Previous Studies

Except for some scattered articles on the internet and some concise studies found within certain books, we have not come across an independent study on the issue of the breaking of the rib from the perspective of the Ahlus Sunnah. We have found only one study related to the origin of the story of the attack on ‘Ali’s house, which is the book al Tahqiq fi Khabar al Tahdid bi al Tahriq by Muhammad al ‘Umrani Halhul al Hassani. This book is considered one of the unique and rare studies that explored the narration of Aslam al ‘Adawi, which mentioned ‘Umar’s threat to burn Fatimah’s house where the Companions radiya Llahu ‘anhum were gathering. The author studied this report from the perspective of the chain of transmission and the text, starting with the statement that the report does not indicate the claim of an attack on Fatimah’s house. He then addressed the issue of the threat, assuming the report’s authenticity, and traced all the chains of this narration, highlighting the differing scholarly opinions on its authenticity. He pointed out that the main chain of this hadith revolves around Muhammad ibn Bishr al Kufi, from ‘Ubaidullah ibn ‘Umar al Madani, from Zaid ibn Aslam al Madani. Since the author is well-versed in the science of Hadith and the knowledge of defects, he concluded, after gathering the chains, comparing them, and referring to the critiques of Hadith scholars, that there are significant defects undermining the authenticity of the report. Among the crucial defects he mentioned is the irsal (disconnection), proving that Zaid ibn Aslam did not hear this report from ‘Umar and did not witness the incident.

Another defect highlighted by the author is the uniqueness and rarity, as Muhammad ibn Bishr al ‘Abdi is the only one who narrated this report from ‘Ubaidullah al ‘Umari, without other companions, and ‘Ubaidullah al ‘Umari is the only one who narrated this report from Zaid ibn Aslam. The author demonstrated that this uniqueness leads to the rarity and criticism of this report with strong evidence, finding in the words of Hadith critics explicit statements about the occurrence of errors in ‘Ubaidullah al ‘Umari’s narrations from Zaid ibn Aslam, as well as in Muhammad ibn Bishr’s narrations from ‘Ubaidullah al ‘Umari, thus placing this chain among the reports where errors in narration occurred.

The author then mentioned the evidence used by opponents to support this report, which are three in total, and he demonstrated their weakness as well. Overall, this book has thoroughly addressed the report on the threat of burning and other related reports found in the books of the Ahlus Sunnah that the opponents use as evidence. However, it did not address the Shia Imami narrations, but we benefited greatly from his study and relied on what he mentioned in responding to the opponents’ doubts.

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