Ali AlaihisSalam risks his life for the Holy Prophet ﷺ
In the Spring of 622 A.D. the confederacy of the
Meccan pagans, headed by Abu Jahl and Abu Sufyan, the two arch enemies of Islam, hatched a plot to assassi- nate the Holy Prophet ﷺ It was unanimously decided that the preachings of Muhammad ﷺ (may peace be upon him) ran counter to the interests of the Quraish and that the Prophet’s ﷺ assassination had become necessary for the betterment of the Meccan state. Muhammad’s ﷺ house was to be surrounded at night and a member from each family of the Meccan City-State was to assist in the execution, so that the responsibility of the murder could not be laid at the door of any particular clan or tribe. Tradition says that the Holy Prophet ﷺ was forewarned by God of the impending danger and ordered to emigrate to Medina. When the Prophet ﷺ and Abu Bakr left Mecca for Medina Ali AlaihisSalam was ordered to go and sleep in Muhammad’s ﷺhouse on Muhammad’s bed ﷺ
Ali AlaihisSalam your His heart swelling with love and gratitude at being selected and entrusted with such a dangerous asked his master, “If I sleep here in your bed stead, will you be safe?” “Yes”, said the Holy Prophet ﷺ. He, ﷺ then went calmly on to give Ali instructions about what still remained to be done at Mecca before Ali could leave to join Muhammad ﷺat Medina. Many articles that had been deposited with the Prophet ﷺfor safe-keeping were to be returned by Ali to their respective owners; Ali was also to look to the safety of all Muslim women and children.
The task that Muhammadﷺ entrusted to Ali was a no small undertaking for a young man of twenty-two or twenty-three years old, but in the way in which he carried it out, Ali showed an unflinching fidelity. He was called upon to deputise for Muhammadﷺ at the risk of his own life, for it was highly probable that the mob, furious at being foiled of their chief objective would kill Ali in his stead.
“In the midst of this terrible struggle” says a writer, “between life and death, with whatever tran- quility of mind Ali has presented himself, men of under- standing and intelligence will ever congratulate him
for it till the end. of this world. Too, they will marvel at the Prophet’s ﷺwise selection of Ali for this night’s
dramatic performance.” After the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ accompanied by Abu Bakr had left the house, Ali shut himself up in the Pro- phet’s bedroom,ﷺ barred its doors and locked them from inside. Covering himself with Muhammad’s ﷺfamiliar black cloak, he slept on Muhammad’s carpetﷺ. The assassins surrounded Muhammad’s ﷺhouse at night but finding the doors well closed did not break them. One. of them peeped through the shutters and seeing a figure wrapped in Muhammad’s ﷺwell known mantle took it to be Muhammad ﷺhimself. The assassins then decided. to keep watch over the house till the break of day and kill Muhammad ﷺwhen unsuspecting he came out at dawn for morning prayers. “The morning breeze” says Col Bodley, “whispered over the desert. The dawn came mauvely from the east and showed the as- sassins braced to strike. As the first white rays of the rising sun hit the flat roofs of Mecca, the door of Muhammad’sﷺ house opened. The men stood ready to spring. They then held back as their astonished eyes rested on the burly figure of Ali standing on the threshold carrying Muhammad’s ﷺcloak over his arms.”
Something in Ali’s bearing, some intensely personal quality of heroism, and some personal charm of his demeanour, must have been responsible for his survival on this occasion. The mob held back and we know that Ali stayed on in Mecca for some days returning the entrusted property as the Holy Prophetﷺ had directed. Ali then left to join the Holy Prophet ﷺin Medina where he became one of the first members of the Fraternity.
The Islamic Fraternity: Ali as Muhammad’sﷺ
had established a bond of fraternity through which every local Ansar (the Medinite helper) was united with a Muslim Meccan exile in formal brotherhood and shared his property and belongings with him. The Meccans were similarly ordered to reciprocate with a share of their earnings. At this juncture Muhammad ﷺ (may peace be upon him) is said to have selected Ali as his partner in the bond of the brotherhood. This fraternal bond was considered equivalent to blood kinship in matters of inheritance. Every Muslim at his death bequeathed his movable and immovable pro- perty proportionately to his collaterals and other rela- tives and to those whom he adopted in fraternity. Thus Ali became one of Muhammad’sﷺ heirs.
Ali a labourer of the first Mosque
In the Spring of 623 A.D., the first Spring after his emigration to Medina, the Holy Prophetﷺ decided to build the first Mosque, laying its foundation on the site which is today called “Masjid-i-Nabvi”. Ali was the first to offer his services as a labourer working alongside the other members of the Fraternity, shovelling the earth when the foundations were being laid and later carrying on his shoulders baskets of mortar and brick While thus labour- which he passed on to the masons. ing Ali recited the following verses:-
Whosoever builds a mosque And works whether sitting or standing Puts up with the pain of labour While others shirk work For fear of dust and pain Both of these verily Cannot equal each other.
It was in this fashion that the ‘First House of God’ was constructed of sun-dried bricks resting on stones and with a roof of palmbranches. It was simple in design and devoid of all decoration and when it was finished
Muhammad ﷺ and Ali AlaihisSalam are said to have built their own residential quarters beside it. The other companions of the Holy Prophet ﷺ soon followed suit, building their own houses near them, a row of simple dwelling cottages separated from each other by palm branches cemented with mud. Thus the new Islamic community in Medina took on its outward and visible form, with Ali AlaihisSalam as the chosen companion of the Prophet ﷺ.
Aal-e-Qutub Aal-e-Syed Abdullah Shah Ghazi 