PREFACE - The Role of Imams a.s. in the Revival of Religion (2) [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

PREFACE

In the previous discussions, we saw that God, as per His
Divinity, has fixed and decreed the life of all His
creatures in conformity with their innate disposition and
nature and has guided all His creatures so that in
accordance with the same, they continue the fixed system
of their living until they reach the level of perfection
in existence. This guidance in some of the created beings
is as invincible as the stars, planets or even the atom.
With regards to some other creatures, He has guided
through inspiration like animals whose guidance is called
as 'animal instinct'. However with regards to the third
type of created beings - which is the human-being - He
has guided them by means of revelation through the
Prophets and the Prophets in turn lead the people through
their own sayings and actions.

But, after the demise of every Prophet, whenever the
oppressors of that very nation of the Prophet saw that
the divine canons of the Prophet are detrimental to their
personal desires, they gradually concealed and distorted
them to such extent that man could no longer have access
to the divine system. In such a case, Almighty God would
renew the divine laws by sending a new Prophet and this
continued until the Prophethood of the last of the
Prophets. Wisdom demanded that his divine canons should
remain with mankind forever and should be the last of the
divine laws not withstanding that man's nature is
unchangeable and the Holy Prophet has said: «Whatever
has taken place in the past nations will also occur for
this nation so far so that if there had been anyone from
the past nations who had gone to the mouth of an
alligator, the same will occur for this nation too.»

Therefore, in this nation too, the powerful ones have
embarked upon the distortion of their Prophet's divine
canons and the concealment of the same.

Nevertheless, God has kept this «Shariat» (divine
law) within man's reach forever such that:

In the previous nations, the details and explanations
of the commandments were present in their heavenly books.
Thus, whatever law which was present in their holy books
was detrimental is the personal desires of the powerful
ones would be altered and concealed by them and later
nothing would remain in the hands of man.

Secondly, the Prophet's legatees would not remain
amongst the people for a long time. After them, man could
no longer have access to the divine laws of their
Prophet. However, as far as this nation is concerned, God
has not made clear the details of the commandments in His
Book (Quran) and has said:

[Arabic text]

Thus, the explanation and details of the Islamic
commandments and their beliefs was the responsibility of
the Prophet and he has explained them in his «seerah»
(way of life) and hadith (his conduct and speech).

With this philosophy, God has protected the Quran from
distortion and concealment and He says in the Quran as
such:

[Arabic text]

In this connection, the oppressors of this nation have
esoterically interpreted as per their own desire, those
parts of the Quranic texts which were against their
personal interests and have engaged in distortion and
concealment in the «seerah» and hadith of the Holy
Prophet. However, in this nation, the Prophet's legatees
are having the responsibility of safeguarding the
«Shariat» (divine law) until the end of this world. No
matter to what extent the oppressors distorted and
concealed the Propeht's «seerah» and hadith, the
legatees spread the true «seerah» and unaltered hadith
of the Prophet amongst the people. In this way, God has
placed the divine laws of the last of the Prophets within
the reach of man forever and it was for this very reason
that the Prophet (S.A.W.A.) said:-

[Arabic text]

Whatever has occured for the past nations in
connection with the distortion and concealment of the
«Shariat» (divine canons) has occured for this nation
(too) through three channels. We shall now explain each
one of them respectively in three sections.

FIRST
SECTION:

CONCEALMENT OF THE HOLY

PROPHET'S HADITH AND SEERAH:

It was mentioned in the introduction that in the
«Shariat» (divine canons) of the last of the Prophets,
the explanation and details of the Islamic commandments
and belief s have been mentioned in the utterances and
actions of the Holy Prophet. The first thing which the
oppressors did was to debar the Prophet's companions from
circulating the traditions. The manner of prevention of
dissemination of the Holy Prophet's traditions:

(a) They said: Do not write all that the Prophet says
since, like all other human-beings he too may get happy
or angry and he may utter words in both these conditions.

(b) They disallowed the Holy Prophet from writing his
will on the death-bed; a will which, according to him
would have never allowed his nation to go astray.

(c) Some of the companions like Abu Zar,
Abdullah-ibn-Masoud, Abdullah -ibn-Huzaifa, Abul-Dardah,
Uqbah-ibn-Amer and others expressed their opposition and
narrated the Holy Prophet's traditions outside Medina.
The second Caliph ordered for their presence in Medina
and kept them under strict surveillance.

