Shia view of Ali

When Ali was about six years of age, Muhammad was granted permission from his uncle Abu Talib to bring him up as his own child. For ten years, Ali stayed in Muhammad's care and became inseparable, taking on the character of Muhammad, going so far as to state;[14]

I was the first to pray to God along with the Holy Prophet.

He also says in a sermon,[15][16]

The Holy Prophet (S) brought me up in his own arms and fed me his own morsel. I followed him wherever he went like a baby camel following its mother. Each day a new part of his character would become known to me and I would accept and follow it as a command.

The Shia believe that the decision of Ali to marry Fatimah was a perfect union decreed by God in the seventh heaven and given to the angel Gabriel (Jibral) to transmit directly to Ali. It is also believed, that due to their sinless and infallible nature, there were never any arguments or differences between Ali and Fatimah,[21][22] and believe that Ali never sought the hand of Amr ibn Hishām daughter in marriage, as that would, by definition make him fallible, as asking for the hand of marriage to an idol worshipper is a sin.[23] They also believe that Muhammad did not grant him the title Abu Turab in displeasure, but rather from his delight at the battle of al-Ashira.[24]

Muhammad's denunciation of the Meccan traditional religion was especially offensive to his own tribe, the Quraysh, as they were the guardians of the Kaaba. So they persecuted the Muslims. According to the tradition, the leaders of the Banu Makhzum and Banu Abd-Shams, two important clans of the Quraysh, declared a public boycott against the clan of Banu Hashim, their commercial rival in order to put pressure on the clan.

At this time, Muhammad arranged for some of his followers to emigrate to Ethiopia. The boycott lasted for three years. Ali stood firmly in support of Muhammad during the years of persecution of Muslims and the boycott of Banu Hashim in Mecca.

In 622 CE, the year of Muhammad's migration to Yathrib (now Medina), Ali risked his life by sleeping in Muhammad's bed to impersonate him and thwart an assassination plot, so that Muhammad could escape in safety.[25][26] This night is called "Laylat Al-mabit". According to some hadith a verse was revealed about Ali concerning his sacrifice on the night of hijrah which says "And there is the type of man who gives his life to earn the pleasure of Allah"[27][28]

Ali survived the plot, but risked his life again by staying in Mecca to carry out Muhammad's instructions: to restore to their owners all the goods and properties that had been entrusted to Muhammad for safekeeping. Then he went to Medina with Fatimah bint Asad (his mother), Fatimah (the daughter of Muhammad), and two other women.[25]

Then Muhammad went on his final pilgrimage (Hajj) and when returning, he called all those who were ahead to come back and those who were behind to come ahead. They had stopped at a place called Khumm. Muhammad sat on a pulpit made of saddles. Hadith then records that he said, "Whoever's mawla I am, Ali is also his mawla". Shia take this word in its sense as "master", while Sunnis consider it to have meant "friend".

Abu Bakr dispatched Ali, who did participate during the Ridda wars against the forces of Tulayha, a self-proclaimed prophet in July 632.

Ali did participate during the Ridda wars in July 632, against the forces of Tulayha, a self-proclaimed prophet. In the third week of July 632, the apostate army moved from Dhu Qissa to Dhu Hussa, from where they prepared to launch an attack on Medina. Abu Bakr scraped together a fighting force mainly from the clan of Mohammad, the Banu Hashim. The army had stalwarts like Ali ibn Abi Talib, Talha ibn Ubaidullah and Zubair ibn al-Awam (who would later in the 640s conquer Egypt). Each of them was appointed as commander of one-third of the newly organised force. Before the apostates could do anything, the Muslims of Medina launched an army against their outposts and drove them back to Dhu Hussa.

This discredits some Shea sources that claim, Ali did not give his oath of allegiance to Abu Bakr until some time after the death of his wife, Fatimah in the year 633. That is the view of Ahlus Sunnah wal Jamaah at least. In Shia view, Imam Ali never fought in the Ridda wars which were prompted because the Muslims defied the Caliphate of Abu Bakr by not paying taxes. After all, his Caliphate was decided by a few in Saqifah in the absence of major political figures, such as Imam Ali ibn Abu Talib who was busy with the funeral services and burial of Prophet Mohammad.[43]

In Sahih Bukahri, the daughter of Abu Bakr, 'Aisha narrates,[44][45]

Fatima, the daughter of Allah's Apostle got angry and stopped speaking to Abu Bakr, and continued assuming that attitude till she died.

The narration also gives the reason for this anger: Abu Bakr refused to give Lady Fatima bint Mohammad her inheritance. The matter was put on trial[46] where Abu Bakr was the judge. In the trial she gives her famous sermon[46][47][48][49] wherein she asserts her own rights to Fadak, and the rights of her husband, Imam Ali ibn Abu Talib, as successor to her father. Part of the sermon in which the Lady of Light, Fatima Zahra, addresses the masses in Al-Masjid an-Nabawi, the site of the trial, she says,

Nevertheless, I see that you are inclined to easy living; dismissed he who is more worthy of guardianship (Ali (A)); you secluded yourselves with meekness and dismissed that which you accepted... Here it is! Bag it (leadership and) put it on the back of an ill she camel, which has a thin hump with everlasting disgrace, marked with the wrath of Allah.

