Ali's father Abu Talib ibn ‘Abd al-Muttalib was the custodian of the Kaaba and a sheikh of the Banu Hashim, an important branch of the powerful Quraysh tribe. He was also an uncle of Muhammad. Ali's mother, Fatima bint Asad, also belonged to Banu Hashim, making Ali a descendant of Ishmael, the son of Ibrahim or Abraham.[14]
Many sources, especially Shia ones, attest that during Mohammad's time Ali was born inside the Kaaba in the city of Mecca, where he stayed with his mother for three days. According to a tradition, Muhammad was the first person whom Ali saw as he took the newborn in his hands. Muhammad named him Ali, meaning "the exalted one".[1][15]
Muhammad had a close relationship with Ali's parents. When Muhammad was orphaned and later lost his grandfather Abdul Muttalib, Ali's father took him into his house.[1] Ali was born two or three years after Muhammad married Khadijah bint Khuwaylid.[16] When Ali was five or six years old, a famine occurred in and around Mecca, affecting the economic conditions of Ali's father, who had a large family to support. Muhammad took Ali into his home to raise him.[1][5][17]
Acceptance of Islam
See also: Identity of the first male Muslim
The second period of Ali's life begins in 610 when he declared Islam at age 10 and ends with the Hijra of Muhammad to Medina in 622.[1] When Muhammad reported that he had received a divine revelation, Ali, then only about ten years old, believed him and professed to Islam.[1][4][5][6] According to Ibn Ishaq and some other authorities, Ali was the first male to embrace Islam. Tabari adds other traditions making the similar claim of being the first Muslim in relation to Zayd or Abu Bakr.[18][19] Some historians and scholars believe Ali's conversion is not worthy enough to consider him the first male Muslim because he was a child at the time.[20]
Shia doctrine asserts that in keeping with Ali's divine mission, he accepted Islam before he took part in any pre-Islamic Meccan traditional religion rites, regarded by Muslims as polytheistic (see shirk) or paganistic. Hence the Shi'a say of Ali that his face is honored — that is, it was never sullied by prostrations before idols.[5] The Sunnis also use the honorific Karam Allahu Wajhahu, which means "God's Favor upon his Face."
The reason his acceptance is often not called a conversion, is because he was never an idol worshiper like the people of Mecca. He was known to have broken idols in the mold of Abraham and asked people why they worshiped something they made themselves. Ali's grandfather, it is acknowledged without controversy, along with some members of the Banu Hashim clan, were Hanifs, followers of a monotheistic belief system, prior to the coming of Islam.
After declaration of Islam
For three years Muhammad invited people to Islam in secret, then he started inviting publicly. When, according to the Qur'an, he was commanded to invite his closer relatives to come to Islam[21] he gathered the Banu Hashim clan in a ceremony.
According to al-Tabari, Ibn Athir and Abu al-Fida, Muhammad announced at invitational events that whoever assisted him in his invitation would become his brother, trustee and successor. Only Ali, who was thirteen or fourteen years old, stepped forward to help him. This invitation was repeated three times, but Ali was the only person who answered Muhammad. Upon Ali's constant and only answer to his call, Muhammad declared that Ali was his brother, inheritor and vice-regent and people must obey him. Most of the adults present were uncles of Ali and Muhammad, and Abu Lahab laughed at them and declared to Abu Talib that he must bow down to his own son, as Ali was now his Emir[22] This event is known as the Hadith of Warning.
