Witness of the Prophet

Argument 17:

The verse (13:43) says:

“And those who disbelieve say: You are not the messenger sent (by God). Say (O Muhammad!): God is sufficient as witness between me and you, and he who has knowledge of the Book.”

And the other verse mentioned above (11:17) is:

“Is he then (like unto him) who has a clear proof from his Lord, and a witness from Him”.

It is well known that these two verses are revealed about Mawlana Ali, that he was the second witness of the Holy Prophet’s messengership and prophethood, whereas God is the first witness. He who is fortunate will reflect upon and understand the point about what is the meaning of becoming a witness of the prophethood of the Chief of Prophets. Hallowed be God! He has made Mawlana Ali (a.s.) master of the unbounded treasure of spiritual secrets of the words shah§d and shahid (shahiid and shaahid both mean Present and Witness).

The gist of these verses is that Mawlana Ali was aware of all the states of the Holy Prophet’s rophethood, which is a magnificent world of knowledge, wisdom, rectitude and guidance and secrets of spirituality and luminosity (and which comprised his spiritual and physical life). Otherwise, where God on the subliminity of luminosity has made Himself witness with respect to the secrets of prophethood and the observations of Divine miracles, how was it possible to make a witness of an ordinary person who had not personally seen these events?

Rather, the truth is that Muhammad (s.a.s.) and Ali (a.s.) are two physical figures of the same one holy light. And this purport is clear from “shahidun minhu (a witness from him)” in the abovementioned verse. That is, Ali (a.s.) is the witness of the prophethood of the Holy Prophet in the sense that he is from his holy light, as the Prophet has said: “We (I and Ali) were in the presence of God in the form of a light…. Ali is from me and I am from Ali”. (Yanab§u’l-Mawaddah, Chapter 1).