Was the verse 'Your friend is only God and His Messenger' revealed about Ali?

After his rational proofs, Ibn al-Mutahhar al-Hilli opened the "second method" of his treatise – Qur'anic proofs of the imamate of Ali – with the verse of al-Ma'ida that names as the believers' friend God, His Messenger and those who believe, who establish prayer and give zakat while bowing. Ibn Taymiyya answered it in Minhaj al-Sunna on many grounds. ¹

In Ibn Taymiyya's quotation, al-Hilli says there is consensus that the verse was revealed about Ali, and relates from al-Tha'labi's commentary, with a chain to Abu Dharr, that he prayed the noon prayer with the Prophet ﷺ; a beggar asked in the mosque and no one gave him anything; Ali, who was bowing, pointed his right little finger, on which he wore a ring, towards him; the Prophet prayed Moses' prayer that a helper be given him from his family, and Gabriel came down with the verse. ^{1 2} He cites Ibn al-Maghazili al-Wasiti the Shafi'i for its revelation about Ali, and holds that wali means the one with authority, and that the verse affirmed this authority for Ali as it did for God and His Messenger. ²

Ibn Taymiyya first objects to calling these arguments "proofs", since for him a proof is what yields knowledge and certainty. ^{2 3} He then demands that the report be shown sound: merely citing al-Tha'labi's commentary, or a claim of consensus from someone who is no expert in transmitted reports, is no proof by the agreement of scholars – just as a merit of Abu Bakr and Umar would not be established that way. ⁴ The claim of consensus, he says, is among the greatest of false claims: experts in transmission agree that it was not revealed about Ali specifically, that Ali did not give his ring in charity during prayer, and the hadith scholars agree that the story is fabricated. ⁵ He calls al-Tha'labi "one who gathers firewood by night", transmitting sound and fabricated alike, as does his pupil al-Wahidi – unlike al-Baghawi, who abridged his commentary without its fabrications – and notes that the great commentators such as al-Tabari, Baqi ibn Makhlad, Ibn Abi Hatim and Ibn al-Mundhir did not include such reports. ^{5 6}

In a note the editor reports that al-Tabari gave five reports that Ali is meant, among them al-Suddi's that the verse concerns all believers but that a beggar passed Ali while he was bowing and he gave him his ring; that Mahmud Shakir showed some of their narrators to be weak; and that he quoted Ibn Kathir: were "while bowing" a circumstance of giving zakat, giving it while bowing would be preferable, which no imam of fatwa holds – Shakir's own preferred reading being "while humbling themselves before their Lord". ⁵

Ibn Taymiyya adds further grounds: were giving zakat while bowing what is meant, it would be a condition of alliance, so that none but Ali alone could be taken as an ally – not al-Hasan, al-Husayn or the rest of Banu Hashim; "those who" is a plural that cannot apply to Ali alone; God praises only what is obligatory or recommended, and charity during prayer, were it prescribed, would not be confined to bowing; and giving a ring does not count as zakat for many jurists. ^{7 8} The context, he says, makes this plain to anyone who reflects: before it comes the prohibition of taking Jews and Christians as allies, then a description of those with sickness in their hearts who hasten towards them, then those who turn back from their religion and the people God will bring whom He loves and who love Him, then the command to ally with God, His Messenger and the believers. ⁹

Ibn Taymiyya joins his reply here to a severe judgement on the origin of rafd (the Imami position as he names it): he says it was laid down by heretics who sought to attack Islam, and that the Isma'ilis, the Nusayris and the Ubaydid imams entered through this door. This is his judgement, recorded here as his within his polemic with al-Hilli. ⁴

The Imami interpretation of the verse is given through its opponent and needs to be set out from Imami commentaries; the Sunni commentators who included the story, from their own books, and modern studies have not yet been added.