī.