Sunni Feedback on The Issues of Infallibility and Ahulbayt [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Developement of History and Hadith Collections
Let us read the following tradition very carefully and judge
for ourselves
if we can ever give a possibility that such words have been
uttered by the
messenger of Allah.

The tradition is in Sahih
Muslim, and is written in the
section of necessity of joining to the majority of people,
and is as
follows:

Narrated Hudayfh
Ibn al-Yaman:

Prophet said:
There will come rulers after me who do not guide to
my guidance and do
not practice my Sunnah, and the hearts of some
them are the
hearts of Satans but they are in the body of human.

I said: What
should we do at that time? Prophet (PBUH) said:
You should
just listen to them and obey those rulers.

No
matter if
the hurt you and
take your wealth, you should follow them and obey
them.

Sunni reference: Sahih Muslim, Chapter of al-Imaarah (chapter
33 for the
Arabic version), Section of necessity of joining the
majority,
1980 Edition, Arabic version (Saudi Arabia), v3, p1476,
Tradition #52.

This is the Arabic text of the above tradition narrated by
Sahih Muslim:

The above was just one example.

There are more than
12 traditions similar
to this in the same section of Sahih Muslim.

Who
sold such traditions as
Sahih (authentic) to us? Aren't they those who wanted to make
their kingdom
strong and away from any possible opposition? Any complaint
is against the
above alleged word of prophet, and those people are sentenced
to death.

In
another tradition in the following section in Sahih Muslim,
prophet has
ordered to kill those who disobey these unjust rulers.

Let
us see where the
origins of these books are, and who controlled the writing of
them.

Muawiyah was the first one who turned his attention to write
the history
and collecting the fabricated Hadiths (traditions).

He
got a history of the
ancients written by a person in the name of Ubayd whom he
called him from
Yemen.

Marwan who had been exiled by the Prophet for his
anti-Islamic
activities and who had a great influence with Uthman, was the
implacable
foe of Ali.

His son, Abdul Malik ascended the
throne in year 65 AH,
reestablished himself in year 73, and died in year 86.

Abdul
Malik was the
one under whose funding finally a set of Islamic History,
Hadith
(tradition), and Tafsir (interpretation of the Quran) was
provided.

al-Zuhri was the first historian who wrote the history of
Islam under the
direct order and fund of Abdul Malik.

He also wrote
Hadith collection.

The
works of al-Zuhri was one of the main source for al-Bukhari.

al-Zuhri was
attached to the royal family of Abdul Malik, and was the
tutor of his sons.
(See al-Sirah al-Nabawiyyah, by Shibli who is a
great Sunni historian,
part I, pp.
13-17).

Among the students of al-Zuhri, two persons, namely Musa Ibn
Uqbah, and
Mohammad Ibn Ishaq became famous historians.

The
former was a slave of the
house of Zubair.

Although his history is not
available today, it had been
the most popular work on history for a long time.

You
will find its
references in many history books on different subjects.

The second student, Mohammad Ibn Ishaq is the most famous
historian for
Sunnis.

His biography of the Prophet, called Sirah
Rasul Allah, is still
the accredited authority on the subject in the shape that was
given to it
by Ibn Hisham, and is known as al-Sirah of Ibn Hisham.

al-Zuhri is the first who compiled the Hadith also.

(See
al-Sirah al-
Nabawiyyah, by Shibli, part I, pp.
13-17).

All
Sunni History and Hadith
books written afterwards by other people were in great
influence of these
works.

The above gives evidence to the following facts:
1- Sunni Hadith
and History books were first compiled under the
direct order of Umayyah Kings,
2- The first
authors were al-Zuhri, and his two students Musa and
Mohammad Ibn Ishaq, 3- These authors
were attached to the royal family of the Umayyah
kings.
The hatred of the house of Umayyah against Bani Hashim (the
house of
Prophet and Ali) is well-known.
The wars of Abu
Sufyan and his son Muawiyah
against Prophet and Ali respectively, also the horrible
massacre of the
grandson of prophet at Karbala by the grandson of Abu Sufyan,
are only some
of top items among the long list of such crimes.

These
are the criminals
who FIRST wrote the history and Hadith books.

(The
books written afterwards
by other people were in great influence of these works.
)
They fabricated
many traditions to justify their deeds, and to say that
prophet has
ordered us to obey them even if they are unjust.

What
I quoted above was
just one example of such traditions.

Who was the first one that used the term Ahlussunnah
and al-Jama'ah?
If one searches through the history books, he will find that
they agreed to
call the year in which Muawiyah seized the power as The
Year of al-
Jama'ah meaning the majority of people.

It
was called so, because the
nation had already become divided into two factions after the
death of
Uthman: The Shia of Ali and the followers of Muawiyah.

When
Imam Ali (AS)
was martyred and Muawiyah took over the power, the year was
called al-
Jama'ah.

Out of these two parties, the
majority leading by Muawiyah won
the throne, and the other party was considered as a dangerous
rival., Therefore the name of Ahl al-Sunnah and al-Jama'ah
indicates the Sunnah
of Prophet merged by the innovations by Muawiyah, and the
agreement on his
leadership.

The Imams and members of Ahlul-Bayt who are the descendants
of the Prophet,
know more than anybody else about the Sunnah of their
grandfather and what
it entails, for as the proverb goes: The people of
Mecca know its paths
better than anyone else.

