I heard the Messenger of Allah (s) say on the pulpit when he was informed that a group from Quraysh denied that he had called `Ali the Commander of the Faithful: O people! Surely, Allah sent me to you as a messenger, and He ordered me to delegate `Ali as an emir over you. Surely, for whomever I am their prophet, then `Ali is their emir. Allah has put him in charge of you, and He commanded me to inform you of that, so that you may listen to him and obey him. If he orders you to do something, then do it, and if he forbids you from something, then abstain from it. None of you should be in a position of authority over `Ali in my lifetime nor after my death, for surely, Allah has put him over you and has called him the Commander of the Faithful; none before him have been called by this name. I have informed you of what I have been sent with to you regarding `Ali, so whomever obeys me in it will have obeyed Allah, and whomever disobeys me in it will have disobeyed Allah – he will have no argument in his favour with Allah, and his end will be what Allah has described in His Book, “Whoever disobeys Allah and His Messenger and transgresses His limits, He will put him into the Fire to abide eternally therein.” (4:14)