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of the same Divine Light." " 0' Ali thy flesh is my flesh and thy blood is my blood.
It is obviously peculiar and also amazing that not even one of the repeated declarations of the Holy Prophet about Ali's unique position was remembered at the Saqeefa, neither by Abu- Bakr nor even by Omar.
History says that Omar cried out to Abu-Bakr :- "Stretch forth thy hand 0' Abu Bakr, verily I will swear allegiance to thee!" (IA., TB., Etc.)
Thus Omar declared Ahu-Bakr as the Chief and took the oath of fealty to him.
Hobab had an altercation with Bashir for his treacherous conduct in preferring Abu-Bakr over Sa'd bin Obada (IB.)
Sa'd bin Obada, the head of the Ansars, was deeply chagrined at being thus superseded. He did not pay homage to Abu Bakr. He left Madina and retired in disgust, to Syria, where it is said he was found murdered in 15 A.H. (SM., AqF., RS., EHI.)
It is now left to the scholars of political science and the sea- soned politicians to say if:-
1. What took place at the Saqeefa was an election in any sense or the meaning of the term?
2. Or it was the nomination or the choice of any one indi- vidual which was forced upon the others?
3 . Do the proceedings satisfy the demands of a democratic procedure?
4. If the procedure had any sanction from Qur'an, Hadith or of any of the canons of democracy?
5. Was it not that the right of Ali was totally forgotten or his position with the exclusive excellence of the unique godly qualities, deliberately or undeliberately was altogether ignored at the ' Saqeefa?'
6. Could the decision of the interested disputant few, assembled at the ' Saqeefa' , be counted as the voice or the choice of the millions of the people of the whole of the Muslim World?


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The Logical Inference

SINCE BOTH THE Immigrants as well as the Ansars claimed the worldly privileges and the secular advantages in return for what they had done, any intelligent reader could reasonably say that neither the giving of the asylum to the Holy Prophet by those Ansars nor the lmmiaration of those Immigrants with him, was exclusively for God and the Faith. The object of their respective services enumerated by them, as their respective claims, could be nothing but what they claimed in return for those services.
If what they enumerated had been done exclusively for God and for no worldly gains or material advantages, the people, both the disputant Mohajirs and the contestant Ansars would never, for anything in the world, have stirred from the side of the Holy Prophet in the last moments of his stay with them, and after his breathing his last, they would have only minded their first concern with the last services to the Apostle of God, observing the solemnity of the serious occasion and their sad plight of having lost the Best and the Holiest one of God's creation, from among their midst, as did the Holy Ahlul-Bait and the other Hashimites who never even cared to know about what went on in the ' Saqeefa.'
By the claims advanced by both the groups themselves, it gets quite evident that those of both the groups, were only waiting for the opportunity to establish their claims, the objects of all their respective services to the Holy Prophet and the Faith, each group apprehending to be forestalled by the other. This could be the only logical inference of any intelligent reading of the facts of the history of the dispute at the ' Saqeefa.'
The following are a few of the impartial opinions of the cele- brated Non- Muslim historian scholars, about Ali :-
"Ali was the cousin-germain of Muhammad and husband of Fatema, his beloved daughter. The right of succession in order of consanguinity, lay with Ali; and his virtues and services eminently entitled him to tt. On the first burst of his generous zeal, when Islamism was a derided and a persecuted faith, he had been pronounced by Mohammad his Brother, his Vicegerent; he had ever since been devoted to him in word and deed, and had


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honoured the cause by his magnanimity as signally as he has vindicated it by his valour." W. Irving
"The birth, the alliance, the character of Ali which exalted him above the rest of his countrymen might justify his claim to the vacant throne of Arabia. The son of Abu Taleb was, in his own right, the Chief of the family of Hashim, and the hereditary prince or guardian of the city and the temple of Mecca. The light of prophecy was extinct, but the husband of Fatema might expect the inheritance and the blessings of her father; the Arabs had sometimes been patient of a female reign and thc two grandsons of the Prophet had often been fondled in his lap, and shown in his pulpit, as the hope of his age, and the Chief of the Youth of Paradise. From the first hour of the mission to the last rites of his funeral, the Apostle was never forsaken by a generous Friend, whom he delighted to name his Brother, his Vtcegerent and the faithful Aaron of a second Moses." Gibbon abridged by W. Smith p. 466
Besides the above two quotations, the following is the one which the great learned scholar and the judicial head Amir Ali has chosen to quote in his famous work The Spirit of Islam:-
"Had," says Sedillot "the principle of hereditary succession in favour of Ali been recognised at the outset a would have prevented the rise of those disastrous pretentions which engulfed Islam in the blood of Muslims. The husband of Fatema united in his person the right of suc- cession as the lawful heir of the Prophet as well as the right by election. It might have been thought that all would submit themselvcs before his glory so pure and so grand." Spirit of Islam- Amir Ali
However, the right of Ali was ignored and later at a stage the fate of the people passed into the hands of those who enacted the gruesome scene of Karbala and the massacre of the godly members of the House of the Holy Prophet.


