One could argue that Wahhabism stands in spirit and implementation in negation of Islam’s principles of peace, compassion, patience and mercy. Wahhabism after all gave birth to the likes of Daesh [ISIS] and Al Qaida – the fountainhead of radicalism.
Some narrations in which the Prophet Muhammad used the term “Shia of Ali” are as follows:
As narrated by Jabir ibn ‘Abd Allah al-Ansari: “We were gathering around the Prophet when Ali ibn Abi Talib came. He said, ‘Verily, my brother has come to you,’ and he placed his hand on the Ka’bah and said, ‘By the One Who holds my soul in His hand, this man and his Shia will indeed be the successful ones on the Day of Judgment.”
And while few will deny that the first three caliphs of Islam: Abu Bakr, Umar ibn Khattab and ‘Uthman were not deserving leaders, all in their own rights and according to their respective qualities, those who saw in Imam ‘Ali the continuation of God’s mercy through just leadership chose to stubbornly remain at the side of their Imam, therefore pledging themselves to what they perceived as the manifestation of the spirit of Islam. And for they chose to trust with their heart and their faith the man who the Prophet entrusted most; a man who never relented before the enemy and a man who shared in every revelation and tribulation, this group has suffered most persecution by the hands of their brothers than the Meccans inflicted upon early Muslims.
Following is the sermon of Ghadir Khumm:
“All Praise is due to Allah Who is Exalted in His Unity, Near in His Uniqueness, Sublime in His Authority, Magnanimous in His Dominance. He knows everything; He subdues all creation through His might and evidence. He is Praised always and forever, Glorified and has no end. He begins and He repeats, and to Him every matter is referred.
Allah is the Creator of everything; He dominates with His power the earth and the heavens. Holy, He is, and Praised, the Lord of the angels and of the spirits. His favours overwhelm whatever He creates, and He is the Mighty over whatever He initiates. He observes all eyes while no eye can observe Him. He is Generous, Clement, Patient. His mercy encompasses everything, and so is His giving. He never rushes His revenge, nor does He hasten the retribution they deserve. He comprehends what the breast conceals and what the conscience hides. No inner I thought can be concealed from Him, nor does He confuse one with another. He encompasses everything, dominates everything, and subdues everything. Nothing is like Him. He initiates the creation from nothing; He is everlasting, living, sustaining in the truth; there is no god but He, the Omnipotent, the Wise One.
He is greater than can be conceived by visions, while He conceives all visions, the Eternal, the Knowing. None can describe Him by seeing Him, nor can anyone find out how He is, be it by his intellect or by a spoken word except through what leads to Him, the Sublime, the Mighty that He is.
I testify that He is Allah, the One Who has filled time with His Holiness, the One Whose Light overwhelms eternity, Who effects His will without consulting anyone; there is no partner with Him in His decisions, nor is He assisted in running His affairs. He shaped what He made without following a pre-existing model, and He created whatever He created without receiving help from anyone, nor did doing so exhaust Him nor frustrated His designs. He created, and so it was, and He initiated, and it became visible. So He is Allah, the One and Only God, the One Who does whatever He does extremely well. He is the Just One Who never oppresses, the most Holy to Whom all affairs are referred.
I further testify that He is Allah before Whom everything is humbled, to Whose Greatness everything is humiliated, and to Whose Dignity everything submits. He is the King of every domain and the One Who places planets in their orbits. He controls the movements of the sun and of the moon, each circles till a certain time. He makes the night follow the day and the day follow the night, seeking it incessantly. He splits the spine of every stubborn tyrant and annihilates every mighty devil.
Never has there been any opponent opposing Him nor a peer assisting Him. He is Independent; He never begets nor is He begotten, and none can ever be His equal. He is One God, the Glorified Lord. His will is done; His word is the law. He knows, so He takes account. He causes death and gives life. He makes some poor and others rich. He causes some to smile and others to cry. He brings some nearer to Him while distancing others from Him. He withholds and He gives. The domain belongs to Him and so is all the Praise. In His hand is all goodness, and He can do anything at all.