But the majority of
people did/do not follow the
12 Imams whom prophet has mentioned their numbers (see Sahih
al-Bukhari)
and their names (see Sunni books like Yanabi'ul
Mawaddah by al-Qunduzi
al-Hanafi).

Despite the acknowledgment of al-Bukhari
and Muslim about 12
Imams, they always stop at the four Caliphs.

Shia/Sunni and Scrutinizing Hadith
One major difference between the Shia and the Sunnis is that
Sunnis accept
any tradition from any companions no matter if these
companions fought each
other, abused each other, rebelled against their righteous
Caliph, and or
innovate new things in to the religion.

The Shia,
however, believe that all
the narrators in the chain of a document should have been
JUST.

If they
have done any injustice in the history (such as those
mentioned above)
their narrations are void for us unless the same tradition
has been
narrated with another chain of narrators who all of them are
proven to be
trustworthy.

One of the Wahhabi friends said that Shia, when narrating a
Hadith, only
say the Imam so and so said, one of our friends said.
Now
how we can
authenticise the Hadith?
If a person has heard something directly from the 12 Imams,
and that person
is trustworthy for the Shia and his narration is not against
Quran, then
the tradition is authentic for us, since we believe in the
infallibility of Imams as well as Prophets.

The
knowledge of Imam has been
derived from the knowledge of their fathers and forefathers
up to the
Prophet (PBUH&HF).

However, the chain of narrators should be evaluated.

If
the chain turns out
to be broken (i.
e.
, one element in the chain is
missing), then the
tradition is considered weak in Isnad.

Thus all the
narrators should be
named, and this is the case for the majority of Shi'i
collections of
traditions.

Nevertheless, there are only a number of traditions in Usul
Kafi in which
the last element in the chain is missing, i.
e.
, the
name of the person who
reported to Kulaini in person.

In stead of
mentioning his name, Kulaini has
used the phrase a group of our associates.

But
Kulaini has mentioned all
other elements in the chain.

The reason for this was that, as I mentioned, Shia have
always been under
prosecution of unjust rulers including the Abbasids.

If
Kulaini (RA) have
mentioned the names of those who reported to him and were
still alive, and
if the book could have found his way to the officials, then
all those
reporters would have been killed.

To protect them,
he did not mention their
names and codified it by saying a group of our
associates.

However he
mentioned the name of those who reported to him but died
during Kulaini's
life.

But the good news is that since Kulaini knew the regulations
of
scrutinizing of the traditions by the Shia, he told some of
his students
how the names of the last narrators are codieifed.

More
specifically, it
was mentioned that:

I.
Whenever you read in Usul Kafi, that
a group of our associates
narrated from Ahmad Ibn Muhammad Ibn
Isa, then the group
here means the following five
persons:

1.
Abu Ja'far
Muhammad Ibn Yahya al-Attar al-Qummi 2.
Ali Ibn Musa Ibn
Ja'far al-Kamandani 3.
Abu Sulayman Dawud
Ibn Kawrah al-Qummi 4.
Abu Ali Ahmad Ibn
Idris Ibn Ahmad al-Ash'ari al-Qummi 5.
Abul Hasan Ali Ibn
Ibrahim Ibn Hashim al-Qummi.

II.
Whenever you read in Usul Kafi, that a
group of our associates
narrated from Ahmad Ibn Muhammad Ibn
Khalid al-Barqi, then
the group here means the following
four persons:

1.
Abul Hasan Ali Ibn
Ibrahim Ibn Hashim al-Qummi 2.
Muhammad Ibn
Abdillah Ibn Udhaynah 3.
Ahmad Ibn Abillah
Ibn Umayyah 4.
Ali Ibn al-Husain
al-Sa'd Abadi.

III.
Whenever you read in Usul Kafi, that a
group of our associates
narrated from Sahl Ibn Ziyad,
then the group here means
the following four persons:

1.
Abul Hasan
Ali Ibn Muhammad Ibn Ibrahim Ibn Aban al-Razi, who is known
as Allan al-Kulaini 2.
Abul Husain
Muhammad Ibn Abdillah Ja'far Ibn Muhammad Ibn Awn al-
Asadi
al-Kufi, resident of ray.

3.
Muhammad
Ibn al-Husain Ibn Farrukh al-Saffar al-Qummi 4.
Muhammad
Ibn Aqil al-Kulaini.

IV.
Whenever you read in Usul Kafi, that a
group of our associates
narrated from Ja'far Ibn Muhammad
who narrated from al-Hasan
Ibn Ali Ibn al-Faddal, then
the group here consists of the
following person:

1.
Abu
Abdillah al-Husain Ibn Muhammad Ibn Imran Ibn Abi Bakr al-
Ash'ari al-Qummi.

Thus the narrators of those traditions are known and can be
evaluated
accordingly.

Nontheless, we do not claim that al-Kafi
is an all authentic
book of traditions for the Shia.

There are certain
traditions in al-Kafi
which are reported by weak narrators who are known to the
Shia scholars of
Hadith.

Imam Ali (AS)
Be the enemy of the oppressor and:

the helper of the oppressed one.

&
(Nahjul Balagha, the sayings of Imam Ali)
Please compare this tradition of Imam Ali with the tradition
of
Sahih Muslim given at the beginning of the article.