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

CHAPTER TWO

In this discussion, it was decided to analyze the third
factor in the alteration of Islam i.e. fabrication of
traditions. However, as the main issues are bygone, only
the balance has remained which perhaps without them, the
depth of the matter cannot be clarified the way it should
be done.

The noble verses which you have witnessed in the first
part of our discussion are an address to the Holy Prophet
(S.A.W.A.) which say:

«O Prophet! surely We have sent you as a witness
(Someone can be called a witness i.e. he can be a witness
on behalf of God over all the good and evil deeds of men
only if he himself possesses such characteristics as God
wishes) and as a bearer of good news and as a warner, and
as one being invited to Allah by His permission, and as a
light-giving torch.»

Also: «Certainly Allah conferred a benefit upon the
believers when He raised among them an Apostle from among
themselves, reciting to them His communications and
purifying them, and teaching them the Book and Wisdom,
although before that they were surely in manifest
error.»

Also: «Surely We have revealed to you as We revealed
to Noah, and the prophets after him, and We revealed to
Abraham and Ishmaeel.... (We sent) apostles as the givers
of good news and as warners, so that people should not
have a plea against Allah after the (coming of)
apostles.»

This is the scheme of creation of the Universe and
this aim and objective of the Lord of the Universe begins
right from the appointment of Prophets. However, as
mentioned before, those people whose lust and carnal
desires did not match these heavenly teachings especially
the powerful and affluent ones whose outburst of desires,
lust and anger was met through exertion of force and who
did not wish to go under the burden of restrictions of
the divine rules, rose in opposition to these rules and
teachings.

FACTORS WHICH ATTRIBUTED TOTHE ALTERATION OF RELIGIONS

One of the ways of their opposition and campaign was
to repress the propagation of these teachings and
commands. Thus, they brought under their check the
narration and propagation of the sayings and hadith of
the Holy Prophet (S.A.W.A.). However, as they could not
prevent the propagation of all the sayings of the Holy
Prophet and the Muslims could still hear the Prophet's
hadiths from some comer or the other which was possible
to rupture the policy and custom of those who were having
a hand in this campaign and make them lose their
credibility in the eyes of the people, they were forced
to basically render null the traditions of the Holy
Prophet form the view-point of their value, sacredness
and heavenly credibility so that there would no longer
remain much possibility of perfect reliance on them.

In the past, adequate discussion took place on these
two matters. The remaining portion which we wish to
mention here is that which concerns the sayings of the
Holy Prophet himself. Whatever has occured for the past
nations will also occur for this nation. Therefore, a
question arises and that is whether such events had also
taken place in the past and whether the previous nations
had committed oppression against their respective
Prophets or not?

The reply to this postulation is affirmative.
Unfortunately, such lies and accusations were prevalent
in the past nations too!

Of course the details of this will be mentioned when
we will be discussing the manner and dimension of
alteration in the contents of Islam. However, at this
stage, we shall set forth as an example an event which
reveals the reason and manner of such actions.

Just as it is true in all divine religions, in the
case of Zoroastrian religion too, it is believed that
wedding with the intimate ones was not permissible.
However, for centuries now marriage with the intimate
ones like mother and sister is considered to be lawful ¹¹⁰.

Undoubtedly, the Prophet of Zoroastrians was amongst
the heavenly Prophets just as the same is proved for us
from the ways and behaviour of the Holy Prophet with the
people of the Book and the Zoroastrians.

It has been narrated from Amir-ul-Mumineen (A.S.) that
very far in the past, Zoroastrian King slept with his own
daughter when in a state of intoxication. News spread
amongst the people and when all gathered around his
palace, they said: 'O King! you have ruined our religion.
Give up yourself so that we can purify you by
implementing the penal law. The King replied: Come close
together and listen to what I have to say. If my words
satisfies you all, let it be and if it doesn't, you may
do whatever you like.

The people gathered. He said: «Do you know that God
has not created any creature more beloved than our father
Adam (A.S.) and our mother Eve (A.S.)?»