(d) Some of the companions had written down the Holy
Prophet's traditions for themselves. The second Caliph
went on the pulpit and promised those who had put down
the Prophet's traditions in writing to safeguard and
publish them but when they did so, he ordered all of
those traditions to be put in the fire.

(e) Prohibition of dissemination of traditions was in
force as long as time of the third Caliph. He declared on
top of the pulpit: Any tradition which had not been
narrated during the reign of Abu Bakr and Omar should not
be narrated too.

(f) During the third Caliph's era, some people opposed
him like: Abu-Zar who was exiled from Medina to Syria and
later to Rabzah where he died.

(g) Ammar and Ibne-Masoud were subject to severe
beatings and foul language.

(h) During Muawiya's era, they cut off Metham's tongue
and severed Rashid Hujri's hands and legs.

(i) The prohibition for writing of traditions was in
force right until the time of Omar-ibn-Abdul Aziz (last
century of first of Hijri) who then ordered for the
Prophet's traditions to be put down in writing.

This was a brief list of the actions of the powerful
ones of this nation in connection with the concealment of
the Holy Prophet's hadith and «seerah» (way of life).

SECOND
SECTION:

IN EXPLANATION OF THE SECOND MEDIUM

In this regard, the powerful ones in the Caliphate
school designed another medium and that is:

Exhibiting others to be more superior than the Holy
Prophet and lowering the Prophet's position from the
level of (even) one ordinary man.

Here, we shall set forth some of the traditions which
wrongfully show the position of the Holy Prophet to be
lower than the level of an ordinary man:

(a) It has been narrated from many narrators like
Ayesha and Abu-Huraira that the Holy Prophet used to
often curse the believers. But he would say: «I have
requested God to set the curse which I send on any
believer to become a blessing and mercy for him.

(b) It has been narrated from Anas the companion of
the Prophet and Ayesha that once when the Holy Prophet
was passing a palm grove he saw some men busy in the
pollination and insemination of date trees. He told them:
If you desist from this act, the dates will become much
better. The Muslims followed the Prophet's instructions.
But the result was that the dates of Medina got spoiled.
When the Holy Prophet was informed about this, he said:
«You are more knowledgeable than me in the wordly
affairs.»

(c) It has been narrated from Ayesha and the famous
companion Abu- Huraira that once, the Holy Prophet was in
the mosque and he heard a Muslim reciting the Quran, he
said: 'May Allah shower His Mercy upon him. He has
reminded me of a verse which I had completely forgotten
and which I had dropped from so and so sura (chapter) of
the holy Quran.'

(d) It has been narrated from Abu-Huraira that the
Holy Prophet once stood in the mosque for prayers in the
state of «Janabat» (major ritual impurity). All of a
sudden he remembered that he was in the state of
impurity. He ordered those praying behind him to remain
in their places and he went towards his house, performed
the the ritual ablution and returned back to lead the
prayers.

(e) It has been narrated that the Holy Prophet
urinated against a wall in a standing position. A
companion who was accompanying him wished to keep distant
from him. The Holy Prophet called out to him to come and
stand behind the Prophet until he finished urinating. ³⁷²

(f) It has been narrated from the daughter of Ma'uzben
Ufrah who said: 'The Holy Prophet attended my wedding
ceremony and sat in my special place besides me (God
forbid) and listened to the songs of the girls who were
playing on the drum!

One of them recited a poem in praise of the Prophet
and the latter said: 'Recite the same poem which you were
reciting before.'

In another tradition it is mentioned that in a
marriage ceremony a bride offered a glass of drink to the
Holy Prophet with her own hands! (God forbid)

(g) It has been narrated from Ayesha as such: I and
the Prophet were underneath a blanket when Abu Bakr
approached who conversed with the Prophet and then left.
Similarly, Omar came and went. Thereafter Uthman wished
to come. The Prophet stood up, wore his garment and gave
him permission to enter. In another tradition she says:
He ordered me to well- dress myself and then he gave him
permission to enter. Later, I asked the Prophet the
reason for his different behaviours. He replied:
Shouldn't I have shame before a man whom the angels have
shame before him?

(h) It has been narrated from Ayesha that the Jews
cast a spell on the Prophet and it so much effected him
that he imagined that he was in bed with one of his wives
whereas such a thing had not actually occured.

Well, so far, we have read the traditions which brings
the Prophet's position to a level much lower than the
level of an ordinary person. From now on, we shall
examine those traditions which are concerned with the
Quran and divine revelation.

