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Statement Lacking Historical Precision
There are many statements in the book which lack historical precision; here are some of them:
1. He, on p. 48, says that Mu`awiyah kept cursing the Commander of the Faithful (A.S.) for forty years and that such cursing was prolonged to seventy years. We say that Mu`awiyah publicly continued to curse Ali (A.S.) for about 23 years, 17 years less than the number stated by the author. As for the second point, they kept cursing Ali (A.S.) for more than eighty years; so, refer to history books.
2. On p. 150, he says, “Aba Hanifah, Malik ibn Anas, al-Shafi`i and Ahmed ibn Hanbal were not alive during the lifetime of the Prophet (A.S.) but came about two hundred years after him.” Aba Hanifah was born in 80 A.H. and died in 150 A.H. Malik was born in 93 A.H. and died in 179 A.H. Al-Shafi`i was born in 150 A.H. and died in 204 A.H. Ahmed ibn Hanbal was born in 164 A.H. and died in 233 A.H.
3. On p. 82, he says, “`Omer prohibited Aba Hurayra from transmitting hadith because of his lies about the Messenger of Allah (A.S.) but the scholars accept his (Aba Hurayra’s) false ahadith.” It is well known that the policy of the second caliph dictated the prohibition of transmitting the hadith of the Messenger of Allah (A.S.) and Aba Hurayra was beaten because of that because he, as he himself admitted, transmitted more ahadith than anyone else, not because he told lies about the Messenger of Allah (A.S.), as the writer claims.
4. Compiling the Qur’an: On p. 48, the text of the book reads: “One of your innovations, you Sunnis, is that you do not recognize the Qur’an. The proof is that you claim that the Qur’an was compiled by `Othman; so, was the Messenger of Allah (A.S.) ignorant of what `Othman was doing?!” He goes on trying to disprove the compilation of the Qur’an by `Othman and to prove that it was compiled during the lifetime of the Messenger of Allah (A.S.). We say:
A. It is obvious that the story of `Othman compiling the Qur’an does not mean a lack of recognition of the Qur’an. To use the first argument against the second is out of place.
B. `Othman did not compile the Qur’an. He unified all people to follow one text of the Qur’an only when Huthayfah ibn al-Yeman expressed to him his fear of variations in its text among the people. The Commander of the Faithful (A.S.) supported Huthayfah’s fears, that is, he, too, wished all people to follow only one and the same text and, according to some narrators, the Imam said, “Had I been placed in charge, I would have done the same.”[1] Perhaps the writer means that the Qur’an was put together during the lifetime of the Messenger of Allah (A.S.), but both the first and the second caliphs refused the Mushaf of the Messenger of Allah (A.S.) because it contained the revelation, interpretation and reasons for such revelations as well as exegesis and other such texts which may have embarrassed many of those who were not pleased with the rulers being embarrassed, nor by disseminating facts relevant to them. They themselves collected the verses of the Qur’an in one single Mushaf, dropping the exegesis, interpretation and reasons of revelations, as is well known. [1]Refer to my book regarding important facts about the Holy Qur’an. |