Islam Guidance

Letter 98

Letter 98
I Glittering Proofs,
II Reference to Other Incidents.

Rabi` al-Thani 11, 1330
1) Consider the Hudaybiya Treaty, Hunayn's booties, the taking of ransom from the captives of the Battle of Badr, his (pbuh) order to slaughter a few camels when they had a severe shortage of food rations during the Battle of Tabük, some of their own affairs on Uhud and its valley, the incident when Abu Hurayrah started conveying glad tidings to all those who believed in the Unity of Allah, the incident of performing ritual prayers for a hypocrite, the incident of their questioning the sadaqat and their inquiries about debauchery, their interpretation of the verses dealing with the khums and zakat, the two verses dealing with the mut`a [temporary] marriage, the verse dealing with the divorce thrice, their interpretation of the traditions regarding the extra prayers during the month of Ramadan, the latter's methods and numbers, the method of calling the athan, the number of takbirs during funeral prayers..., to the end of the list that is too lengthy to be dealt with in detail here. Add to this their opposition regarding the matter pertaining to Hatib ibn Balta`ah, their opposition to what the Prophet (pbuh) did at Ibrahim's maqam, the addition of the houses of some Muslims to the building of the mosque, the enforcement of the blood money of Abu Khirash al-Hathli to be paid by the people of Yemen, the banishment of Nasr ibn al-Hajjaj al-Salami, the penalty enforced on Ja`dah ibn Salam,[1] the method to regulate the jizya, the covenant to conduct the shüra in the well-known manner, roaming at night and spying during day-time, the compensation in performing the rituals..., to the end of the list of innumerable issues in which they aspired to achieve power and control, as well as special interests. We have dedicated in our book Sabil al-Mu'minin[2] a lengthy chapter to deal with them.

2) Yet there are other texts dealing particularly with `Ali and the purified progeny (as) besides the ones related to the caliphate which they did not honour either; rather, they acted to the contrary of the latter, as researchers know very well. So, no wonder to see how they used their own judgment to interpret the texts related to his caliphate; after all, isn't it just another text which they subjected to their own views and preferred their own thinking rather than acting upon it? Wassalam.
Sincerely,
Sh
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[1] Refer to `Umer's biography in Ibn Sa`d's Tabaqat and you will see how Ja`dah was executed for no complaint brought against him nor a witness other than a sheet on which there were verses written by an anonymous poet accusing Ja`dah of committing adultery.
[2] If you did not have a chance to read Sabil al-Muminin, try not to miss reading Al-Fusül al-Muhimma, for it contains precious benefits which no other book contains. We have dedicated a complete chapter to those who interpret it; it is Chapter 8, pages 44 to 130 of the second edition, where these matters are explained in detail.

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