City of Knowledge

The recent exchange between Haroon and Reid has got me thinking and churning and preventing me from working on my dissertation!. I was struck by Reids’ quotation of Jesus Christ (PBUH)saying:

“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6

and then reflecting on my own Shia-Ismaili-Muslim religous education and the attribution of the following the following hadith to Prophet Mohammed (PBUH):

“I am the city of knowledge and ‘Ali is its gate.”

The similarities and implications are very interesting. What is the Prophet implying when he says that he is the city of knowledge? What do we make of both his claim as being the city of knowledge and also Ali being its gate?

Any thoughts?

3 thoughts on “City of Knowledge

  1. Assalaamwalaikum. I’m just letting you know that I linked your site on my blog (www.lungis.com) today. I couldn’t find your email address or anything on this site, so I just decided to post a comment instead.

  2. I take the meaning as the prophet (pbuh) knew all there was to know about Islam and Ali is the next in line as far as knowledge of Islam, Qur’an etc. No one could ever know as much as the prophet but Ali is the entrance to that info.

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