EMAIL
From: ************@gmail.com
To: rayatmohammed@yahoo.com
I do not say salams to you as you are infidels.
Why don’t you Rawafidh follow your leader Imam Ali where he says in Nahjul Balagha Sermon 125, “Stick with the great majority of Muslims.” Hamdulillah, the great noble Ahlul Sunnah are the great majority of Muslims, so why don’t you stick with us. May Allah curse you Rafidhis and I want the mujahideen in Iraq to be successful in wiping you dirty sons of mutah of the map.
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Assalamu Alaykum
Before I respond, I would like to begin by urging you to adopt the attitude that Islam teaches us and avoid resorting to insults, attacks and threats to kill. I know this is hard for you since you yourself were probably raised by the belt, and it is narrated that “Sheikh al-Islam” Ibn Taymiyya himself lost his temper in discussions with other groups, but this is not what the Prophet Mohammed has showed us and what Islam teaches us.
“Indeed you stand on an exalted standard of character.” (Al-Qalam 68:4)
The Prophet said, “The best among you in Islam are those with the best manners”.
Call unto the way of thy Lord with wisdom and fair exhortation, and reason with them in the better way. (al-Nahl: 125)
Anyway, the relevant excerpt of the sermon you quoted is:
“With regard to me, two categories of people will be ruined, namely he who loves me too much and the love takes him away from rightfulness, and he who hates me too much and the hatred takes him away from rightfulness. The best man with regard to me is he who is on the middle course. So be with him and be with the great majority of Muslims because Allah’s hand of protection is on keeping unity. You should beware of division because the one isolated from the group is a prey to Satan just as the one isolated from the flock of sheep is a prey to the wolf. Beware! Whoever calls to this course [of sectarianism], kill him, even though he may be under this headband of mine.”
[Nahjul Balagha Sermon 125 (126 or 127 in some publications)]
َسَيَهْلِكُ فِيَّ صِنْفَانِ: مُحِبٌّ مُفْرِطٌ يَذْهَبُ بِهِ الْحُبُّ إِلَى غَيْرِ الْحَقِّ، وَمُبْغِضٌ مُفْرِطٌ يَذْهَبُ بِهِ الْبُغْضُ إِلَى غَيْرِ الْحَقِّ، وَخَيْرُ النَّاسِ فيَّ حَالاً الَّنمَطُ الاَْوْسَطُ فَالْزَمُوهُ، وَالْزَمُوا السَّوَادَ الاَعْظَم فَإِنَّ يَدَ اللهِ مَعَ الْجَمَاعَةِ، وَإِيَّاكُمْ وَالْفُرْقَةَ! فَإِنَّ الشَّاذَّ مِنَ النَّاسِ لِلشَّيْطَانِ، كَمَا أَنَّ الشَّاذَّةَ مِنَ الْغَنَمِ لِلذِّئْبِ.
The above excerpt from a sermon of Imam Ali (عليه السلام) is often quoted by Sunni propagandists as "proof" that the Shia should stick with the majority of Muslims. However, it is always important to look at the context of the text you are quoting. Imam Ali (عليه السلام) delievered this sermon to the Kharijites. Who were the Kharijites? They were a faction within Imam Ali (عليه السلام)'s army that seceded during the battle of Siffin, and they hated Imam Ali (عليه السلام) and thus left the middle course. The Imam (عليه السلام) is telling them not to cause division, as they were famous for.
