‘For whomever I am the mawlā, ʿAlī is his mawlā’. For Shiʿis, this is regarded as a clear designation (naṣṣ) of ʿAlī as successor to the Prophet; for Sunnis it indicates the special proximity of ʿAlī to the Prophet, but not his nomination as successor in the political domain. That the reference to ʿAlī as mawlā (in some versions, as walī) is of the highest spiritual significance, however, is not seriously disputed.
