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`Ali
ibn Abi Talib `Abd
Manaf ibn `Abd al-Muttalib ibn Hashim ibn `Abd Manaf, Abu al-Hasan al-Qurashi
al-Hashimi (d. 40), Amîr al-Mu’minîn, the first male believer in Islam,
the Prophet’s standard-bearer in battle, the Door of the City of Knowledge,
the most judicious of the Companions, and the "Possessor of a wise heart and
enquiring tongue." The Prophet nicknamed him Abu Turâb or Father of
Dust. His mother was Fatima bint Asad, whom the Prophet called his own mother
and at whose grave he made a remarkable intercession. He accepted Islam when
he was eight, or nine, or fourteen, depending on the narrations, but it is
established from Ibn `Abbas that he was the first male Muslim after the
Prophet, Khadija being the first Muslim. He was killed at age fifty-eight.
From him narrated Abu Bakr, `Umar, his sons al-Hasan and al-Husayn, Ibn `Abbas,
`Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr, and countless others.
`Ali was a
skilled and fearless fighter, and the Prophet gave him his standard to carry
on the day of Badr and in subsequent battles. At the same time he was the
repository of Prophetic wisdom among the Companions. The latter, when asked
about difficult legal rulings, deferred to others the responsibility of
answering, while `Ali, alone among them, used to say: "Ask me." `Umar said: "I
seek refuge in Allah from a problem which Abu al-Hasan cannot solve."
Similarly `A’isha said: "He is the most knowledgeable about the Sunna among
those who remain," and Ibn `Abbas: "If a trustworthy source tells us of a
fatwa by `Ali, we do not seek any further concerning it." Sulayman al-Ahmusi
narrated from his father that `Ali said: "By Allah! No verse was ever revealed
except I knew the reason for which it was revealed and in what place and
concerning whom. Verily my Lord has bestowed upon me a wise heart and a
speaking tongue." At the same time `Ali humbly declared: "What cools my liver
most, if I am asked something I know not, is to say: ‘Allah knows best’."
Imam Ahmad
said: "There is no Companion concerning whom are reported as many merits as
`Ali ibn Abi Talib." Following are some of the hadiths to that effect.
On the
eve of the campaign of Khaybar, the Prophet said: "I shall give the
standard to a man who loves Allah and His Messenger, and whom Allah loves
and also His Messenger." `Umar said: "I never liked to be entrusted
leadership before that day." The next day the Prophet summoned `Ali and
gave him the flag.
Salama
ibn `Amr narrated that the day of Khaybar, the Prophet summoned `Ali who
came led by the hand, as he was suffering from inflammation of the eyes.
The Prophet then blew on his eyes and gave him the flag. Another version
states that Ibn Abi Layla told his father to ask `Ali why he wore summer
clothes in winter and winter clothes in summer. `Ali said: "The day of
Khaybar the Prophet summoned me when my eyes were sore. I said to him: ‘O
Messenger of Allah! I have ophtalmia.’ He blew on my eyes and said: ‘O
Allah! remove from him hot and cold.’ I never felt hot nor cold after that
day."
The
Prophet left `Ali behind in the campaign of Tabuk. The latter said: "O
Messenger of Allah! Are you leaving me behind with the women and
children?" The Prophet replied: "Are you not happy to stand next to me
like Harun next to Musa, save that there is no Prophet after me?"
The
Prophet said: "I am the city of knowledge and `Ali is its gate." Another
version states: "I am the house of wisdom and `Ali is its gate."
When
Allah revealed the verse: "Come! We will summon our sons and your sons,
and our women and your women, and ourselves and yourselves, then we will
pray humbly and invoke the curse of Allah upon those who lie" (3:61),
the Prophet summoned `Ali, Fatima, Hasan, and Husayn, and said: "O Allah!
These are my Family."
The
Prophet said: "Anyone whose protecting friend (mawla) I am, `Ali is
his protecting friend." `Umar said: "Congratulations, O `Ali! You have
become the protecting friend of every single believer."
The
Prophet said: "`Ali is part of me and I am part of `Ali! No-one conveys
something on my behalf except I or he." The context of this hadith was the
conveyance of Sura Bara’a to the Quraysh and the rescinding of the
Prophet’s pact with them. The scholars have explained that the Prophet’s
phrase "X is part of me and I am part of X" is a hyperbole signifying
oneness of path and agreement in obeying Allah. The Prophet said that
phrase also about the following: the Companion Julaybib who was found dead
after a battle next to seven enemies killed by him; the Ash`aris; and the
Banu Najya.