They said: you have spoken the truth.

He said: has not Hazrat Adam (A.S.) given his
daughters to his sons and his sons to his daughters in
marriage?

They said: «You have spoken the truth. This is truly
the religion.»

All concluded a pact on this deed and forgot whatever
knowledge they possessed of their sacred laws. ¹¹¹

In this way, matrimony with the intimate ones got
recorded in the Magian religion and the heavenly religion
fell victim to distortions. Such distortions have always
existed in the past including this 'Ummah' (nation) where
those in power presented the sayings and behaviour of the
Prophets in such manner as to match them with their
personal desires.

Previously too, I had mentioned to you the story of
that Uthmani governor of Baghdad who used to strictly
refrain from accepting bribes. You also realized how the
corrupt bribe - takers set up a true appearance in
support of bribe - taking and presented a practical show
where they reckoned it to be a God-loving one until the
simple - minded governor too fell victim to their trap
and the door of bribe-taking was once again kept open for
one and all.

In short, those possessing power and influence want to
accept bribes which is contrary to the Islamic
certainties. Similarly, they want to practice corruption,
drink wine, listen to lustful songs and music, make fun
by playing with dogs and monkeys, gamble and easily
plunder the people's wealth in an easy and unthreatened
manner. In order to achieve these, it is necessary for
them to produce some pretext and then give it the shape
and colour of Islamic laws and canons. It is here that
the launchers of traditions come of help.

The ignormus mercenaries attribute such type of
behaviours to the Prophets in the form of traditions and
degrade the heavenly position of these great characters
to the level of one ordinary person and even much below,
so that the one who is a dog-fancier, gambler, wine -
biber or adulterer like Yazid and Walid can rule cover
the Muslims as the Caliph of the Religion without much
opposition!! This was the second factor in the alteration
of Islam!

110- However in recent centuries since the
Zoroastrians have lived in thc Islamic societies, they
have gradually and steadily given up this practice and
considered it to be an evil and ugly act. Refer to Sae'ed
Nafisi: «The social history of Iran» 2/35 and
Christensen: «Iran at the time of Sassanides» -
translated by Rashid Yasemi Pg. 348 - 2nd edition.

FABRICATION OF TRADITIONS

The third factor in the alteration of Islam is the
fabrication Of traditions. As a matter of fact, all the
alterations spring from here and occur due to this very
factor because, we are already aware that the glorious
Quran will remain immune under from all sorts of attack
and danger. Divine Protection However the area which is
prone to attack and as a result likely to he affected is
the description and exegesis of Quran i.e. the traditions
and 'Sunnah' (ways) of the Holy Prophet. We are also
aware that Islam possess two fundamental pillars - the
holy Quran and the 'Sunnah'. As such, attack on the
'Sunnah' or traditions is in fact an attack on Islam and
distortion in them is a distortion in Islam. Therefore,
our most fundamental discussion lies here even though in
our classification, we have mentioned it to be the third
factor in alteration after mentioning the first factor
i.e. prevention of writing, narration and propagation of
traditions and the second factor i.e. degrading the
status of the Prophet. Thus the third factor in
alteration is the fabrication of traditions by means of
which the ultimate aim of the enemies of Islam were
achieved and the atheist and the dualists could distort
the religion of Islam - although the divine religion was
revived and taken back to the human-society by the help
of the Imams of Ahl-e-bayt and this was nothing but the
Grace of God. We shall, God-willing, mention the details
of this matter in the future. However, before that we
must examine and discuss its form and root under various
sections.

WHY DID THEY FABRICATE TRADITIONS?

