Announcement of Sura Baraat
*The pilgrims at the annual pilgrimage to Mecca were for the most part heathens, who mingled idolatrous practi-ces with the holy rites, and the Prophet had hitherto abstained from being present at these ceremonies, and contented himself with the Lesser Pilgrimage or Umra as in previous years. The sacred season of the year 9 A.H. was now drawing near. By this time the Prophet had. received a revelation forbidding the unrighteous to perform the pilgrimage after this year, as mentioned in the opening verses of Sura IX of the Quran. The Prophet therefore deputed Abubakr to proceed on pilgrimage to Mecca, in order to promulgate the revelation to the Pilgrims. Three hundred Muslims accompanied Abu- bakr and twenty camels were given to him to be sacrificed. on behalf of the Prophet.
Shortly after the departure of Abubakr, the Prophet received Command from God, and in obedience to the Command, he despatched Ali’ on his swiftest camel, the Al-Ghadzba, with orders to overtake the caravan and to take back the book (Verses of Sura IX) from Abubakr. and to proceed himself with it to announce it to the pilgrims at Mecca.
Ali overtook the caravan at Araj, and taking the book from Abubakr proceeded to Mecca. Abubakr returned. dejected to Medina and asked the Prophet whether he being replaced by Ali for conveying the revelation to the people of Mecca was based on any Command of God!
The Prophet answered that he had a revelation from God to the effect, that, “I should not depute anyone for this proclamation except myself or someone from me. Ali is from me and I am from him. He is my Brother,
1 Tirmizhi; Ahmad Hanbal; Tabari; A’lamm-al-wara; Tafsir Mo’alim-al-Tanzil; Abul Fida.
my Vicegerent, the Executor of my will, and he is my Successor and performs all those duties that devolve on me.”
According to Hishami the Prophet answered that he had a revelation to the effect that none should deliver the revelation to the people but he himself or a man of his family, or (according to Tirmizhi and Nasai) that none should deliver it to the people but he himself or Ali.
Reaching Mecca, Ali read aloud, towards the close of the Pilgrimage, on the great Day of Sacrifice, to the vast concourse of the pilgrims, the recitation of the passage of the Quran. Having finished it, he continued: “I have been ordered to explain to you, (1) that no one shall hence forward make the circuits of the Holy House in a state of nakedness, (2) that any treaty, made by anyone with the Prophet, shall remain in force till its termination, that four months of liberty are allowed to all, after which the obligation devolving on the Prophet will cease, (3) that no unbeliever will enter Paradise, (4) that the unrighteous. must not come on Pilgrimage after this year.
Aal-e-Qutub Aal-e-Syed Abdullah Shah Ghazi 