astray only to the detriment of it. Quran 10:108) and many other verses we didn't want to quote.
3. It would be better to mention some traditions showing the reason of the revelation of the verse as it was thought by some persons:
a. The Prophet (s) was stabbed with a bayonet in his cheek during the battle of Uhud. He fell down to the ground and then stood up. One of his teeth was broken and blood began to flow on his face. He said: "O Allah! Guide my people for they don't know the truth!" Then Guide my people for they don't know the truth!" Then Allah revealed this verse:
(Surely you cannot guide whom you love, but Allah guides whom He pleases). (1)
b. It was said that some people showed their faithfulness in the Prophet (s) and in Islam but when the Prophet (s) immigrated to Medina, they stayed in Mecca and showed unbelieving and reverting to their old beliefs. When the Prophet (s) and his companions of the Muslims knew about that, they disagreed about it; some of them thought that they were still faithful and their showing unbelief was as taqiya because they were obliged to do that as Allah had said:
(Let not the believers Take for friends or helpers Unbelievers rather than believers; if any do that, in nothing will there be help from Allah; except by way of precaution, that ye may Guard yourselves from them. Quran 3:28) and others thought that they were unbelievers because they had to immigrate with the Prophet (s) if they liked to save their faithfulness, therefore this group and that group came to the Prophet (s) where some of them liked that the Prophet (s) might considered them as believers for the kinship between these and those, who stayed in Mecca. But the Prophet (s) put off the answer until the Archangel Gabriel revealed to him:
(Surely you cannot guide whom you love, but Allah guides whom He pleases).
It was said that the meaning of the verse was as: "You
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1 Al-Hujja p.29, A'yan ash-Shia, vol.39 p.159.
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don't determine, name or witness for whomsoever you like as faithful but it is Allah, who does that if that person deserves to be called as faithful."
(1)
c. It was said that this verse concerned al-Harith bin Othman bin Nawfal bin Abd Manaf, whom the Prophet (s) wished and liked to be a Muslim.
(2)
Some of the interpreters said that the verse:
(And they say: If we follow the guidance with you, we shall be carried off from our country), which came after that verse, concerned al-Harith.
(3)
And it was said that all the Muslims agreed upon that the second verse
(And they say: If we follow the guidance with you ...) concerned al-Harith.
(4)
d. The messenger of Caesar brought a book to the Prophet (s). The Prophet (s) put the book in his lap then asked the man: "Where are you from?" The man said: "I am from Tanookh." The Prophet (s) said to him: "Do you like to believe in the religion of your father Abraham?" The man said: "I am just a messenger of some people and I am on their religion until I come back to them." The Prophet (s) laughed, looked at his companions and said:
(Surely you cannot guide whom you love, but Allah guides whom He pleases). (5)
These were four sayings about the reason of the revelation of the verse. As we said before that a verse couldn't be revealed to the Prophet (s) twice, so how was it distorted to concern Abu Talib? It was that false tradition, which was fabricated by those, who neither refrained from lying nor respect the sanctity of a Muslim!
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1 Al-Hujja p.30, A'yan ash-Shia, vol.39 p.259.
2 Sheikhul Abtah p.69.
3 Al-Kashshaf vol.2 p.167 (vol.3 p.333), Majm'ul Bayan, vol.20 p.309, Asbab an-Nuzool p.169, Ibn Katheer's Tafseer vol.3 p.395, al-Baydhawi's Tafseer vol.4 p.9.
4 Sheikhul Abtah p.69.
5 Ibn Katheer's Tafseer vol.3 p.395.
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4. If we gave up and confessed that the verse was revealed about Abu Talib, then it would be as a weapon in the hand of those, who defended Abu Talib's faithfulness, more than those, who accused him of being unfaithful because those who said that the verse
(Surely you cannot guide whom you love, but Allah guides whom He pleases) concerned Abu Talib, they confirmed that the Prophet (s) loved him for the verse meant: O Muhammad! You don't guide whom you love but Allah guide him!
Definitely when the Prophet (s) loved someone, it would be sufficient evidence proving the faithfulness of that one because the Prophet (s) was forbidden from loving other than the faithful ones.
On the other side the verse would be evidence showing the high faithfulness of Abu Talib because his faithfulness then would be out of the guidance of Allah and not out of the invitation of the Prophet (s) only. In fact this showed that there was a divine care towards Abu Talib.
