Historical events

I was reading about the Shi'a belief, and I want to say the 'third shahadah' is completely a man-made concept. It is deviating from what Allah has sent down for all Muslims. The third shahadah as the Shi'a call it was not sent by Allah and it is an addition to the words of Allah.

The second point of disagreement is about the caliphate of Abu Bakr. Hazrat Ali was not forced to accept Abu Bakr's caliphate. Your account of Fatima being brutally attacked is also false and distorted. Why would one of the closest men to the Prophet (PBUH) brutally attack his daughter?

I am interested to know what is the evidence of the contentions made above. I would be very grateful if these can be explained.

Having read your email and your enquiry, the first point I felt I should make is that you need to make some research - some background reading in this respect, if you were to find out more about this topic. There are a lot of things that are taken for granted by our Muslim brethrens. And on the basis of what they have learnt by default while growing up, some may find it difficult to accept things contrary to what they have come to learn, and therefore belief in the previous years. If you try to do some research in the traditional Sunni history and hadith books such as the Sihah, Masnads etc. you will be more than astonished to learn what you learn in them. For example if you research and read about the Saqeefah, the gathering place of some individuals immediately after the death of Rasulollah (S), and how the Bay'ah was extracted from the people for the ruler, then you would see the truth about what we are saying.

You asked an interesting question: "Why would one of the closest men to the Prophet (PBUH) brutally attack his daughter?"

If you do your research you will find out the truth. Of course I can tell you it, but you would call it "false" and "distorted". In your question above, there are two issues: "one of the closest men to the Prophet (S)" and the "brutal attack of the Prophet's daughter". You can satisfy yourself that the latter is well established in the Sunni history and hadith books!!!

As for the third SHAHADAH, this was confirmed and condoned by Rasulollah (S) himself. This was done during the Ghadeer Khum event when on instructions from Allah Almighty Rasulollah (S) appointed Imam Ali (AS) to be his immediate successor after him. Allah Almighty has established the Caliphate of Imam Ali (AS) immediately after Rasulollah (S) as equal that the mission of Rasulollah (S).

“O Messenger! Deliver what has been revealed to you from your Lord; and if you do it not then you have not delivered His (entire) Message . . .”

There is also a discussion on this issue in the Q&A section. It should be of interest to you.

You have signed off your email as an engineer working for a reputable company. I am sure that you are of a calibre to be able to investigate and analyse the issue in a scholarly manner with an open mind, away from prejudice and bias.

One reason for this being that only one day after the death of the Prophet (S) Omar, along with other some others, on the orders of Abu Bakr, invaded the house of Lady Fatima (AS), the only and most beloved daughter of the prophet (S), seeking to force Imam Ali (AS) to make Bay'ah with Abu Bakr. In the process Omar ordered to set fire to the house, because Lady Fatima (AS) refused to open the door to let them in. While Lady Fatima al-Zahra (AS) was inside the house behind the door speaking to the mob, Omar broke into the house, crushing Lady Fatima al-Zahra (AS) between the door and the wall. Once inside the house, Omar and others slapped Lady Fatima on the face, punched and kicked her, throwing her to the ground. They even hit her by the side of their swords! As a result, her unborn baby, who was due, and was named by the prophet (S) as Muhsin was killed immediately, and Lady Fatima died later because of the severe injuries she had sustained.

So Omar and Abu Bakr are cursed because they killed Fatima al-Zahra (AS), the most beloved daughter of the prophet as well as his grandson Muhsin.

As a newly reverted Muslim I have been greatly interested in the Shi'a beliefs and morals.

One very important topic to which I must ask is why is it that Shi'a disregard Sahih Bukari and Sahih Muslim. To the Islamic world they are the most authentic sources of sayings of the prophet. Very many sayings of the prophet merit the other rightly guided caliphs. These sayings of the prophet are Sahih but why don't Shi'a recognize them? Why is it that Shi'a use other hadith collections such as al-Tirmidhi etc. to argue their points? Abu Bakr, Omar, Uthman, Ali etc. were all among the ten peoples to be guaranteed paradise according to a hadith I read. (A Sahih hadith related by Abu Dawud, al- Tirmidhi, Ibn Majah & Ahmad)

Plz help me on this topic. Why do u disregard all these saying and merits of the other companions except Ali.

