Monday, October 20, 2008

Veracity of Tabari's Islamic History - 51



aijaz alamdar wrote:

It was Umar(ra) who were first to congratulate Ali when he was declared Mowla by Prophet(saw).

============================

Dear Alamdar Sahab,

Yes Mawla [Friend] , Man Kunto Mawla Waliun Mawla.
"QUOTE"

The Hadith in question [the related text of that Hadith] is as under:

Mann Kunto Maula Fa Alin Maula is in Musnad Imam Ahmed Bin Hanbal, Tabrani Kabir, Majmauz Zawaid, Musnad Buzzar, Kitaabul Sunnah Ibn Abi Asim, Ibn-e-Hiban, Sunan At Trimidhi, Al Bidaya Wal Nihyay by Hafiz Ibn-e-Kathir, and Mustadrik Al Hakim.

The background is as under [specifically of Wali and Maula and raising the Polytheist (Shirkiya) slogans like Ya Mohammad, Ya Ali, Ya Hussain or any other Yaa other than Ya Allah i.e. Haqq (truth)]:


ذَلِكَ بِأَنَّ اللَّهَ مَوْلَى الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَأَنَّ الْكَافِرِينَ لَا مَوْلَى لَهُمْ


Interpretation of the meaning:

That is because Allah is patron of those who believe, and because the disbelievers have no patron. [MUHAMMAD (MUHAMMAD) Chapter 47: Verse 11].

Here Mawla is used for patron.


فَالْيَوْمَ لَا يُؤْخَذُ مِنكُمْ فِدْيَةٌ وَلَا مِنَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا مَأْوَاكُمُ النَّارُ هِيَ مَوْلَاكُمْ وَبِئْسَ الْمَصِيرُ


Interpretation of the meaning:


So this day no ransom can be taken from you nor from those who disbelieved. Your home is the Fire; that is your patron [Mawla], and a hapless journey's end. [AL-HADID (THE IRON) Chapter 57: Verse 15].

Here Mawla is used for Fire. Note also that the word mawlah is different than the word Wali. The wali comes from walayah which is the leadership. Whereas mawlah comes from wilayah which is love and nusrah (help and aid).


إِن تَتُوبَا إِلَى اللَّهِ فَقَدْ صَغَتْ قُلُوبُكُمَا وَإِن تَظَاهَرَا عَلَيْهِ فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ هُوَ مَوْلَاهُ وَجِبْرِيلُ وَصَالِحُ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ وَالْمَلَائِكَةُ بَعْدَ ذَلِكَ ظَهِيرٌ


Interpretation of the meaning:


If ye twain turn unto Allah repentant, (ye have cause to do so) for your hearts desired (the ban); and if ye aid one another against him (Muhammad) then lo! Allah, even He, is his Protecting Friend, and Gabriel and the righteous among the believers; and furthermore the angels are his helpers. [AT-TAHRIM (BANNING, PROHIBITION) Chapter 66: Verse 4]

The meaning of ( Mawla )


Ibn Al-Atheer says that the word (mawal) in the Arabic language could only mean:


rabb = Lord


malik = owner


mun`im = benefactor


mu'tiq = liberator

naser = helper


muheb = lover


haleef = ally


aabd = slave (for example: Zaid ibn haretha was the mawla of the prophet ( peace be upon him ))

sihr = brother-in-law


ibn al `am = cousin


The arabs would use the word mawlah to mean all of the above. But what did the prophet ( peace be upon him ) mean by his word?


First the hadeeth has no evidences for the imamah (leadership) because if the prophet ( peace be upon him ) wanted to mean khilafah or imamah, he wouldn't have used a word that can have all these meanings. He would have said something like: Ali is your khalifa (or imam) after me, or when I die, listen and obey to Ali ibn Abi Talib. But the prophet didn't use any of these clear words. He said: "man kuntu ...".


So calling anyone for help [like you call Allah is shirk] other than Allah is wrong rather Haram [Forbidden]:

إِنَّ الَّذِينَ تَدْعُونَ مِن دُونِ اللّهِ عِبَادٌ أَمْثَالُكُمْ فَادْعُوهُمْ فَلْيَسْتَجِيبُواْ لَكُمْ إِن كُنتُمْ صَادِقِينَ

Interpretation of the meaning:

Lo! those on whom ye call beside Allah are slaves like unto you. Call on them now, and let them answer you, if ye are truthful! [AL-ARAF (THE HEIGHTS) Chapter 7: Verse 194]


وَاتَّخَذُوا مِن دُونِهِ آلِهَةً لَّا يَخْلُقُونَ شَيْئًا وَهُمْ يُخْلَقُونَ وَلَا يَمْلِكُونَ لِأَنفُسِهِمْ ضَرًّا وَلَا نَفْعًا وَلَا يَمْلِكُونَ مَوْتًا وَلَا حَيَاةً وَلَا نُشُورًا


Interpretation of the meaning:

Yet they choose beside Him other gods who create naught but are themselves created, and possess not hurt nor profit for themselves, and possess not death nor life, nor power to raise the dead. [AL-FURQAN (THE CRITERION, THE STANDARD) Chapter 25: Verse 3]


لَّن يَسْتَنكِفَ الْمَسِيحُ أَن يَكُونَ عَبْداً لِّلّهِ وَلاَ الْمَلآئِكَةُ الْمُقَرَّبُونَ وَمَن يَسْتَنكِفْ عَنْ عِبَادَتِهِ وَيَسْتَكْبِرْ فَسَيَحْشُرُهُمْ إِلَيهِ جَمِيعًا

Interpretation of the meaning:

The Messiah will never scorn to be a slave unto Allah, nor will the favoured angels. Whoso scorneth His service and is proud, all such will He assemble unto Him; [AN-NISA (WOMEN) Chapter 4: Verse 172]

Allah Almighty says in the Holy Qur’an regarding prophet Yunus [Jonah] (Peace be upon him): “…


وَذَا النُّونِ إِذ ذَّهَبَ مُغَاضِبًا فَظَنَّ أَن لَّن نَّقْدِرَ عَلَيْهِ فَنَادَى فِي الظُّلُمَاتِ أَن لَّا إِلَهَ إِلَّا أَنتَ سُبْحَانَكَ إِنِّي كُنتُ مِنَ الظَّالِمِينَ

Interpretation of the meaning:

And (mention) Dhu'n-Nun, when he went off in anger and deemed that We had no power over him, but he cried out in the darkness, saying: There is no Allah save Thee. Be Thou Glorified! Lo! I have been a wrong-doer. [AL-ANBIYA (THE PROPHETS) Chapter 21: Verse 87]

"QUOTE"

The event of Ghadeer Khum [Hadith and History]:


Shi`a say that Ali (rah) is the one who should have been the first khalifa and not Abu Bakr (rah) (or Umar (rah) or Uthman (rah)). They bring some evidences from the Sunni books (Bukhari, Muslim,..) and one of them is the hadeeth of Ghadeer Khumm.


Ali (rah) is the husband of the daughter of the prophet (peace be upon him), Fatima (rah, the best woman of the people of the Jannah), he is the cousin of the prophet (peace be upon him), and he is the fourth of the rightly-guided khalifahs and his qualities are all well known to us.

Whether or not the hadeeth of Ghadeer Khumm is evidence that Ali should have been the first khalifa?

Yazid b. Hayyan reported, I went along with Husain b. Sabra and 'Umar b. Muslim to Zaid b. Arqam and, as we sat by his side, Husain said to him: Zaid. you have been able to acquire a great virtue that you saw Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) listened to his talk, fought by his side in (different) battles, offered prayer behind me. Zaid, you have in fact earned a great virtue. Zaid, narrate to us what you heard from Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him). He said: I have grown old and have almost spent my age and I have forgotten some of the things which I remembered in connection with Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him), so accept whatever I narrate to you, and which I do not narrate do not compel me to do that. He then said: One day Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) stood up to deliver sermon at a watering place known as Khumm situated between Mecca and Medina. He praised Allah, extolled Him and delivered the sermon and exhorted (us) and said: Now to our purpose. O people, I am a human being. I am about to receive a messenger (the angel of death) from my Lord and I, in response to Allah's call, (would bid good-bye to you), but I am leaving among you two weighty things: the one being the Book of Allah in which there is right guidance and light, so hold fast to the Book of Allah and adhere to it. He exhorted (us) (to hold fast) to the Book of Allah and then said: The second are the members of my household I remind you (of your duties) to the members of my family. He (Husain) said to Zaid: Who are the members of his household? Aren't his wives the members of his family? Thereupon he said: His wives are the members of his family (but here) the members of his family are those for whom acceptance of Zakat is forbidden. And he said: Who are they? Thereupon he said: 'Ali and the offspring of 'Ali, 'Aqil and the offspring of 'Aqil and the offspring of Ja'far and the offspring of 'Abbas. Husain said: These are those for whom the acceptance of Zakat is forbidden. Zaid said: Yes. [Muslims]

This hadeeth is also narrated in other books:

Tirmithi, Ahmed, an-nasai, al-hakem and others.

Ibn Namir told us that Abd Al-Malik (Ibn Abi-Sulayman) told us according to Attia Al-`ufi who said: I asked Zayd Ibn Arqam and I told him that some people told me a hadeeth according to you about Ali (rah) in the day of Ghadeer Khumm and I want to hear it from you. So Zayd said: You people of Iraq, you have what you have. I told him: Do not worry about me. He said: Yes we were in Al-Juhfa and the prophet(peace be upon him) came to us holding the hands of Ali (rah) and said: O people don't you know that I am with the believers from their selves. They said: Yes. He said: . [Attia] said: Did he say: (O Allah: Befriend whosoever befriends him and be the enemy of whosoever is hostile to him). [Zayd] said: I told you as I heard it.

The saying "man kuntu mawlah fa Ali mawlah" is correct and strong.