5. After all this, we didn't find an improvised saying weaker than the saying of az-Zajjaj when pretending that: "The Muslims agreed upon that this verse had been revealed to concern Abu Talib."
(1)
When was this consensus of the Muslims? Yes! It was in the world of imagination and illusion!
Was there any evidence confirming this false pretense? Didn't he fear the bad end of this disgraceful accusation or the responsibility of such a reckless decision?
The least thing in his saying was excluding Ahlul Bayt and their followers, the Shia, who refuted this false pretense, from among the Muslims and excluding another group of the Prophet's companions, who acknowledged the truth and confessed the faithfulness of Abu Talib, because if he didn't exclude these people from the
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1 Al-Kashshaf vol.3 p.332.
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Muslims, his pretense about the consensus would by invalidated by a saying of any one of Ahlul Bayt or the companions.
The strange thing in this concern and how much wonders and strange things there were in this subject -was that his evidence about this illusory consensus was a false tradition mentioned without any series of narrators so that we could find whether the narrators were liars, fabricators or something else. But it was undoubtedly that the tradition was derived from those false traditions that were just refuted and he might add to them something of his imagination to make the little lie grow.
The contradiction was apparent in the tradition and the marks of fabrication were clear between the words ascribed to Abu Talib: "O my nephew! I know that you are truthful but I hate to be said that Abu Talib slackened when about to die" until he said: "... but I will die on the religion of the sheikhs Abdul Muttalib, Hashem and Abd Manaf."
(1)
We didn't want to repeat the argument about this fabricated tradition but we liked to refer to the saying of al-Qurtubi, who found the word "consensus" so big and he wanted to lessen something of its sharpness so he commented: "It is more correct to say: The most of the interpreters agreed upon that the verse was revealed concerning Abu Talib."
(2)
But he wasn't saved from what az-Zajjaj had fallen into because the two pretenses had no evidence nor they depended upon reason or reality.
The same was the saying of ibn Katheer when saying about this verse: "It was proved in the two Sahihs
(3) that the verse was revealed about the Prophet's uncle Abu
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1 Al-Kashshaf vol.3 p.332-333.
2 Al-Ghadeer, vol.8 p.22 from al-Qurtubi's Tafseer vol.13 p.299.
3 Sahih of al-Bukhari and Sahih of Muslim.
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Talib, who protected the Prophet (s), defended him, assisted him and loved him greatly; natural love and not (legal!) ..."
(1)
Then he cited those fabricated traditions, which were already refuted, and then he sent his decision indifferently without thinking of any responsibility or anything else. Would such commercial news be proved by false traditions fabricated by some of the liars?
And it was funny to quote the saying of at-Tarmithi about one of these traditions: "... it was accepted but odd. We didn't know it except from the tradition of Yazeed bin Kayssan."
(2)
He acknowledged that it was odd and that it was only narrated by Yazeed, who was unreliable and no one depended upon his traditions as we knew before when we discussed the series of the narrators of the tradition in a previous chapter, so what made at-Tarmithi say that it was accepted?
Also we didn't want to argue with ibn Katheer about the love, which he liked to call a natural love and not a (legal) love, because this book was full of evidences proving that the great love Abu Talib had towards Muhammad was towards Muhammad the Prophet not Muhammad the nephew!
Such raving was called interpretation one time, history another time and tradition a third time. Like that was the saying: "Abu Sa'eed bin Rafi' said: "I asked ibn Omar: Was this verse (Surely you cannot guide whom you love, but Allah guides whom He pleases) concerning Abu Jahl and Abu Talib?" He said: "Yes, it was."
(3)
We didn't find any series of narrators for this saying
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1 Ibn Katheer's Tafseer vol.3 p.349. He meant that Abu Talib loved Muhammad as his nephew not as the prophet.
2 Ibn Katheer's Tafseer vol.3 p.349.
3 Asbab an-Nuzool.
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besides that it was just an opinion ascribed to ibn Omar.
But how did reason accept such opinion -even if the faithfulness of Abu Talib was not proved- where it put Abu Jahl and Abu Talib in one position?
How would the two; Abu Talib in his love, protection and his devotedness in defending the Prophet (s) and Abu Jahl in his opposite situation, be equal for the Prophet (s) and in the same position where the Prophet (s) loved for both of them to be guided and to be Muslims?
Who knows! Perhaps they thought that the Prophet (s) loved Abu Jahl more but Allah didn't want that!
