Ali in the Quran collects the verses of the Quran, the central religious text of Islam, which are said to have been revealed about Ali ibn Abi Talib, the cousin and son-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Ali played a pivotal role during the formative years of Islam and is recognized as the fourth Rashidun caliph () in Sunni Islam and the first imam in Shia Islam. Perhaps the most controversial such verse is 5:55, also known as the verse of , which gave Ali the same spiritual authority () as Muhammad, according to the Shia.
Verses linked to Ali
Ali regularly represented Muhammad in missions that were preceded or followed by Quranic injunctions. Nevertheless, the mainstream view in Islam is that he is not mentioned by name in the Quran, although some have interpreted certain occurrences of the words , , in the Quran in reference to Ali. One such instance is verse 19:50, which some have interpreted as, "We appointed for them Ali as a voice of truth." Independent of such views, Shia tradition connects Ali and other Shia imams with many ambiguous () verses of the Quran, cf. verse 3:7. For instance, a tradition ascribed to Ali suggests that a fourth of the Quran is about the House of Muhammad, or the Ahl al-Bayt, while another fourth is about their enemies. The extant Quran certainly does not meet this description but the inconsistency can be explained by another Shia tradition, which states that the verses of the Quran about the virtuous are primarily directed at the Ahl al-Bayt, while those verses about the evildoers are directed first at their enemies. Beyond these, certain verses of the Quran were directly revealed about Ali, according to some Shia and Sunni authorities, a few of which are listed below.
Verse 2:207
Laylat al-mabit () refers to the night in 622 CE in which Muhammad fled from the city of Mecca to Yathrib, later renamed Medina, apparently to foil an assassination plan. That night, Ali reputedly risked his life by sleeping in Muhammad's bed instead of him to facilitate his escape. When the assassins broke into Muhammad's residence, they found Ali, whose life they spared. His act of self-sacrifice may have been the reason for the revelation of verse 2:207 in the Quran, "But there is also a kind of man who gives his life away to please God, and God is most compassionate to his servants." This was the opinion Ibn Abbas (), an influential early exegete, and such reports are also found in the works of the Sunni authors al-Tha'labi (), al-Razi (), and al-Haskani, the Shia authors al-Tabarsi (), al-Hilli (), al-Balaghi (), and the Mu'tazilite scholar Ibn Abi'l-Hadid ().
Verse 3:61
A Christian envoy from Najran, located in South Arabia, arrived in Medina circa 632 and negotiated a peace treaty with Muhammad. During their stay, the two parties may have also debated the nature of Jesus, human or divine, although the delegation ultimately rejected the Islamic belief, which acknowledges the miraculous birth of Jesus but rejects the Christians' belief in his divinity. Linked to this ordeal is verse 3:61 of the Quran. This verse instructs Muhammad to challenge his opponents to (), perhaps when the debate had reached a deadlock.The delegation withdrew from the challenge and negotiated for peace. The majority of reports indicate that Muhammad appeared for the occasion of , accompanied by his daughter Fatima, her husband Ali, and their two sons, Hasan and Husayn. Such reports are given by the Shia-leaning historian Ibn Ishaq (), and the Sunni scholars al-Razi, Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj (), Hakim al-Nishapuri (), and Ibn Kathir (). The inclusion of these four by Muhammad in the ritual, as his witnesses and guarantors, must have raised their religious rank within the community. If the word 'ourselves' in the verse is a reference to Ali and Muhammad, as Shia authors argue, then the former naturally enjoys a similar religious authority in the Quran as the latter.