FOURTH POINT
In connection with the Third Point, we shall indicate briefly a matter which is a point of dispute between the Shi’a and the Sunnis and has been magnified to such an extent that it has entered the books on the tenets of faith and among the fundamentals of belief.
T h e S u n n i s s a y : “Ali (May God be pleased with him) was the fourth of the Rightly-Guided Caliphs. Abu Bakr ‘al-Siddiq’ (May God be pleased with him) was superior to him and was more deserving of the Caliphate, therefore it passed to him first.” While the Shi’a say: “It was Ali’s right. An injustice was done to him. The most worthy of them all was Ali.” A summary of the arguments for their claims is this. They say: “The Hadiths of the Prophet about Ali, and through his title of ‘King of Sainthood,’ his being the source for the vast majority of the saints and spiritual paths, and his extraordinary knowledge, courage, and worship, and the Prophet’s (Peace and blessings be upon him) intense concern for him and towards his descendants all show that it was he who was the most worthy. The Caliphate was always his right; it was seized from him.”
T h e A n s w e r : The fact that Ali (May God be pleased with him) followed the first three Caliphs, whom he repeatedly acknowledged, and held the position of their Shaykhu’l-Islam, refutes these claims of the Shi’a. Furthermore, the victories of Islam and the struggles against its enemies in the time of the first three Caliphs and the events in Ali’s time, refute the Shi’a’s claims, again from the point of view of the Islamic Caliphate. That is to say the Sunnis’ claim is rightful.
I f i t i s s a i d that the Shi’a are two: one are the ‘Sainthood Shi’a,’ and the other are the ‘Caliphate Shi’a.’ Through mixing hatred and politics the second group may have been unjust, but the first group were not concerned with resentment and politics. However, the Sainthood Shi’a joined the Caliphate Shi’a. That is, some of the saints of the Sufi orders considered Ali to be superior and they endorsed the claims of the Caliphate Shi’a.
T h e A n s w e r : It is necessary to consider Ali (May God be pleased with him) in two respects. One is from the point of view of his personal perfections and rank, and the second is from the point of view of his representing the collective personality of the Prophet’s Family. As for this collective personality, it displays an aspect of the Most Noble Prophet’s (PBUH) essential nature.
And so, in regard to the first point, foremost Ali himself and all the people of truth gave precedence to Abu Bakr and Umar. They saw their ranks as higher in the service of Islam and closeness to God. As for the second point, in respect of being the representative of the collective personality of the Prophet’s Family and the collective personality of the Prophet’s Family representing an aspect of the Muhammadan Truth, Ali has no equal. Thus, the highly laudatory Hadiths about Ali look to this second point. There is a sound narration which corroborates this fact. The Most Noble Prophet (PBUH) decreed: “The descendants of each prophet are from himself. My descendants are those of Ali.”8
8. Tabarani, al-Majma’u’l-Kabir no:2630; al-Haythami, Majma’u’z-Zawa’id x, 333; al-Munawi, Fayzu’l-Qadir 223, no:1717.
The reason the Hadiths praising Ali more than the other three Caliphs have become so widespread is that the People of Truth, that is, the Sunnis, spread many narrations about him in response to the Umayyads and Kharijites attacking and disparaging him unjustly. Since the other Rightly-Guided Caliphs were not subject to such criticism and detraction, no need was felt to spread Hadiths about them.
Furthermore, the Prophet (PBUH) saw with the eye of prophethood the grievous events and internal strife to which Ali would be exposed in the future, and in order to save him from despair and his Community from thinking unfavourably of him, he consoled him and guided his Community with important Hadiths like “Whosever master I am, Ali too is his master.”9
9. Tirmidhi, Manaqib 19; Ibn Maja, Muqaddima 11; Musnad i, 84, 118, 119, 152, 331; iv, 281, 368, 370, 383; v, 347, 366, 419; al-Kattani, Nazmu’l-Mutanasir fi’l-Ahadithi’l-Mutawatir 24; al-Munawi, Fayzu’l-Qadir vi, 218; Ibn Hibban, Sahih ix, 42; al-Hakim, al-Mustadrak ii, 130; iii, 134.
