THE FESTIVAL OF THE POOL/EID UL GHADEER (or GHADIR) (18h Dhul-Hijjah)

15th June 2025

Muslim  (Shi‘a)

This is a festival observed by Shi‘a Muslims, for whom it is an extremely important day. It commemorates an event shortly before the death of the Prophet. While returning from Makkah to Medina after his final pilgrimage, accompanied by many thousands of his followers, the Prophet stopped at an oasis (the pool of Khumm) to deliver a sermon. While preaching, he is believed (by Shi‘a Muslims) to have raised the hand of Ali, his cousin and son-in-law, and proclaimed, ‘For whoever I am his leader, Ali is his leader. O God, love those who love him, and be hostile to those who are hostile to him’.

Immediately after this statement the Prophet revealed an ayah (a verse) of the Qur’an: ‘Today I have perfected your religion and completed my favour upon you, and I was satisfied that Islam be your religion’ (Qur’an 5, 3.) For Shi‘a Muslims the ‘perfecting’ of the religion of Islam was the announcement concerning Ali, which they understand to be his clear appointment to be successor to the prophet as the spiritual and temporal leader of Islam. This sermon was preached by a pool (ghadir) in an area known as Khumm.

Since Eid ul Ghadir commemorates the Prophet Muhammad’s last sermon, preached as it was in the desert whilst returning from Hajj (pilgrimage), it is viewed as being authoritative by members of the Shi’a community. The implication of the statement in the Prophet’s sermon (that Ali, his cousin and son-in-law, would be the first Caliph of Islam) is that the leadership of Islam would remain within the Prophet’s bloodline, the foundation for a line of Caliphs who would succeed the Prophet. It has become the source of many current divisions between Sunni and Shi’a communities throughout the Muslim world.