‘For whomever I am the mawlā [guardian, master, close friend], ʿAlī is his mawlā (man kuntu mawlāhu fa-ʿAlī mawlāhu).’50 The last saying was expressed on a number of occasions, the most famous of which was after the Prophet’s final pilgrimage to Mecca, in the year 10/632, at a pool midway between Mecca and Medina, known as Ghadīr Khumm.
