Virtues of Imam Ali in verse 67 of Surah Ma’idah
Virtues of Imam Ali in verse 67 of Surah Ma’idah
O prophet! Impart what has sent from God to you; and if you do not do that you did not fulfilled its prophecy. And God would protect you from [detriment] of people. Verily, God would not guide the group of infidels.
Cause of revelation of the verse:
Ayashi and Qomi both, in the first volume of their interpretations specified that this verse was descended after returning of God’s messenger from farewell pilgrimage in the area of Ghadir Khumm. Among the sunni scholars as well Siyooti in the second volume of Al-dor-ol-mansoor and Aloosi in 6th volume of Rooh-ol-maani knew the place of descedent of this verse as Ghadir Khumm. In some of sunni resources like 8th volume of Jame-ol-bayan by Tabari, first volume of tafsir-ol-bahr-ol-mohit by Aboo hayyan and second volume of Al-dor-ol-mansoor by Siyooti cause of revelation of the verse was said as being assigned of prophet to impart Islam. Shia scholars like Koleyni in first volume of Al-kafi, Tabarsi first volume of Al-ehtejaj fi rad-al-lejaj, Ab-ol-fotooh razi fourth volume of Roz-ol-jenan va rooh-ol-jenan with relying on narration of companions of God’s messenger and shia Imams knew cause of revelation of the missionary verse as in the event of Ghadir Khumm and announcing the successority of Amir-ol-momenin (AS). Tabarsi in the first volume of Elam-ol-vora tells the story as so:
Gabriel first while farewell pilgrimage came to prophet and requested him to get the swear allegiance for the successority of Ali (AS) from people; but prophet because of recognition which had of animosity of Koreysh, hypocrites and despiteful with Amir-ol-momenin (AS) felt the danger of schism and returning to pegan state, so requested protection from God.
Gabriel for the second time descended to prophet in the Khayf mosque and imparted the same command again without bringing the promise of protectorship of danger of people for prophet.
Third time he came to prophet in the way from Mecca to Medina and again repeated the same command. Prophet said to Gabriel I fear people suppose me liar in the successority of Ali and do not accept my speeches.
In the last stage the divine angel near a pond named Ghadir Khumm was descended to prophet and after repeating God’s command, brought the promise of protectorship and conservation from the detriments of hypocrites for prophet.
Other possibilities was said about the cause of revelation of this verse as so:
Tabari, Thaalabi and Siyooti in mentioned resources presume that this verse was descended in Mecca and at the beginning of prophecy of prophet. It means that the cause of descending that command to prophet is to impart truths infidels and pegans. They narrate that before descending this verse some guardians were assigned to protect the prophet’s life who after descending this verse were released and he stated God would protect me from the detriments of maliciouses.
In criticizing this possibility it can be said that as many people like Ibn-e-atiye in the fifth volume of Al-moharar-ol-vajiz or Ghartabi in the third volume of Al-jame-ol-ahkam-ol-quran and … have said sura Maede was descended in Medina and Tarmazi in the fifth volume of Al-jame-ol-sahih narrates from Abdollah-ibn-e-omar that sura Maede is the last descended sura. Beacause of this, in the sixth volume of Tafsir-ol-tahrir Ibn-e-ashoor says the supposition of descendence of missionary verse in Mecca and also the supposition that the mentioned verse was read in long years without attaching to any special sura or ocasionally was in the archive is not a true hypothesis. The other significant point is that according to Ibn-e-kathir’s hypothesis in the second volume of Tafsir-ol-quran-ol-azim the narrations which point to assigning guardian for prophet mostly are strange and lie.
The other possibility is said by Tabari in the 4th volume of Jame-ol-bayan and Fakhr razi in the 12 th volume of Al-tafsir-ol-kabir that this verse has been descended in Medina and the purpose of its descendence was assigning God’s messenger to impart truths of revelation to ‘’people of the book’’ unfearfuly. As Aboo hayyan has said in the third volume of Al-bahr-ol-mohit relying on the fact that the subject of verse should not be different from the previous and next verses and because in previous and next verses it has been told of ‘’people of the book’’ so prophet had mission to impart the rule of stoning to death and retaliation punishment to ‘’people of the book” who (Jews and Christians) have distorted and changed these divine rulings.
The point which to reject this possibility can be said is that according to the style of some verses like verses 26-27 of Ahzab sura or verses 2-4 of Hashr sura, after the wars of muslims with jews specially Bani gharize war and Kheybar war power and glory of jews were faded and with tenuring station and exiling some of influentials, the superb of their power in medina was eroded also according to verse 61 of sura Al-e emran christians who did not have much power in Saudi-arabia had one confrontation with muslims and it was (evnt of) cursing each other which was caneled to the request of christians themselves. With these points there were no reason for his fear of jews and christians to be the cause of his fear of imparting the truths of religion to them. More over, Missionary verse in terms of subject is not different from previous and next verses; because previous and next verses are about blaming jews and christians and perhaps they suppose with death of prophet the period of muslims’ power would be ended and one more time the situation of their sovereignty would be prepared but Missionary verse which is about assigning a leader after prophet, clarified the confutation of this supposition. On the other hand according to Tabarsi in the third volume of Elam-ol-vora it is in accordance with ‘’Perfection verse ‘’ which has descended after announcing of velayat (guardianship) of Imam Ali(AS) too.
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