The matter of hadtih is an extremely important one, as it is used to identify the truth from false - in the same way that the holy Qur'an is used. Therefore the issue of hadith cannot be taken lightly. On the other hand it would be in the interest of despots, tyrants or selfish individuals to abuse the hadith for their ends. They could - and in fact did - forge the hadith, as they desired to further their cause. Therefore it is most important to ensure the integrity and authenticity of the hadith we have at our disposal. So we cannot take any hadith at face value. The hadith must be investigated to establish its authenticity; otherwise we would end up using the so-called 'hadith' that has been forged by the enemies of Rasulollah (S) who are in turn the enemies of Allah Almighty.

A lot of efforts were made to forge numerous hadiths that aim to distort the truth in various ways. One set of hadiths were forged which aimed to glorify those who were Munafiq - i.e. those who had pretended to be Muslims but in fact did not believe in Islam, and they did so as opportunists, and during the lifetime of the prophet (S) they had acted against the teachings of Allah and against the Prophet (S).

Other hadith were even forged which aimed to undermine the dignity and integrity of the Prophet himself peace be upon him. The aim was to deviate as well distort the teachings of the Messenger of Allah (S) and to ensure that the goals the Prophet (S) had are not achieved. Unfortunately many have today accepted such hadith as 'true hadith'. In fact there are many clear and obvious insulting and demeaning narrations about the Prophet and his conduct, which are more than obvious they are forged but yet they are found in Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim. For example it is narrated:

"The Prophet (S) was laying on the floor while his thigh was showing and he was watching slave girls singing and dancing! As soon as he heard Uthman coming into the house he ordered girls to stop, and while sitting upright he said to them that a man is coming in who does not like to see or hear Shaytan - referring to the singing and dancing." So this narration means that the Prophet of Islam is prepared to listen to and see the evil conduct but Uthman is far more pious than the Prophet, as he does not like to do so!!!

Whoever devised this narration is trying to undermine the authority of the Prophet and demean him and at the same time is trying to aloof the position of Uthman. Of course such narrations and hundreds - if not thousands - more like them were ordered by the ruling authority of the time.

Similarly they forged such hadith as that of the ten who were promised Paradise . If you study the history of some of them you would learn about the astonishing behaviour and conduct of them. Then you can establish for yourself whether this hadith is true or false.

However there are some hadith, which show the conduct of some of the Sahaabah. One narration reports:

"When the Prophet prepared the army of Usamah and assigned who should join the army, the Prophet (S) said:

"In the last days of his blissful life Prophet Muhammad (S) ordered his companion and people around him to bring pen and paper so that he would write us a document that the Muslim would NEVER go astray. In an attempt to prevent this from happening, Omar immediately said and referring to the Prophet in a demeaning manner: "The man is talking nonsense (hallucinating).""

Another example of the conduct of the some of the individuals who have today gained high status in the mind of many:

After performing his last Hajj pilgrimage, the Messenger of Allah (Rasulollah in Arabic) was ordered by Allah Almighty to 'officially' declare Ali as his immediate Caliph and successor. {5:67} In the vicinity of a location called Ghadeer Khom, Rasulollah (S) ordered the people to gather and he declared to the people the revelation Allah made to him, and accordingly he ordered the Muslims to pay allegiance to Imam Ali (AS) as Amir-ul-Mu'mineen or the Commander of the Faithful. For a more detailed presentation of this see the Aqeedah section of Q&A of our site www.shirazi.org.uk. Although Abu Bakr and Omar paid homage of allegiance to Imam Ali (AS), after the death of the prophet, Abu Bakr was installed as the "Caliph" of Rasulollah!!! They then went even further. They tried to force Imam Ali (AS) to pay homage of allegiance to Abu Bakr as the "Caliph". In the process they - Omar, Othman, Khalid ibn Walid, etc. on instructions from Abu Bakr - attacked the house of Lady Fatima (AS) the most beloved daughter of Rasulollah (S), set fire to the door of her house, squashed her between the door and the wall. In this process her ribs were broken and one of her lungs pierced, and she was pregnant she unborn baby son - who was named by Rasulollah himself as Muhassen - was killed immediately. Lady Fatima later died as a result of her severe injuries she had sustained.

