Ḥadīth al-Manzilah and the Caliphate of ʿAlī (RA): Reality and Interpretation
Source: Fatāwā Aminpuri by Shaykh Ghulam Mustafa Zaheer Aminpuri
Question
Some people use the following ḥadīth to prove that ʿAlī (RA) was the immediate caliph after the Prophet ﷺ. What is the reality of this claim?
❀ Saʿd b. Abī Waqqāṣ (RA) reported:
خلف رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم على بن أبى طالب فى غزوة تبوك فقال : يا رسول الله تخلفني فى النساء والصبيان؟ فقال : أما ترضى أن تكون مني بمنزلة هارون من موسى؟ غير أنه لا نبي بعدي.
“During the expedition of Tabūk, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ left ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib (RA) in charge (at Madīnah). ʿAlī (RA) said: ‘O Messenger of Allah! You are leaving me behind among women and children?’ The Prophet ﷺ replied: ‘Are you not pleased that your relation to me is like that of Hārūn to Mūsā, except that there will be no prophet after me?’”
(Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 3706, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 2404)
❀ In Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, there is also the wording:
إنه لا نبوة بعدي.
“Indeed, there is no prophet after me.”
Answer
At the time of the expedition of Tabūk, the Prophet ﷺ left ʿAlī (RA) behind in Madīnah. The hypocrites began spreading whispers that the Prophet ﷺ no longer needed ʿAlī (RA). In response, the Prophet ﷺ made this statement: “You are to me as Hārūn was to Mūsā, except there is no prophet after me.”
This statement was meant to clarify ʿAlī’s (RA) honorable position and dispel the false rumors, not to declare him as an immediate caliph (khalīfah bi-lā faṣl).
If it had indeed been a declaration of his caliphate, the Ummah would never have opposed the explicit command of the Prophet ﷺ.
Furthermore, even during his own caliphate, ʿAlī (RA) never cited this ḥadīth as evidence for his appointment as the Prophet’s ﷺ immediate successor.
❀ ʿAllāmah Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Qurṭubī (RA) (d. 671 AH) said:
لا خلاف أن النبى صلى الله عليه وسلم لم يرد بمنزلة هارون من موسى الخلافة بعده.
“There is no difference of opinion that the Prophet ﷺ did not intend by this statement to establish the caliphate of ʿAlī (RA) after him.”
(Tafsīr al-Qurṭubī 1/267)
ھذا ما عندي والله أعلم بالصواب
