Ahlul Bayt and the Shia

Before concluding we would like to establish that the Ahlul Bayt were well aware of their doings, thus they did not fail in explaining the reality of those who made it a point to curse and oppose them from the first to the last.

The first from amongst them to shed light on their obstinate and adamant nature, and not desist from doing so, was none other than ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib radiya Llahu ‘anhu himself. He says:

I praise Allah for whatever matter He ordained and whatever action He destines and for my trial with you, O group of people who do not obey when I order and do not respond when I call you. If you are at ease you engage in (conceited) conversation, but if you are faced with battle you show weakness. If people agree on one Imam, you taunt each other.

If you are faced with an arduous matter you turn away from it. May others have no father (woe to your enemy!) what are you waiting for in the matter of your assistance and for fighting for your rights? For you there is either death or disgrace. By Allah, if my day (of death) comes and it is sure to come, it will cause separation between me and you although I am sick of your company and feel lonely with you.

May Allah deal with you! Is there no religion which may unite you nor sense of shamefulness that may sharpen you? Is it not strange that Muawiyah calls out to some rude low people and they follow him without any support or grant, but when I call you, although you are the successors of Islam and the survivors of the people, with support and distributed grants you scatter away from me and oppose me? Truly, there is nothing between me and you which I like and you also like, or with which I am angry and you may also unite against it. What I love most is death.

I have taught you the Qur’an, clarified your arguments, apprised you of what you were ignorant, and made you swallow what you were spitting out. Even a blind man would have been able to see, and he who was sleeping would have been awakened.^{^[1]}

On another occasion he addresses them:

Woe to you. I am tired of rebuking you. Do you accept this worldly life in place of the next life? Or disgrace in place of dignity? When I invite you to fight your enemy your eyes revolve as though you are in the clutches of death, and in the senselessness of the last moments. My pleadings are not understood by you and you remain stunned. It is as though your hearts are affected with madness so that you do not understand. You have lost my confidence for good. Neither are you a support for me to lean upon, nor a means to honour and victory. Your example is that of the camels whose protector has disappeared, so that if they are collected from one side they disperse away from the other side.

By Allah, how bad are you for igniting flames of war. You are intrigued against but do not intrigue. Your boundaries are decreasing but you do not get enraged over it. Those against you do not sleep but you are unmindful. By Allah, those who leave matters one for the other are subdued. By Allah, I believed about you that if battle rages and death hovers around you, you will cut away from the son of Abu Talib like the severing of head from the trunk.^{^[2]}

‘Ali radiya Llahu ‘anhu also alludes to their rotten and cowardice nature:

How long shall I accord you consideration that is accorded to camels with hollow humps, or to worn clothes which when stitched on one side give way on the other. Whenever a vanguard force of Syria hovers over you, every one of you shuts his door and hides himself like the lizard in its hole or a badger in its den. By Allah, he whom people like you support must suffer disgrace and he who throws arrows with your support is as if he throws arrows that are broken both at head and tail. By Allah, within the courtyard you are quite numerous but under the banner you are only a few. Certainly, I know what can improve you and how your crookedness can be straightened. But I shall not improve your condition by marring myself. Allah may disgrace your faces and destroy you. You do not understand the right as you understand the wrong and do not crush the wrong as you crush the right.^{^[3]}

You now see pledges to Allah being broken but do not feel enraged although you fret and frown on the breaking of the traditions of your forefathers. Allah’s matters have been coming to you, and going from and again coming back to you; but you have made over your place to wrong-doers and thrown towards them your responsibilities, and have placed Allah’s affairs in their hands. They act in doubts and tread in (fulfilment of) desires. By Allah, even if they disperse you under every star Allah would surely collect you on the Day that would be worst for them.^{^[4]}

It is as if I see you uttering voices like the rustling sound of lizards! You do not seek your own claims nor do you defend against oppression. You have been let free on the path. He who rushes (into the battle) achieves salvation, while he who lags behind, hesitating, gets destruction.^{^[5]}

‘Ali radiya Llahu ‘anhu tells them after having lost hope in them:

If you had been steadfast I would have guided you, if you had been bent I would have straightened you, and if you had refused I would have rectified you. This was the surest way. But with whom and to whom?