In numerous traditions and in the authentic books of
hadith, tafseer, (exegesis) seerah (biography) and tarikh
(history) of the Caliphate school, it has been narrated
from Ayesha and others as follows:

«At the time of the first revelation in the cave of
'Hira', Gibra'eel told the Prophet: 'Read'. The Holy
Prophet replied: 'I cannot read'. Gibra'eel pressed the
Prophet so much so that he sensed death. Gibra'eel said
for the second time: 'Read'. The Prophet replied: 'I
cannot read'. Again he pressed him and said: 'Read'.

This continued until the Prophet feared that lest he
has become a soothsayer and Gibra'eel is a Satan who
converses with him and wishes to cast him down from the
mountain and cause him to die. Khadija consoled him and
she along with a Christian man by the name of
Warqah-ibn-Nufail gave the news of revelation to him.
Warqah assured him and gave him glad tiding that this was
Prophethood and not soothsaying.

372- Previously, we had spoken about the
prevarication of these traditions and here we add the
tradition of Ibn-Ishaaq in refutation of this tradition.
He says: «Before his appointment to the position of
Prophethood, the Holy Prophet used to go far away from
the houses and take refuge in the mountain-valleys for
the purpose of easing nature.» Refer to
«Seerah»-e-Ibn-Hisham (253/2).

THE
GHARANIQ FABLE

Worst than the above is the Gharaniq fable which has
come down in numerous traditions in the reliable books of
exegesis, biography and history of the Caliphate school
and it goes as such: «The Holy Prophet was put to
harassment by the opposition of the Quraish and longed
for a verse to be revealed to him which would cause them
to come on the path of guidance and hence become intimate
with him. While sura «Najm» was revealed to him and he
was reciting it, he came to the verse:

[Arabic text]

Satan inspired him with these two sentences:

[Arabic text]

and the Prophet while reciting the verses of the
afore-said Sura also recited these two sentences.

Thereafter, he prostrated and the Muslims prostrated
for the sake of Allah's name and the polythesists
prostrated for the sake of their idol's name. News
reached the Muslims migrating towards Habasha that the
polytheists had become Muslims. Some of them turned back
to Mecca. Gibra'eel descended upon the Prophet and
informed him of the event. The Holy Prophet became sad.
God consoled him with the noble verse of:

[Arabic text]

* * *

Whatever we have narrated so far have been those
traditions which if a person were to believe in their
authenticity would shatter the very personality of the
Holy Prophet.

Now, we shall examine those traditions which while
diminishing the Holy Prophet's personality raised the
status of others:

They narrate from Ayesha as such: Two girls were
singing and the Prophet was lying on his bed when
Abu-Bakr entered and said: Satanic song and music in the
presence of the Holy Prophet? The Prophet replied: Do not
bother them for today is their «eid» (festival).

Moreover, they narrate that on the day of «eid»,
some of the «Habashis» were dancing in the Prophet's
mosque. The Prophet told me: Do you wish to see their
dance? He carried me on his shoulders and I placed my
cheek over Prophet's cheek. The Prophet told them to be
busy with their dance. This continued so long that I
became tired.

In another tradition she says: The Holy Prophet had
become tired and changed his position and asked me: Are
you not yet satisfied, Ayesha? I would say: 'No'. I
wanted to know my own worth and position before the
Prophet. At that moment Omar entered the mosque. The
Habashis fled out to every corner out of fear from Omar.

In another tradition she says: As they were fleeing,
the Prophet said: I saw the devils of men and jinn
fleeing from Omar.

They have narrated that during the period of
ignorance, the Holy Prophet once spread the tablecloth
which had meat on it as the meal and invited
Zaid-ibn-Nufail (Omar's relative) for eating. Zaid said:

I do not eat the meat which you sacrifice for the
idols.

Amongst the traditions which reduces the Prophet's
status and considers the position of others to be more
superior than the Prophet's position are the traditions
related to «Caliph Omar's agreement with God» or «the
consensus of the Caliph with God in opinion».

The Caliph says:

I agreed with my Lord in many instances.

(a) The Holy Prophet prayed over the dead-body of
Ibne-Abi Munafiq. I stood before him and said: Was he not
the same person who on so and so a day, said so and so a
thing? I swear by God that moments later, the verse:
[Arabic text] ³⁷³ was revealed to him.

