One of the most important and famous Ghadir verses revealed upon the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) during the Ghadir sermon is this verse:
«الْيَوْمَ يَئِسَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا مِنْ دِينِكُمْ فَلا تَخْشَوْهُمْ وَ اخْشَوْنِ، الْيَوْمَ أَكْمَلْتُ لَكُمْ دِينَكُمْ وَ أَتْمَمْتُ عَلَيْكُمْ نِعْمَتِى وَ رَضِيتُ لَكُمُ الْإِسْلامَ دِيناً»
“Today the disbelievers have despaired of [defeating] your religion, so do not fear them and fear Me. Today I have perfected for you your religion and completed My favor upon you and have approved for you Islam as religion.” [2]
Interestingly, most of these narrations admit the revelation concerning the issue of wilayah there, but only change its time and place. There are two responses to resolve this doubt:
First Response: Mistake in Reading “‘Arrafahu”
In the narrations, the phrase “Yawm ‘Arafah” appears, which either mistakenly or deliberately has taken an incorrect meaning, returning to its erroneous reading.
This phrase can be read in two ways: “Yawmu ‘Arafah” and “Yawmun ‘Arrafahu”, where the first means “Day of Arafah” and the second means “The day on which He introduced him (Imam Ali).”
In the original narration, the second meaning is intended: on the day of introducing Amir al-Muminin (peace be upon him) for wilayah, Ayat al-Ikmal was revealed. However, since diacritics, vowels, and even dotting were not common in old books, some mistakenly and others with innate deviation were drawn to the first probability, which is “Day of Arafah.”
There is also the possibility that the source of the mistake is narrations that predict the revelation of this verse to the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) in Arafah, which some mistakenly thought was the day of revelation.
The narration is as follows:
فَلَمّا وَقَفَ رَسُولُ اللَّه صلى الله عليه و آله بِالْمَوْقِفِ، اتاهُ جَبْرَئيلُ عَنِ اللَّه عَزَّ وَ جَلَّ فَقالَ: انَّهُ قَدْ دَنا اجَلُكَ… .
فَاقِمْهُ لِلنّاسِ عَلَماً … ، فَانّى لَمْ اقْبِضْ نَبِيّاً مِنَ الانْبِياءِ الّا بَعْدَ كَمالِ دينى وَ اتْمامِ نِعْمَتى بِوِلايَةِ اوْلِيائى وَ مُعاداةِ اعْدائى. وَ ذلِكَ كَمالُ تَوْحيدى وَ اتْمامُ نِعْمَتى عَلى خَلْقى … .
When the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) was standing at al-Mawqif (Arafat), Jibril came from God and said: Your term is near… Raise Ali as a banner and sign for the people…, for I have not taken the soul of a prophet except after perfecting my religion and completing My favor with the wilayah of My chosen ones and enmity toward My enemies. That is the perfection of My tawhid and completion of My favor upon My creation… Then: “Today I have perfected for you your religion…” [3]
The evidence of this mistake is that after this passage in the same narration, it describes the beginning of the stages of revelation of the verse “O Messenger, proclaim…”, where the Prophet sought exemption from conveying this message due to fear of his people, and after divine emphasis, requested protection and immunity, which was accepted.
Then it mentions the detailed Ghadir sermon, in which the revelation of the verse after proclaiming “Man Kuntu Mawlahu…” is explicitly stated
Thus, it becomes clear that what is mentioned at the beginning of this narration means predicting the revelation of the verse, not its actual revelation.
Second Response: The Purpose of Distorting the Verse in History
The founder of this doubt, against the multitude of narrations that prove the revelation of the verse on the Day of Ghadir, is Umar ibn al-Khattab.
Interestingly, know that Umar’s action regarding Ayat al-Ikmal has precedent, and another deviant aspect appears in this story, showing that the founder of Saqifah understood its importance most and thus resorted to verbal and semantic distortion.
The text of the incident is:
“The Jews said to Umar: If this verse ‘Today I have perfected for you your religion…’ had been revealed to us Jews, and we knew the day it was revealed, we would have taken that day as a holiday.
Umar said: Praise be to God who made it a holiday for us. I know on what day it was revealed; it was revealed on the Day of Arafah, and God perfected this matter, and from this verse we knew that the matter will decline hereafter.” [4]
In this historical piece, we see Umar on one hand says the revelation was on the Day of Arafah, and this is in response to the Jews who well knew on what day this verse was revealed, and in fact raised this issue to prove his usurpation and mock him.
He actually escaped further questions by specifying the Day of Arafah: if it was on the Day of Ghadir, how did God perfect the religion that day?
Umar’s precedent with this verse predates the Jews’ question and returns to the Day of Ghadir, when this verse was revealed, Umar cried.
The Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) asked: Why are you crying?
He said:
ابْكانى انّا كُنّا فى زِيادَةٍ مِنْ دينِنا، فَامّا اذْ كَمُلَ فَانَّهُ لَمْ يَكْمِلْ شَىْءٌ قَطُّ الا نَقَصَ
It grieved me that we were constantly advancing and ascending in our religion. But now that it is complete, nothing becomes complete except that it declines.
[1] Ghadir fi al-Quran: Vol. 1, pp. 151, 157-160.
[2] Al-Ma’idah / 3.
[3] Bihar al-Anwar: Vol. 37, p. 202, Hadith 86.
[4] Bihar al-Anwar: Vol. 37, p. 156. Sahih Ibn Hibban: Vol. 1, p. 413. Kanz al-Ummal: Vol. 2, p. 399.
[5] Al-Durr al-Manthur: Vol. 2, p. 258.