I wanted my treatment from you but you proved to be my disease, like the extractor of a thorn with the thorn when he knows that the thorn bends towards itself. O Allah, the physicians have despaired of this fatal ailment and water-drawers have become tired with the rope of this well. Where are those who were invited to Islam and they accepted it? They read the Qur’an and decided according to it. They were exhorted to fight and they leapt (towards it) as she-camels leap towards their young. They took their swords out of the sheaths and went out into the world in groups and rows. Some of them perished and some survived. The good news of survival does not please them nor do they get condoled about the dead. Their eyes have turned white with weeping. Their bellies are emaciated because of fasting. Their lips are dry because of (constant) praying. Their colour is pale because of wakefulness. Their faces bear the dust of God-fearing. These are my comrades who have departed. We should be justified if we feel eager for them and bite our hands in their separation.^{^[6]}

‘Ali radiya Llahu ‘anhu supplicates against them:

Nothing (is left to me) but Kufah which I can hold and extend (which is in my hand to play with). (O Kufah) if this is your condition that whirlwinds continue blowing through you then Allah may destroy you… O Allah they are disgusted of me and I am disgusted of them. They are weary of me and I am weary of them. Change them for me with better ones and change me for them with worse ones. O my Allah melt their hearts as salt melts in water.^{^[7]}

Hassan radiya Llahu ‘anhu is also reported to have said:

By Allah, in my opinion, Muawiyah is better for me than those who claim to be my partisans, and desire to kill me and take my wealth.^{^[8]}

He also said:

I know the people of Kufah and their evil. The corrupt ones from among them are impracticable for me as they are not adherent, nor are they honest in both word and action they are inconsistent they say we are with you and their swords are unsheathed against us.^{^[9]}

Hussain ibn ‘Ali radiya Llahu ‘anhu also stated the following at Karbala’:

O Shith ibn Rib’i, Hajjar ibn Abhur, Qais ibn al Ash’ath, and Zaid ibn al Harith (names of his supporters) were you not the ones who had wrote to me, “The gardens are lush and the fruits are ripe. Advance towards an army that is mobilized”?^{^[10]}

Hurr ibn Yazid al Tamimi states on behalf of Hussain radiya Llahu ‘anhu whilst standing in front of him at Karbala’ on the day he was martyred:

O Kufans may your mothers be bereaved of you! Have you invited this pious slave so that when he came, you could hand him over? You said that you will lay down your lives fighting for him, but instead you are hostile towards him and want to kill him. You restrain and gird him as to prevent him from setting out in the vast lands of Allah, reducing him to a slave who is not able to benefit nor harm himself. You have prevented him, his women folk, and his children from drinking from the Euphrates which the Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians drink from, and the pigs and dogs roll in. On that they have lost consciousness out of dehydration. How wretched is that by which you have repaid Muhammad with through his kinfolk. May Allah not quench your thirst on the Day of Resurrection.^{^[11]}

Farazdaq, the poet describes them:

O son of Rasulullah! How can you proceed to the people of Kufah whereas they are the ones who had killed your cousin, Muslim ibn ‘Aqil.^{^[12]}

Al Mufid transmits from Farazdaq:

In the year 60 A.H. I set out for Hajj with my mother. On entering the Haram, I met Hussain ibn ‘Ali exiting Makkah with his swords and shields.

I then asked, “To whom does this caravan belong?”

It was said, “It belongs to Hussain ibn ‘Ali.”

I approached him and greeted him.

Thereafter I said, “May Allah grant you that which you desire. May my father and mother be sacrificed in your stead! O son of Rasulullah, what has caused you to hasten so that you leave before Hajj?”

He replied, “If I were not to hasten I will be enslaved.”