(b) I advised the Prophet as such: Order your wives to
wear the veil. Later the verse:

[Arabic text] ³⁷⁴ was revealed

(c) I told the Prophet: [Arabic text] and the verse:
[Arabic text] ³⁷⁵ was revealed.

(d) I told the Prophet's wives:

[Arabic text]

and the verse:

[Arabic text] ³⁷⁶ was revealed.

* * *

The previous verses indicate that whenever a
difference would arise between the Holy Prophet and Omar,
Almighty God would reveal a verse and charge the Prophet
to act upon Omar's opinion. Then, the very opinion of
Omar would become the divine decree. Some of these
traditions merely possess the aspect of propagation of
Omar's virtues like the tradition which they narrate from
Omar as such:

«When this verse:

[Arabic text] ³⁷⁷

from sura Mu'mineen was revealed, I said: [Arabic
text] ³⁷⁸

A revelation descended and added this sentence to the
previous verse.

On the whole, numerous traditions exist in connection
to the virtues of the Caliphs. Amongst them, they have
narrated as follows:-

(a) God has set the truth on Omar's tongue and he
speaks the truth.

(b) The people have not uttered anything about a
matter which Omar too would utter about the same except
that the Quran was revealed in the same form in which
Omar had uttered.

Or that whenever Omar would give his view and opinion,
the Quranic verses would be revealed according to his
opinion.

These traditions have come down in tens of traditions
from Abu-Bakr, Abu -Zar, Abu S'aeed Khudri, Abu-Huraira
and other companions and in particular they have narrated
from Amir-ul-Mumineen Ali (A.S.) as such:

«In the Quran, you will find the views and opinions
of Omar.

Moreover he said: «Tranquility and faith flow out
from Omar's tongue» - and as per another tradition he
says: «Tranquility and faith have descended on Omar's
tongue» or that he said: We, the companions of the
Prophet never denied with all our greatness that
tranquility flows out from Omar's tongue.»

Some of these traditions have come down in the
authentic books of the Caliphate school. Amongst them,
they have narrated from the Holy Prophet (S.A.W.A.) as
saying:

«In the past nations, there existed such people with
whom the Angels conversed. In this nation if there is any
such person, he is sure to be Omar.»

And he said: «If I had not been appointed amongst you
as the Messenger, then Omar would have been appointed.»
And he said: «If there was to come any Prophet after me,
he would have been Omar-ibn-Khattab.»

And he said: «The sun has not risen on any man better
than Omar.»

This tradition has introduced Omar to be superior than
all the Prophets.

Why have these traditions been fabricated?

In the year 40 A.H. when Muawiya came to power and
gradually established the pillars of his government, he
thought of fixing the Caliphate as a hereditary right
amongst his descendants. In this regard, the first person
whom he had in mind was his darling son, Yazid. He was
anxious enough to take allegiance for him from the
Muslims. The only obstacle in the way of achieving this
aim was Yazid's defame in anti-Islamic behaviour. In this
connction, Hazrat Abu Abdullah Hussein (A.S.) says:- «We
are the household of the Holy Prophet and Yazid is a
winebibber.

[Arabic text] ³⁷⁹

Other renowned Muslims of that time like Abdul
Rahman-ibn-Abi Bakr, Abdullah-ibn-Omar, Abdullah-ibn-Aziz
and Sa'ad Waqqas possessed the same views. Thus, in
overcoming this problem, Muawiya prepared a well-
calculated plan and it was this that traditions should be
forged in connection with every matter in which the
Muslims were taking an opposite stance against Yazid or
Muawiya himself and the same deeds should be proved in
the case of the Holy Prophet (S.A.W.A.) so long that with
the help of these traditions, there would no longer
remain any place of criticism against Yazid or Muawiya.

Muawiya in collaboration with his self-appointed
governors like Amro-Aas, Zujad-ibn-Abih,
Mughaira-ibn-Sho'ba, Marwan-ibn-Hakam, Walid and other
Bani-Umayyid governors (who more or less were afflicted
with the same anti-Islamic behaviour as
Yazid-ibn-Muawiya) employed all the governmental power
and mobilized a group so that they could fabricate and
narrate those traditions. They employed all their
capabilities, tricks and stratagem and propagated these
traditions in all the Islamic countries right from the
farthest point of the Muslims living in Iran to the
farthest point in Africa, Yemen, Syria and Iraq. This
affair progressed smoothly because during the rule of the
Caliphs, the Holy Prophet's traditions had been
disallowed from being propagated - except if they were to
the interest of the governmental policies and during
Muawiya's reign, things had become worst because the
fabricated traditions were filling this strange vacuum in
the Islamic countries.

