Sheikh Muhammad Mahmud Turi addressed the above topic on page
64 of LEADERSHIP FRIDAY of November 22, 2013. Since the debut of his Discourse
page on LEADERSHIP at the later part of 2013, Sheikh Turi has spared no
effort in propagating Imaamiyyah and Raafidiyyah (Shi’ah)
ideologies.
For beginners, Shi’ah Imaamiyyah adherents have added belief
in imam to articles of faith; that one has to accept that imamate is a divine
position, like prophethood. To them Allah chooses His prophets and messengers
in the same way He chooses the imam with textual evidence, revelation so that
the imam will undertake similar tasks which Allah assigns to His messengers. This
belief in imamate is the cornerstone of shi’ah faith, and the fundamental of
their religion as no imaan is complete without it.
The Sunni scholars described this group and others with
similar ideology as Raafidiyyah (rejectors or better still, rejectionists) due
to their rejection of the Caliphates of Abu Bakr Assiddeeq, Umar bin
Al-Khattaab and Uthmaan bin Affaan, may Allah be pleased with them. They do not
in the least recognise these Rightly Guided Caliphs as leaders of
this Ummah. To them Abu Bakr, Umar and Uthmaan (RA) usurped the right of Ali bin
Abu Talib (RA) of becoming the Caliph. These trusted companions of the
Messenger of Allah (SAW) are abused by the Shi’ites, and maligned undeservedly!
When I took on Adamu Adamu on these pages some time ago
regarding the traces of shi’ism in his writings, some concerned readers faulted
both of us for using newspaper columns to discuss such differences. I have a
lot of respect for our brethren who desire concealment of strife among us to
forestall exposing the weakness of the Ummah to its adversaries. Pray, in what
medium would response be more apt other than the one through which a deviant
ideology was propagated? Many may wrongly assume that whatever they read about
Islam in publications like newspapers is true. The true and right position,
therefore, should be presented, in the same medium, to make it plain to those
who may not know that Islam has nothing to do with such heresy.
Consequently, I will not refrain from responding to any
article that aims at corrupting the true teachings of Islam. I have resolved to
present the right position of Islam on all the issues raised by Sheikh Muhammad
Mahmud Turi on his page of LEADERSHIP FRIDAY, from the time he started onwards.
Insha Allah I will answer him word for word on any shi’ah belief he presented
in the past or will present in the future. I am starting with today’s topic
that the Sheikh concluded just last Friday, December 6, 2013. This will
be followed by my rebuttal to his – Imam Ali’s Undisputable Leadership
Qualities, and, Did The Prophet (S) Really Certify His Successor
Before Demise? - in addition to many others.
Ashura Procession in Zaria, Kaduna State
In the first part of Ashura Amidst Misconception,
Confusion And Misleads Sheikh Turi tried to make his readers believe that
no caliph had any role in the adoption of the hijra calendar. He said, ‘And, in
contrast to the claim that one of the earlier caliphs was the pioneer in the
adoption of the hijra calendar, it was the prophet that set the calendar since
his advent in Medina which marked the establishment of the first Islamic state
on this planet where he corresponded based on d to the world with the same
calendar!’
Have I not informed you about their hatred of the Caliphs?
However, Umar (RA) it was that started the Muslim calendar counting it from the lunar
month, Muharram, in the year of the Prophet's migration to Medinah, 16 July in
622 CE.
Umar Ibn Al-Khattab was the first "setter of dates"
of the Islamic era. As the Commander of the Faithful, he would despatch correspondences
to his appointed officials but they could not fathom which to obey due to confusion
in dates. If a document dated [the month of] Sha'ban, for instance, they were
at lost about which of the Sha'bans was meant: was it the month that had
passed, or that which was to come?
Umar (RA) then gathered the Companions of the Prophet (SAW)
and told them: "Money is flowing in, and what we have apportioned bears no
date. How are we to reach a way of regulating this matter?"
After long discussions and presentation of date system by
Persian and Jewish reverts to Islam, the assembly eventually agreed that
Islamic history would begin with the Prophet's Hijra, ‘because none of those
present disagreed on the date of that event, whereas that of the Prophet's birth,
and when exactly he had received the first Divine message, aroused some
controversy. Agreement on this matter was reached in the year 17 of the Hijra,
the fourth year of the caliphate of 'Umar. Until then, each year (after the
Hijra) was called after its main event, and this was used for dating purposes.
The first year of the Prophet's residence in Medina was thus called: 'The
permission to travel'. The second year was called: 'The year of the
command to fight'. The third year: 'The year of the test', and so
on. Afterwards, the custom of naming the year after the main events was
abandoned.