So on the one hand we have the so-called 'hadith', which states that people like Abu Bakr and Omar are promised Paradise and on the other we read in historical records they committed such horrendous mischief . . .

For such reasons and many, many more the Shi'a do not accept such people as shown in the few examples above, and there is overwhelming evidence to point to the nature of such individuals who have come to gain such a high position in the mind many.

The Shi'a would take every hadith on its own merit, but not rely and trust the compilation of Bukhari as Sahih. The matter is not as simple as that. We cannot accept a hadith as soon as we find it. We must explore to find out more and find out the whole truth. We cannot follow things blindly. We must establish the truth. One way is to investigate and establish the chain of narrators, because those who wanted to distort the teachings of the prophet (S) and bar his goal from being attained, they not only fabricated hadtih but also brought about personalities that never existed. For this reason the Shi'a rely on the science of investigating and identifying the narrators known as ILM AL-RIJAAL. Only through investigation, thinking, reflection, and contemplation the truth can be attained. Allah Almighty orders, invites mankind to think, reflect, ponder, explore . . . . in order to arrive at the truth for themselves. Allah condemns those who follow blindly, and He considers it as one of the attributes of the faithful who do not follow things blindly.

You must establish these for yourself my dear brother, and this only comes through studying the evidence: books, reports etc. This is the only way you have. You must have done much investigation through which Allah guided you to Islam . . . you need to continue this hard work to consider all the available evidence and establish the truth for yourself, and not listen to the claim of this or that. If you are prepared to do this we are ready to help you in the process.

Of course you would not be the first one to do so. Great many sunny brothers who were against the Shi'a and Shi'a belief, as soon as they started investigating the evidence, they could see light of the truth at the end of the tunnel. Through painstaking work they weighed the evidence and established the truth for themselves.

I thank you so much for the information as a young convert (17) I crave this knowledge. To take advantage of you're vast knowledge I want to address some more issues. I find it very common for a Shia to dismiss the authenticity of Sahih Muslim and Bukhari but when they are proving their point they tend to use it a lot?. I noticed you quoted several sayings in those collections can you please tell me the exact location of them.

Secondly I have been researching the science of hadiths and how to know if one is unauthentic or unauthentic obviously it isn't as easy at it sounds but I'm doing my best and I would like to know of any books or references that you could recommend to me in finding their authenticity. While reading more of the collections I collected several quotations meriting the other companions namely hazrat Abu Bakr, Omar, and Uthman. Please respond to me on some of the few sayings I found.

1. Related by Ishaq b. Rahawaih and al-Baihaqi with a Sahih isnad as a statement of 'Omar. It is also collected by Ibn 'Adi and al-Dailami from Ibn 'Omar as marfu', but in its isnad is 'Isa b. Abdullah, who is weak. However, it is strengthened by another narration of Ibn 'Adi, and also supported by the hadith in the Sunan that a man saw in a dream that Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) was weighed against Abu Bakr, and was found to be heavier; then Abu Bakr was weighed against everyone else .

Narrated Abu Said Al-Khudri:

Allah's Apostle addressed the people saying, "Allah has given option to a slave to choose this world or what is with Him. The slave has chosen what is with Allah." Abu Bakr wept, and we were astonished at his weeping caused by what the Prophet mentioned as to a Slave (of Allah) who had been offered a choice, (we learned later on) that Allah's Apostle himself was the person who was given the choice, and that Abu Bakr knew best of all of us. Allah's Apostle added, "The person who has favoured me most of all both with his company and wealth, is Abu Bakr. If I were to take a Khalil other than my Lord, I would have taken Abu Bakr as such, but (what relates us) is the Islamic brotherhood and friendliness. All the gates of the Mosque should be closed except the gate of Abu Bakr."