Thereafter he asked me, “Who are you?”

I replied, “A man from Arab descent.”

By Allah, he didn’t ask any further.

He then enquired, “Inform me about the people where you have come from.”

I replied, “You have asked a well-informed person. Their hearts are with you and their swords are against you. Decree comes from the heavens and Allah does as He so wills.”^{^[13]}

When Hussain radiya Llahu ‘anhu saw the suffering of his relatives and realized that his Shia had deserted him, he rode his horse until he faced them and said:

O Kufans, may you be ruined and disgraced! You have called on us for aid and we have come troubled. Thereafter you sharpened the swords that were in our hands, against us. You lit a fire for us which we have kindled for you and our enemy. Furthermore, you have joined forces against your friends (us) and became allies of your enemy without them having done any good to you, nor we doing any injustice to you. Woe to you! If only you have disliked us, the swords would not have been drawn, senses would not have been lost, and intentions would not have been filled with rage. But you have hastened to pledge allegiance without thinking it through, like that of moths (advancing towards a fire). Thereafter you have violated the pledge and renounced it out of foolishness and misguidance, following tyrants and other such groups who do not adhere to the Qur’an. Thereafter you abandoned us, and killed us. Behold the curse of Allah is upon the wrongdoers.

He then despondently rode his horse in their direction with his unsheathed sword in hand.^{^[14]}

Lastly he supplicates against those who invited him to Karbala’, just as his father supplicated against his supporters, al Mufid mentions:

Hussain raised his hands and said, “O Allah if You were to grant them some respite, then split them into many parts, and cause not the rulers to be pleased with them; because they have called on us so that they could assist us then they turned their backs on us and killed us.^{^[15]}

As for ‘Ali ibn al Hussain Zayn al ‘Abidin, he further exposes on their reality:

The Jews loved ‘Uzayr excessively which led them to fabricating lies regarding him thus he is absolved from them. The Christians also loved ‘Isa excessively and started fabricating lies to him and he too is absolved from them. In the same vain there will be from our supporters those who will love us so excessively that they will also start to attribute lies to us just as the Jews did to ‘Uzayr and the Christians did to ‘Isa, and we too will be absolved from them.^{^[16]}

His supporters abandoned him. None but five remained loyal as in the report that we have mentioned, and the report which Fadl ibn Shadhan transmits.^{^[17]} Or three as Jafar ibn al Baqir mentions:

After the assassination of Hussain everyone became renegade with the exception of three viz. Abu Khalid al Kabili, Yahya ibn Umm al Tawil, and Jubayr ibn Mut’im.

Yunus transmits the same report from Hamzah and adds, “Jabir ibn ‘Abdullah al Ansari.”^{^[18]}

Muhammad al Baqir was so despondent of his Shia that he said:

If the entire humanity were our supporters, you would find that three thirds of them would have doubt in us and the remaining quarter would be ignoramuses.^{^[19]}

Jafar alludes to the fact that his father had only four to five loyal supporters:

“When Allah intended bad for them He diverted it through them. They are the stars of the Shia dead and alive. They keep alive the mention of my father, and through them He subhanahu wa ta ‘ala unmasks all types of innovations. They rid this religion from the false claims of the liars, and the interpretations of the extremist.”

Thereafter he cried.

I asked him, “Who are they?”

He replied, “Those upon whom the mercy of Allah is in life and death, they are Burayd al ‘Ijli, Zurarah, Abu Basir, and Muhammad ibn Muslim.”^{^[20]}

As for al Baqir he would not even depend on them. Hisham transmits from Salim — from Zurarah:

I asked Abu Jafar regarding giving gifts to workers?

He replied, “It is allowed.”

