Backgrounds Declared by Words

 

The issue of al-Zahra’ (A.S.) and what she had to put up with, following the demise of the Messenger of Allah (A.S.), is also a very useful historical event due to its mandating deductions. There is a difference between someone telling you that those who usurped the caliphate hit al-Zahra’ (A.S.) immediately after the demise of her father (A.S.) to the extent that they caused her to miscarry, breaking her sacred rib, up to the end of the events that are already well known, and between someone telling you that they did not do anything more than threatening to burn her house.

Then you are told that they respected her, held her in high esteem or at least feared mistreating her because of her status and due to people’s respect for her! This means that theirs were only empty threats and were not serious at all. Then the field broadens for one who wants to go on to tell you thereafter that they were, with regard to the issue of caliphate, resorted to ijtihad but made a mistake. Again he, in order to convince you that they were to be rewarded by Allah for having usurped the caliphate, tells you the following:

“The Prophet (A.S.) named Ali (A.S.) (as his successor) but they understood it differently.” That is, the issue was not an assault on, nor was it the confiscation of a well known right. Rather, it was mere misunderstanding of what the Messenger of Allah (A.S.) had said, and the misunderstanding was not confined to the assailants and the usurpers but to all the companions: they all understood him the same way he was understood by the usurpers. You will be told on another occasion that the Prophet (A.S.) nominated Ali (A.S.) as his successor but the nature of the speech articulated by the Prophet made people doubt it. So, they substitute a letter with another just so that you may buy their argument.