لطفا منتظر باشید ...
In the Name of Allah, The Beneficent, The
Merciful.
TRUE SECT IN ISLAM
"And hold fast all together, by the rope which Allah
(stretches out to you)
and be not divided among
yourselves.." [Holy Qur'an 3:103]
Let me begin with a famous hadith which has
been accepted by all sects of Islam: "My ummah (followers)
will shortly break up into seventy-three sects, all of which shall
be condemned except one." (Mishkatu
'l-masabih)
After reading this hadith, it becomes
compulsory for every one in Islam to search for the right sect - the
path to salvation. And indeed it is necessary for every man to take
reason as his guide, try his best in this matter and never despair
of attaining the truth & always praying to Allah to lead him in
the right path.
It is incumbent upon us to base our
opinion not on emotion but on reason and to be guided in formulating
the opinion by the Holy Qur'an and the traditions of the Holy
Ma'sumeens.
Now, let us examine the above said verse
from the Holy Qur'an, which says "And hold fast, all together, by
the rope(cable) which Allah (stretches out for you),.." Here
Almighty Allah is asking us to hold fast His rope. The following
questions will arise in our mind.
1. Which is the rope Almighty is talking about
?
2. For holding any rope we need two ends. Has our
Holy Prophet(S.A.W) said anything about it ?
When we search in the hadith books, we will find the
famous hadith of Thaqalayn. That is "Verily, I am leaving behind
two precious things (thaqalayn) among you: the Book of God (Holy
Qur'an) and my kindred (itrah), my household (Ahlul Bayt),
for indeed, the two will never separate until they come back to me
by the Pond (of alKawthar on the Judgement's Day)." Hence
we know that the two ends of the rope, the first is Holy Qur'an
& the second is Ahlul - Bayt.
Then, the question
is, what does Qur'an says about the Ahlul - Bayt ? At one
place Qur'an says:
...Allah desires only to keep away uncleanness from
you people of the House
(Ahlul - Bayt) and make you as pure as
can be." [Qur'an
33:33][Tathir]
Next question is, who are these
Ahlul - Bayt, to whom Qur'an is refering to ?.
All
exegists of the Holy Qur'an and narrators of the Prophet's
traditions, unanimously agree that the word Ahlul - Bayt, or the
Household of the Prophet(S.A.W) as used by Almighty Allah in the
Qur'an, refers only to the following persons: The Prophet's daughter
Fatima, her husband Ali and their two children Hasan and Hussain
(Peace be upon them all). The famous exegist Suyuti in his renowned
commentary 'Dur al-Manthur' cites Tabarani's narration from Umm
Salama that the Messenger of Allah(S.A.W) once told his beloved
daughter, Fatima, to call her husband Ali and two of their sons;
Hasan and Hussain (Peace be upon them all). When they came, the
Messenger of Allah(S.A.W) covered them with a Fadak (a place near
Madina) cloak and put his hand on them, and said:
"O Allah! these are the Ahl
Muhammad {another version says aal (family)} so, shower your
blessings and favours on aal Muhammad as you showered them on aal
Abraham; You are the Praiseworthy, the
Glorious."
Umm Salma said that she raised the
cloak to join them, but the Prophet pulled it out of her hand and
said:"You are (also) on the
right."
On many occasions Prophet Muhammad
(S.A.W) explained the meaning of this verse (of purity) to the
Muslims and drew their attention to its significance in order to be
enlightened with them (Ahlul - Bayt) by following their straight
path. Once, it happened that the Prophet(S.A.W) while passing his
daughter Fatima's(S.A) house on his way to the mosque for the dawn
prayers, used to call:
"To prayer, O Ahlul - Bayt, to prayer; Allah desires to
keep away uncleanness from you, people of the House and make you
pure as pure as can be."
One more place
Qur'an says: "...Say (O' Muhammad unto mankind): I do not ask of
you any reward for it
(preaching the message), but love for my
relatives (Ahlul - Bayt)..." [Qur'an
42:23][Mawadah]
"Say, "Whatever reward I ask you (for my preaching)
will be for your own good. No one can reward me except God. He is
the Witness over all things." [Qur'an 34:47]
The Messenger of Allah(S.A.W)
explicitly told the Muslims that this blessed verse
refers to his Ahlul - Bayt, that is; Ali, Fathima, Hasan
& Hussain (Peace be upon them all) and urged them to
obey and follow these illustrious personalities after
him.
All commentators, traditionists and
biographers said that the word 'near relatives of the
Prophet' as used, here, refers exclusively to his Ahlul
- Bayt that is Ali, Fatima, Hasan and Hussain (Peace be
upon them all).
Fakhruddin Razi, while
explaining this verse, says: "...and without doubt no
one was so near to the Prophet than Fatima, Ali, Hasan
and Hussain (Peace be upon them all). This is a
well-known fact of all chains of narrations, and these
are they who are his
'aal'".
