Why Divine Order Wasn’t Revealed in Arafah Instead of Ghadir Khumm?
All Shia Quran interpreters as well as the majority of Sunni interpreters and Hadith experts are of the belief that these verses are about the Event of Ghadir. However, Ibn Taymiyya questions this and says the Verse of Ikmal al-Din was revealed on the 9th of Dhul Hajja in Arafah and before the Hajjatul Wida (the Farewell Hajj). He says if the Holy Prophet (PBUH) wanted, he could do it in a place like Mecca or the Plain of Arafah not in Ghadir Khumm.
In response to this assertion, it should be noted that, first, the existence of some Hadiths in Sahih al-Bukhari and Muslim on determining the Asbab Nuzul (reasons of revelation) of the verses does not preclude other Hadiths but could reveal the numerousness of the Asbab Nuzul and place and time of revelation of a verse.
The claim of Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn Kathir that anyone who considers the revelation of the Verse of Ikmal al-Din to be in Ghadir Khumm is a liar is very strange because this Hadith has been narrated by Abu Hurayra with the same words and without any problem in Isnad and is valid based on the fundamental Rijal principles of Sunni Muslims.
Abu Hurayra says: “He who fasts on the eighteenth day of Dhul Hijjah, (the reward for) the fast of six months will be written for him, for it is the day of Ghadir Khumm, on which the Messenger of God, upon whom and whose household be blessing, Took ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib, upon whom be peace, by hand and said: Don’t I have a greater claim upon the believers? To which they replied: Certainly yes! So he said: For whoever has me as his master and guardian, ‘Ali is His master and guardian. Thereupon, ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab said: Bravo! Bravo! O Ibn Abi Talib! You have become my master and guardian and the master and guardian of every Muslim. Then the above-mentioned verse was revealed.”
But why didn’t the Holy Prophet (PBUH) do it elsewhere? First of all, the Prophet (PBUH) is fully obedient to God and does what he is told by God to do and because the verse was revealed to him in Ghadir, he fulfilled his mission by conveying it in that very place, not anywhere else.
Second, Mina and Arafah or Mecca were not proper places for this mission because in those places during Hajj, all of the pilgrims’ attention was focused on prayer and worshipping God and doing the Hajj rituals.
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The fact that it was announced before the convoy left Medina that the Hajjatul Wida would be educational shows that God and His messenger did not want anything divert their attention from the rituals of Hajj.
Another point is that the content of the Verse of Ikmal al-Din, which is the despair of disbelievers and the completion of religion, points to a very great day. There is no logical relation between disbelievers’ despair and teaching of Hajj to Muslims. The despair of disbelievers happens when a great event takes place that brings about a remarkable development in Islam.
