BIRTH OF THE KHALIFATE 37had grown up mostly in their household, so in addition to being practi-
cally like a brother to Mohammed, Ali was practically like a son to him
too. What's more, Ali was the first person after Khadija to accept Islam: the
first male Muslim.
When the assassins were coming to murder Mohammed in his bed, it
was Ali who wrapped himself in the Prophet's blankets and risked taking
the knife meant for Mohammed. In Medina, when the Muslims were in
danger of annihilation, it was Ali who proved himself repeatedly as the vir-
tual Achilles of Islam-for in those days, battles often began with individ-
ual challenges leading to single combat, and at each confrontation, when
the Quraysh called on the Muslims to send out their best, Mohammed
nominated Ali.
At the battle of Uhud, when all seemed lost and some Muslims fled for
home, Ali was among those who rallied around the Prophet, and bore him
home wounded but safe.
As the community flowered and the Prophet became a head of state, he
kept Ali by his side as his right-hand man. Indeed, on the way home from
his last sermon, Mohammed told the people, ''Any of you who consider
me your patron should consider Ali your patron." Now, didn't that
amount to saying that after he was gone, the Umma should consider Ali
their leader?
While all of Mohammed's close companions had charisma, Ali's glow
seemed uniquely spiritual to a committed group of partisans, many of
them younger Muslims, who felt something of the same authority radiat-
ing from Ali that everyone had felt radiating from Mohammed.
All the points mentioned marked Ali as special, but one further factor
elevated him above all others, and it might have been the most important
factor of all, or so it seemed in retrospect to later Muslims: Mohammed had
no sons. Only one of his daughters produced sons who lived past child-
hood, and that one daughter was Fatima, who was married to Ali. Ali's sons
were therefore Mohammed's grandsons, and Ali's descendents would be the
prophet's descendents. Ali and Fatima were Mohammed's family.
Set all this aside, however, and picture Ali indoors with the womenfolk,
drowning in grief as he bathed the Prophet's body. Then, picture him
emerging finally into the terrible first day of the rest of his life, still reeling
from the enormity of what had happened, only to find that while he was