Succession to the Prophet: Election or Selection?: A Shia Perspective by Shaykh Kumail Rajani (Part 1 of 3)

Shaykh Kumail Rajani presents the stance of the Shia school of thought,  Imam Ali was appointed as the successor by the Prophet to lead the Ummah after him. The conventional approach of Shi’a scholars to justify this position is to argue that numerous texts from the Quran and Sunnah,  either directly or indirectly, indicate Imam Ali’s successorship. This evidence is found extensively in Sunni sources, however, it was acknowledged that as individual evidence the meaning and implication of each of these texts has been challenged. Accordingly, a non-conventional  Shi’a approach was introduced that argued for a holistic approach to the evidence. This approach argues that reading all the relevant texts alongside agreed historical information, cumulatively, identifies that  Imam Ali was intended as the successor to the Prophet.  (Part 1 of 3)