Al-Wilaya Verse
Al-Wilaya Verse (Arabic: آية الولاية) is the verse 55 of Quran 5 (Surah al-Ma'idah) which has been revealed about Imam Alī (a) and has praised him.1
Shi'as refer to this verse as a proof for the Wilayah of Imam Alī (a):
إِنَّما وَلِيُّكُمُ اللَّهُ وَرَسولُهُ وَالَّذينَ آمَنُوا الَّذينَ يُقيمونَ الصَّلاةَ وَيُؤتونَ الزَّكاةَ وَهُم راكِعونَ
Your guardian is only Allah, His Messenger, and the faithful who maintain the prayer and give the zakat while bowing down.
— Quran 5:55
Occasion of Revelation
This verse has been revealed about Imam Alī (a). This view is unanimously accepted by Shiite exegetes. It is almost the same among Sunni exegetes.
In his Mawāqif, Qadi Iji has stipulated that exegetes unanimously believe that this verse has been revealed about Alī (a).2
Al-Jurjānī in his commentary on Mawāqif3,
Sa'd al-Din al-Taftāzānī in his Sharh-i maqasid 4and
al-Allama al-Hilli in commentary on Tajrīd al-Iʿtiqād 5
- have confessed to this consensus.
There are also some hadiths in some Sunni exegeses that claim this verse has been revealed about Abdullah ibn Salam, Ubadah ibn al-Samit6, Abu Bakr and all Muslims7, however, none of them have strong bases.
According to some hadiths:
Once, a poor man entered al-Masjid al-Nabawi and asked for help, but no one helped him. He rose his hands to the sky and said:
- O Allah, witness that I asked for help in the mosque of Your Prophet (s) but no one helped me.
Meanwhile, Imam Alī (a) who was praying and was in Rukū, signalled the poor with his right hand. The poor man came and took out the ring; and the verse was revealed.8
Narrators
The occasion of the revelation mentioned above has been narrated by the companions including:
Abd Allah b. Abbas9, Abu Rafi al-Madani10, Ammār ibn Yāsir11, Abu Dharr al-Ghifari 12, Anas b. Malik13, Miqdad ibn Aswad.14
From Tābi’un, Muslima b. Kuhayl15, Utbat b. Abi Hakim16, al-Suddi17, and Mujahid ibn Jabr18 have narrated this story.
Indication of the Verse
There's no doubt for Shia exegetes that in the verse by "the faithful who maintain the prayer and give the zakat while bowing down" Imam Alī (a) is meant,
and also in the view of Sunni scholars the fame of the narration about the phrase of the verse being about Imam Alī (a) is to the extent
that Adud al-Dīn al-Ījī, the famous Sunni theologian, affirms in his book al-Mawaqif that the exegetes have Ijmā (consensus) that this verse was revealed about Alī (a).
Al-Jurjānī in Sharh al-Mawāqif, Sa'd al-Dīn al-Taftāzānī in Sharh al-maqasid, Alī Qushji in Sharh Tajrīd al-Iʿtiqād also have confirmed the Ijmā.
Great Sunni Muhaddiths have narrated the hadith in their books, like:
Hafiz Abd al-Razzāq al-San‘ani, Hafiz 'Abd b. Hamid, Hafiz Razīn b. Muāwiya, Hafiz al-Nasā’ī, Hafiz Muhammad b. Jarir al-Tabari, Ibn Abi Hātim, Ibn Asākir,
Abu Bakr b. Murdawayh, Abu ’l-Qāwsim al-Tabarānī, al-Khatīb al-Baghdādī, al-Haythami, Ibn al-Jawzī, Muhibb al-Dīn al-Tabari, Jalal al-Dīn al-Suyuti, and al-Muttaqi al-Hindi.19
Mahmūd Al-Alusi says:
most of the Muhaddiths believe that the verse was revealed about Alī (a).20
Indication of the Wilaya of Imam Alī (a)
Shi'as have concluded the Wilaya of Alī (a) from the verse21, and some considered the verse as the strongest reason of his Imamate22.