Volume 5, Book 57, Number 20:

Narrated Muhammad bin Al-Hanafiya:

I asked my father ('Ali bin Abi Talib), "Who are the best people after Allah's Apostle?" He said, "Abu Bakr." I asked, "Who then?" He said, "Then 'Omar. " I was afraid he would say "Uthman, so I said, "Then you?" He said, "I am only an ordinary person.

These Quotations most likely aren't new to you if you can give me some insight on these sayings. Again if you know of any books etc.. that can help me please refer them to me.

Lastly I found this

1. Related by al-Hakim, al-Tabarani, and others. It is also related by al-Tirmidhi with the wording, "I am the House of Wisdom, and 'Ali is its Door". Al-Daraqutni labelled the hadith as mudtarib, both in isnad and text; al-Tirmidhi said it is gharib and munkar; al-Bukhari said that it has no sahih narration; Ibn Ma'in said that it is a baseless lie. Similar dismissals of the hadith are reported from Abu Zur'ah, Abu Hatim and Yahya b. Sa'd. Al-Hakim declared the original hadith as Sahih in isnad, but Ibn al- Jauzi regarded both versions as maudu', and al- Dhahabi agreed with him. Several of the later scholars, including Ibn Hajar al-'Asqalani, Ibn Hajar al-Makki and al-Suyuti declared it Hassan due to its various routes of narration. Al- 'Ijlouni says, "... none of this devalues the consensus of the Adherents to the Sunnah from the Companions, the Successors and those after them, that the best of the Companions overall is Abu Bakr, followed by 'Omar ...", and quotes this view from Ibn 'Omar and 'Ali himself, as recorded in Sahih al-Bukhari. Al-Albani declares the hadith to be maudu'.

Things Like this are the things that make me weary about the whole authenticity topic. Sunnis and Shia alike are finding faults with each other's traditions. I have no bias against Shia. I just need to find the real good info that will make me decide what's the right path. I hope in time I'll find the right path in till then I rely on my elders and people with knowledge to provide me with reliable sources. InSha'Allah you will provide me with some more knowledge.

Jazakallah in advance.....

You are stepping on to a path that requires a lot of determination and a strong will, as well as patience and hard work, if you wish to seek the truth. The evidence is out there, and there is a mass of it. Sometimes is plain and simple and staring at you in the eyes, and there is plenty of such evidence available, and sometimes you need to read between the lines. And there are plenty of distorted and false quotes to sift through with a sharp mind. The easy option is of course to close your eyes and follow others blindly, a way which some have adopted.

Here I shall try to respond to the issues you raised in your email point by point - and I shall try to keep it very brief - I hope that these act as clues to your quest for the truth.

In the first instance you asked for comment on the quoted event where a man had dream about the prophet and abubakr. . . . . . . . . I would like to ask you here that, "is it correct to base one's belief on someone's dream?" who was the man, and how can we rely on the man's dream to form a judgement? Do we leave aside the historical evidence, all the hadith, and the portrayal of abubakr in Qur'an and stick to this hadith?

In the case of the second hadith, believe it or not the correct version of the hadith is that "all the gates are closed except the gate ALI." You can find this correct version of the hadith in great many books of the Sunni scholars. The correct version of the hadith is admitted to by Omar himself. See for example al-Mustadrak, vol. 3, p125, al-Sawaa'eq al-Muhriqah, chapter 3, section 9, page 76, Musnad Ahmad, vol. 2, page 26/ also vol. 4, p369,

In the case of the third report attributed to Muhammad al-Hanafya, this obscure hadith is a blatant lie, as you can see from the hadith and the event of Ghadeer Khom, which is the most widely reported hadith ever - simply because there were thousands of Muslims present there. In the case of hadith of Ghadeer, on the direct instruction of Allah Almighty, the Prophet PBUH appointed Imam Ali PBUH as the caliph and successor immediately after him and ordered all the Muslims to make Bay'ah with him as Amir-ul-Mu'minin - The Commander of the Faithful. Reports say that it took the Muslims there some three days for them all to pay homage of allegiance to Imam Ali as the Commander of the Faithful. Please read more about al-Ghadeer in the Q&A section of our site. Of course there are great many hadith from Rasulollah about Amir-ul-Mu'minin, which I can present here, but the sake of brevity I only point to the Ghadeer event since it widely reported, although some try to raise a question mark even about this hadith in order to try to cover up the truth!!

