page_title: Ali
section_title: Ghadir Khumm
hierarchical_section_title: Ali / Life in Medina / Muhammad's era / Ghadir Khumm
caption_attribution_description: The Investiture of Ali at Ghadir Khumm, Edinburgh University Library MS Arab 161, A.H. 707 / A.D. 1307–8, illustrating Al-Biruni's Chronology of Ancient Nations
context_page_description: Ali ibn Abi Talib was a cousin and son-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, who ruled as the fourth caliph from 656 to 661. He is one of the central figures in Shia Islam and is regarded as the rightful immediate successor to Muhammad as an Imam by Shia Muslims.
  Ali was born inside the sacred sanctuary of the Kaaba in Mecca, the holiest place in Islam, to Abu Talib and Fatimah bint Asad. He was the first male who accepted Islam under Muhammad's watch. Ali protected Muhammad from an early age, and took part in almost all the battles fought by the nascent Muslim community. After migrating to Medina, he married Muhammad's daughter Fatimah, and after her death, he had other wives, including Muhammad's granddaughter Umamah bint Zaynab. He was appointed caliph by Muhammad's companions in 656, after Caliph Uthman ibn Affan was assassinated. Ali's reign saw civil wars and in 661, he was attacked and assassinated by a Kharijite while praying in the Great Mosque of Kufa.
  Ali is important to both Shias and Sunnis, politically and spiritually.
context_section_description: As Muhammad was returning from his last pilgrimage in 632, he made statements about Ali that are interpreted very differently by Sunnis and Shias. He halted the caravan at Ghadir Khumm, gathered the returning pilgrims for communal prayer and began to address them.
  According to the Encyclopedia of Islam:
  Taking Ali by the hand, he asked of his faithful followers whether he, Muhammad, was not closer (awlā) to the Believers than they were to themselves; the crowd cried out: "It is so, O Apostle of God!"; he then declared: "He of whom I am the mawla, of him Ali is also the mawla (man kuntu mawlāhu fa-ʿAlī mawlāhu)".
  Shias regard these statements as constituting the designation of Ali as the successor of Muhammad and as the first Imam; by contrast, Sunnis take them only as an expression of close spiritual relationship between Muhammad and Ali, and of his wish that Ali, as his cousin and son-in-law, inherit his family responsibilities upon his death, but not necessarily a designation of political authority.
   Many Sufis also interpret the episode as the transfer of Muhammad's spiritual power and authority to Ali, whom they regard as the wali par excellence.
  Sources, among them both Shia and Sunni, state that, after the sermon, Abu Bakr, Umar, and Uthman pledged allegiance to Ali. However, there have been doubts regarding the veracity of the tradition due to evidence that Ali may not have been present during the sermon, instead being in Yemen at the time—a view held by the historian Ibn Kathir.
caption: The Investiture of Ali, at Ghadir Khumm (MS Arab 161, fol. 162r, 1307/8 Ilkhanid manuscript illustration)
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