The Ahulbayt in Quran [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Did Muhammad Receive Revelation by Mistake?!

The following article is adopted from the "Shi'ites
Under Attack" by

Muhammad Jawad Chirri with some modification.

Do the Shi'ite Muslims Say that the Revelation Came to

Muhammad by Mistake, and that it Was Intended for Ali?

This [false accusation is] widely spread in Egypt, Saudi
Arabia, and other

Arab countries in order to discredit the followers of the
members of the

House of the Prophet.

This accusation was made
during periods of

oppression against the Shiites.

The rulers of the
periods of the Omayads

and Abbasids used to consider every follower of the Members
of the House of

the Prophet revolutionary and dangerous.

They
conspired against these

Shiites and accused them of heresy and disbelief in order to
encourage the

Muslims to shed their blood and usurp their rights and
wealth.

The centuries of oppression passed with all their injustices
and terrors.

It was expected that during the new period of freedom, the
mistakes of the

past would be corrected.

It was hoped that Muslim
scholars would make a

serious study in order to see if there is any justification
for such

terrible accusations.

It is very easy to know the truth.

There are hundreds of books written by Shiite scholars about
their beliefs.

Had the Sunni scholars read any of these books, they would
have found that

the Shiite beliefs are in full agreement with the Book of God
and the well-

known statements of the Prophet.

We are living in the era of speed and easy movement.

It is easy for Muslim

scholars to have conferences, discuss problems, and find
solutions.

The simplest principle of justice is to follow the
commandment of the Holy

Qur'an:

"Oh you who believe, if a
transgressor comes to you with news, try to

verify it, lest you inflict damage
on people unwittingly; then you may

consequently regret your hasty
action" (ch.

49, v.

6)

The Almighty commanded us to try to find out whether an
accusation is true

or false, and that we ought not to try people and convict
them without

questioning them.

We do not know of any court in the world in which the judge
convicts a

person before interviewing him, provided the accused is
available and

honors the summons.

In spite of the ease with which one can find the correct
information

nowadays, we find that those who accuse and spread hatred
among Muslims do

not take one single step in order to find the truth which may
unite the

Muslim world.

While writing these words, I recollect that the Egyptian
government during

the fifties sent the late Dr.

Mohammad Bisar to
Washington, D.

C.

, as

director of the Islamic Center there.

I went to
visit him and he received

me kindly and informed me of the knowledge that he had
acquired concerning

American Muslims.

He initiated a dialogue between
us, saying:

"Some of the Muslims in this
country asked me about the various

Islamic sects.

I
declared to them that all Muslim sects are good

except the Shiite Ithnashari.

"

I immediately realized that R.

Bisar did not know
the meaning of Shiite

Ithnashari.

Otherwise, he would not have been
rude enough to say that to

me while I am a Shiite Ithnashari (meaning The Twelvers).

Thus,
we had the

following dialogue:

Chirri: What is wrong with the Ithnashari?

Bisar: They believe in things opposed to Islam.

Chirri: Give us an example of their wrong belief.

Bisar: They say the revelation came to Mohammad by
mistake, and

that Ali Ibn Abu
Talib was supposed to receive the

revelation.

Chirri: How did you learn that?

Bisar: I read it in the book of al-milal and al-nihal
by al-Shahristani.

Chirri: Have you asked any Shiite scholar about this
subject?

Bisar: No, I have not.

Chirri: Then you have convicted millions of Muslims and
considered

them "kafir"
without asking any of them about this serious

accusation.

Did the Almighty command you to do that? And

did Egypt
send you to propagate such [an unjust] message?

A year after our meeting in Washington, I met Dr.

Bisar
in Philadelphia at

an Islamic conference.

He informed me that he
re-examined the book of al-

milal and al-nihal by al-Shihristani and found that what was
attributed to

Shiites, that the revelation came to Mohammad by mistake, was
not the

belief of the Ithnashari Shiite school of thought.

It was rather, a sect

which existed and disappeared hundreds of years ago.

Hearing that from

him, I accepted his apology.

Yet, I was amazed
that it took him a whole

year to re-read the book and discover the truth.

I spent years studying hadith and Islamic history in books
which were

written by Sunni and Ithnashari scholars.

I NEVER
FOUND IN ANY SHIITE BOOK

A HADITH OR A HISTORICAL REPORT INDICATING THAT ALI IBN ABU
TALIB WAS

HIGHER THAN OR EQUAL TO MOHAMMAD.

As a matter of
fact, I found only the

opposite.

The Shittes consider Ali to be the best
man after the Messenger

because he was the most obedient to him.

One of the hadith which the Shiites pride themselves upon is
a hadith

attributed to the Messenger of God:

The Prophet (PBUH&HF) said to
the tribe of Wolai-ah:

"Bani Wolai-ah, you must change
your attitude, or I shall send to you

a man who is from me to punish you
severely.

"

Some of the people who were present
asked the Prophet "Who is the man

you are going to send to
them?" The Prophet replied: "He is the man

who was patching the sole of my
shoes.

" They looked around and found

Ali patching the sole of the
Prophet's shoes.

Sunni references:

- Sahih al-Tirmidhi, v5, p634

- Fada'il al-Sahaba, by Ahmad Hanbal, v2, p571, Tradition
#966

- al-Riyad al-Nadirah, by al-Muhib al-Tabari, v3, p152

- Tabaqat, by Ibn Sa'd, v1, p349

- Matalib al-'Aliyah, v4, p56

- Majma' al-Zawa'id, by al-Haythami, v9, p163

It is inconceivable that the Shiites can be proud of the fact
that Ali was

the patcher of the Prophet Mohammad's shoes and claim that
the Imam is

higher than or equal to the Prophet.

Therefore, I
do not find any

justification for directing such an accusation at the Shiites
who glorify

the Prophet the most.

The Shiites say that the highest honor that Imam Ali acquired
is that he

was chosen by the Prophet to be his brother.

When
the Prophet commanded

every two Muslims to become brothers, he held Ali's hand and
said, "This is

my brother.

" Thus, the Messenger of God, the
highest Messenger, the Imam

of all righteous people, the one who had no equal among the
servants of

God, made Ali his brother.

(Al-Seerah Al-Nabawiyah,
by Ibn Hisham, part 1,

p505).

=

Side Comments

=

A Wahhabi mentioned that:

There was a sect that claimed
Gibreel (Alaihi Alsalam) erred in

delivering the message.

This sect were called the "Sheeah Ghurabiah".

They might no longer exist by that
name -- and they are a different

sect than the Twelvers sect.

.

.

.

Dear friend, the Ghurabiyyah and similar sects are fictitious
sects created

by some story tellers such as al-Shahrastani and Abdul-Qahir
Ibn Tahir al-

Baghdadi, etc.

Nonetheless, we do not deny that there existed some extremist
sects (al-

Ghulat) who departed from the body of Shia, who believed Ali
is God, or

those who believed in incarnation (Hulool).

The
reason was that they found

so many virtues in Imam Ali, and by their
narrow-minded-brain, they could

not believe that a human can possess all such virtues.

As
a result of that,

they believed in the deity of Ali.

Surely they have
gone astray.

Thanks to

God that they have perished in the course of History in a
great deal.

However the leaders of such extremist groups and other
deviated groups from

Shia (whose leaders falsely claimed to be Imams) were not as
simple minded

as their followers.

Those leaders were agents of
the tyrranical rullers and

their activities were purely political.

The Imams of Ahlul-Bayt and their followers disassociated
themselves from

these groups who were being established by the governments of
each era to

deviate the followers of Ahlul-Bayt and to destroy their path
by keeping

them away from the Imams and moving them toward the puppets
of governments.

But these groups were melting down few months after their
appearance, since

people soon recognized the falsehood and ignorance of their
leaders and

their connection with the rulers, and thus people did not
subscribe to

these groups.

A group without followers can not
live for long, and its

leader becomes out of business shortly after.

Allah,
Exalted He is, said in

Quran:

".

.

.

and in
this way, Allah strikes the examples of truth and

falsehood.

Then, as for
the bubbles, it passes away (like

disappearance of scum/foam upon the
banks), while that which is for

the good of mankind, remains in the
earth.

.

.

" (Quran 13:17)

What remained from these artificial groups was just a history
written by

those officials (who created those groups in the first place)
which also

includes fictitious stories.

We do not call such bankrupt groups Shia.

From the
demise of Prophet till

today, the followers of Imam Ali (AS) are The Twelver
Shi'ites.

There are

however few Zaydis and Ismailis around the world.

Although
the majority of

scholars believe that they are Muslims (except those of them
who abandoned

the Islamic practices), yet we consider them out of the
circle of Ahlul-

Bayt.

All other groups such as Alavi (or Nudhayri),
etc.

are NOT Shia for

sure, and their emergance did not have anything to do with
the Shia.

To be

a Shia one should meet all the following specifications:

1.

Believing in all the articles of faith.

These
are comon amongst Muslims.

2.

Believing that Imam Ali is the immediate
successor/executor of the

Prophet Muhammad (PBUH&HF), appointed by
Allah.

3.

Believing that one should follow the genuine
Sunnah of Prophet, and

this Sunnah is transmitted by Ahlul-Bayt who are
pure and sinless

according to Quran.

Furthermore, the
instructions of the twelve Imams

of Ahlul-Bayt are binding since they are in fact
the instructions of the

Prophet (PBUH&HF).

4.

Believing that Imam Mahdi (AS), the son of the
11th Imam is the Imam of

our time and is living (contrary to the majority
of Sunnis who believe

he will be born later).

If any of the above conditions is missing for a person, he is
not

considered to be a Shia.

Also in contrary to the
rumors, to curse any of

the companions is not a part of our belief.

The wahhabi contributor further mentioned:

The muslims who say one of the
beliefs of shia is the above are not

wrong; therefore, because the
Ghurabi sect is a part of the shiaah

herecy throught the history - but to
attribute this claim to the

Ithnaasharis "official"
beleifs is not just to say the least.

It is interesting to see that the above writer forgot that
many deviant

groups departed from the body of Sunnis such as Nation of
Islam who believe

God was a human, yet I haven't heard of any Shia to say:

The muslims who say one of the
beliefs of Sunni is the above are not

wrong, because the Nation of Islam
parted from the Sunnis - but to

attribute this claim to the
"official" beleifs of Sunnis is not just

to say the least.

You may replace the "nation of Islam" with "Ahmadis",
"Qadianis", .

.

.

and

the followers of Muhammad Ibn Abdil Wahhab, and you can see
how silly the

above statement is going to be.

Thanks to God that
Shia do not attribute

such things to the four Sunni schools.