Decades later when Imam Ali sits as Caliph, historians find that he mentions in a letter to his governor, Uthman bin Hunayf,[50] that his family was deprived of Fadak, their only personal property, and they had to bear it patiently and cheerfully, and that the best Judge is Allah.

This trial is after Imam Ali's house is burned down (see Umar at Fatimah's house) in which his wife, Fatima bint Mohammad, sustains injuries causing her miscarriage and her eventual death. Abu Bakr had dispatched his nominator, Umar, to have Imam Ali swear the oath of allegiance but, Lady Fatima would not let him through the door so he forces his way in.[51] Imam Ali ibn Abu Talib was put in ropes and dragged by horses, as he recounts in a letter[52] to Muawiyah I who persistently accused Imam Ali for the assassination of the third Caliph,

You also want to taunt me by saying that when I refused to accept the caliphate of the First Caliph I was dragged like a camel with a rope round my neck and every kind of cruelty and humiliation was leveled against me... There is no disgrace for a Muslim if he is subjected to tyranny and suppression so long as he is firm in his faith and belief in Allah and religion.

In light of all this, it is not logical, from Shia point of view, to believe that Imam Ali ibn Abu Talib gave the oath of allegiance to Abu Bakr, or any other Caliph, after the demise of his beloved wife, Lady Fatima- who indisputably did not approve of the Caliphate. Especially when there are so many sources which say the contrary, manifesting his displeasure, distress, and sorrow at people who did not give consideration to his rights stated in Ghadeer Khumm[53] by the Holy Prophet, who was nearer to his family than anyone else,[54][55][56] and the rights of the daughter of His Apostle.

Ali Asgher Razwy a 20th-century Shia Twelver scholar states:

Umar, on his deathbed, had appointed six Muhajireen as members of a panel which was to choose one out of themselves as the future khalifa of the Muslims. They were Ali, Uthman, Talha, Zubayr, Abdur Rahman bin Auf and Saad bin Abi Waqqas. Except Ali, all other members of the panel were capitalists, or rather, neo-capitalists. When they came from Makkah, they were penniless and homeless but within twelve years, i.e., from the death of Muhammad Mustafa in 632 to the death of Umar in 644, each of them, except Ali, had become rich like Croesus. Between these two dates, they had accumulated immense wealth, and had become the richest men of their times. Ali did not qualify as a member of this exclusive "club" but Umar admitted him anyway. Apart from the fact that Ali made his living as a gardener whereas his other five co-members lived on the revenues of their lands and estates, there was another gulf, even more unbridgeable, that separated him from them. In character, personality, temperament, attitudes, philosophy and outlook on life, Ali and the rest of them were the antithesis of each other.[57]

A narration attributed to Ali reports:
`Othman ordered that I should have audience with him on a very hot day. I placed my garment on my head and went to see him. I entered, and he was on his bed, a rod in hand, surrounded by rich wealth: two heaps of gold and silver. He said, `Take of this whatever you wish so you may have enough (i.e. buy enough food) to fill your stomach, for you have burnt me.’ I said to him, `You have surely been kind to your kin! If this wealth is an inheritance which you have inherited, or a giver gave it to you personally, or you earned it from a trade deal, I would then be one of two: I may either take of it or simply thank you for your offer [but not accept it], or I may refrain so I may work hard (to earn my living). But if it is a wealth that belongs to Allah, and the Muslims are to partake of it, and so are the orphans and the wayfarers, then by Allah, you have no right to give me any of it, nor do I have any right to take any of it.’ He said, `I, by Allah, insist that you should do what you have refused to do.’ Then he kept hitting me with the rod. By Allah, I did not keep his hand away from me till he had enough. I pulled my garment over my head and went back home. I said, `Allah is between you and me if I enjoined on you to do what is right or prohibited you from doing wrong.[58]

Asādʿullāh : nickname given by Allah and his Prophet Muhammad to describe his kinsman Ali. Asadullah means "Lion of Allah", which is also well known as "Ismāʿīlī Lion". Alevism, Bektashism and some of the Tasawwufī tariqat consider Ali as the holder of the divine secrets and esoteric meaning of Islam, transmitted to him by Muhammad. "I am the city of knowledge, Ali is its gate." - Prophet Muhammad.

Shia Islam holds that the Islamic Prophet Muhammad designated Ali ibn Abi Talib as his successor and the Imam (leader) after him, most notably at the event of Ghadir Khumm, but was prevented from the caliphate as a result of the incident of Saqifah. This view primarily contrasts with that of Sunni Islam, whose adherents believe that Muhammad did not appoint a successor and consider Abu Bakr, who they claim was appointed caliph by a small group of Muslims at Saqifah, to be the first rightful caliph after the Prophet. Unlike the first three Rashidun caliphs, Ali was from the same clan as Muhammad, Banu Hashim, as well as being the prophet's cousin, son in law and being the first male to become Muslim. Shia Islam is the second largest branch of Islam: as of the late 2000s, Shia Muslims constituted 10–15% of all Muslims. Twelver Shia (Ithnā'ashariyyah) is the largest branch of Shia Islam, with 2012 estimates saying that 85% of Shias were Twelvers.