He lets the night cover the day and the day cover the night; there is no god but He, the Sublime, the oft-Forgiving One. He responds to the supplication; He gives generously; He computes the breath; He is the Lord of the Jinns and of humankind, the One Whom nothing confuses, nor is He annoyed by those who cry for His help, nor is He fed-up by those who persist. He safeguards the righteous against sinning, and He enables the winners to win. He is the Master of the faithful, the Lord of the Worlds Who deserves the appreciation of all those whom He created and is praised no matter what.
I praise Him and always thank Him for the ease He brings me and for the constriction, in hardship and in prosperity, and I believe in Him, in His angels, in His Books and messengers. I listen to His Command and I obey, and I initiate the doing of whatever pleases Him, and I submit to His decree hoping to acquire obedience to Him and fear of His penalty, for He is Allah against Whose designs nobody should feel secure, nor should anyone ever fear His “oppression.”
I testify, even against my own soul, that I am His servant, and I bear witness that he is my Lord. I convey what He reveals to me, being cautious lest I should not do it, so a catastrophe from Him would befall upon me, one which none can keep away, no matter how great his design may be and how sincere his friendship. There is no god but He, for He has informed me that if I do not convey what He has just revealed to me in honor of Ali in truth, I will not have conveyed His Message at all, and He, the Praised and the Exalted One, has guaranteed for me to protect me from the (evil) people, and He is Allah, the One Who suffices, the Sublime. He has just revealed to me the following (verse):
O people! I have not committed any shortcoming in conveying what Allah Almighty revealed to me, and I am now going to explain to you the reason behind the revelation of this verse: Three times did Gabriel command me on behalf of the Peace, my Lord, Who is the source of all peace, to thus make a stand in order to inform everyone, black and white, that: Ali ibn Abu Talib is my Brother, Wasi (custodian), and successor over my nation and the Imam after me, the one whose status to me is like that of Aaron to Moses except there will be no prophet after me, and he is your master next only to Allah and to His Messenger, and Allah has already revealed to me the same in one of the fixed verses of His Book saying, “Your Master is Allah and His Messenger and those who believe, those who keep up prayers and pay zakat even as they bow down” (Qur’an 5:55), and, Ali ibn Abu Talib the one who keeps up prayers, who pays zakat even as he bows down, seeking to please Allah, the Sublime, the Almighty, on each and every occasion.
I asked Gabriel to plead to the Peace to excuse me from having to convey such a message to you, O people, due to my knowledge that the pious are few while the hypocrites are many, and due to those who will blame me, and due to the trickery of those who ridicule Islam and whom Allah described in His Book as saying with their tongues contrarily to what their hearts conceal, thinking lightly of it, while it is with Allah magnanimous, and due to the abundance of their harm to me, so much so that they called me “ears” and claimed that I am so because of being so much in his (Ali’s) company, always welcoming him, loving him and being so much pleased with him till Allah, the Exalted and the Sublime One, revealed in this regard the verse saying: ” And there are some of them who harm the (feelings of the) Prophet and say: He is an ear (uthun; i.e. he always listens to Ali).
And indeed the pious are always few in any age or time, creed or faith or clime, in any place, in every space. As many as 72 verses in the Holy Qur’an condemn the majority, praising the minority, underscoring what mankind knew, that the pious are always few. Indeed, the Prophet’s statement is quite weighty, wise, terse, and not hasty. Nowadays, only a few pious ones remember this historic sermon and try their best to keep its memory alive. Yes; it is true, the pious are always few …
Had I wished to name those who have called me so, I would have called them by their names, and I would have pointed them out. I would have singled them out and called them by what they really are, but I, by Allah, am fully aware of their affairs. Yet despite all of that, Allah insisted that I should convey what He has just revealed to me in honour of Ali.
“O Messenger! Convey what has (just) been revealed to you (with regard to Ali), and if you do not do so, you will not have conveyed His Message at all, and Allah shall protect you from (evil) people.” (Qur’an 5:67)
O people! Comprehend (the implications of) what I have just said, and again do comprehend it, and be (further) informed that Allah has installed him (Ali) as your Master and Imam, obligating the Muhajirun and the Ansar and those who follow them in goodness to obey him, and so must everyone who lives in the desert or in the city, who is a non-Arab or an Arab, who is a free man or a slave, who is young or old, white or black, and so should everyone who believes in His Unity. His decree shall be carried out. His (Ali’s) word is binding; his command is obligating; cursed is whoever opposes him, blessed with mercy is whoever follows him and believes in him, for Allah has already forgiven him and forgiven whoever listens to him and obeys him.