In the last quotation about the hadith "I am the City of Knowledge and Ali is its gates" you had reported a number people accepting or rejecting it. You had given the reference for this quotation, so I do not know who is claiming this. Firstly it seems the Sunni scholars cannot agree between themselves on the authenticity of the hadith. Secondly, it is claimed in that quote that al-Tirmidhi says it is ghareeb and munkar, whereas al-Tirmidhi in his Sahih vol.2 p 214 verifies this hadith as reliable and good. This hadith is so reliable in the eyes of the great scholars of the Sunni world that if I wanted to just quote the names of the scholars who authenticate it and their relevant books, it would take some four to five pages of A4 size!

I do not know where you got the quotes from, but they certainly sound extremely devious.

"The Shi'a dismiss the authenticity of Bukhari and Muslim, but then use them to prove their point."

I made it clear in my pervious email to you - I hope you have not deleted it - that the Shi'a take every hadith on its own merit. They take nothing for granted, given the amount of hadith fabrications undertaken by some. Other than the Holy Qur'an which the Shi'a accept as wholly perfect, they do not accept any man made collection as perfect or Sahih. The Shi'a do not treat any book, other than the Qur'an, as Sahih, and because of many fabricated hadith in say Sahih Bukhari and Muslim, the Shi'a dismiss the authenticity of the entire work as a whole. However, on individual basis, if and when a hadith is found to be authentic, then it would be accepted by the Shi'a, and that is what they do to prove their point. I am sure that you would agree with me that this approach is a safe way to pursue the truth about the hadith. If you study the collection of any of the Sahih CAREFULLY and without bias and prejudice, and with an open mind and truth-searching intention, you would find there is an enormous amount of contradiction in the collection. Of course that would take considerable amount of time and energy, but every one of those who set about doing such investigation, found the truth for themselves and followed the path of none other than the Ahl-ul-Bayt peace be upon them - a path Rasulollah peace be upon him specifically identified for the Ummah to follow - on direct instructions from Allah Almighty. {Rasulollah said "The example of my Ahl-ul-Bayt is that of Noah's Ark. He who get on board attains salvation, and he who leaves it is doomed." Musnad Ahmad vol.3 / page 14 (3/14), Ibn al-Jawzi "Tathkirat Khawas al-Ummah" p 323, Imam Fakhr al-Razi in his tafsir "Mafaateeh al-Ghayb" under the commentaries for the verse 42:23, al-Tabari in both his Tafsir and his Taareekh, Ibn Hajar in his book al-Sawaa'iq al-Muhriqah, p234, al-Tabarani, al-Tha'labi, etc. There are great many hadith from the prophet in this respect, urging the Ummah to follow his Ahl-ul-Bayt and categorically no one else, if they seek salvation.}

As for using some of the hadith in Bukhari or Muslim to prove their point, of course they do - is there any other way for the Shi'a to prove and justify their beliefs to the other side other than referring to that side's own books and references? It would not prove anything to the other side if Shi'a were to prove their point by referring to their own references because the other side do not recognise those references to begin with! The reason the Shi'a have managed to prove to others that their belief is the truth is because they base their arguments on evidence found in the references of their opponents.

