Ali the first amongst men to adopt Islam
THE SECOND EVIDENCE
Narrating the life history of Afif Kandi, Ibne Hajar (in
Al-Isabah), lbne Abdul Bir (in Isti'ab) and many other scholars
of history have quoted him to have said: "During the Age of
Ignorance I once went to Makkah. My host was Abbas son of
Abdul Muttalib and both of us arrived in the precincts of the
Holy Ka'bah. Suddenly I saw that a man came and stood by the
side of the Ka'bah. Then a boy arrived and stood on his right
side. Soon after that I saw a woman came and stood behind
them. I saw the boy and the woman performing ruku' and sujud
(kneeling and prostration) in imitation of the man. This unprecedented scene inspired me to enquire from Abbas about it. He
said: "That man is Muhammad son of Abdullah and that boy is
his cousin and the woman standing behind them is the wife of
Muhammad . Then he added: "My nephew says that a day will
come when he will control the treasuries of Kisra' and Kaiser'.
By Allah, there is no follower of this religion on the face of the
earth except these three . Then the narrator says: "I wish that I
had been the fourth of them! "
Since the above narrative is not directly concerned with Ali, even those persons, who fail to narrate his virtues have
quoted it. Amongst the traditionalists only Bukhari has thought
it proper to declare it weak', but his attitude towards the
progeny of the Holy Prophet's household is quite well-known.
The readers can study the said narrative in detail in the books
mentioned below.(1)
THE THIRD EVIDENCE
In the sermons and dissertations of Ali we usually come
across the following and other similar sentences:
"I am the servant of Allah and the brother of the Holy
Prophet and the greatest truthful one, and none will utter this
sentence after me except one who is a liar. I offered prayers
along with the Holy Prophet for seven years(2) before anyone
else did so.
The author of al-Ghadir (vol. III. page 222) has quoted
authorities for these narrations from the hooks of traditions and
history and we dispense with quoting the same briefly::
THE FOURTH EVIDENCE
The following traditions of the Holy Prophet narrated by
successive witnesses with various explanations have been quoted
to this effect:
"The first person who will meet me on the pool of
Kausar' and the first person who embraced Islam is Ali son of
Abu Talib .
You may also study the authorities for these traditions in
the third volume of al-Ghadir', page 320. The evidences for both
the parts have reached the stage of consecutiveness and when a
person studies these hadiths without any bias he becomes
definite about Ali being the foremost among the believers. He does not, therefore, prefer at alt the other two statements
which are in a minority from the point of view of narration.
The number of the supporters of the first statement (viz. Ali
was the first person to embrace Islam), who consist of distinguished companions of the Prophet and tabe'in (companions of
the companions of the Prophet) exceeds sixty. So much so that
even Tabari(3) who has left the matter open and has contented
himself only with quoting the statement says that Ibn Sa'id
asked his father: "Was Abu Bakr the first person to embrace
Islam? His father replied: "No. Before he embraced Islam more than fifty
persons had come round to the prophet's way. However , his Islam was superior to
the islam of others".
(1). Tarikh-i Tabari, vol. II, p. 211; Tarikh-i Kamil, vol. II, pp. 31
- 38, andA'lâmul wara, page 25.
(2). 1n some of the narratives the period has been mentioned to be five years
and on the basis of numerous indications it may be said that a part of this
period preceded tb the prophetic mission.
(3). Tarikh-i Tabari, vol. 11, page 215.
- The message (The holy prophet of Allah)
- Ayatullah Jafar Subhani
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