 |
Ali, first Imam of the Shiites.
The Arabic text, starting up in the right corner, translates:
"God's messenger [prophet Muhammad] said: 'He whose lord
I am, also has Ali as his Lord.'" The text comes from a
hadith, a Tradition / about the prophet Muhammad: Shortly
before the prophet Muhammad died he made his last pilgrimage
to Mecca. According to this hadith, transmited among others by
the Sunni scholar Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Muhammad and his following
rested on their journey back to Medina at a place called Ghadir
Khumm. There, the Prophet took Ali's hand and held it up, and
said to his followers: "He whose lord I am, also has Ali
as his lord. O Lord, be a support for all who are the support
of Ali, and be the enemy of all who oppose him."
This narrative is one of the
texts that Shia Muslims use in arguing that Ali is the rightful
heir to leadership in the Muslim community, and the first Imam.
Original: Small images, Ingvild
Flaskerud, Qum 1999.
|