The addition , "O Allah: Befriend whosoever befriends him and be the enemy of whosoever is hostile to him" is also correct, albeit weaker.

However, the scholars of hadeeth classify any extra additions as and hence we will not talk about. We will only talk about the authentic versions shown above.

This hadeeth is used to prove that Ali is the khalifa. The Shia says that "mawla" means "wali" (leader) and hence this incident means that the prophet is telling the Muslims that Ali is the next khalifa.

This is their point regarding this hadeeth. The difference, then, is the meaning of "man kuntu mawlah, fa Ali mawlah". The shi`ah says that it means "man kuntu waleeh, fa Ali waleeh". The Sunnah says that it means love and close relation. Muwalat is the opposite of Mu`adat. The proof comes from the first addition: "oh Allah waali man walaah wa `adi man `adaah". (O Allah befriend whosover befriends him and be the enemy of whosoever is hostile to him). So we are talking about muwalah and mu`adat (love and enmity). It is about the love of the people to Ali (rah).

Before we talk about that, let us talk about why the prophet said so. The Shi`ah claim that the prophet ( peace be upon him ) stopped people in this place in the hot weather and they say that their number was more than 100 thousand and that this was the place where all the people of Hajj were gathered and the main reason is that the prophet ( peace be upon him ) wanted to tell the people "man kuntu mawlah fa Ali mawlah" in addition to their additions.

The reason for this hadeeth is as follows:

Narrated Buraida: The Prophet sent 'Ali to Khalid to bring the Khumus (of the booty) and I hated Ali, and 'Ali had taken a bath (after a sexual act with a slave-girl from the Khumus). I said to Khalid, "Don't you see this (i.e. Ali)?" When we reached the Prophet I mentioned that to him. He said, "O Buraida! Do you hate Ali?" I said, "Yes." He said, "Do you hate him, for he deserves more than that from the Khumlus." [Bukhari]

In other narrations (al-tirmithi and ahmed), in addition to the above, the prophet said: "O buraida man kuntu mawlah fa Ali mawlah"

So Ali took one of the slaves named Waseefa as his slave and then after having sexual act with her, he was taking a bath. Buraida (rah) became angry. He thought why would Ali take one of the slaves for himself. So he mentioned this to the prophet(peace be upon him).

Al-bayhaqi narrates from Abu sa'eed that Ali prevented them from riding the camels of the sadaqa that they acquired. He then made a person to be their leader and went to the prophet(peace be upon him). When Ali came back, he found that their leader gave them permission to ride the camels. When Ali saw that, he became angry and he blamed the leader. (In another narration, it mentions that they were new clothes that Ali prevented them from wearing but they wear them despite his orders). Abu sa'eed said that when we went back to madina, we mentioned to the prophet the harshness that we have seen from Ali. The prophet said: Stop O saad ibn Malik: O By Allah I have known that he is done good for the sake of Allah. (Ibn Katheer says that this hadeeth is on the conditions of Al-Nasaie)

Ibn Katheer said that the people in the army started to talk about Ali (rah) because he prevented them from riding the camels and took back the new clothes that they acquired. Because of that, after the prophet ( peace be upon him ) was done with the Hajj and while returning back to Madina, he stopped to explain to the people how some of the qualities of Ali and stress the closeness of Ali to him and the importance of loving Ali. He did so to remove what was in many of the hearts of some of the people against Ali.

That's why the prophet ( peace be upon him ) delayed talking about this topic until they were close to Madina and he didn't talk about it in Makkah during the Hajj. On the day of Arafa, the prophet ( peace be upon him ) spoke to the people and and he never mentioned this topic at all. After he finished his sermon, he said "Did I convey the message" and the people said "Yes" then he said "O Allah be my witness".

Why did he delay the topic till after Hajj? Because this topic is only of concern to the people of Madina because those who talked about Ali were from Madina as they were the ones who went with Ali to the battle. He talked about it in a place called ghadeer khumm in a place called Ju’fa, which is about 250 km from Makkah.

A simple look at the map is enough to refute the shi`ah claim that this is the gathering place of the the Hajeej. People gather for Hajj at Makkah and leave the Hajj at Makkah. The Hajeej don't leave from a place 250 km from Makkah. After Hajj, the people of Makkah stay at Makkah. The people of Al-Taif go to Al-Taif. The people of Yemen go to Yemen. The people of al-kufa go to al-kufa and so on. All the tribes go back to their homes. The people that went with the prophet(peace be upon him) were the people of Madinah and those who are using the road of Madina to go to their dwellings. These are the ones that the prophet( peace be upon him ) talked to when he said: "man ..".

Also the speech was not only about Ali despite the fact that Ali deserves the speech and more (may Allah be pleased with him). But in the speech, the prophet ( peace be upon him ) reminded the people with the Quran and its importance. He also reminded the people of the love of his household (may Allah be pleased with them) and then he mentioned Ali (rah). So there were more than one topic that the prophet ( peace be upon him ) talked about.

"UNQUOTE"

No comments: