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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