WE BELIEVE that the prophet, in several occasions has introduced and designated Imam Ali as his successor by the decree of God, an instance of which was in the GHADIR KHOMM somewhere near JOHFEH.
When the prophet was returning from his last pilgrimage (HAJJ) he made a speech for a great gathering of his companions and followers, saying:_
Do I not have priority over your souls? Yes, of course
they all answered. Then all of you know that, continued the prophet. The MASTER of whoever I am, Ali shall be his master.(1)
Here we do not intend to go deep through reasoning to prove our ideas, We also do not intend to insist upon our assertion. We may only add here that such an important TRADITION is not something to be ignored easily, or changing what it means, as by taking the MASTER=MOWLA to mean a friend particularly when we see that the prophet has put so much stress and emphasis upon the word, so as to make it known to all!
Is this not the same case that; IBNI ASIR has brought in his important history book saying:_
At the begining of his prophetic mission, the prophet was ordered by God:(QURAN _ S26: 214) to admonish his nearest kindred. He invited some fourty men of them to a dinner, and by a miracle, he fed all of them from a single portion of food! He then made a speech and finally said to them: `which of you is willing to give me a truthful hand in this Divine Mission of mine, and become my brother and successor among all?(1)
No one answered him there, cxcept Imam Ali, who said, I will be your companion and minister: and the prophet pointed at Imam Ali and said, He is my brother and my successor among you. Thus we see the prophet to designate his VICEGERENT and Imam, from the begining of his mission.
The same case also happened at the end of his mission when the prophet was at his death bed. He asked those who were round him to get him a pen AND paper to write an order which would prevent them from giong astray. one of them rejected and refused to provide pen and paper and even accused the prophet of uttering delirious speech!
to repeat again, we hereby only declare our belief in brief and a little reasoning.(2)