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The Funeral of the Holy Prophet

THOSE OF THE companions who were turned out by the Holy Prophet from his presence, got busy in the Saqeefe and did not return until he was buried.
When the Holy Prophet passed away, Ali assisted by his pupil Idne Abbas and the other Heshimites, attended to the last rites to the Holiest one of God's creation and the grief of Fatema moved the hearts of those present there.
History says that Hazrat Abu Bakr and Hazrat Omar and the other companions being busy at the Sapeefe, could not attend the funeral of the Holy Prophet (KO., AM., EXI).

History repeats it self

THE DEALINGS OF the wicked ones with the men of God particularly the apostles from Him, had been indentical in all ages. The Holy Prophet had already prophecied that all that happened among the people of the ancient apostles particularly the people of Moses in the Israelites, will happen among his followers.
Moses was absent for only about forty days and his people re- volted against his Deputy Aaron and followed the Samiri and started worshipping the Calf. Jesus was betrayed by his own disciples and was handed over to be rucified. The Last Apostle of God similarly suffered an identical desertion by his people even before his breathing his last.

The Love of the World- Maddens man

VERT RECENTLY EVEN when a worldly ruler of a big State was to be buried, (Mr. Kennedy of America) almost all the Paramount Powers in the world sent their representatives to attend the funeral as a token of their regard and human sympathy with the bereaved family and the sorrowful nation. But when the Prince of the Prophets, the Last Apostle of God, who was divinely sent to rule over the human hearts and the human affairs en earth and who was also the godly ruler of the state, had not even breathed his last, the people who called themselves his followers and claimed to be his close companions left him away to assert and establish their res- pective contentions about their claims to rule the state in the place of the Holy Prophet and returned only when he had left this world


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and was buried by his Ahlul-Bait and the people of his family the Hashimites.
Thus in the love of the world the people left away even the Apostle of God unshrouded. This is the worst record of the mad- ness of man for the material world. The paradox is that yet man claims himself to be the lover of God, the lover of the Apostles of God and the lover of godliness.

Karbala's Foundation laid

THE EVENTS OF history give out a clear verdict that the series of the sufferings, the miseries and the calamities inflicted on the Ahlul- Bait, which culminated at one stage in the wholesale massacre of the Holy Imam Husain and his faithful devotees at Karbala and the misfortunes and the assassinations of the other Imams and their families and their devotees, which thereafter followed up to the ninth Imam Hasan al Askari, was inaugurated at the Saqeefa. Had the people remembered the repeated declarations about Ali and his Ahlul-Bait, the world would never have witnessed the hideous scenes of the sufferings and the massacre of the Holy ones; on the other hand, today the world would have been ruled by the men of God, and humanity had enjoyed the godly kingdom on earth, and the human race by this time would have been united under one single brotherhood which was inaugurated by the Holy Prophet at Madina.

The Fate of the Kalifate

THE COURSE WHICH the kalifate adopted at the Saqeefa, and the personnel that occupied its throne and called themselves Kalifs, is a matter of history to be referred to. Such of us who are not much acquainted with Arabic and Persian, may refer to the famous work "The History of the Arabs' by Hitti which is sometimes prescribed as a text book for the university courses in Islamic History. How - ever, a list of the Omayyid and the Abbaside Kalifs is given as an annexure to this work for the general information of the readers. The particulars given in the chart, are those given in the famous work by Hitti.

