Al-Sha’bi reported: Ali ibn Abi Talib saw a Christian man wearing his lost armor and he decided to take up the matter legally, so he brought the dispute to the judge Shurayh. Ali said, “This is my armor and I have not sold it or given it away.” The judge said to the Christian, “What do you say about what the commander of the faithful has said?” The Christian said, “It is my armor, but I do not consider the commander of the faithful to be a liar.” The judge turned to Ali and he said, “O commander of the faithful, do you have proof?” Ali laughed and he said, “Shurayh is correct. I do not have proof.” Thus, the judge ruled in favor of the Christian. The Christian took the armor and began to walk away, but then he returned and he said, “As for me, I testify that this is the wisdom of the prophets. The commander of the faithful himself has taken me to his judge and the judge has ruled against him! I testify that there is no God but Allah and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. By Allah, the armor is yours. I followed the army while you were on your way to Siffin and the armor fell from your luggage.” Ali said, “If you have embraced Islam, the armor is yours.”
Ponder This Incident
The Christian converted at the hands of Hazrat Ali, and his testimony of faith was:
“I testify that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad ﷺ is the Messenger of Allah.”
If Ali were an Imam sent by Allah to guide the believers after the Prophet ﷺ, would he not have taught the man to bear witness to that?
Why did he not instruct the Christian man to testify to his Imamate?
Why did he not teach him belief in Imamat as part of entering Islam?
Why was he not asked to say the additional testimony Ismailis recite today:
“I bear witness that Ali, the Commander of the Faithful, is the ally of God.”
If Imamat were a divinely mandated article of faith, it would have been taught at the moment of conversion.
Yet it is absent here—just as it is absent from the Prophetic shahadah itself.