Another reason for the easy propagation of these
traditions was that the opposition to the ruling power
were all placed in Medina and had no access to the cities
of the Islamic countries. It was only the ruling elite
which was implementing its plans in all the cities and
villages of the Islamic countries with no challenge from
any side.

It was for this reason that the ruling power succeeded
in achieving much higher aims than the above-mentioned
aims such as:-

(a) Exhibiting the position of Caliphate to be higher
than the position of Messengership.

(b) The Muslims reckoning religion to be obedience of
the Caliph.

The ruling power during Muawiya's era, succeeded in
achieving these two bizarre aims. It was after Muawiya's
that the government of Yazid could fire the holy Ka'aba
with catapult by the hands of those very Muslims who used
to face it in their prayers; permit his soldiers to loot
and plunder whatever they wanted in the Holy Prophet's
Medina for three days; massacre the Holy Prophet's
household in Karbala and take the Holy Prophet's
daughters as captives along with the severed heads of the
Prophet's sons around the Muslim cities and display them
to the Muslims.

They performed all these evil acts because they
reckoned the Caliph's command and the obedience of the
Caliph to be the religion. For achieving these two
objectives, the Umayyids had no alternative but to start
the proceedings from the first and second Caliph and then
to execute this reflection amongst the coming Caliphs -
i.e. exhibiting the status and deeds of the first and
second Caliph to be more superior than the Holy Prophet's
status and deeds and showing that the (true) religion is
nothing but acting upon their sayings. Their problem in
this affair was the government of Amir- ul-Mumineen
(A.S.) where Muawiya and his companions found its remedy
in this to propagate that his government was against the
government of the Caliphs and he himself was the killer
of Uthman and so cannot be the true Caliph of the
Muslims. Thus Ayesha and Caliph Muawiya revolted against
him and the Holy Prophet's companions like Talha and
Zubair too cooperated with them. In this regard too, they
forged numerous traditions and spread them amongst the
Muslims.

Finally, this matter has become clear that during
Muawiya's era, they achieved all their objectives through
fabrication of traditions. Therefore, we reckon
fabrication of traditions to be the third factor in the
alteration of Islamic beliefs and commandments.

379- A person like me will never give
allegiance to a person like him.

THIRD
SECTION:

IN EXPLANATION OF THE THIRD MEDIUM

The third medium is the matter of fabrication of
traditions.

Previously, it was mentioned that most of the
interpolated traditions had been fabricated during
Muawiya's reign. This statement is not based on guess or
conjecture. Rather, it has been recorded and registered
in the books. Here, «Mada'eni» has recorded some proofs
in his book «Al- Ehdath» which are as follows:

Firstly, in the first year of Muawiya's Caliphate
(which they named as 'the year of congregation') he
himself issued a command to all his officials in the
entire Islamic territories that if anyone narrates
anything about the virtues of Abu-Turab and his household
they would be dismissed from government protection and
his killing will become allowed and the confescation of
his wealth permissible.

Secondly, for the second time he issued a command to
all his officials that they should not accept the
testimonies of the Shias of Ali (A.S.) and that they
should recognize, attract towards themselves and honour
Uthman's friends and those who narrate traditions about
his virtues and live in places under their rule and that
they should write to him all that they narrate about
Uthman's virtues and they register the narrator's name
along with the name of his father and household members.
For this reason, the traditions narrated by anyone from
the Holy Prophet in connection with Uthman's virtues
would come out in the form of an official document and
would be sent to the Ummayid court. This command was so
implemented that Uthman's so called virtues and the
traditions which contained Uthman's virtues gained
abundance because Muawiya liberally donated money, gifts,
robe of honour, land and property and whatever he had in
possession in this way and distributed these among the
Arabs and kinsfolk. Thus, fabrication of traditions
escalated and those seeking the worldly pleasures engaged
in competition with each other in order to derive a
greater share. There was no rejected or wretched person
who would approach the official agent or Muawiya's
governor and narrate a tradition about Uthman's virtue
and excellency except that his name would be written
down; his relation with the ruling power would become
firm; his intercession with respect to others would be
accepted and his social value and prestige would rise.
Some time passed in this manner.