Absolving the Ahlul-bait (l)

Also published in Daily Trust 

Here we go again, another Shiite religious ritual, the so-called Arba’een, is just around the corner, and their religious processions are already underway to Karbala, Iraq where the main worship rites are conducted, and which (i.e. Karbala) is the holiest city on earth, according to their belief.  (See Mustadrakul-Wasa’el, v10, p322, or Biharul-Anwar, v101, p109 etc.).

As usual also, it’s an occasion when they intensify their show of hatred against the Sahaba i.e. the companions of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), and indeed hurl all sorts of insults at them. By the way, this piece is closely related to a previous piece of mine titled ‘In Defence of the Sahaba’ (Daily Trust, 14, Oct. 2016) where, in the light of some of the many relevant Qur’anic verses, I highlighted the righteousness of the Sahaba and indeed their superior virtues, which were only surpassed by the righteousness and virtues of the prophets of Allah, peace be upon them.

Now, the fact that Shiites’ hatred against the Sahaba is based on the unfounded claim of the existence of hatred or enmity between the Ahlul-bait and the Sahaba, and having absolved the Sahaba in the abovementioned piece, I intend to highlight some instances that equally absolve the Ahlul-bait, disprove any claim to that effect and indeed prove how the Ahlul-bait and the Sahaba were bound together by genuine love and mutual respect.

By the way, Ahlul-bait means members of the noble Household of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), which included, but not limited to, his wives, children, grandchildren, uncles (excluding non-Muslims among them e.g. Abu Lahb) etc. However, early Shiite theorists over the centuries excluded most of them including his wives, from the Ahlul-bait, and spared only twelve of them, or rather, only eleven of them, because the twelfth one i.e. the Shiites’ version of Mahdi was actually a fictitious character.

It’s pertinent to note that, in order to claim the existence of such fictitious Ahlul-bait--Sahaba enmity, those early Shiite theorists had deliberately misinterpreted some authentically narrated historical incidents, applied them out of context and indeed relied on hundreds of thousands of fabricated narrations misleadingly attributed to either the Prophet (pbuh) or some of the Ahlul-bait. Also, though Muslim scholars particularly the Muhaddithoon have over the centuries thoroughly scrutinized and debunked such narrations on the bases of the standard criteria for narration authentication, yet referring to the relevant and genuine historical incidents remain equally imperative in order to debunk such fabricated Ahlul-bait--Sahaba enmity. Accordingly, I highlight some specific historical instances in this regard that debunk the existence of such enmity, and which even the Shiite major reference books ironically maintain.

Starting with the common tradition of intermarriage between the Sahaba and the Ahlul-bait, and between their respective descendants across centuries for instance, it’s obvious that the Prophet (pbuh) himself had willingly established and indeed maintained an inter-family kinship network between his family and the families of his four rightly guided Caliphs i.e. Abubakr As-siddeeq, Umar ibn Al-Khattab, Uthman ibn Affan (who was from Bani Umayya, a Quraish Arab clan the Shiites hate the most) and, of course, Ali ibn Abi Talib who, being one of the Prophet’s cousins, was already one of  the Ahlul-bait. He (i.e. the Prophet) married Aisha bint Abibakr and Hafsa bint Umar, then married off his daughter Ruqayya to Uthman, and when she died he married off her sister Umm-kulthum to him also, as he (i.e. the Prophet) also married off their sister, Fatima to Ali. The Prophet also married Ramla bint Abi Sufyan, otherwise known as Umm-Habiba, from Banu Umayya. Her father, Abu Sufyan was, until his conversion to Islam, effectively the leader of Makkah. Her two brothers, Yazid ibn Abi Sufyan and Mu’awiya ibn Abi Sufyan were also Prophet’s companions. In the same vein, Ramla bint Ali ibn Abi Talib married Mu’awiya bin Marwan bin Al-Hakm, also from Banu Umayya.

Likewise, Ali ibn Abi Talib married off his daughter, Umm-kulthum to Umar ibn Al-khattab, while his son, Hassan ibn Ali ibn Abi Talib married Hafsa bint Abdur-Rahman bin Abibakr As-siddeeq. Also, Hussain ibn Ali ibn Abi Talib married Atika bint Zaid whose father was Umar ibn Khattab’s uncle, as he (i.e. Hussain) also married Umm-Is-haq bint Talhat ibn Ubaidullah.

Similarly, Muhammad (Al-Baqir) ibn Ali ibn Hussain ibn Ali ibn Abi Talib married Farwa bint Al-Qasim ibn Muhammad ibn Abibakr As-siddeeq. Interestingly, her mother was Asma bint Abdur-Rahman bin Abibakr As-siddeeq also, hence her son, Ja’afar (As-sadiq) to whom the Shiites attributed most of their fabricated narrations, used to also cherish his direct lineal descent from  Abubakr As-siddeeq, hence he was reported to have said “Abubakr begot me twice”.

Incidentally, when it comes to choosing a marriage partner, Arabs were particularly obsessed with not only the moral qualities of a potential partner, but his family reputation as well, among other things, for they rightly believed that marriage inevitably merges families together. They therefore often insisted on an appropriate match when getting married or marrying off their sons and daughters. That explained why, as the noblest and most reputable family, the Ahlul-bait and their descendants found the families of the Sahaba and their descendants the most appropriate families to marry from. After all, interestingly, in Ahlul-bait--Sahaba intermarriage, the groom would, in most cases, come from the Ahlul-bait side while the bride would come from the Sahaba side.

Anyway, certainly in addition to intermarriage, there were many other instances that further disprove the fictitious Ahlul-bait--Sahaba enmity, and I will highlight some few more in due course, God willing.  To be concluded………...