Thus, it is an
undisputed fact that the words Ahlul - Bayt or aal Muhammed (S.A.W)
refer only to the immediate family of the Prophet; his daughter
Fatima, son-in-law Ali and his two sons Hasan & Hussain (Peace
be upon them all) and no one else.
First: We have
already cited some instances of the Prophet's love for his
family.
Second: No doubt being his only surviving
child, Fatima was intensely loved by her father. The Propher's
famous words are a testimony to this fact.
"Fatima is a part of me and
whoever makes her angry, makes me
angry."
The traditions also confirm this
and also his natural inclination towards Ali and his grandchildren,
Hasan and Hussain (Peace be upon them all). Therefore, it becomes a
duty for the Prophet's nation to follow the Prophet's traditions in
respect to his Ahlul - Bayt. The Almighty says:
"...Say (O' Muhammad unto mankind): if you love Allah,
then follow me,
Allah will love you..." [Qur'an 3:31]
Hence it is very clear that the Almighty Allah
made compulsory to love the Ahlul - Bayt of Holy Prophet(S.A.W),
that is Ali, Fatima, Hasan & Hussain (Peace be upon them
all).
In another
hadith, The Messenger of Allah - may Allah bestow peace and
benedictions upon him and his Progeny - said: "The parable
of my ahlul bayt is that of the boat of Noah, whoever gets
aboard is saved and whoever stays away from it is
drowned.
Hence, it means that whoever follows
Ahlul - Bayt will attain salvation and whoever stays away from Ahlul
- Bayt does not attain salvation.
When we search in
the hadith books, we will find the following
hadiths(Traditions):
1. Narrated by : Jabir bin
Samura, I heard the Prophet (S.A.W) saying, "There will be twelve
commanders (Amir)." He then said a sentence which I did not
hear. My father said, the Prophet added, "All of them will be
from Quraish." [Sahih al-Bukhari Hadith: 9.329(Arabic-English
version)]
2. Narrated by : Jabir bin Samura, The
Prophet (S.A.W) said: "The matter (life) will not end, until it
is passed by twelve Caliphs." He then whispered a sentence. I
asked my father what the Prophet said. He said, the Prophet
added: "All of them will be from Quraish."[Sahih Muslim,
Arabic version, Kitab al-Imaarah, 1980 Edition Pub. In Saudi Arabia,
v3, p1452, Tradition #5: Sahih Muslim, Eng
ver.]
3.The Prophet (S.A.W) said: "The Islamic
religion will continue until the Hour (day of resurrection), having
twelve Caliphs for you, all of them will be from Quraish."
[Sahih al-Tirmidhi, v4, p501; Sunan Abu Dawud, v2, p421 (three
traditions); al-Tiyalasi; Ibn al-Athir; etc.,]
4.
Also in another wording, the Messenger of Allah uses the word "Imam"
instead of "Caliph". It is widely narrated that: The Prophet (S.A.W)
said: "The Imams are from Quraish" [al-Mustadrak, by
al-Hakim, v3, p149; Musnad Ahmad Ibn Hanbal; Sahih al-Nisa'i, from
Anas Ibn Malik]
We can also find the same thing in the Old
Testament, that is:"And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee;
Behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and I will
multiply him exceedingly, TWELVE PRINCES shall he beget and I will
make him a great nation." Gen. 18:20
Obviously, the above traditions are not fit to the
first four Caliphs all together, as they were less than twelve. And
they can not be applied to the Umayad Caliphs, because
(a)
they were more than twelve;
(b) all of them were tyrants
and unjust (except Umar Ibn Abd al- Aziz);
(c)
they were not from the Hashimites and the Holy Prophet had said in
another tradition that: "All of them will be from the Bani
Hashim..."
Also they cannot be applied to the
Abbasid Caliphs, because:
(a) they were more than
twelve;
(b) they persecuted the descendants of the Prophet
every where which means they did not comply with the Quranic
verse: "...Say (O' Muhammad unto mankind): I do not ask of
you any reward for it (preaching the message), but love for my
relatives (Ahlul - Bayt)..." [Qur'an
42:23]
I would like to remind you that "Caliph"
means successor/deputy. The successor of the Prophet (or the
preceding Caliph) should come immediately after the demise of the
Prophet (or the preceding Caliph). If there is any gap between the
successors, the word "successor" does not make any sense. So
successors should come right after the other without any gap. Also
as the Prophet (S.A.W) suggested in the above traditions, those
twelve Caliphs will cover till the day of
resurrection.
As you may know, the Followers of the
Members of the House of the Prophet(S.A.W) refer to these 12 Caliphs
as of their 12 Imams starting with Imam Ali (AS) and ending with
Imam Mahdi (AS) the leader of our time. They are Caliphs because
Allah made them Caliphs (They are vice-regents of Allah on the
earth).
Hence, I conclude this by saying that, it is
your duty to find out more about the true sect by keeping the above
brief guidance. And God bless you with your
search.
"Surely Allah and His angels bless the Prophet; O you
who believe! Call for (divine) blessings on him and salute him with
a (becoming) salutation." [Qur'an 33:56]
