Hadith of the pond of Khumm

Ghadīr Khumm (Arabic غدير خم, DMG Gadir humm ) is the name of an uninhabited place midway between Mecca and Medina, in which there was at the time of the Prophet Mohammed, a pond or marsh (Arabic Ghadīr ). The town, which lies 200 km north of Mecca in the Wadi Rabigh, therefore is significant because here Mohammed according to Islamic tradition, his cousin ʿ Alī ibn Abī Taalib took shortly before his death in 632, in the face of resting Muslims by the hand and declared: "Everyone whose master I am, who has also ʿ Alī to the Lord " (you kuntu Maula -hu fa - ʿ Alī Maula - hu).

The Shiites consider these words as ʿ Ali's designation as the successor of the Prophet. Muhammad's saying is narrated in the Sunni hadith collections, but not interpreted by the Sunnis as a designation.

The day on which Mohammed did this pronounciation is generally on the 18th Dhu al - Hijjah of the year 10 Hijri (16 March 632) dated. Later Shiite dynasties - Buyids and Fatimids - levied by reason of the 18th Dhu al - Hijjah to the feast. Even today, the day of Ghadir Khumm is one of the highest Shiite holidays.

The Hadith of Ghadir Khumm exists in many variants that are highly embellished to some extent. After one of the Shiite Imams traditional variant, which leads the ostiranische scholar Abū l - Ma ʿ Ali in his 1092 drafted Kitaab Bayān al - Adyan, Mohammed, in his speech at Ghadir Khumm the importance of the Prophet's family for the salvation of the people with the following image clearly: God created numerous trees, Mohammed and Ali are from a tree, he forms the root, the trunk of Ali and his sons Hasan and Husain, the fruit, the Shiites the branches and leaves. Anyone who seize these branches will redeemed; whoever does not do perish.