Some
people complained to the Prophet about `Ali, whereupon he stood and said:
"Do not accuse `Ali of anything! By Allah, he is truly a little rough (la’ukhayshan)
in Allah’s cause."
When the
Prophet sent `Ali to Yemen the latter said: "O Messenger of Allah, you are
sending me to people who are older than me so that I judge between them!"
The Prophet said: "Go, for verily Allah shall empower your tongue and
guide your heart." `Ali said: "After that I never felt doubt as to what
judgment I should pass between two parties."
The
Prophet said: "The most compassionate of my Community towards my Community
is Abu Bakr; the staunchest in Allah’s Religion is `Umar; the most
truthful in his modesty is `Uthman, and the best in judgment is `Ali." `Umar
said: "`Ali is the best in judgment among us, and Ubayy is the most
proficient at the Qur’anic readings." Ibn Mas`ud similarly said: "We used
to say that the best in judgment among the people of Madina was `Ali." It
is a measure of al-Hasan al-Basri’s greatness that `Ali once followed his
recommendation in a judicial case.
`Amr ibn
Sha’s al-Aslami complained about `Ali upon returning from Yemen where he
had accompanied him. News of it reached the Prophet who said: "O `Amr! By
Allah, you have done me harm." `Amr said: "I seek refuge in Allah from
harming you, O Messenger of Allah!" He said: "But you did. Whoever harms
`Ali harms me." The Prophet also used the terms "Whoever harms X has
harmed me" about his uncle al-`Abbas.
Umm
Salama said to Abu `Abd Allah al-Jadali: "Is Allah’s Messenger being
insulted among you?! [in Kufa]" He said: "Allah forbid!" She said: "I
heard Allah’s Messenger say: ‘Whoso insults `Ali, insults me.’"
`Ali
said: "In truth the Prophet has made a covenant with me saying: ‘None
loves you except a believer, and none hates you except a hypocrite." Abu
Sa`id al-Khudri subsequently said: "In truth we recognized the hypocrites
by their hatred for `Ali." Jabir said: "We did not know the hypocrites of
this Community except by their hatred for `Ali."
The
innovations of those who bore excessive love and admiration for `Ali appeared
in his own lifetime and he himself fought them in word and deed. To those that
claimed that the Prophet had appointed him as successor after him he said: "In
truth, Allah’s Messenger did not appoint any successor" and: "The Prophet was
taken from us, then Abu Bakr was made the successor, so he did as the Prophet
had done and according to his path until Allah took him from us; then `Umar
was made the successor, so he did as the Prophet had done and according to his
path until Allah took him from us." To those that claimed that he deserved the
Caliphate better than Abu Bakr and `Umar he said: "The best of this Community
after its Prophet are Abu Bakr and `Umar." To those that either hated him or
overly loved him `Ali said: "Two types of people shall perish concerning me: a
hater who forges lies about me, and a lover who over-praises me." To those
that claimed that he or his family possessed other than the Qur’an which all
Muslims had he said: "Whoever claims that we have something which we read
other than the Qur’an has lied." Finally, when a group of people came to him
saying: "You are He, you are our Lord! (anta Hû anta Rabbuna)" he had
them executed and then ordered the bodies burnt.
When `Ali was
given allegiance as Caliph he moved from Madina to Kufa in Iraq and made it
his capital. His tenure lasted five years (35-40) marred by three great
dissensions which tore apart the fabric of the Muslim Community: the battle of
the Camel (year 36) against the party of `A’isha the Mother of the Believers,
the battle of Siffin (year 37) aganst the party of Mu`awiya ibn Abi Sufyan,
and the campaign against the Khawârij in the following two years, until
he was assassinated by one of them in Kufa as he came out for the dawn prayer.
The pretext for the meeting of the armies on the day of the Camel and the day
of Siffin was the demand for `Uthman’s killers on the part of `A’isha and
Mu`awiya, but the winds of war were fanned by sowers of discord from inside
all three camps until events escaped the control of the Companions. It is
related that `Ali often expressed astonishment at the dissension and
opposition that surrounded him. The Prophet had predicted these events,
notably the battle of the Camel with the words: "One of you women shall come
out riding a long-haired camel, and the dogs of Haw’ab [between Mecca and
Basra] will bark at her. Many shall be killed to her right and her left, and
she shall escape after near death." At any rate, Ahl al-Sunna adopted
as theirs the position taken by one of the Salaf who said: "Those from
whose blood Allah has kept our swords pure, we shall not soil our tongues with
their slander." The most reliable book written on the divergences of the
Companions is Abu Bakr ibn al-`Arabi’s (d. 543)
al-`Awasim min al-Qawasim fi
Tahqiq Mawaqif al-Sahaba Ba`da Wafati al-Nabi Sallallahu `Alayhi wa Sallam.
