The Ḥadith of Ghadīr Khumm

Imām Aḥmad (1) said: Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad and Abū Nuʿaym al-Maʿnī both related to us, saying: Fitr narrated to us from Abū al-Ṭufayl, who said:

ʿAlī gathered the people in the Rahbah square and declared, “I adjure by Allah every Muslim who heard the Messenger of Allah speak on the Day of Ghadīr Khumm to stand and testify to what he heard.” Many people arose—Abū Nuʿaym added: “a large number stood up”—and they bore witness that when the Prophet took him by the hand he said to the assembly:

“Do you know that I have a greater claim over the believers than they have over themselves?”
They replied, “Yes, O Messenger of Allah.”
He said, “For whomever I am the mawlā, this man is his mawlā. O Allah, befriend whoever befriends him and show enmity to whoever shows enmity to him.”

I left with something still weighing on my heart, so I met Zayd ibn Arqam and told him what I had heard ʿAlī say. He responded, “What do you find objectionable? I myself heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say that to him.” Al-Nasāʾī (2) recorded the narration as well through the isnād of Ḥabīb ibn Abī Thābit from Abū al-Ṭufayl, with a fuller wording.

Abū Bakr al-Shāfiʿī (3) said: Muḥammad ibn Sulaymān ibn al-Ḥārith related to us; ʿUbayd Allah ibn Mūsā related to us; Abū Isrāʾīl al-Milāʾī related to us from al-Ḥakam, from Abū Sulaymān the muʾadhdhin, from Zayd ibn Arqam, that ʿAlī appealed to the people:

“Whoever heard the Messenger of Allah say, ‘For whomever I am the mawlā, ʿAlī is his mawlā. O Allah, befriend whoever befriends him and show enmity to whoever shows enmity to him,’ let him stand and bear witness.”

Sixteen men rose and testified to that, and I was among them.

Abū Yaʿlā and ʿAbd Allah ibn Aḥmad, in the Musnad (4) of his father, reported: al-Qawārīrī narrated to us; Yūnus ibn Arqam narrated to us; Yazīd ibn Abī Ziyād narrated to us from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Laylā, who said:

I was with ʿAlī in the Rahbah when he exhorted the people, saying, “I adjure by Allah everyone who heard the Messenger of Allah say on the Day of Ghadīr Khumm, ‘For whomever I am the mawlā, ʿAlī is his mawlā,’ to stand and testify.”

ʿAbd al-Raḥmān continues: Twelve of the Companions who had fought at Badr stood up—I can still picture one of them wearing trousers—and declared, “We bear witness that we heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say on the Day of Ghadīr Khumm, ‘Am I not more entitled to the believers than they are to themselves and are my wives not their mothers?’ We answered, ‘Indeed, O Messenger of Allah.’ He then said, ‘So for whomever I am the mawlā, ʿAlī is his mawlā. O Allah, befriend whoever befriends him and show enmity to whoever shows enmity to him.’ ”

ʿAbd Allah ibn Aḥmad (5) also transmitted it from Aḥmad ibn ʿUmar al-Wakīʿī, from Zayd ibn Ḥabbāb, from al-Walīd ibn ʿUqbah ibn Nizār (6), from Samāk ibn ʿUbayd ibn al-Walīd al-ʿAbsī, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Laylā, who mentioned the same incident and added:

“Twelve men arose and said, ‘We saw and heard him when he grasped your hand, saying:
“O Allah, befriend whoever befriends him, show enmity to whoever shows enmity to him, grant victory to whoever supports him, and forsake whoever forsakes him.” ’ ”

Abū Dāwūd al-Ṭahāwī—his name is ʿĪsā ibn Muslim—narrated it in the same manner