Iran / Arabia: Muhammad designating his son-in-law Ali as his successor. From a Shia Ms., Safavid Persia, late 16th century

According to the Shia tradition, Muhammad formally designated his son-in-law, Ali ibn Abi Talib (the Caliph Ali) as his successor at the oasis of Gadir Khum, located mid-way between the holy cities of Mecca / Makkah and Medina, in the Arabian Hijaz. The Sunni tradition disputes this event ever took place.

Representations of the Prophet Muhammad are controversial, and generally forbidden in Sunni Islam (especially Hanafiyya, Wahabi, Salafiyya). Shia Islam and some other branches of Sunni Islam (Hanbali, Maliki, Shafi'i) are generally more tolerant of such representational images, but even so the Prophet's features are generally veiled or concealed by flames as a mark of deep respect.

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