Question:
السلام عليكم و رحمة الله و بركاته
?Maulana I was wondering what is the sunni perspective of ghadeer khum
جزاك الله خيرا
My Reply:
و عليكم السلام و رحمة الله و بركاته
The first point I must bring to your attention if you are going to study Shīʿāh polemics, is their tendency to take a kernel of truth and then add lies around the truth or present a false interpretation. So do not be perturbed when you find the kernel of truth in the works of the Muslims, and think that that means that the Shīʿah lies and distortions must also be true.
This applies to Ghadīr Khumm as well as their other fabrications, whether in detail, fact or meaning.
Allāh’s Messenger (صلى الله عليه و سلم) praised our master, ʿAlī (Allāh be pleased with him) at this place, declaring him our mawlā. He had praised him on other occasions, and he had praised other Companions, including those three who are higher than ʿAlī, may Allāh be pleased with them all.
Praise does not equate to proclamation of Khilāfah, for as indicated above, the Ḥadīth literature would then provide a conflicting host of such Khulafāʾ. ʾAbū ʿUbaydah (may Allāh be pleased with him) was proclaimed as the entrusted one of this ʾUmmah. Surely Khilāfah can be argued to be a great trust and responsibility. Does anyone equate that praise for example as a proclamation of Khilāfah?
They argue that Allāh’s Messenger (صلى الله عليه و سلم) was commanded to proclaim ʿAlī (may Allāh be pleased with him) as Khalīfah. It was not mere praise because he used the word mawlā.
Mawlā has a myriad of meanings. Zubayr (Allāh be pleased with him) is also a cousin of Allāh’s Messenger (صلى الله عليه و سلم). ʾal-ʾImām ʾal-Bukhārī records that when Zubayr (Allāh be pleased with him), told his son to ask help of his Mawlā, ʿAbdullāh bin Zubayr (Allāh be pleased with him), a great narrator of Ḥadith and a scholar of Islām, asked him, “Who is your mawlā?”
A student of Arabic would be aware of the many meanings of the word. ʾIbn Zubayr and the Companions were more aware of that than us. The word needed clarification, even when referring to Allāh. You addressed me as “Maulana”. You most certainly did not intend divinity unto me, nor did you proclaim me as the Khalīfah.
If Allāh’s Messenger (صلى الله عليه و سلم) had intended such a proclamation, would he not have understood how ambiguous it would be to declare ʿAlī as Khalīfah by only using the word mawlā? If one accepts thew Shīʿah argument that it was more than praise of ʿAlī as the master, friend, and patron of the believers, then, Allāh forbid, it implies a deficiency in the knowledge of Allāh’s Messenger (صلى الله عليه و سلم). It also implies a lack of courage in speaking the clear truth to the Companions whom the Shīʿah claim to have conspired against and opposed the Khilāfah of ʿAlī (Allāh be pleased with him), and who frightened Allāh’s Messenger (صلى الله عليه و سلم)!
This is another point of Shīʿasm that you should be aware of. It does not take much brain power to see how the logical conclusion of their fairy tales is not praise of Allāh’s Messenger (صلى الله عليه و سلم) and his Household, but are in fact the vilest of insults. So instead of praising ʿAlī (Allāh be pleased with him), their distortion of Ghadīr Khumm, portrays Allāh’s Messenger (صلى الله عليه و سلم) in the filthiest of ways, lacking in knowledge, clarity and courage and not properly fulfilling the command he had supposedly received. Are such creatures Muslims?
Another example is the lie that ʿUmar (Allāh be pleased with him) assaulted Fāṭimah (may Allāh be pleased with her) in the presence of ʿAlī (Allāh be pleased with him). Far from insulting ʿUmar (Allāh be pleased with him), their tale insults the bravery, manhood, faith and basic decency of ʿAlī (Allāh be pleased with him).
This is but a brief overview about which much has been written. You may further your research, starting with the website of my late teacher, ʾash-Shaykh Ṭāhā Karān (Allāh forgive and elevate him). It is discussed here https://mahajjah.com/letter-7-and-8/ and elsewhere on the site.
The Shaykh was one of the greatest authorities on Shiasm in our times and I was fortunate to study under him. https://kindi313.wordpress.com/2021/06/11/1317/
و السلام
سليمان الكندي
@sulayman_Kindi
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