When the need for toning up the administration of the
Caliphate arose during the time of 'Umar bin al-Khattab, it became necessary to
have a calendar so as to fix the dates. The Caliph, who was so well aware of
the sunnah of the Prophet and of his temperament, instead of fixing the
standard from the birth of the Prophet, which heralded an entirely new chapter
in the history of man or his death which had placed such a heavy responsibility
upon the shoulders of the Caliphs or some other event, he ordered the adoption
of the Hijra as the basic date for the Islamic calendar.’
Ashura and Display of Self-Affliction
Sheikh Turi quoted verse 23 of Ash-Shuuraa "No
reward do I ask of you for this except the love of those near of kin"
in his attempt to prove that it refers to the Prophet’s daughter, Fatimah and
his two grandsons, Hasan and Husain (Ahlul bait), people of the
Prophet’s household, and that the verse enjoins believers to love them.
Let me state that all believers must love the Messenger of
Allah (SAW) and his household by the authority of quite a number of texts, but
Ash-Shuuraa, verse 23 is not part of that. To start with, Ash-Shuuraa is a
Makkan Surah; all surahs in that neighbourhood that begin with haameem
are Makkan surahs as well. So, Ash-Shuuraa was revealed completely in
Makkah before Ali bin Abu Talib (RA) married Fatimah. The wedding took place in
Madeenah two years after Hijra, and consummation occurred at the end of the
Battle of Badr. Hasan and Husain were delivered in the third and fourth year
after Hijrah respectively; so, how can the verse refer to them?
Some hadeeth-fabricators even went further to say that when
the verse was revealed, the companions said, ‘To whom does the verse refer,
Oh Messenger of Allah?’ then he said, ‘To Ali, Fatimah, and their two
sons.’ This is a blatant lie in the informed opinion of hadeeth scholars.
The verse rather refers to the entire clans of Quraish as all
of them have one qarabah, kinship or the other with the Messenger of
Allah (SAW).
All For Husain
Sheikh Muhammad Mahmud Turi has introduced us to a new
reality – the prevalence of shi’ah adherents in our midst. That is the import
of maintaining a weekly column, (forget about its apparent deficiencies in
grammar and syntax), dedicated to propagating shi’ism through subtle and
subliminal messages to initiate the gullible. The feigned love of Ahlul Bait
is the right bait to catch new converts. However, informed Muslims know that
the Prophet (SAW) had addressed this Ummah concerning Ahlul Bait when he said,
‘I adjure you in the Name of Allah to look after my household.’ Thus,
Muslims adore Ahlul Bait, seeking Allah’s countenance and pleasure; and at the
same time believe that speaking ill of the Prophet’s household is the smack of
hypocrisy. To real Muslims, Aishah (RA) is a bone fide member of the
Ahlul Bait, and whatever grieves her hurts the Messenger of Allah (SAW). To
malign Aishah is to malign her consort, the Prophet of Allah (SAW). How can
Allah allow His Messenger to take an evil person into his household when He has
said that evil women are for evil men (Qur’an 24:26)? Shi’ites,
in spite of this, defamed and accused Aishah of debauchery. Their fabricated
traditions are replete with words against Aishah: 1) that the Messenger
of Allah once pointed to Aishah’s residence and remarked, ‘Disbelief springs
from this place’ 2) that Aishah and Hafsah contrived to poison the
Messenger of Allah (SAW), and so on.
How is it conceivable for shi’as to love the Messenger of
Allah (SAW) and his household while, at the same time, they malign his wives
whom Allah the Almighty has described as ‘Mothers of the Believers?’
The Qur’an says: The prophet is closer to the
believers than their own selves, and His wives are their mothers. (Qur’an 33:6)
Oh Allah! We hear, and we obey. Aishah (RA) is our mother in faith;
just as all other wives of the Messenger of Allah (SAW) are our mothers in
faith.
This feigned love of the Prophet’s household manifested
itself in the second part of Sheikh Turi’s Ashura Amidst Misconception,
Confusion And Misleads, (LEADERSHIP Friday, December 6, 2013), where he
laboured to paint a picture of martyrdom as being the reason for Ashura ‘predestined
by Allah’. I wonder why Sheikh Turi refused to mention the names of other
martyrs along with Husain on that day at Karbala. He should have mentioned
Husain’s brother and son, who were both named Abu Bakr. In addition, he
should have mentioned Husain’s other brother named Umar. All these three
were martyred along with Husain in Karbala. Will it be that Sheikh Turi
conveniently avoided the mention of these martyrs because their appellations
were that of the usurpers of Ali’s right to the caliphate, Abu Bakr
and Umar?
