HIS EMBRACING OF ISLAM
Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, was among the first people who embraced Islam. He did so at the age of seven. It is also said that he did so at the age of eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen or sixteen; Abdul Razaaq mentioned the last age sixteen, on the authority of Malimar, Qatadah and Al-Hasan. It was also said that ‘Ali was the first person to embrace Islam; but the correct view is that he was only the first boy to do so. The same applied to Khadeejah who was the first woman to embrace Islam; Zayd Ibn Al-Harith was the first slave to become a Muslim, and Abu Bakr As-Siddeeq was the first freeman to believe in the message of Islam.
‘ Ali embraced Islam at this tender age because he was under the guardianship of Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, at a time when ihere was famine. The Prophet took him from his father (the Prophet’s uncle), and when the Divine Message was revealed to him, his wife Khadeejah, and the rest of his household including his cousin, believed it.
It was narrated that ‘Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, said: “I was the first person to embrace Islam”, but the chain of narrators mentioned for this Hadith was not correct. Ibn ‘ Asaakir also reported a lot of Hadiths which are rejected and unsound; Allah is the All-Knowing.
Imam Ahmad reports on the authority of Shaybah and ‘Amr Ibn Murrah that Hamzah, a slave of the Ansaar, said: “I heard Zayd Ibn Araqm say, ’the first person to embrace Islam at the hands of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, was ‘ Ali,” and in another version of the Hadith, the first person to offer Salaah was ‘Ali.” ‘Amr said: “I mentioned these Hadiths to An-Nakh’yy, who rejected them and said that the first person to embrace Islam was Abu Bakr As-Sideeq, may Allah be pleased with him.
Muhammad Ibn Ka’b Al-Qurzai says: “The first woman to embrace Islam was Khadeejah, and the first two males to do so were Abu Bakr and ‘Ali. However, Abu Bakr made his faith manifest, whereas ‘ Ali kept it a secret.” The latter resorted to secrecy because of fear of his father, who later ordered him to follow his cousin (the Prophet) and support him.
‘ Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, migrated to Madeenah after the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, had left Makkah, because he had ordered ‘Ali to pay his debt, return the things that were left with him for safe-keeping, and join him later. ‘ Ali complied, then went to Madeenah. and the Prophet established a pledge of brotherhood between him (‘Ali) and Salil. But Ibn Ishaaq and other writers on the Prophet’s biography states that Prophet Muhammad established brotherhood between him and ‘Ali. A lot of Hadiths were narrated in this connection, but none of them are considered authentic because of their weak chain of narrators or poorness of style e.g., “You are my brother, inheritor, viceroy and the best to give order after me.” This is a fabricated Hadith which is not in line with Hadiths reported in the authentic Books of Al-Bukhari and Moslem and others; thus Allah is the All- Knowing.
(Source: Biographies of the Rightly Guided Caliphs )
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