Abu Jafar Mansoor, the second Abbassid ruler called
his son Muhammad by the title of Mahdi so as to show off
that that Mahdi which the Holy Prophet has informed about
his emergence in the future is this very son of mine i.e.
Muhammad Mahdi. In the gathering which was held for
giving allegiance to Mahdi so that he could become the
official heir-apparent to Mansoor, the poets were
reciting poems and odes and every one strived in some way
or the other to bring themselves close to the Abbassid
Caliph and draw his attention towards themselves. One of
the courtiers by the name of Mu'teeh-ibn-Aiyas too forged
and presented a tradition as such:

The Holy Prophet said:

[Arabic text]

«Mahdi is from us and he is Muhammad, the son of
Abdullah but his mother is not from our family. He will
fill the earth with justice just as it had been fraught
with oppression.»

He strived to insert all the signs of Mahdi Abbassid
in the tradition and after narrating the tradition, he
pointed to the Abbasid Caliph's brother who was present
in the gathering and said: «He too is aware of this
tradition. He knows its authenticity!»

Under extreme pressure he too said: «Yes, he is
speaking the truth!»

Later on, he told his associates as such: «See how he
has wrongfully involved us. He compelled me to confirm
his blatant lie.»

This was one example showing how and in what manner
the matter of the satisfaction of one powerful Caliph was
effective enough in producing or fabricating traditions.

In the special scheme which was a part of the policy
of the Abbassids, Mahdi Abbassid was supposed to behave
in a very comely manner toward the people and deal with
them in justice and kindness. For example, Abu Jafar
Mansoor had confiscated an enormous amount of wealth
which belonged to the people. He did not do this for
personal profit as such but deposited them in the
government treasury in the name of its owners so that in
the near future when his son would gain control of the
government succeeding him, he could return back these
wealth to its owners and in this way attract the
attention and satisfaction of the public and exhibit that
the one who was to spread justice on earth is none other
than him and he is the same promised Mahdi of Islam. In
implementing this plan, Mahdi strived hard to give a
superficial arrangement to his affairs so that everyone
would recognize him as a pious and good person. But
nevertheless, he was pathetically attracted towards
pigeons and was fond of playing and looking after them
and he just could not forsake them!!

One day, a traditionist connected to the court by the
name of Atab-ibn-Ibrahim Nakh'ee goes in the presence of
the Abbassi a Caliph and draws his attention towards his
son who was busy playing with the pigeons. Of course,
this situation was not so much desirable, especially if
we take into account this matter that he wanted to
manifest himself as the Promised Mahdi of the nation.
Anyhow, in order to attract the satisfaction of the
Caliph and diminish his annoyance, Atab-ibn-Ibrahim
narrated a tradition as follows:

[Arabic text]

So and so a person narrated for me a tradition from
Abu Huraira that the Holy Prophet (S.A.W.A.) said:

«No competition is lawful except in shooting,
horse-race and camel-race.»

Then, he himself added [Arabic text] and in flying
pigeons!

Why did Atab-ibn-Ibrahim do such a thing? He was also
not given such a command by the Abbassid Caliph. But as
he was fully aware of the situation, he added something
to a tradition which was authentically true just for the
sake of giving validity to the status of the Caliphate
and manifesting the Caliphs behaviour to be lawful and
hence pleasing him. The Caliph Mahdi Abbassid gifted him
with ten thousand dirhams. When this traditionist left
the assembly. Mahdi Abbassid told his associates as such:
'I swear by God that Atab has attributed a lie to the
Messenger of God.' ¹¹²

However, the reason why the Abbassid ruler said these
words was that despite being in pressing need of such a
fabricated tradition. He only wanted to pretend his (so
called) piousness.

In both the afore-said traditions, Muteeh-ibn-Aiyas
and Atab-ibn-Ibrahim distorded the traditions in order to
gain satisfaction of both the Abbassid Caliphs i.e.
Mansoor and his son Mahdi. In this act of distortion they
tampered with the tradition which was narrated from the
Holy Prophet and which was well-known amongst the people.

The first one simulated that the applicability of the
numerous traditions of the Holy Prophet with regards to
the promised Mahdi is the same Mahdi Abbassid, the
heir-apparent to Mansour and he also called those present
to bear witness to his saying.