Ashura Shi'ah Style
On the issue of thirst that Husain and his followers were
afflicted with during the battle, I am intrigued by the fact that the Shi’ites
believe that their imams possess knowledge of the unseen (Ghaib). If
this was the case, then, why was Husain not able to foresee this impending
danger of death by thirst, and make provision for abundant supply of water so
as to save many of his followers including ‘his six month old baby’
whose thirst was quenched ‘with a deadly poisoned arrow’ of ‘Yazid’s
senseless army’? In every expedition, Muslims are to prepare
state-of-the-art armour for the frontlines in order to have upper hand over the
enemy (Qur’an 8:60). Of course, one who knows the unseen should have used this
lawful means of making provision towards quenching the thirst of his followers,
rather than demean himself by importuning his enemies for water.
Reading both parts one and two of Sheikh Turi’s piece under
discussion, you see the killers of Husain in Mu’awiya, Yazid and their hosts,
whereas, even by the confirmation of Shi’a sources, Husain was actually
murdered by no other than his own followers! “Twenty-thousand people in Iraq” wrote As-Sayyid
Muhsin Al-Amin in A’yaan Ash-Shi’ah, “swore the oath to
Al-Husain, but betrayed him and rose against him. They turned their backs on
their pledge and murdered him.”
So, the same people, as related by Sheikh Turi, who said to
Husain after his last address to them at the battlefield ‘O our master! We
are all ready to defend you and your Ahlul-bait, and to sacrifice our lives for
the cause of Islam’, they were the very ones that murdered Husain.
Husain himself confronted these murderers at Karbala and said
to them:
‘Did you not write to me and say that the time had come,
and that you were presenting me with new recruits? Woe betide you! You were
driven to distraction and you called on me for help. You sharpened a sword for
us that was already in our hands, and you kindled a fire that we had already
set to consume your enemies as well as ours. Then, you turned against your
friends and joined your enemies. You rushed to swear the oath of allegiance to
me, falling upon me as you fall into your beds. Then you disregarded your oaths
foolishly. Away with the tyrants of this Ummah!’
Husain then turned to Allah and supplicated:
“O Allah, if you will spare them for a while, then split
them asunder and never allow them to rise again. Let the imams (those in
authority) never be pleased with them. They called on me and said that they
would support me until victory. Then they turned to fight against me.”
Therefore, if you are looking for those who murdered Husain,
unlike what Sheikh Turi was trying to depict, the above quoted Shi’ah sources
have spared you the trouble. Husain’s killers were those who claimed to be his
supporters and followers.
This article by Sheikh Turi purposed to change the face of Ashura
from that taught by the Prophet (SAW) to one of expressing melancholy and grief
for the loss of Husain through annual muzaaharaat, processions to
commemorate the sad event. Why will Husain be singled out for this show of
grief every year? If the answer is because of his being from Ahlul-bait, what
about Hamza, the uncle of Prophet (SAW)? The polytheists, in the battle of
Uhud, targeted Hamza, killed him and cut his chest open, ripped out his heart
and mutilated his body. The Messenger of Allah was so distraught, angry and nonplussed
by this murder that he prayed the janaazah salaah on Hamza for more than
seventy times. We have not seen the Shi’ites commemorating the death of this
honourable member of Ahlul-bait annually. Moreover, the death of the Messenger
of Allah (SAW) was a greater loss to this Ummah than the death of any mortal. The
Shi’ites do not organise annual procession to commemorate his death!
Ashura in Blood
Ashura is not an occasion for melancholy and sorrow as we see
Shi’ites do every year, slapping their faces, tearing their clothes and
striking their bodies with swords and sharp objects with blood gushing forth
from their heads, backs and sides. To the Muslims who adhere to the true
teachings of Muhammad (SAW), Ashura is a time to celebrate, and to be pleased
for following the Sunnah of the Prophet (SAW).
As reported in both Bukhari and Muslim, when the Messenger of
Allah first entered Madinah, he found the Jews fasting on Ashura, the 10th
of Muharram. When he asked them as to why they were fasting, they said, ‘This
is a great day in which Allah saved Musa (Moses) and drowned Pharaoh.’
The Prophet (SAW) then said to them, ‘I have a greater
right on Moses than you.’
He fasted that day, and ordered the Muslims to do the same.
Nobody can distort or change this Prophetic Sunnah of fasting
and exultation on Ashura to procession, walling in grief and melancholy!
Ashura With Blood and Public Display of Aurah