The values became under the feet, the qualities were lost and beauty and ugliness were equal ... defending the Prophet (s) and fighting him were the same! How bad it was!
This impudent attack was not against Abu Talib; it was against the Prophet (s) himself where he was considered as unjust and unfair in dealing with two contradicted situation in the same way, in which he wronged justice and violated rightness! O Allah, forgive us!
Interpreting the verse according to the personal opinions didn't stop at a certain end. We found that every one interpreted it as he liked and according to his fancy and passion.
We found that someone divided the verse between Abu Talib and al-Abbas when saying that the beginning of the verse concerned Abu Talib whereas its end concerned al-Abbas.
(1) Between the death of Abu Talib and the believing of al-Abbas in Islam there was a long period besides that al-Abbas became a Muslim years after the revelation of this verse.
We referred previously to our respected father's saying
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1 Al-Ghadeer, vol.8 p.22 from al-Qurtoobi's Tafseer vol.13 p.299 and ad-Durr al-Manthoor vol.5 p.133.
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that all the accusations ascribed to Abu Talib were because he was the father of Ali, otherwise he wouldn't be accused of anything if he was the father of anyone else than Ali; therefore defaming of Abu Talib was just a means to defame his son Ali!
We found some of the distortion fabricated about the verse confirming this thought.
Mo'awiya asked Samra to distort a Quranic verse against Ali and another verse in the interest of ibn Muljam (Ali's killer) as we mentioned in the first chapter (At the Threshold). Besides that he wanted a verse to be distorted against Abu Talib.
Someone said: "The verse
(Surely you cannot guide whom you love, but Allah guides whom He pleases) concerned Abu Talib because the Prophet (s) liked Abu Talib to be a Muslim and so this verse was revealed. Meanwhile he disliked Wahshi (the killer of Hamza, the Prophet's uncle) to be a Muslim then this verse was revealed
(Say: O my servants! who have acted extravagantly against their own souls, do not despair of the mercy of Allah. Quran 29:53) so Wahshi became a Muslim but Abu Talib didn't!"
(1)
In order to certify this silly saying they ascribed it to ibn Abbas to show us the extent of confusion they reached.
It was the just one of those opinions put to serve the obscene aims and the fabricator would never mind whomever or whatever it defamed or what values it destroyed!
The Prophet (s), according to this thought, contradicted Allah. He liked what Allah disliked and disliked what Allah liked!
Allah glory be to Him, didn't want Abu Talib to be a Muslim! Perhaps there was an old enmity between them or perhaps the reason of that enmity was because that
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1 Majma'ul Bayan, vol.20 p.207-208.
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Abu Talib had brought up the Prophet (s), protected him, defended him and defended his mission and his followers of the believers!
But the Prophet (s) liked Abu Talib to be a Muslim as a kind of loyalty to him and so the two wills contradicted but then the stronger will, the will of Allah, won and Allah achieved his opponency against Abu Talib by preventing him from being a Muslim!
As for Wahshi, also the two wills; of Allah and that of His messenger, contradicted and at the end Wahshi became a Muslim!
The Prophet (s) hated Wahshi, who had killed his uncle Hamza, and the hatred grew in his heart that he didn't want him to be a Muslim but Allah, the Merciful, the Kind forgive the crime of Wahshi against Hamza, the hero of Islam, and didn't pay any attention to His messenger's emotions. The result of the fight between the two wills made Wahshi a believer because it was the will of Allah!!!
Wouldn't it be better for them to add to the great faithfulness and high virtues of Wahshi his decision to the wine, which he didn't leave a minute until it mixed with his blood and that he couldn't wake up from its effects until the last moment of his life, which was full of sins and crimes!
(1)
What raving and silly speech those dotards uttered without knowing what they raved!
How did this verse concern Wahshi whereas it was general and it concerned all the Muslims? It was revealed in Mecca whereas Wahshi pretended to be a Muslim many years after the revelation of this verse.
(2)
Worse than Wahshi were those, who never cared for any responsibility and who followed the mirage and jumbled in the darkness!
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1 Al-Istee'ab vol.3 p.61.
2 Majma'ul Bayan, vol.23 p.163.
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Among the fabrications against Abu Talib was the pretense that Ali and Ja'far hadn't taken anything from the inheritance of their father because they were Muslims while their father was unbeliever.
(1)
We didn't find the narrators of this lie in order to remove the cover from above this scandal and this disgrace!