Thereafter he said, “Zurarah had wished to inform Hisham that I render unlawful the actions of the Sultan.”^{^[21]}

One might think how is that possible whereas Zurarah knew Abu Jafar best. Misma’ says that he heard Abu ‘Abdullah saying:

May Allah’s curse be upon Buraydah and Zurarah.^{^[22]}

As for Abu Basir, they state regarding him:

The dogs would urinate in the face of Abu Basir.^{^[23]}

Abu Jafar complained about his Shia, he states:

If there were three true believers among you who would protect what I tell them, it would not have been permissible for me to withhold from them anything.^{^[24]}

Therefore, one of his followers ‘Abdullah ibn Ya’fur addresses him:

I said to Abu ‘Abdullah, “I associate with people and my astonishment only increases by those who do not support you, and support so and so. They possess integrity, honesty, and adherence. As for those who support you they have no integrity, honesty, nor adherence.”^{^[25]}

Moreover, he doubted his supporters. It was for that very reason he would give them different rulings so that it does not reach the enemies as we have explained. He often said:

I have not found anyone among my supporters who takes my counsel seriously and obeys me save ‘Abdullah ibn Ya’fur.^{^[26]}

Once he addressed his Shia saying:

What is it between you and the people, why are you turning them against me? By Allah I do not find anyone who obeys me and listens to what I have got to say save ‘Abdullah ibn Ya’fur. I counsel him and he accepts.^{^[27]}

As for his son, Musa, he describes their nature so accurately. He states:

If my Shia were to be examined I would only find them to have these attributes, and if I were to test them I would only find apostates. If I were to examine them, not even one in a thousand would be sincere. And if I were to screen them, none would remain except those who are true, [yet] they continue to recline on couches and claim, “We are the supporters of ‘Ali.”^{^[28]}

This is the opinion the Ahlul Bayt held regarding those who claimed to be their supporters, followers and well-wishers. Despite agonising them, cursing them, and making apparent what their bosoms conceal. How often would the Shia not curse the Ahlul Bayt and disassociate themselves from them?

With this I conclude, as it is sufficient for one who seeks insight and guidance. In it we explored the true nature of the Shia and what they conceal regarding the household of ‘Ali radiya Llahu ‘anhu and the Prophet salla Llahu ‘alayhi wa sallam. By quoting their own literature I was able to put things into perspective. So who will take heed?

Indeed, in that is a reminder for whoever has a heart or who listens while he is present [in mind]. I ask Allah that He guides us to the Truth and grants us the ability to follow it. And that He subhanahu wa ta ‘ala makes falsehood manifest and grant us the ability to abstain from it. Allah is the one who guides to the straight path. In Him do we place our trust and to Him is our return.

NEXT⇒ Appendix

[1] Nahj al Balaghah, pg. 258-259.

[2] Ibid, pg. 87.

[3] Nahj al Balaghah, pg. 98-99.

[4] Ibid, pg. 154.

[5] Ibid, pg. 180.

[6] Ibid, pg. 177-178.

[7] Ibid, pg. 66-67.

[8]Al Ihtijaj, pg. 148.

[9] Ibid, pg. 149.

[10] Al Irshad, pg. 234; I’lam al Wara bi Alam al Huda by al Tabarsi, pg. 242.

[11] Al Irshad, pg. 234-235; I’lam al Wara, pg. 243.

[12] Kashf al Ghummah, vol. 2 pg. 38.

[13] Al Irshad, pg. 218.

[14] Kashf al Ghummah, vol. 2 pg. 18-19.

[15] Al Irshad, pg. 241: I’lam al Wara, pg. 949.

[16] Rijal al Kashshi, 111.

[17] Ibid, pg. 107.

[18] Ibid, pg. 113.

[19] Ibid, pg. 179.

[20] Rijal al Kashshi, pg. 124.

[21] Ibid, pg. 140.

[22] Ibid, pg. 134.

[23] Ibid, pg. 155.

[24] Al Usul min al Kafi vol. 1 pg. 496.

[25] Ibid vol. 1 pg. 375.

[26] Rijal al Kashshi, pg. 213.

[27] Ibid, pg. 215.

[28] Al Rawdah min al Kafi, vol. 8 pg. 228.

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