On Those Who Call Themselves the People of the Sunnah
A Discussion in Theology, Ḥadīth, and Quranic Exegesis
To call a man a diligent re-interpreter is to offer him a defence. The author examines whether that defence can possibly extend to those whose hatred was expressed not in an error of judgement, but in decades of cursing from the pulpits of Islam — and in killing those who refused to join them.
Audacity toward God and His Messenger
Yes — and one may recognise their deviation and their abandonment of right guidance in their claim that these enemies of the religion are among the diligent re-interpreters (mujtahidūn).
Glory be to God!
How tremendous is the audacity toward God and His Messenger ﷺ — for He ruled that they are oath-breakers, transgressors, and deviants; callers to the Fire, those who have broken out of the religion, and hypocrites — on account of their hatred of the Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him), he of whom it is known through massively transmitted texts that his love is faith and his hatred is hypocrisy, in the view of all Muslims.
And it is self-evidently known that there is no deed more indicative of hatred than killing and warfare. Moreover, their deeds and their words together converged in hatred of him and in reviling him — as occurred with Muʿāwiya and his followers — may God requite them — who reviled him (may God be pleased with him) from the pulpits of Islam;1 and he and his governors killed whoever did not publicly declare disavowal of him — as is known to the elite and the common people alike.
Reviled from the very platform his sword had raised
As one of their own poets said:
O nation gone astray, whose guidance has vanished,
now that its reins have passed into the hands of misguidance —
Do you openly revile him from the pulpits,
when it was by his sword that their very pillars were raised?
— Attributed to al-Ḥamāmī†Al-Zamakhsharī said in al-Kashshāf, in his commentary on the Most High’s words — {Indeed, God commands justice and excellence…} [al-Naḥl: 90] — in his exact words:2
“When the cursing of the accursed ones upon the Commander of the Faithful, ʿAlī (may God be pleased with him), was dropped from the sermons, this verse was placed in its stead. And by my life, it was indeed an obscenity, a reprehensible act, and an injustice — may God multiply His wrath, punishment, and disgrace upon the one who established that practice, in response to the supplication of His Prophet: ‘And be an enemy to whoever is an enemy to him.'”
And Muʿāwiya’s urging of Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ to revile the Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him), Saʿd’s refusal, and his proclamation of ʿAlī’s virtues on that occasion — are all transmitted in the sound collections and elsewhere.3
What the cursing of ʿAlī was truly aimed at
And they intended by that nothing other than reviling God Almighty and His Messenger, and repudiating him in his words:
“Whoever I am his master, ʿAlī is his master. O God, befriend whoever befriends him, and be an enemy to whoever is an enemy to him.”
And yet they, in all of that, are — in their own claim — diligent re-interpreters deserving of reward; thereby judging — by their claim — according to the rule applied to the erring re-interpreters. And God Almighty says:
“There is no blame upon you for what you err in.”
Thus lifting blame from those who err, and not burdening any soul beyond its capacity. How well has the poet said:
The Nāṣibīs said: Muʿāwiya erred
in his re-interpretation, and his companion erred in it too.
We said: You have lied — for why did the Prophet say to us:
The killer of ʿAmmār and the one who stripped him are in the Fire?
The following footnotes are editorial additions accompanying the text and are not the author’s own words.
“Are you not astonished at this man, who reviles ʿAlī?”The editor al-Arnāʾūṭ said: “The ḥadīth is sound by virtue of corroborating narrations; this chain is good.” Aḥmad also transmitted similarly under nos. 1637 and 1629. Under no. 1644, from ʿAbdullāh ibn Ẓālim al-Māzinī: When Muʿāwiya departed from Kufa, he appointed al-Mughīra ibn Shuʿba over it, who then set up speakers to speak against ʿAlī. Saʿīd ibn Zayd became enraged, stood up, took him by the hand, and said:
“Do you not see this man who wrongs himself — ordering that a man of the people of Paradise be cursed?”The editor said: “Its chain is good.” Aḥmad also transmitted in his Musnad (32/43), no. 19288: Al-Mughīra spoke disparagingly of ʿAlī, whereupon Zayd ibn Arqam said:
“You know well that the Messenger of God ﷺ used to forbid reviling the dead — so why do you revile ʿAlī when he has died?”Al-Ḥākim transmitted it in al-Mustadrak (1/541), no. 1419; al-Ḥākim said: “A sound ḥadīth according to the criteria of Muslim.” Al-Dhahabī in al-Talkhīṣ: “According to the criteria of Muslim.” Al-Haythamī said in Majmaʿ al-Zawāʾid (8/79): “Al-Ṭabarānī transmitted it with two chains, and the men of one of al-Ṭabarānī’s chains are trustworthy.”
Abū Yaʿlā al-Mawṣilī transmitted in his Musnad (2/114), no. 777, from Abū Bakr ibn Khālid ibn ʿArfaṭa, that he came to Saʿd ibn Mālik and said: “It has reached me that you are being pressed to revile ʿAlī in Kufa — have you reviled him?” He said: “God forbid!” He said:
“By the One in whose hand is Saʿd’s soul, I heard the Messenger of God ﷺ say something about ʿAlī such that even if a saw were placed upon the crown of my head to make me revile him, I would never revile him.”The editor Ḥusayn Asad said: “Al-Haythamī mentioned it in Majmaʿ al-Zawāʾid (9/130): transmitted by Abū Yaʿlā, its chain is good; al-Ḥāfiẓ cited it in al-Maṭālib al-ʿĀliya under no. 3967, marking it with the sign of firmness.”
Muslim transmitted in his Ṣaḥīḥ, no. 6229, from Sahl ibn Saʿd:
“A man from the family of Marwān was appointed over Medina; he summoned Sahl ibn Saʿd and ordered him to revile ʿAlī.”Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr said in al-Istīʿāb (3/1118):
“The Banū Umayya used to speak against him and belittle him — yet God only increased him thereby in eminence, elevation, and love in the eyes of the scholars.”He continued: Ibn Wahb transmitted from ʿĀmir ibn ʿAbdullāh ibn al-Zubayr, that he heard a son of his speaking disparagingly of ʿAlī, and said:
“Beware of returning to that — for the Banū Marwān reviled him for sixty years, yet God only increased him thereby in honour. Religion has never built something that the world has then destroyed; and the world has never built something without turning back on what it built and destroying it.”
“Is ʿAlī to be reviled from the pulpit of Islam, when it was he who built it with his sword?!”
Lawāmiʿ al-Anwār fī Jawāmiʿ al-ʿUlūm wa-l-Āthār (Radiant Lights in the Compendium of Sciences and Traditions), by Majd al-Dīn ibn Muḥammad al-Muʾayyidī (d. 1428 AH). Chapter: The Discussion Concerning Those Who Call Themselves the People of the Sunnah.