The group which loved Imam Ali (عليه السلام) too much were the people who began to worship him. Imam Ali (عليه السلام)had burnt these people to their death. As for those who hated him, Imam Ali (عليه السلام) was referring to the Nawasib and the Khawarij, who were fought and killed at the Battle of Nahrawan. Imam Ali (عليه السلام) is warning us against these two groups who "loved him too much" and "hated him too much" respectively and telling us to stick with the middle course (i.e. neither love him too much or hate him) and to stick with the great majority regarding your emotions towards Imam Ali (عليه السلام), not regarding your sect/denomination and in fact nowhere is the word "group" used in the Arabic text. Instead, the word nass and sawad are used which translates as peoples. If Imam Ali was talking about denominations he would have used the word "sifa" which he did when talking about the two groups which would love and hate him too much. A good analogy would be if an Indonesian man was planning to leave his country and his family said, “Son, stay with us the great plurality of Muslims”. Now, clearly from the context of this statement the family is not talking about the sect of the man, but rather referring to his nationality (i.e. Indonesia has the largest Muslim population) The same with Imam Ali’s (عليه السلام) sermon, which I can say with good confidence an e-Sunni must have come across while browsing through Nahjul Balagha on the internet because no Sunni scholar should humiliate himself by quoting so out of context, which was referring to how the Kharijites viewed Imam Ali (عليه السلام), as well as the division they fermented.
Even if we were to say the sermon is talking about school of thought, at the time this sermon was delivered, there were two groups: the followers of Ali (عليه السلام) and the followers of Muawiya. Muawiya, in the eyes of the Shia, was a zindeeq and Inshallah, we will write an article on Muawiya at a future date. Therefore Shias were the great majority of Muslims even if we take the Sunni propagandist's argument. Both the Kharijities and the Nusayris (who worshipped Imam Ali (عليه السلام)) were splinter groups of Shiism who broke away, and became a prey to Satan.
There are numerous narrations which say it is truth, and not numbers, that is important (remember, most of the world population aren't even Muslim). All these narrations can be summarised when Imam Ali (عليه السلام) himself said something along the lines of sticking with the truth even if there are few people there. Perhaps the most significant case of being right and being in the minority is that of Sayiduna Imam Al-Hussain (عليه السلام), whose small army faced an army of up to 30,000 Ummayad forces. Additionally, the majority not necessarily being right is also found in the Holy Quran.
"but most people do not know" 7:187
"majority of humanity will have no faith" 12:103
"but only a few believed in him" 34:13
In fact, even if we were to accept the e-Salafi's "stick with the majority" argument, the Salafis themselves are disapproved of by a large bulk of Sunnis (in fact, Mohammed Ibn Abdul Wahhab and his followers were even banned from making hajj at one point) Sidi Faraz Rabbani of the authorative website, www.sunnipath.com says:
The simple answer is that the Salafis are people of innovation...One should not listen to Salafis’ arguments, let alone respond: they are a passing annoyance in the history of Islam.
http://qa.sunnipath.com/issue_view.asp?HD=7&ID=2400&CATE=148
Regards
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EMAIL
From: *******@hotmail.co.uk
To: rayatmohammed@yahoo.com
The Holy Quran specifically says "do not become Shias" yet you are Shias. Why do you disobey the Quran and follow your own whims and desires?
Your doctrine of Imamah was only finalised 300 years after the Prophet, who was not consulted! You clearly broke up the religion.
“As for those who divide their religion and break up into sects (shias), you have no part in them in the least: their affair is with Allah: He will in the end tell them the truth of all that they did.” (Quran, 6:159)
“…and be not amongst those who join gods with Allah, those who split up their Religion, and became sects (shias) - each party rejoicing in that which is with itself.” (Quran, 30:31-32)
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Assalamu Alaykum
Before I reply, I ask you not to look at the name used to refer to the Shia school of thought and then look at the holy verse and assume that we are the ones being referred to. For a Sunni propagandist to claim that we are the ones who broke up into different sects is a very subjective and opinionated thing to say, because as Sunnis, they believe they are the "true Islam", otherwise they wouldn't be Sunnis. Likewise, the Shia school of thought obviously believes that we are on the true path followed by the Prophet Mohammed (صلى الله عليه واله وسلم)
This issue is like one group saying, "we're right, you're wrong" and the other group saying the same thing and so I am surprised the Sunni polemcists have even brought it up. I cannot stress more clearly that (according to us) we did not break up into sects and (according to you) you did not break up into sects.