Nothing is permissible except what is deemed so by Allah, His Messenger, and they (the Imams), and nothing is prohibitive except what is deemed so by Allah and His Messenger and they (the Imams). Allah, the Exalted and the Sublime One, has made me acquainted with what is permissible and what is prohibitive, and I have conveyed to you what my Lord has taught me of His Book, of what it decrees as permissible or as prohibitive.
O people! Do not abandon him, nor should you flee away from him, nor should you be too arrogant to accept his authority, for he is the one who guides to righteousness and who acts according to it. He defeats falsehood and prohibits others from acting according to it, accepting no blame from anyone while seeking to please Allah. He is the first to believe in Allah and in His Messenger; none preceded him as such. And he is the one who offered his life as a sacrifice for the Messenger of Allah and who was in the company of the Messenger of Allah while no other man was. He is the first of all people to offer prayers and the first to worship Allah with me. I ordered him, on behalf of Allah, to sleep in my bed, and he did, offering his life as a sacrifice for my sake.
O people! Prefer him (over all others), for Allah has preferred him, and accept him, for Allah has appointed him (as your leader).
O people! He is an Imam appointed by Allah, and Allah shall never accept the repentance of anyone who denies his authority, nor shall He forgive him; this is a must decree from Allah never to do so to anyone who opposes him, and that He shall torment him with a most painful torment for all time to come, for eternity; so, beware lest you should oppose him and thus enter the fire the fuel of which is the people and the stones prepared for the unbelievers.
O people! By Allah! All past prophets and messengers conveyed the glad tiding of my advent, and I, by Allah, am the seal of the prophets and of the messengers and the argument against all beings in the heavens and on earth. Anyone who doubts this commits apostasy similar to that of the early jahiliyyah [time of ignorance], and anyone who doubts anything of what I have just said doubts everything which has been revealed to me, and anyone who doubts any of the Imams doubts all of them, and anyone who doubts us shall be lodged in the fire.
O people! Allah, the most Exalted and the Almighty, has bestowed this virtue upon me out of His kindness towards Ali and as a boon to Ali and there is no god but He; to Him all praise belongs in all times, for eternity, and in all circumstances.
O people! Prefer Ali (over all others), for he is the very best of all people after me, be they males or females, so long as Allah sends down His sustenance, so long as there are beings. Cursed and again cursed, condemned and again condemned, is anyone who does not accept this statement of mine and who does not agree to it. Gabriel himself has informed me of the same on behalf of Allah Almighty Who he said (in Gabriel’s words): ” Anyone who antagonizes ‘Ali and refuses to accept his wilayat shall incur My curse upon him and My wrath.” “… and let every soul consider what it has sent forth for the morrow, and be careful of (your duty to) Allah.” (Qur’an, 59:18) “And do not make your oaths a means of deceit between you lest a foot should slip after its stability.” (Qur’an, 16:94) “Allah is fully aware of all what you do.” (Qur’an, 58: 13)
O people! He (Ali) is janb-Allah [purified household] mentioned in the Book of Allah, the Sublime One: The Almighty, forewarning his (Ali’s) adversaries, says, “Lest a soul should say: O woe unto me for what I fell short of my duty to Allah, and most surely I was of those who laughed to scorn.” (Qur’an, 39:56)
O people! Study the Qur’an and comprehend its verses, look into its fixed verses and do not follow what is similar thereof, for by Allah, none shall explain to you what it forbids you from doing, nor clarify its exegesis, other than the one whose hand I am taking and whom I am lifting to me, the one whose arm I am taking and whom I am lifting, so that I may enable you to understand that: Whoever among you takes me as his master, this, Ali is his master, and he is Ali ibn Abu Talib, my Brother and custodian, and his appointment as your guardian is from Allah, the Sublime, the Exalted One, a commandment which He revealed to me.
Indeed now I have performed my duty and conveyed the Message. Indeed you have heard what I have said and explained. Indeed Allah, the Exalted One and the Sublime, has said, and so have I on behalf of Allah, the Exalted One and the Sublime, that there is no Amir al-Mu’minin (Commander of the Faithful) save this Brother of mine; no authority over a believer is permissible after me except to him.