During the persecution of Muslims and boycott of the Banu Hashim in Mecca, Ali stood firmly in support of Muhammad.[23]
Migration to Medina
See also: Hijra (Islam)
In 622, 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.[1][5][24] This night is called Laylat al-Mabit. According to some hadith, a verse was revealed about Ali concerning his sacrifice on the night of Hijra which says, "And among men is he who sells his nafs (self) in exchange for the pleasure of Allah"[25][26]
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. Ali then went to Medina with his mother, Muhammad's daughter Fatimah and two other women.[4][5]
In Medina
During Muhammad's era
See also: Muhammad in Medina and Military career of Ali
Ali was 22 or 23 years old when he migrated to Medina. When Muhammad was creating bonds of brotherhood among his companions, he selected Ali as his brother.[4][5][27] For the ten years that Muhammad led the community in Medina, Ali was extremely active in his service as his secretary and deputy, serving in his armies, the bearer of his banner in every battle, leading parties of warriors on raids, and carrying messages and orders. [28] As one of Muhammad's lieutenants, and later his son-in-law, Ali was a person of authority and standing in the Muslim community.
Family life
See also: Ahl al-Bayt, Hadith of the Event of the Cloak, and the verse of purification
A Syrian devotional icon of Ali, dated to 1989.In 623, Muhammad told Ali that God ordered him to give his daughter Fatimah Zahra to Ali in marriage.[1] Muhammad said to Fatimah: "I have married you to the dearest of my family to me."[29] This family is glorified by Muhammad frequently and he declared them as his Ahl al-Bayt in events such as Mubahala and hadith like the Hadith of the Event of the Cloak. They were also glorified in the Qur'an in several cases such as "the verse of purification".[30][31]
Ali had four children born to Fatimah, the only child of Muhammad to have progeny. Their two sons (Hasan and Husain) were cited by Muhammad to be his own sons, honored numerous times in his lifetime and titled "the leaders of the youth of Jannah" (Heaven, the hereafter.)[32][33]
Theirs was a simple life of hardship and deprivation. Throughout their life together, Ali remained poor because he did not set great store by material wealth.To relieve their extreme poverty, Ali worked as a drawer and carrier of water and she as a grinder of corn. Often there was no food in her house. According to a famous Hadith, one day she said to Ali: "I have ground until my hands are blistered." and Ali answered "I have drawn water until I have pains in my chest."[34][35]
Their marriage lasted until Fatimah's death ten years later. Although polygamy was permitted, Ali did not marry another woman while Fatimah was alive, and his marriage to her possesses a special spiritual significance for all Muslims because it is seen as the marriage between two great figures surrounding Muhammad. After Fatimah's death, Ali married other wives and fathered many children.[1]
Ghadir Khumm
Main articles: Hadith of the pond of Khumm and Hadith of the two weighty things
As Muhammad was returning from his last pilgrimage in 632, he made statements about Ali that are interpreted very differently by Sunnis and Shias.[1] He halted the caravan at Ghadir Khumm, gathered the returning pilgrims for communal prayer and began to address them[44]:
The Investiture of Ali, at Ghadir Khumm (MS Arab 161, fol. 162r, AD 1309/8 Ilkhanid manuscript illustration).O people, I am a human being. I am about to receive a message from my Lord and I, in response to Allah's call, (would bid good-bye to you), but I am leaving among you two weighty things: the one being the Book of Allah(Qur'an) in which there is right guidance and light, so hold fast to the Book of Allah and adhere to it. He exhorted (us) (to hold fast) to the Book of Allah and then said: The second are the members of my household I remind you (of your duties) to the members of my family.[45]
This quote is confirmed by both Shi’a and Sunni, but they interpret the quote differently.[46]
Some Sunni and Shi'a sources report that then he called Ali ibn Abi Talib to his sides, took his hand and raised it up declaring[47]
"For whoever I am a Mawla of, then Ali is his Mawla.[48]"
The Shia's regard these statements as constituting the investiture of Ali as the successor of Muhammad and as the first Imam; by contrast, the Sunnis take them only as an expression of Muhammad's closeness to Ali and of his wish that Ali, as his cousin and son-in-law, inherit his family responsibilities upon his death. [49] Many Sufis also interpret the episode as the transfer of Muhammad's spiritual power and authority to Ali, whom they regard as the wali par excellence.[1][50]
On the basis of this hadith, Ali later insisted on his religious authority superior to that of Abu Bakr and Umar.[51]
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