The Messenger of Allah (صلى الله عليه واله وسلم) prophesised that the Muslims will split into many sects. One narration puts the number at 72. In any case, both Sunnis and Shias claim to be the saved sects, and both claim to be following the Prophet Mohammed (صلى الله عليه واله وسلم) and as I said, discussing who the verse is referring to is "we're right, you're wrong" business. The Sunnis try to follow the Quran and the Sunnah, and the Shia try to follow the Quran and the Sunnah.
As for the claim Imamah was not ordained by Islam - well, as a Sunni you would believe that (otherwise you wouldn't even be a Sunni). We Shias believe that the Imamah was ordained by Islam, and Inshallah we will be writing articles on this soon. So basically as I said I am not willing to go down the "I'm right you're wrong" route.
And by the way, I am keen to stress that the Imams did not bring anything new, but simply conveyed Islam which was completed during the Prophet's (صلى الله عليه واله وسلم) lifetime.
One of the companions of Imam Musa al-Kadhim (عليه السلام) asked him: "Is all that you say to be found in the Quran and the Sunnah of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه واله وسلم), or do you also speak on your own authority?"
He replied: "It is impossible that we should say anything on our authority. Whatever we say is to be found in the Quran and the Sunnah of the Prophet(صلى الله عليه واله وسلم)"
Kafi, Volume 1 Page 64
“As for those who divide their religion and break up into sects (shias), you have no part in them in the least: their affair is with Allah: He will in the end tell them the truth of all that they did.” (Quran, 6:159)
Ibn Kathir wrote, "This verse was descended regarding the Jews and the Christians – Ibn Abbas narrated that those who split their religion and became sects were the Jews and Christians and when Prophet Mohammed received the message, the verse was revealed.
The outward meaning of the verse is that it regarding whoever split up the religion of God."
The Sunni polemcists make it sound as if the Quran is specifically denouncing the Shia Imami Jafari school, but rather the verse is denouncing the Jews and Christians and whoever else split up the religion of Allah, and this could include Sunnis, Ibadis, Salafis etc (as I said every group will claim they are following the Prophet Mohammed (صلى الله عليه واله وسلم) and did not form a new sect)
Now, where else is the word Shia used in the Quran. If the Sunni polemcists did a google search of "quran;shia" to see what they come up with, we'll do the same.
"And most surely Ibrahim followed his way (was his shia)." (37:83)
The above verse says that Ibrahim (عليه السلام) was a Shia (follower) of Nuh (عليه السلام). Breaking up your religion into new groups is of course unacceptable but to be on the same group and to be a follower (Shia) of Prophet Mohammed (صلى الله عليه واله وسلم), like Ibrahim (عليه السلام) was a Shia of Nuh (عليه السلام), is what we are supposed to be. Ibn Kathir writes about the above verse, "(Ibrahim was of) his religion, and followed his teachings and way."
In fact, we see from the saying of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه واله وسلم), that he is telling us to be the Shia (partisans/followers) of Ali (عليه السلام).
"I am the tree and Fatima is its branch and Ali is its pollen and Hassan and Hussain are its fruits and our Shia are the leaves and the origin of the tree is in paradise."
Mustadrak, Hakim, Volume 3, Number 4755
Ishaq Al-Dabri is saduq, Abdul Razzaq, his father and grandfather are thiqah, as is Meenah client of Abdul Rahman Ibn Aouf.
The Messenger of Allah said to Ali: "Glad tiding O Ali! Verily you and your companions and your Shia (followers) will be in Paradise."
Musnad, Ahmed, Volume 2, p655
Tarikh Baghdadi, Volume 12, p289
The Messenger of Allah said: "O Ali! (On the day of Judgment) you and your Shia will come toward Allah well-pleased and well-pleasing, and there will come to Him your enemies angry and stiff-necked (i.e., their head forced up).
al-Sawa'iq al-Muhriqah, by Ibn Hajar al-Haythami, Ch. 11, section 1, p236
When we refer to ourselves as "Shia", we are referring to the above hadiths, and not those who split the religion.
Regards
www.rayatmohammed.blogspot.com
Shia