The second one added one word [Arabic text] to the
tradition of the Holy Prophet about horse-racing and
shooting in order that the matter of pigeon- playing by
the Caliph becomes included alongside horse-racing and
shooting and hence earns an Islamic value.

Therefore, it is quite clear that in the matter of
fabrication of traditions, they used to sometimes make
use of the famous traditions of the Holy Prophet and by
increasing or decreasing some portion of it, they would
achieve their aim.

From the above two examples, we clearly realized that
the reason why the traditions and hadiths were forged
were mostly for the sake of pleasing the Caliphs and
those in power in the government even though at times,
the Caliph had not given any special instructions in this
regard. Of course, it is quite obvious that had the
Caliph given such an instruction then the matter of
fabrication of tradition would have taken a more
disasterous turn.

OFFICIAL COMMAND FOR FORGING TRADITIONS

Mada'eni¹¹³ who is
amongst the first and the most reliable historians
narrates in his book «Al Ehdas» as such: «In the year
of congregation,¹¹⁴
Muawiya wrote and despatched a common command for his
agents who were ruling in all the cities of the Islamic
territory - right from India to as far away as Africa. In
that command, Muawiya wrote: Anyone who narrates anything
about the excellence of «Abu-Turab» and his progeny
will render his blood useless and his property
dishonourable and will bring about his expulsion from the
domain of protection of the government.

After the issuance of this declaration, the people of
Kufa i.e. the followers of the household of the
descendants of Ali (A.S.) suffered pain and persecution
more than the others. These people were those who had
been trained in the school of Amirul-Mumineen Ali (AS.)
and were well acquainted with Hazrat's love and
affection. Persons like Maitham Tammar,
Sa'asat-ibn-Suhan, Hur-ibn-Adi and Adi-ibn-Hatim had
lived amongst the people of this city. They were those
who lived with the love of Amir-ul- Mumineen (A.S.) and
also departed this world with his love. Therefore, they
were willing to bear the severity and difficulty of this
declaration and resign themselves to prison, torture,
plunder and death.

114- By 'year of congregation' [Arabic text] is meant the
year 40 Hijri when Muawiya had pined full control of all
the Islamic lands. This afore-said year was called
[Arabic text] because none opposed Muawiya in that year.
The reason why the followers of the Caliphate school are
called as Ahl-e-Sunnat and Jama'at (men of tradition and
community) is because they are unanimious and united in
following the Caliphs and are unopposed to them.

THE COMMAND GAINS SEVERITY

For the second time, Muawiya issued a command to all
his agents instructing them not to accept the testimony
of any of the Shias of Ali and his household. (until now
too, the testimony of the Shias was not being accepted in
some of the countries. In the eyes of the ruling
government, they were invalid from the view-point of
justice. If there was anyone amongst them who would bear
witness in the court, it would not be accepted) Muawiya
wrote: «All the friends and lovers of Uthman and all
those who narrate traditions about his excellence who
live under your rule should be identified and honoured.
Write to me about whatever they have narrated about
Uthman's superiority and register their names and the
names of their household.»

For this reason anyone who would narrate a tradition
from the Holy Prophet (S.A.W.A.) about the Virtues of
Uthman would prove to be a sort of an official document
and would be sent to the Umayyad court. This order was so
implemented that the virtues of Uthman and the traditions
which comprised his virtues gained abundance. This was
because Muawiya would unsparingly employ on this path
money, robe of honour, awards, properties, lands and
whatever he had at his disposal and would distribute them
amongst the Arabs. Therefore, distortion of traditions
spread far and wide in every Islamic city and the
mammonists competed with each other in gaining access to
them. There was no expelled person who would approach the
official agents and ruler of Muawiya's government and
narrate a tradition about Uthman's virtues and
superiority but that his name would be registered and
would gain likeability of the ruling power. Moreover his
intercession on behalf of others would be accepted and
would gain social respect and prestige. Some time elapsed
in this manner!