The following is a response to Al MuHammadee’s article: Concept of Umm Salamah (ra) Regarding Battle of Jamal and Imam Ali (as). The article was published on SlaveOfAhlubait’s blog, was published on the 7th of June, 2012, and can be found here.
The narration that Al MuHammadee quotes is found in Mustadrak Al-Hakim. This is the translation provided by Al MuHammadee:
When ‘Alee was going to al-Basra, he went to Umm Salamah, the wife of the Prophet, peace be upon him. And she (Umm Salamah) said: “Journey under the protection of Allaah. I swear by Allaah, verily you are upon the Truth, and the Truth is with you. If not that I HATED TO DISOBEY ALLAAH AND HIS MESSENGER, because he (the Prophet) ORDERED us to sit in our houses. I would have journeyed (to war) with you! But, by Allaah, I will send with you someone who is better and more honourable in my sight than myself – my son, ‘Umar.
The flaws of the narration:
The narration is incorrect for two reasons.
The first is text itself. It is incorrect to assume that Um Salamah understood that she was ordered to sit in her house in all cases, for this is contradicts an authentic narration in which Um Salamah was present at hajj. (Musanaf Ibn Abi Shaybah 3/277). If Um Salamah believed that she was to stay at home in all cases then she would have not been at hajj.
Secondly, the narration is weak and does not meet the standards of Al-Bukhari and Muslim. Ramadhan Ahmad Ali in his book Tanbeeh Al-Wahim said, “In the chain is Mohammad bin Sulaiman bin Al-Asbahani, and he was not mentioned in them (Bukhari & Muslim), and he is truthful but makes mistakes.”
I add: He was actually weakened by Abu Hatim, Al-Nasa’ee, and Ibn Adi, which makes his narration weak.
Al-Hakim also erred with Sa’eed bin Muslim, for he too is not a narrator in Al-Bukhari and Muslim. Not only that, but he is an anonymous narrator.
Note: Al MuHammadee, shamelessly declared in the article that the narration, “O ‘Alee, NONE loves you except a believer,” is mutawatir. We openly declare that this is an extreme exaggeration and we challenge Al MuHammadee to provide evidence to support this silly claim.
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