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Islam of Abu Talib (Part 1 of 4)
It would be interesting if we analyze the verses that some
Sunni
commentators have aleged to have revealed for the disbelief
of Abu Talib
(RA).

The first one is:
Surah VI - The Cattle (An'aam) - Verse 26
And they prohibit
( others ) from it and go far away from it,
and they only
bring destruction upon their own souls while they
do not perceive
it.

- Tabari relates
from Sufiyan Soori who relates it from Habeeb ibn
Abu
Sabit who narrated it from somebody saying that Ibn Abbas
said
'that this verse came down for Abu Talib, because he used to
protect Muhammad from the Kufar but he never recited the
Kalima.

Sunni references
- Tabaqat of Ibne
Sa'ad, v 2 p 105 - History of
Tabari, v 7 p 100 - Tafseer Ibn
Katheer, v 2 p 127 - Tafseer Kashaf,
v 1 p 448 - Tafseer Qurtubi,
v 6 p 406 and
many many more Now let us see for ourselves if the ideology behind the above
interpretation
is correct or not, so that we would have no doubts in our
minds.

Further
scrutiny of the above interpretation would lead us to believe
that it is
nothing but a futile effort to discredit Abu Talib:

- The verse talks
about living people, since the verse mentions that '
people who prevent others from doing it and neither do
it '.

Of
course a dead person can't think of preventing others
from a
course of action, and they have to be living to do so.
This
convinces us to believe that this verse can't be for
Abu
Talib.

- The chain of
narrators terminates after Habeeb ibn Abu Sabit and
Sufyan doesn't mention who narrated it from Habeeb ibn Abu
Sabit,
and all he says that he ( Habeeb ) narrated it from some
one
who heard it from Ibn Abbas.

This
criterion is not acceptable according to the standards of
hadeeth, since the chain of narrators is incomplete,
therefore
this
hadeeth is unacceptable.

But for argument sake if we still accept the chain of
narrators, and the
fact that Habeeb ibn Abu Sabit is the only person who
narrates it, the
books of Rijal testify to the fact that we can't accept this
tradition, for
the following reasons
- In the eyes if
Ibn Habban, Habeeb is a 'deceiver', and Aqeeli Ibn
Aun
has 'avoided' Habeeb since Habeeb has copied hadeeths from
Ata'a
which are ' absolutely unacceptable '.
Qita'an says that Habeeb's hadeeths other than Ata'a are also
unacceptable and are not safe from being fake.

Abu
Dawood quotes
from
Ajri that the hadeeths narrated by Habeeb from Ibn Zamrah
are
not correct.

Ibn Khazeema comments that Habeeb is a
'deceiver'
Sunni reference
- Tahzeeb al-Tahzeeb,
by Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, v 2 p 179 Therefore the tradition narrated by Habeeb is his personal
innovation, and
after reading the views of so many Rijal experts how can we
accept his
hadeeth?
But this shouldn't stop us from further investigating the
issue, and if we
accept the fact that Habeeb can be trusted, let us look at
Sufyan who is
the last narrator in the chain of the tradition against Abu
Talib.

We still
have to declare this hadeeth void, because, al-Dhahabi writes
about him
that
Sufyan narrations are lies
Sunni reference
- Mizan al-Itidal,
by al-Dhahabi, v 1 p 396
I find it very difficult to believe that despite the fact the
commentators
who have written down the traditions are respectable
personalities, they
have copied it down from cheap people such as above, without
any
hesitation.

Despite all these weak traditions that have been narrated by
weak
narrators, we find hadeeths related by Ibn Abbas that are
genuine and state
the opposite of what we find in the hadeeth mentioned above.

Let
see what
they have to offer
- Tabari states that the above verse
came down for all the mushrikeen
who used to stay away from the
Prophet and used to advise others to
stay away from him ( the Prophet ).

Sunni reference
- Tafseer Tabari,
v 7 p 109 - Tafseer Durre
Manthoor, v 3 p 8 The fact is that Abu Talib never advised others to stay away
from Prophet
(PBUH&HF).

Even many of those who accused him
for not uttering Shahadah,
confess that he helped the Holy Prophet (PBUH&HF) during
those days of
tribulations of the young Islam with all his means.

Also he raised the
Prophet when he was child, and then accepted that Imam Ali
(AS) to be
raised by Prophet.

He, in fact, was Muslim from the
begining, but was
ordered by Prophet to practice Taqiyya (to conceal his
belief) so that he
could play as a mediator between Prophet and chiefs of
unbelievers in Mecca
(like Abu Sufyan).

Also it is important to note that we do NOT believe that the
parents of
Prophets and Imams were necessarily perfect (Infallible).

However
we
believe that their parents and all their forefathers were
righteous and
believers and monotheist during their entire life.

End of Part 1 of 4