As for Omar's attempt to prevent Rasulollah from writing what he wanted to, by saying "The man is talking nonsense (hallucination)" , see Sahih Bukhari, the 'Book of the Patient', volume 4, page 5. Of course the volume and page numbers are of the original Arabic version, and most probably in the case of the English version the numbers are likely to be different. The important thing is to look under the 'Book of the Patient' in the Sahih. There is another edition of the Sahih Bukhari with Commentaries by al-Sindi, and this event is reported in vol.6, and vol. 9 under the section of 'the illness of the prophet'. Also look under the 'Book of Knowledge' volume 1, p22. Look also in the 'Book of Jihad and Travelling', volume 2, p118. In Sahih Muslim this hadith is reported in volume 2, p 14. this is also found in Musnad Ahmad bin Hanbal, in volume 1, p 325.

As for the army of Usamah and the prophet cursing any one who disobeys or deserts his army, this event is cited in many references such as "al-Tabaqat al-Kubra" by Ibn Sa'ad, "Taareekh al-Umam wal Muluk" by Ibn Jurayr al-Tabari, and by Ibn Atheer in his "Taareekh", and by al-Shahrestani in his famous book "al-Milal wa al-Nahl", to name a few.

As for the attack on the house of Lady Fatima - peace be upon her - the most and only beloved daughter of Rasulollah - peace be upon him - and her response to the attackers and her condemnation of them including Abu Bakr - to the extent that she made it her will that Abu Bakr and Omar should not be allowed to pray on her after she has died and that even the location of her grave should not be known to them; a few of the references are given below:

Dear brother, it is good that have this investigative spirit and InSha'Allah Allah will guide you to the right path that He refers to in the holy Qur'an. You should also know that the science of hadith and biography of narrators is NOT easy. It would take many years' study with experts, and hard work to master this field. From the efficiency point of view it would be good to see and use the experience of those who had previously been in a position like yours. There have been many who had asked questions like those you are asking today, and set about investigating the mass of evidence to try to reach the truth. A now famous man who embarked on such a task is Dr Muhammad al-Tijani al-Samawi, a Tunisian scholar who, as a result of his research in his quest for the truth he wrote many books in this respect. Some of his books are:

Another person who has undertaken such a task is one of the scholars of Syria , The Chief Judge Sheikh Muhammad Mar'e al-Amin al-Antaki. In his book "Why I embraced the Madhhab of the Shi'a, The Madhhab of Ahl-ul-Bayt?" he presents his investigation and research work that led him to the conclusion that the school of Ahl-ul-Bayt peace be upon them, and no one else's is the path to follow.

There have also been debates and dialogues between top ranking scholars from the Shi'a and the Sunni world regarding the truth in this respect. One such dialogue was between:

Sheikh Salim al-Bishri, highest ranking scholar of the Sunni world of his time, who was twice the head of al-Azhar once 1900-1904, and the second 1909-1916 when he died while he was the leader of al-Azhar, aged 84.

Sayyid Abdul-Hussein Sharaf el-Din, one of the leaned scholars of the Shi'a world, 1872-1957.

Their dialogue was mostly in the form of correspondence, sometimes meeting in Egypt or in Lebanon, and at the end of a detailed and tireless debate between these two giants of knowledge, who between them had more than 130 years study and research work in the fields of hadith, Fiqh, and Qur'an, the Sheikh of al-Azhar saw the truth of the other side and embraced the Shi'a belief and accepted the teachings of Ahl-ul-Bayt is the only one to follow.

Their correspondence was published under the title al-Muraje'aat, and the English version I have seen is published under the title "The Right Path" in about 500 pages.

Another debate between the top scholars of the both sides took place face to face, and the debate was published under the title "Peshawar Nights", because the debate took place in Peshawar in the evening. The Arabic version of the book is about 1200 pages and I know that this book has been translated into English.

These books provide an extremely valuable source of information, since they either present the results of extensive and exhaustive research which between them have taken decades to conduct, or they provide the debate between top scholars of the field who had spent their entire life developing their knowledge and expertise, and know a lot if not all about their subject area, which is hadith, narrators, Fiqh, Qur'an, etc.

In my opinion if you wish to delve into this kind of investigation, then it is prudent to look at these works, for they give an insight into the field with minimum effort being made on your side.