What happened to the Directive from God

WILL NOT ANY one be he a muslim or even a non-muslim, who has gone through the following verses of the Holy Qur'an with the


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average understanding of a common man, ask 'What about the divine directiv of Cod to the muslims in matters of dispute among themselves:-
" 0 ye who believe! Obey ye God and obey ye the Apostle (Muhammad) and those in authority, then if ye quarrel about anything, refer it to God and His Apostle (Muhammad) if ye believe in God and the last day. This is the righteous and the best (course) to (achieve) the end. 4:59
What happened to the Holy Prophet's appointing Ali as his heir, his Khalif, and his Successor with the announcement of it, at the 'Dawate Asheera' at the very outset of his apostolic mission? If this was too old an event for the companions to remember it what about the most recent appointment of Ali, only about ten or eleven weeks before the dispute, the Holy Prophet declaring it officially in the historic assembly convened by him at the command of the Lord (5:67) at 'Ghadeer- e-Khum' announcing Ali as the 'Maula?, i.e., Master, Commander or the Governor in his place, at which the Lord declared the reliaion Islam to be complete and acceptable to Him, and at the end of which ceremony, every one of them had paid ' Bai' at or allegiance to Ali.
The condition laid down by the above directive of God, is open and very severely emphatic,commanding the muslims to act according to it, if they believe in God and the last day, and the failure to do it, will naturally mean disbelief in God and the last day of Judgment. The course laid down in the above verse is said to be the Righteous and the Best One and anything otherwise will naturally be unrighteous and the worst.
Besides the above, there is another verse of the Holy Qur'an which gives out a clear verdict about those who do not uncondi- tionally submit to, or implicitly obey the decision of the Holy Prophet :-
" But no! by thy Lord! They believe not until they make thee a judge in what is in dispute between them then find not any straitness in their hearts, as to that which thou decidest and submit with full submission." 4 :65
However, it is a fact that the matter ip the dispute was neither referred to God nor to the Holy Prophet's definite decrees; on the


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other hand what was already decreed by the Holy Prophet at the command of the Lord was totally neglected and ignored. Under these circumstances it is for the readers to say, if or not, the opening words of the above verse get applicable to those who neglect, ignore and disobey the verdict of the Holy Prophet about Ali's position in relation to him.

Man cautioned against the Disobedience to God and the Holy Prophet

MAN HAS ALREADY been cautioned by the All-Merciful Lord against the fate of those who go aoainst His will and the decree of the Holy Prophet in the matter of the choice of a leader or guardian or a ruler of man's destiny in this world:-
27. "On the day (of yudgment) when the wrong-doer will bite his hands saying 'Would that I had taken a way with the Apostle Muhammad'."
28. "0' woe is me! would that I had not taken such a one (so and so) for a friend."
29. "Certainly he has led me astray from the Reminder ( the Qur'an) after it had come to me and the devil always deserts man."
30." And the Apostle (Muhammad) will say ' My Lord! verily my people had taken this Qur' an as forsaken'." 25:27-30
The above verses of the Holy Qur' an are sufficiently clear and plain enough to necessitate any elucidation or a further explanation of the matter. They are not about the disbelievers but about those who believed in the Holy Qur'an and neglected it. The verses relate about those who got astray after once getting guided aright. The verse No. 28 is too aloud about the subject of the address and the cause of the repentance on the Day of Judgment.

The Sense of Discretion and Discrimination

THE SENSE OF discretion and the faculty of discrimination, i.e., the power of unrestricted prudence, liberty to act with the endowment of conscience to note and distinguish the difference between good and evil, or the faculty of equation is the greatest gift of the All- Wise and the All-Merciful Providence, given exclusively to man and to


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no other animal. The dawn of this faculty in a human individual is the first sign of the maturity of the mind.
Animals also are given this power but only to the extent of distinguishing the profitable and the harmful to their life, with no regard for others, even for their own kind. Every animal takes only that food which is profitable to its life and nothing otherwise.
Some people succumbing to the currents of over enthusiasm of their righteousness or to imitate unwarranted godliness, forfeit this great gift of God and pretend to pronounce neutrality and overlook the evils in favour of some goodness. Particularly about certain persons of their own choice, assigning some worldly deeds of credit to them. They forget that such a course is unnatural and also ungodly. Unnatural in the sense, however, good and nutritious the food one might have taken but when the same individual takes a killing poison, the fatal drug will not fail to act duly according to its nature and the intensity of its property, undoing all the goodness and the nutrition of the diet taken by the individual. Ungodly, or it has been proved that the one who is titled as Satan, was not originally a Satan. He was a Jinn (18 :5o) who for the extent and the degree of his supplication to the Lord, had been raised to the rank of the angels and even as the Chief of them. His one refusal to submit to the command of the Lord, to pay obeisance prostrating to Adam, made him fall with the title of Lucifer.

