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Question: How would it be possible that thousands of people swear allegiance to Ali (a.s.) in Ghadir Khumm and then all of them conspire against him in Saqifah?
Answer: Answering to this question, we should say that firstly many of those who swore allegiance to Ali (a.s.) in Ghadir Khumm, were not inhabitants of Medin and three or four thousand of them resided in Medina at most. On the other hand, a large number of them were also slaves and weak and oppressed people who joined to the Prophet (s.a.w.) from the different areas and didn’t have any tribes or relatives in Medina, such as the people of the Veranda (Ahl-e-Soffah), so there remains half of them that their number didn’t exceed two thousand. They also obeyed their chiefs without question and accepted the rules of their tribes.
Secondly, taking in to consideration the conference of Saqifah which held immediately after the death of the Prophet (s.a.w.), it is appeared that the number of those who chose Abu-Bakr as a caliph didn’t exceed one hundred. Since, from among the Ansar who were inhabitants of Medina, there were just their leaders and noble men. Also, from among the Muhajirin (immigrants) who were inhabitants of Mecca and immigrated with Prophet (s.a.w.) to Medina, there were just three or four of them as Quraysh. Just then, most of the Muslims were away from Saqifah. Some of them were also wrapping the Holy Prophet (s.a.w.) in a shroud (kafan) or were dismayed to hear about the death of the Prophet (s.a.w.). Furthermore, some ones had also threatened people not to announce the death of the Prophet (s.a.w.).(1)
Besides, doing according to the order of the Messenger of Allah (s.a.w.), many of the Companions were in the Uthamah army, and they resided at the Jiraf base at that moment. So they didn’t come to know about the death of the Prophet (s.a.w.) therefore they didn’t attend Saqifah.
Thirdly, the unexpectedness of the event played an important role and forced people to accept the situation. Because when the conference of Saqifah was held, some people were burying the Prophet (s.a.w.), such as: Imam Ali (a.s.), Ibn Abbas, other ones of Banihashim, Miqdad, Salman, Abudar, Ammar and several other people of the Companions, so they were uninformed about it. Moreover, when people who attended Saqifah took Abu-Bakr to mosque and asked people to swear allegiance to him and they went to mosque in groups to do that –willingly or unwillingly- Ali (a.s.) and his friends were doing a holy obligation which their good character qualities persuaded them to do that ,because it was not fair that they left the body of the Prophet (s.a.w.) without washing (Ghusl) and wrapping in a shroud (Kafan) and went to Saqifah hurriedly for disputing about caliphate.
By the time they completed that holy obligation, the problem of caliphate was solved and Abu-Bakr became caliph. If someone refused to swear allegiance to him would be considered as a rebellious so Muslims should have fought against him and if necessary, they should have killed him. As a result of this, Umar threatened to kill Sa`d ibn Ibadah and ordered that: “kill him because he is a rebellious.” he was a rebellious because he had refused to swear allegiance to Abu-Bakr.(2)
So, It was concluded that all the people who were present at the event of Ghadir Khumm and according to the order of the Prophet (s.a.w.) swore allegiance to Ali (a.s.), didn’t attend Saqifah to oppose it, and it is also appeared that the event of saqifah was just a political one which it’s purpose, as Bokhari says in his Sahih, was to hide the reality and the truth.(3)
1- Sahih of Bukhari (4), p. 195.
2- Sahih of Bukhari (8), p. 211, Tarikh of Tabari (3), p. 223.
3- With the truthful people, p. 146.
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