Then the Prophet patted Ali’s arm, lifting him up. Since the time when the Messenger of Allah ascended the pulpit, Ali was one pulpit step below where the Messenger of Allah had seated himself on his pulpit, while Ali was on his (Prophet’s) right side, one pulpit step lower, now they both appeared to the gathering to be on the same level; the Prophet lifted him up. The Prophet then raised his hands to the heavens in supplication. The Prophet continued his sermon:
“O people! This is Ali, my Brother, Custodian, the one who comprehends my knowledge, and my successor over my nation, over everyone who believes in me. He is the one entrusted with explaining the Book of Allah, the most Exalted One, the Sublime, and the one who invites people to His path. He is the one who does whatever pleases Him, fighting His enemies, befriending His friends who obey Him, prohibiting disobedience to Him. He is the successor of the Messenger of Allah and Amir al-Mu’minin, the man assigned by Allah to guide others, killer of the renegades and of those who believe in equals to Allah, those who violate the Commandments of Allah. Allah says, “My Word shall not be changed, nor am I in the least unjust to the servants.” (Qur’an, 50.29), and by Your Command, O Lord, do I (submit and) say, O Allah! Befriend whoever befriends him (‘Ali) and be the enemy of whoever antagonizes him; support whoever supports him and abandon whoever abandons him; curse whoever disavows him, and let Your Wrath descend on whoever usurps his right.
Lord! I implore You to testify that I have conveyed (Your Message).
O people! Allah, the Exalted and the Sublime, has perfected your religion through his (Ali’s) Imamate; so, whoever rejects him as his Imam or rejects those of my offspring from his loins who assume the same status (as lmams) till the Day of Judgment when they shall all be displayed before Allah, the Exalted and the Sublime, these are the ones whose (good) deeds shall be nil and void in the life of this world and in the hereafter, and in the fire shall they be lodged forever, ” “… their torture shall not be decreased, nor shall they be given a respite.” (Qur’an 2:162)
O people! Here is Ali, the one who has supported me more than anyone else among you, the one who most deserves my gratitude, the one who is closest of all of you to me and the one who is the very dearest to me. Both Allah, the Exalted and the Sublime, and I are pleased with him, and no verse of the Holy Qur’an expressing Allah’s Pleasure except that he is implied therein, nor has any verse of praise been revealed in the Qur’an except that he is implied therein, nor has the Lord testified to Paradise in the (Qur’anic) Chapter starting with “Has there not come over man a long period of time when he was nothing (not even) mentioned?” (Qur'an, 76:1) nor was this Chapter revealed except in his praise.
O people! He is the one who supports the religion of Allah, who argues on behalf of the Messenger of Allah. He is the pious, the pure, the guide, the one rightly guided. Your Prophet is the best of all prophets, and your wasi is the best of all wasis, and his offspring are the best of wasis.
O people! Each prophet’s progeny is from his own loins whereas mine is from the loins of Amir al-Mu’minin, Ali.
O people! Iblis caused Adam to be dismissed from the garden through envy; so, do not envy him lest your deeds should be voided and lest your feet should slip away, for Adam was sent down to earth after having committed only one sin, and he was among the elite of Allah’s creation. How, then, will be your case, and you being who you are, and among you are enemies of Allah?
Indeed, none hates ‘Ali except a wretch, and none accepts Ali’s wilayat except a pious person. None believes in him except a sincere mu’min, and in honour of, Ali was the Chapter of Asr (Ch. 103) revealed, I swear to it by Allah: “In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful. I swear by time that most surely man is in loss.” (Qur’an 103:1-2)
O people! I have sought Allah to be my Witness and have conveyed my Message to you, and the Messenger is obligated only to clearly convey (his Message).
O people! “Fear Allah as He ought to be feared, and do not die except as Muslims” – Qur’an 3:102. O people!” … Believe in what We have revealed, verifying what you have, before We alter faces then turn them on their backs or curse them as We cursed the violators of the Sabbath.” (Qur’an 4:47) By Allah! Redid not imply anyone in this verse except a certain band of my sahaba [companions] whom I know by name and by lineage, and I have been ordered (by my Lord) to pardon them; so, let each person deal with Ali according to what he finds in his heart of love or of hatred.