But alas! The events following the death of the Prophet took a different turn and Imam Ali was by-passed as the mawla or the leader of the Muslims. Various reasons have been given for this, including:

1. By mawla the Prophet meant 'friend.' It is difficult to accept this. Would the Prophet have stopped the whole caravan to declare his friendship with Imam Ali and to make friendship to Imam Ali obligatory?

2. The Prophet did not appoint anyone and expected the Ummah to make a decision for itself.

How can this be? Did the person who foresaw the fall of Khusrow and Caesar not see the plight of his Ummah after he was gone and not appoint a successor? And what of the occasions when he said: 'Whoever helps me today will be my successor' and 'Tomorrow I will give the standard of the army to the one who will be my successor'? There is far too much evidence to show that the Prophet did indeed appoint his successor. However, history took its own course and what happened cannot be undone now.

As a result, we have two major schools of thought - Sunnis and Shi'as. The followers of the two schools of thought are Muslims and this cannot be denied or challenged.

The ways and means of Co-existence have to be identified. There has to be a healthy discussion between the two schools of thought with a view to increasing understanding between them. The declaration of kufr does not help the cause of understanding. The Muslims have far too many enemies. let us make sure that our enemies do not use our differences, such as they are, to thwart our unity. The event of Ghadir has to be looked at from a positive perspective. Ghadir should provide a means of uniting the Muslim Ummah and teach us lessons in leadership which are essential if Muslims are to once again achieve the position of eminence.

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