A Point of Note for False Unitarianism

In the fall of Satan from the rank of the angels and his being expelled from goodness for ever, lies a point of note against false unitarianism. It is to be noted that Satan never refused to pay obeisance or prostration to God, but he insisted that he would prostrate only before God and not before man. The will of the Almighty Lord was that one should not prostrate only to Him but to any one, He desires. No doubt the prostration to the Lord will be the obeisance, surrender or the submission to the Absolute Authority of the Lord and the prostration to other than Him, will be the token sign of honour, respect and regard, as did all the angels to Adam and as did also Holy Prophet Jacob with his other sons, to his son Joseph on the throne. Thus prostration to any holy person or to any sacred object, with the intention to pay the individual or the object, any regard er reverence, can never be ungodly or objectionable. The point lies in the intention.


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Goodness and Evil, can undo each other

To ILLUSTRATE THE natural phenomena of goodness and evil, undoing each other, the following is the law of the legislation of the Lord by which man has been warned and encouraged with:-
Verily those who disbelieve and hinder (men) from God' s way and oppose the Apostle after guidance is quite clear to them, never will they be harming God in any way, and He will make their deeds vain.4:32
It is to be noted that the warning in the above verse refers particularly to those to whom the signs of the Lord have been made clear, i.e., to those who have accepted the clarity of the commands of the Lord through His Apostle , i .e., the followers of the prophets like the christians, the jews and the muslims.
 " That is because they follow that which displeases God and are averse to His pleasure so He maketh their deeds vain." 47:28
" That is because they hate that which God hath sent down, So He bath made their deeds vain. 47:9
Let us read the above verse with 5 :67 revealed at Ghadeer- e- Khum' with reference to what the Holy Prophet commanded in compliance with the command and the people's liking or dis- liking it, accepting or rejecting it, or following or going against it.
" O' ye who believe! raise ye notyour voices above the Prophet' s voice, nor speak loudly to him as ye speak loudly one to another, lest your deeds become vain, while ye perceive not." 49:2
See also: 3:22-7, 147:9, 69:18, 105:39, 65:49, 169:5 6:S8 II, 16:2, 217.
The above verse gives a clear verdict about the deeds of those who raised their voices in the presence of the Holy Prophet when he was about to leave this world at which he was so much displeased with them that he turned them out of his presence.
There are similar verses about the wiping out of the sins other than disobedience to God and the Holy Prophet, in return for special acts of goodness as well as for abstaining from greater sins:-


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And God said: " Verily I am with you. If ye keep up prayer and pay the poor-rate and believe My Apostle and offer to God a goodly gift, I will certainly cover (wipe out) your evil deeds and make you enter Gardens wherein rivers flow - "5:12
" If ye shun the great things (sins) which ye are forbidden, We shall do away with your evils and cause you to enter the honourable place of entering." 4:31
See also 42:35 and 53:32.
What greater virtue can there be than sincere devotion to God's Apostle and his Ahlul- Bait and why not the lesser sins of the sincere devotees of the Lord and the Holy Ones be wiped out. And what greater and graver sin can there be than deserting the Apostle of God, leaving him in the jaws of death, escaping away from the battle- fields, disobeying him, torturing and killing his offsprings and what virtue could be of any avail to the deserters of the Apostle of God, even though they might have been admired by him thereafter, out of his personal grace and goodness and even if they had been pardoned by him in this world, for the Lord says:-
" Ask thou (0' Our Apostle Muhammad) forgiveness for them or ask thou not forgiveness for them. Even if thou ask forgiveness for them seventy times, never will God forgive them because they disbelieve in God and His Apostle. And God guideth not the transgressing people." 9:80
It must be known that the Apostle of God will never pray for the enemies of God, i.e., for the disbelievers or the infidels or the idolators; his prayer could naturally be only for those who profess to believe, but actually at heart they believed not, and were trea- cherous calling themselves Muslims but in the words of God they are Munafiqs, i.e., Hypocrites or the opportunists, about whom the Lord says:-
" When the hypocrites come unto thee (0' Our Apostle Muham- mad) they say: "We bear witness that verily thou art the Apostle of God. Verily God Knoweth that thou art His Apostle and God beareth witness that the hypocrites are certainly liars." 63:1