Day 6

The lesson

1. The Prophet said: Ali is with the truth, and the truth is with Ali (al-Kafi 1:294; Kifayat al-Athar); hadiths with this meaning are also recorded in Sunan al-Tirmidhi and Tarikh Madinat Dimashq. He ordered every door opening onto his mosque closed except Ali's, saying he had been commanded to do so (Kanz al-Ummal).
2. While he and Banu Hashim were washing and burying the Prophet, a group at Saqifa Bani Sa'ida chose Abu Bakr (al-Irshad 1:186). He refused allegiance; Shia scholars hold that any later allegiance was under compulsion, and al-Shaykh al-Mufid holds that he never gave it (al-Fusul al-Mukhtara). The house was attacked to force him, and Sayyida Fatima was injured (al-Saqifa wa Fadak of al-Jawhari; al-Ihtijaj of al-Tabrisi). With her he went to the houses of the Helpers to remind them of his right (Sharh Nahj al-Balagha of Ibn Abi l-Hadid), and the Shiqshiqiyya sermon records his protest.
3. In the twenty-five years that followed he compiled the Qur'an, finishing within six months of the Prophet's passing (al-Fihrist of Ibn al-Nadim; al-Itqan of al-Suyuti; Bihar al-Anwar); proposed that the Hijra mark the start of the Islamic calendar (al-Mustadrak of al-Hakim; Tarikh al-Ya'qubi); and dug canals, planted palms, built mosques, freed a thousand slaves and endowed lands whose yearly income reached forty thousand dinars (Manaqib Al Abi Talib of Ibn Shahrashub).

Questions

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