The verse begins with "Innama" (Arabic: إنّما) which, according to Arab scholars indicates the exclusivity,23 so according to the verse, Allah, the Prophet (s) and Imam Alī (a) are exclusively considered as Walī.
The Arabic word "Walī" (ولي) is derived from Wilaya meaning the administrator and guardian.24
Ibn Manzūr says:
"the Walī of an orphan is someone who is responsible for his affairs, and the Walī of a bride is her agent in concluding the marriage contract.
Al-Fayyumi says: "Walī of a person is someone who is responsible for his affairs".
So the very meaning of Walī is the administrator and someone who is responsible for someone else. Other meanings are derived from this meaning.
It is narrated in al-Kāfī from Imam al-Baqir (a):
Allah ordered his Prophet (s) about the Wilaya of Imam Alī (a) [after the Prophet (s)] and revealed the al-Wilaya Verse and obligated the obedience of the Uli l-Amr Verse (Quran 4:59), and people did not know what is this Wilaya.
Allah ordered His Prophet (s) to describe them Wilaya as he had described prayer, zakat, fasting, and hajj.
The Prophet (s) was worried about people turn from Islam and impugn him, so he referred to His God and Allah revealed al-Tablīgh Verse:
"O Apostle! Communicate that which has been sent down to you from your Lord, and if you do not, you will not have communicated His message, and Allah shall protect you from the people. Indeed Allah does not guide the faithless lot."
/Quran 5:67 /
So the Prophet (s) publicized the Wilaya of Alī (a) in Ghadir Khumm and ordered the present to inform the absent.
- 1. Tabarānī, Al-Mu'jam al-Awsat, vol. 6, p. 218.
- 2. Ījī, al-Mawāqif, p. 405.
- 3. Ījī, al-Mawāqif, p. 405.
- 4. Taftāzānī, Sharh al-maqāṣid, vol. 5, p. 269.
- 5. Allāma al-Hillī, Kašf al-murād, p. 191.
- 6. Ibn al-Jawzī, Zād al-masīr, vol. 1, p. 560.
- 7. Ibn al-Jawzī, Zād al-masīr, vol. 1, p. 561.
- 8. Shūshtarī, Ihqāq al-haq, vol. 2, p. 400; Hākim al-Haskānī, Shawāhid al-tanzīl, vol. 1, p. 209-239.
- 9. Hākim al-Haskānī, Shawāhid al-tanzīl, vol. 1, p. 232.
- 10. Tabarānī, al-Muʿjam al-kabīr, vol. 1, p. 320-321.
- 11. Suyūtī, al-Durar al-manthūr, vol. 3, p. 106.
- 12. Ibn Taymiyyah, Tafsīr al-kabīr, vol. 12, p. 26.
- 13. Hākim al-Haskānī, Shawāhid al-tanzīl, vol. 1, p. 225.
- 14. Hākim al-Haskānī, Shawāhid al-tanzīl, vol. 1, p. 228.
- 15. Suyūtī, al-Durar al-manthūr, vol. 3, p. 105.
- 16. Ibn Abī Hātim, Tafsīr al-Qurān al-azīm, vol. 4, p. 1162.
- 17. Tabarī, Jāmi al-bayān, vol. 10, p. 425.
- 18. Tabarī, Jāmi al-bayān, vol. 10, p. 426.
- 19. Shūshtarī, Ihqāq al-haq, vol. 2, p. 399-407.
- 20. Ālūsī, Rūh al-maʿānī, vol. 3, p. 335.
- 21. Mufīd, al-Ifṣāh fī l-Imāma, p. 134; Tūsī, al-Tibyān, vol. 3, p. 559.
- 22. Tūsī, Talkhīṣ al-shāfī, vol. 2, p. 10.
- 23. Ibn Hishām, Mughnī l-labīb, vol. 1, p. 39.
- 24. Ibn Manzūr, Lisān al-Arab, vol. 15, p. 407.