The Third Path

The third path is the only remaining possibility which isconsistent with the nature of the facts and logical in light of thecircumstances surrounding the da'wah and the faithful, and theattitude of the Prophet, namely that the Prophet adopted apositive stance towards the future of Islam after his death and atthe orders of Allah, May He be Praised and Exalted, chosesomeone whose deep involvement in the formation of theda'wah made him an obvious nominee, and specifically preparedhim religiously and in the art of leadership so that he couldexemplify the intellectual authority and political leadership ofthe experience, and maintain the leadership of the Ummah andits ideological structure after the Prophet's death, with thesupport of the conscious, popular foundation of the Muhajirunand the Ansar, and strengthen it towards the level at which itcould handle the problems of leadership.

This, we find, is the only way in which the Prophet could ensurethe future security of the da'wah and protect the experience fromdeviation in the course of its development.

And thus it was.There are not any signs in the texts which have been transmittedon the authority of the Prophet to prove that he privatelyprepared any of the other Muslims religiously, culturally orideologically so as to qualify them to assume either intellectualor political authority.

Nor is there any proof therein that heentrusted any of the other Muslims with the future of the da'wahand with the intellectual and political leadership of the Ummahafter his death. But these facts only serve to explicate theProphet's attitude towards the third possiblity facing him, andto prove that the nature of the affair was in fact as we havesurmised.The person designated to receive this training in the religion andleadership and chosen as the one to whom the future of theda'wah and its intellectual and political leadership would besurrendered was none other than Ali ibn Abi Talib, peace beupon him, whose deep involvement in the formation of theda'wah made him an obvious nominee. He was the first Muslimand the first to fight in the path of Islam (mujahid) during itsbitter battle against all its enemies, and was deeply involved inthe life of the Prophet, and was his foster-son whose eyesopened on the Prophet's lap and who grew up under hisprotection, and who had more opportunity to collaborate withhim and take part in his plans than any other man alive.In fact the evidence from the lives of the Prophet and the Imamwhich indicate that the Prophet prepared the Imam specially inreligious matters is indeed substantial.

For the Prophet chose toexplain the concept of da'wah and its truths to him, and gavehim intellectual answers and sought to cultivate the Imam'sawareness when he asked numerous questions while alsospending long hours with him during both the night and theday, opening his eyes to the concepts of Islam and to theproblems to be faced during its progress, and to the managementof the task until the last day of his noble life.AI-Hakim reports in AI-Mustadrak on the authority of lbnIshaq: 'I asked AI-Qasim ibn al-Abbas, "How did Ali becomethe heir of the Messenger of Allah?" He replied, "Because hewas the first among us to embrace Islam and the most faithful inhis adherence thereto".'And in the Hulyat al-A wliya it is reported from Ibn Abbas thathe said: 'We used to say that the Prophet entrusted Ali with 70 pledges which he did not entrust to anyone else.'Also An-Nisa'i reported on the authority of Ibn Abbas that Aliused to say: 'I had a privileged relationship with the Messengerof Allah which was not granted to any other mortal, as I used tovisit the Prophet of Allah every night.

If he was praying I wouldwait until he said the tasbih and then enter, and if he wasn'tpraying he would permit me and I would enter.'It is also related from the Imam that he said: 'I had twomeetings with the Prophet - the night meeting and the daymeeting.'While An-Nisa'i also relates that the Imam used to say:'Whenever I asked the Messenger of Allah a question he repliedand when I was silent he would speak to me.' AI-Hakim alsorelates this in AI-Mustadrak and says that it is sound accordingto the two shaikhs (Al-Bukhari and Muslim).An-Nisa'i relates from Umm Salama that she used to say: 'Bythe One by Whom Umm Salama swears, the closest person tothe Messenger of Allah at his death was Ali. On the morningthat the Messenger of Allah died the Messenger of Allah sent forAli, and I thought that he had been sent on an errand becausethe Prophet said, "Has Ali come?" three times. He came beforesunrise, and when he came we recognized that the Prophetwished to talk with him. So we left the house (we were at thattime with the Messenger of Allah in 'Aisha's house), and as Iwas the last to leave the house, I sat just outside the door andwas closest to it.

And Ali leant over him and was the last personto converse with him as the Prophet whispered and talked withhim.'Amir al-Mu'minin (leader of  the Faithful) Imam Ali in hisfamous rigorous speech, in which he described his uniquerelationship with the Messenger and the Prophet's care regardinghis training and education, said:'You know of my connection with the Messenger of Allah, myclose kinship to him and my intimate position.

He put me on hislap when I was a child, hugged me to his breast, embraced me inhis bed, so that his body touched mine and so I smelled hisscent, and would also chew things and then give them to me toeat.

But he did not find me lying in my speech or pompous inmy act. I used to follow him as the small camel follows itsmother and every day he showed me part of his moral acts andordered me to do likewise. Every year he used to take me toHira and only I could see him, for at that period of time of Islamthere was only the Messenger of Allah, Khadijah and myself asthe third, as nobody else lived in the house. So I saw the light ofrevelation and the message and smelled the fragrance ofprophecy.'These testimonies and plenty of other evidence gives us a pictureof the training which the Prophet gave to Imam Ali in order toraise him to the level at which he coud lead the da'wahsuccessfully.

Similarly, there are a great many indications fromthe lifetime of Imam Ali after the death of the Prophet whichreveal the Prophet's private ideological training of Imam Aliand reflect the effects and results of this private instruction.TheImam was the man to whom the ruling leadership resorted forconsultation and authority when they wished to solve somedifficult problem which they could not solve themselves. But wecannot find a single instance in the history of the Islamicexperience during the time of the four khulafah in which theImam turned to someone else for an opinion as to the way inwhich a problem should be dealt with according to Islam,whereas there were tens of instances in which the ruling Islamicleadership felt it necessary to consult the Imam, in spite of theirreservations in this matter.

If the evidence for the claim that the Prophet prepared theImam privately to assume the leadership of the da'wah after hisdeath are numerous, those which prove that the Prophetrevealed this plan and officially entrusted the intellectual andpolitical leadership of the da'wah to Imam Ali are hardly lessnumerous; a fact which we can discern from the Hadith al-Dar;Hadith ath-Thaqalayn, Hadith al-Manzila. Hadith aI-Ghadir andfrom many other prophetical texts.So Shi'ism was established within the Islamic da'wah and wasexemplified in the prophetical presentation thereof, which wasimplemented by the Prophet at the orders of Allah so that thefuture safety of the da'wah could be ensured.This Shi'ism did not appear as a superficial phenomenon in thetheatre of events, but was rather a necessary result of the needsand original circumstances of the da'wah, which made itnecessary for Islam to produce Shi'ism. In other words, it wasincumbent upon the first leader of the experience to instruct asecond leader under whose leadership, and under that of hissuccessors, the experience could continue its revolutionarydevelopment, and attain the total success of its radical reformatoryaims by eliminating all the remains of the fundamentalideas of jahiliyyah and establishing an Ummah which hadreached the level necessary to handle the tasks and problemsfaced by the da'wah.