IMAMATE THROUGH RING HADITH

Quran Chapter 5: Verse 55: Your (real) guardians are (no less than) God, His Apostle, and the believers,those who establish regular prayers and regular charity, and they bow down humbly (in worship).
1. The word Innama
The verse starts with the word innama which means only
The proof from sunni source that the word innama means only is the following reference:
Reference:
Lisan al Arab by Ibn Mansour, vol 13, page 24 and page 31
Meaning of Innama: Innama proves whatever comes after it and denies everything else.
2. The word waliyakkum
The word waliyakkum means guardian.
Reference: Lisan al Arab by Ibn Mansour, vol 15, page 402
Ibn Atheer in his book : al Nihaya, vol 5, pag 228 says, If someone controls something, then he is its maula
or his wali. Thus maula and wali mean guardian.
Finally, Quran in 57:15 states that Hellfire is maulakum. When one looks at the many tafseer books
available like at-Tabari, al-Qurtubi, Ibn Katheer, or by Jalaluddin as Suyuti, they all say that hellfire is
maulakum, which means that the fire controls you. Thus maula / wali mean guardian or an authority or
somebody who controls us.
3. The words al lazina aamanu
The words al lazina aamanu refers to Imam Ali in the above verse.
Reference: Tafseer ibn Katheer vol. 2 page 74

FIRST HADITH CHAIN:

Reference: Tafseer ibn Katheer vol. 2 page 74
Ibn Katheer mentions the verse 5:55 and said that it was revealed for Imam Ali. He mentions a lot of ahadith
and starts weakening them one by one until he reaches one hadith and skips it. When one checks the chain
of narrators, we find all of them to be reliable. The first narrator is Abdul Rahman ibn Abu Hatim, who is
a renowned sunni scholar, hafiz e Quran and has also authored Tafseer Abu Hatim. He narrated the hadith
through Abu Saeed al Ashaj, who is reliable and finds mention in the sihah sitta (the 6 authentic sunni
books). He narrates from al Fazl bin Dakeen who is reliable and the teacher of Al Bukhari and Bukhari
narrates through him. He narrates from Musa bin Tais al Hazrami who is also a hafiz and has the nickname
the bird of Paradise and ibn Hajar says he is truthful. He narrates from Salama bin Quhail who is reliable
and finds mention in sihah sitta. He is from Tabeyeen and he directly states the story. He dint say that
Prophet said so. He directly stated that this verse was revealed for Imam Ali.
So we see that all the narrators are reliable but not directly connected to Holy Prophet.
According to Ahle Sunnah, such a hadith is mursal sahih and is considered authentic. (till is reaches attabeyeen and is a hujjah according to majority of sunni scholars)
Al Albani says: Al mursal as sahih is a proof according to majority of scholar. Hafiz Ibn Katheer said then
using such a hadith as a proof is accepted to Imam Malik, Abu Hanifa and their students and is an opinion
of Imam Ahmed ibn Hanbal.
Reference: Kitab al Shaibani, vol. 1 page 134-135
Thus from this reference, it is clear that Ibn Katheer knew the hadith to be authentic and is a hujjah, thus
he skipped it.

SECOND HADITH CHAIN:

Reference: Tafseer ibn Katheer vol. 2 page 74
Chain: Ibn Mardawayh narrated it through Sufiyan as-thouri who narrated it from Sinan who narrated from
ad-Dadhak who narrated from Ibn Abbas.
Immediately after this, Ibn Katheer said ad-Dahhak did not meet Ibn Abbas and he kept quiet, so people
when they read it, they will assume the chain to be broken and thus weak.
Yes, its true that ad-Dahhak did not meet Ibn Abbas but the narrator between them is Saeed ibn Jubayr
(from at-tabeyeen). He is very reliable and is the connection between ad-Dahhak and Ibn Abbas.
Ibn Hajar Asqalani says: One scholar says ad-Dahhak did not meet Ibn Abbas however he met Saeed ibn
Jubayr and he took the tafseer from him.
Reference: Tahtheeb al Tahtheeb for Ibn Hajar Asqalani, vol. 4, page 398
So, it means that the hadith speaks about tafseer al Quran which ad-Dahhak narrates through Ibn Abbas, he
took from Saeed ibn Jubayr.
Thus, the hadith is connected and authentic. There are other examples of such ahadith eg: Saeed ibn
Musayyab

THIRD HADITH CHAIN:

Reference: Tafseer ibn Katheer vol. 2, page 74
Chain: Ibn Mardawayh narrated through Mohd. Ibn Saad al Kalbi, after this, Ibn Katheer said he is
matrook. The rest of the chain is authentic.
Matrook means some scholars have left him (they did not use his hadith as a proof)
It should be borne in mind that we can use this hadith as a proof because immediately after stating about
Al Kalbi being matrook, Ibn Katheer says this chain cannot be criticized. If we check Tafseer ibn Katheer,
vol. 1, page 41, he mentions another hadith through Al Kalbi and says that one cannot use Al Kalbis hadith
as a proof if no one else narrates the same hadith. In our case, Al Kalbi is not the sole narrator, thus he
cannot be avoided.
In our case, there are over 30 or 70 chains. Thus Ibn Katheer said the chain cannot be criticized.