Surely this lie was fabricated by someone, who was ignorant of the conditions of inheritance among the Muslims. Definitely that fabricator didn't know more than the tradition of "There is no succession between the followers of two different religions."
We believe in this tradition but it means that the unbeliever is not to inherit from the Muslim.
This prophetic tradition wouldn't prevent a Muslim from inheriting from an unbeliever because Islam exalted the Muslim as it was confirmed by many prophetic traditions such as: "Islam is exalted and nothing is to be more exalted than it."
Hence Islam didn't permit an unbeliever man to marry a Muslim woman because she was loftier than him whereas some of the ulema permitted a Muslim man to marry a (kitabi)
(2) unbeliever woman in a continuous marriage. The shia agreed upon the permission of marrying a kitabi unbeliever woman in temporary marriage as I knew.
(3)
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1 Al-Seera al-Halabiyya, vol.1 p.74, Al-Hujja p.32, Sheikhul Abtah p.78.
2 Kitabi is a follower of judaism or Christianity.
3 When referring to the sources concerning this subject, three opinions appeared:
a. Continuous and temporary marriage were permissible.
b. Both were not permissible at all.
c. Continuous marriage was not permissible but temporary marriage was permissible. Refer to Nasseem and Zawba'a p.228-230.
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If we submitted to this fabrication and supposed that it was true, although it wasn't, it wouldn't be as evidence showing that Abu Talib was unbeliever because Ali and Ja'far, who were Muslims, had the right to inherit their father even if he was unbeliever as the fabricators pretended. The Islamic law didn't forbid that but the one, who fabricated this lie, was unaware of Islam and its laws.
We would like to quote the different ways of the tradition as fabricated by the fabricators and then to discuss it.
1. Obeidillah bin Omar al-Qawareeri, Muhammad bin Abu Bakr al-Maqdimi and Muhammad bin Abdul Melik al-Amawi said: Abu Owana told us from Abdul Melik bin Omayr from Abdullah bin al-Harith bin Nawfal that al-Abbas bin Abdul Muttalib had said: "O messenger of Allah! Did you benefit Abu Talib with something? He protected and defended you. The Prophet (s) said: Yes! He is in a shallow place of Hell but without me, he will be in the lowest bottom of Hell."
(2)
2. Ibn Abu Omar from Sufyan from Abdul Melik bin Omayr that Abdullah bin al-Harith said: "I heard al-Abbas saying: "I said: O messenger of Allah! Abu Talib used to protect and support you. Did that benefit him? He said: Yes! I found him in a flood of Fire and I took him out to a shallow place (in Hell)."
(3)
3. Muhammad bin Hatim from Yahya bin Sa'eed from
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1 Dhikdhah means shallowness.
2 Muslim's Sahih vol.1 p.34-135.
3 Ibid.
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Sufyan ... etc like the first one.
(1)
4. Abu Bakr bin Abu Shayba from Wakee' from Sufyan ... like the first one.
(2)
5. Qutayba bin Sa'eed from Layth from ibn al-Had from Abdullah bin Khabbab that Abu Sa'eed al-Khidri said: "Once Abu Talib was mentioned near the Prophet (s). The Prophet (s) said: My intercession may benefit him in the Day of Resurrection. He may be put in a shallow place of Fire reaching his heels and making his brain boil."
(3)
6. Abu Bakr bin Abu Shayba from Affan from Hammad bin Salama from Thabit from Othman an-Nahdi that ibn Abbas said: "The Prophet (s) said: The least tortured one among the people of Hell is Abu Talib where he wears two shoes, from which his brain boils."
(4)
7. Musaddad from Yahya from Sufyan from Abdul Melik from Abdullah bin al-Harith said: "Al-Abbas bin Abdul Muttalib (may Allah be pleased with him) told us that he had said to the Prophet (s): "With what did you benefit your uncle? He protected and defended you." The Prophet (s) said: "He is in a shallow place of Fire and without me; he would be in the lowest bottom of Hell."
(5)
8. Abdullah bin Yousuf from al-Layth ... etc. like the fifth tradition.
(6)
9. Ibraheem bin Hamza from Abu Hazim and ad-Darawardi from Yazeed ... like the fifth tradition.
(7)
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1 Muslim's Sahih vol.1 p.134-135.
2 Ibid
3 Ibid
4 Ibid
5 Al-Bukhari's Sahih vol.2 p.201.
6 Ibid
7 Ibid
