Response to: Imam Alee (a.s) Public Condemnation Of The Usurpers

The following is a response to the article on RevisitingtheSalaf.org entitled: Imam Alee (a.s) Public Condemnation Of The Usurpers, which was published on the 22^nd of October, 2013, and can be found here.

In this one RTS tries to show that `Ali ibn abi Talib (ra) whose praise for Abu Bakr (ra) and `Umar (ra) is no short of being Mutawatir, he tries to show that this same man actually hates Abu Bakr (ra) and `Umar (ra) and insults them publicly.

To do this he quotes a comedic narration from the eight volume of al-Kafi, and the one who is familiar with the narrations of `Ali (ra) knows for a fact that these are not his words nor is this his style and method when delivering speeches, it is no more than the invention of an Arab or a Persian man devoid of intellect and extremely weak in eloquence.

 We won’t comment on the chain of this narration that passes through Ibrahim ibn Hashim al-Qummi who is an unknown man, nor the fact that it is in al-Kafi which is written by an author we almost know nothing about. It’s just the text which interests us this time, take a look at a part of this narration RTS is proud of and see for yourself if it is truly `Ali’s (ra) words or some invention by a mindless fool:

وَ إِنَّ أَوَّلَ مَنْ بَغَى عَلَى اللَّهِ جَلَّ ذِكْرُهُ عَنَاقُ بِنْتُ آدَمَ وَ أَوَّلَ قَتِيلٍ قَتَلَهُ اللَّهُ عَنَاقُ وَ كَانَ مَجْلِسُهَا جَرِيباً [مِنَ الْأَرْضِ] فِي جَرِيبٍ وَ كَانَ لَهَا عِشْرُونَ إِصْبَعاً فِي كُلِّ إِصْبَعٍ ظُفُرَانِ مِثْلُ الْمِنْجَلَيْنِ فَسَلَّطَ اللَّهُ عَزَّ وَ جَلَّ عَلَيْهَا أَسَداً كَالْفِيلِ وَ ذِئْباً كَالْبَعِيرِ وَ نَسْراً مِثْلَ الْبَغْلِ فَقَتَلُوهَا وَ قَدْ قَتَلَ اللَّهُ الْجَبَابِرَةَ عَلَى أَفْضَلِ أَحْوَالِهِمْ

[…O People, transgression leads people to hellfire, and the first who transgressed against Allah was `Anaq the daughter of Adam (as), and the first one to be killed by Allah was `Anaq, when she sat she covered a distance of ten thousand by ten thousand arms (or one square acre), and she had twenty fingers, in each were two nails, like two sickles, so Allah almighty sent on her a lion like an elephant, and a wolf like a camel, and an eagle like a mule, then they killed her…]

I ask the Shia before the Sunnies, is this `Ali ibn abi Talib (ra) who just uttered this? Is this the man whose eloquence you keep boasting about? Do any of you know how lame and made-up this narration sounds? By Allah the one who attributes such ridiculous words to one of the masters of Arabic does not have shyness or fear of Allah!

The odd narration continues:

[…and Allah had killed arrogant tyrants when they were at their best, and he killed Haman and destroyed Pharaoh and now `Uthman is dead…]

In RTS’s website they interpret Hamaan as Abu Bakr (ra) and place it between two parenthesis, and Pharaoh as `Umar (ra), and this is truly wondrous! As if the man has a problem in mentioning their names clearly, although he mentions `Uthman (ra) without a problem.

Now compare this with what `Ali (ra) says in the books of Ahlul-Sunnah with accurate authentic chains, and see how `Ali (ra) praises `Uthman (ra):

وروى الحاكم بإسناده عن قيس بن عباد قال : سمعت علياً رضي الله عنه الله عنه يوم الجمل يقول : اللهم إني أبرأ إليك من دم عثمان ولقد طاش عقلي يوم قتل عثمان ، وأنكرت نفسي وجاءوني للبيعة ، فقلت والله إني لأستحي من الله أن أبايع قوماً قتلوا رجلاً قال فيه رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم (( ألا استحيي ممن تستحيي منه الملائكة )) وإني لأستحيي من الله أن أبايع وعثمان قتيل على الأرض لم يدفن بعد فانصرفوا ، فما دفن رجع الناس فسألوني البيعة فقلت اللهم إني مشفق مما أقدم عليه ثم جاءت عزيمة فبايعت فلقد قالوا : يا أمير المؤمنين فكأنما صدع قلبي ، وقلت : اللهم خذ مني لعثمان حتى ترضى

[al-Hakim narrated with its Isnad from Qays bin `Ubad: I heard `Ali may Allah be pleased with him say on the Day of Jamal: (( O Lord I seek refuge in you and I am innocent from the blood of `Uthman, I had almost lost my mind the day he was murdered, I denied myself and they came to me offering a pledge of allegiance, I said to them: By God I feel shy from Allah that I would receive a pledge of allegiance from those who killed the Man to which the Prophet (SAWS) said: “Should I not feel shy of a man of whom the angels are shy?”, and I feel shy from Allah that I would receive allegiance while `Uthman is murdered, lying on the ground without burial. They left me and came back after he was buried asking me for the Bay`ah(Pledge of allegiance), I said: “O Lord I feel pity from what I am about to do” later came determination and I took the pledge when they said: “O chief of believers” I felt my heart ache and I said: “O Lord take from me and give to `Uthman until you are pleased.” ))]

sources:

-al-Mustadrak (3/95) and he said: SAHIH on the condition of Bukhari and Muslim, Imam al Dhahabi agreed with him.

-al-Bidayah wal Nihayah (7/202).

-al-Riyadh al-Nadirah (3/69,70).

-al-Sawa`iq al-Muhriqah p173.

So we ask the readers, which do you accept? the authentic historically accurate narration of how `Ali (ra) received the pledge of allegiance in the books of Ahlul-Sunnah and how he had a good relation with `Uthman (ra), or the un-eloquent and comedic narration that reached us through unknown men regarding the woman of twenty fingers and lions like mules and whatever nonsense some foreign man put together to fool those of weak minds?