FOURTH HADITH CHAIN

Reference: Shawahid al Tanzeel for Al Hakim al Hasakani, Vol. 1 page 212
Al Hakim Hasakani who narrated from Al Hassan bin Mohd. Al Usman who narrates from Yaqub bin
Sufyan and the rest of the narrators are from Bukhari and Muslim and are all reliable till it reaches Ibn
Abbas.
Some sunnis say especially wahabis that al Hakam al Hasakani died in the 5th century. Al Hasan ibn Mohd
al Usman died in 4th century. So there is a 100 years gap, thus the chain is disconnected.
Many scholars reject the above objection because Al Hakim Al Hasakani clearly said that he heard if from
Al Hasan ibn Mohd. Al Usman. If we go to Tadhkiratul Huffaz, vol. 3 page 1200, Az Dhahabi says:
1) Al Hasan Al Hasakani had a long life
2) His chain is short
If we go to Ahmed ibn Hanbal and check his books, well see that between him and the Holy Prophet there
are about 5 narrators, however if we go to at-Tabarani, well notice that there maybe only 3 people in the
chain even though he lived in the same period. This is because Tabarani lived for a long time and his chain
is short, thus he skipped one or two generations. This is what happened with Hasan Hasakani. He lived a
long life and narrated from a person from the previous century.
Thus there is no proof that they did not see each other or did not meet. This is not the sole narration where
he states that he heard it from Al Hasan ibn Mohd. Al Usman, there are other places too where he mentioned
it like:
Hadith No. 221 and 852 in the same source.
The last proof to prove authenticity of this hadith is that it has many chains. There is a rule within the hadith
books of Ahle Sunnah that if a hadith has many chains, even if there are some weaknesses on some chains,
it is considered authentic based on the sheer numbers of the chains.
Al Albani in Tamam al Minna, page 31 said: Its famous according to the scholars in ahadith that if a hadith
comes with many chains, they will strengthen each other and is used as a hujjah even though each hadith
may have some weaknesses.
This particular rule fits the hadith of ring.
Jalaluddin Suyuti authenticated the hadith of the ring based on the above rule:
Reference: Libab al Nuqool, page 93 said: Tabarani narrated through Ammar ibn Yassir and he mentions
the story . Abdul Razzak as Sanani narrated through Ibn Abbas and he mentions the story; Ibn Mardawayh
narrated through Ibn Abbas; and also narrated through Imam Ali; al Tabari narrated through al-Mujahid;
Ibn Abi Hatim narrated through Salama ibn Quhail and he said those chain strengthen each other.

SCHOLARS WHO AFFIRMED THE VERSE REVEALED FOR IMAM ALI.

1. Al Sharif al Jarjani in his book Sharh Mawaqef, vol. 8, page 360. He said all scholars of tafseer
agree that it was revealed for Imam Ali.
2. Adad al Deen al Ayji in his book al Mawaqef, page 405 said that the verse was revealed on Imam
Ali. Ibn Hajar Asqalani said some good things about the above scholar in book: Al Dorar al
Kaamina, vol. 2, page 32
3. Saad al Deen al Taftazani in Sharh al Maqasid, vol. 5, page 170 said verse revealed on Imam Ali
while he was performing ruku and gave the ring as charity. Ibn Hajar Asqalani said good things
above the scholar above in Al Dorar al Kaamina, vol. 4, page 350
4. Ala al Deen al Hanafi al Qushji in Sharh Tajreed al Etegad, page 368. He said the verse was revealed
for Imam Ali and all mufasereen agree on it. Al Shawkani said good things about Al Qushji in his
book: Al Bader al Tale, vol. 1 page 495
5. Al Aloosi in his tafseer Rooh al Mani, vol. 6 page 167. He said majority of traditions say it was
revealed on Imam Ali, then he narrated a poem and then said that Ibn al Jowzi was asked how come
Imam Ali gave charity while in ruku, so he replied that Imam Ali is a unique person to do this.

What do we understand from the verse?

The verse says: Your guardian is only Allah, His Prophet and Imam Ali.
What does wali mean? It simply means guardian
Some people may tell us that it means friendship. Immediately, go to chapter 9: verse 71. It says believers
are friends of each other.
Does it mean that the two verses contradict each other? No. In 9:71, wali means friendship while in 5:55, it
is guardianship. They are simply different forms of wilayat.