Another
innovation fought by `Ali was that of the Khawârij or "Seceders," also
known as Hurûriyya after the village of Hurur, near Kufa, where they
set up military quarters. They were originally a group of up to twenty
thousand pious worshippers and memorizers of the Qur’an (`ubbâd wa qurrâ’)
who were part of `Ali’s army but walked out on him after he accepted
arbitration in the crises with Mu`awiya ibn Abi Sufyan and `A’isha the Mother
of the Believers. Their strict position was on the basis of the verse "The
decision rests with Allah only" (6:57, 12:40, 12:67). `Ali said: "A word
of truth by which falsehood is sought!" He sent them the expert interpreter of
the Qur’an among the Companions, Ibn `Abbas, who recited to them the verses
"The judge is to be two men among you known for justice" (5:95) and
"Appoint an arbiter from his folk and an arbiter from her folk" (4:35)
then said: "Allah has thereby entrusted arbitration to men, although if He had
wished to decide He would have decided. And is the sanctity of the Community
of Muhammad not greater than that of a man and a woman?" Hearing this, four
thousand of the Khawârij came back with him while the rest either left
the field or persisted in their enmity and were killed in the battles of
Nahrawan (year 38) and al-Nukhayla (year 39).
The Prophet
had predicted that `Ali would fight the Khawârij with the words: "In
truth there will be, among you, one who shall fight over the interpretation of
the Qur’an just as I fought over its revelation." Abu Bakr and `Umar asked:
"Am I he?" The Prophet said: "No, it is the one who is mending the shoes." He
had given his shoes to `Ali to mend. The Prophet also predicted `Ali’s
martyrdom with the words: "This shall be dyed red from this" and he pointed to
`Ali’s beard and head respectively.
The
Khawârij are the first doctrinal innovators in Islam. They considered all
sinners apostates, as well as all those who opposed them. By this takfîr,
they justified to themselves the killing and spoliation of Muslims including
women and children. Muslims who joined them were forced to first declare
themseves disbelievers then enter Islam again. They distinguished themselves
by shaving their heads out of austerity, a practice which they innovated and
which the Prophet had foretold. Yet the Khawârij deemed themselves
scrupulously pious and the only true Muslims on earth. When `Ali’s murderer, `Abd
al-Rahman ibn Muljam al-Muradi, was dismembered and blinded he remained
impassive and recited the Sura "Recite! In the Name of Thy Lord" (96:1)
in its entirety, but when they moved to pull out his tongue he resisted; asked
for the reason he said: "I hate to spend a single moment on earth not
mentioning Allah." He was then executed and burnt. His forehead bore the trace
of frequent prostration.
The
Khawârij pre-dated the Rawâfid in their vilification of Abu Bakr
and `Umar. `Ali declared it licit to fight them because they had killed the
Companion Khabbab ibn al-Arathth and his wife for praising the four Caliphs.
The Prophet had predicted their appearance in many hadiths. Among them:
`Ali sent
the Prophet a treasure which the latter proceeded to distribute. The Quraysh
became angry and said: "He is giving to the nobility of Najd and leaving us
out!" The Prophet said: "I am only trying to win their hearts over to us."
Then a man came with sunken eyes, protruding cheeks, big forehead, profuse
beard, and shaven head. He said: "Fear Allah, O Muhammad!" The Prophet
replied: "And who shall obey Allah if I disobey him? Does Allah trust me
with the people of the earth, so that you should not trust me?" One of the
Companions û Khalid ibn Walid û asked permission to kill the man but the
Prophet did not give it. He said: "Out of that man’s seed shall come a
people who will recite the Qur’an but it will not go past their throats.
They will pass through religion the way an arrow passes through its quarry.
They shall kill the Muslims and leave the idolaters alone. If I live to see
them, verily I shall kill them the way the tribe of `Ad was killed." Ibn
Taymiyya cited this hadith as proof that the Khawârij shaved their
heads.
"The
Khawârij are the dogs of Hell-fire."
`Ali was
described as having white hair which he parted in the middle, a very large
white beard, and large, heavy eyes. He was heavyset and his height was medium
to short. He was blunt in his renunciation of the world even in his own dress.
When Ibn al-Nabbah came to him with the news that the treasury-house was
filled with gold and silver `Ali summoned the people of Kufa and distributed
everything to them with the words: "O Yellow, O White! Go fool other than me."
Then he ordered the treasury-house swept, and he prayed two rak`a in
it. Jurmuz said: "I saw `Ali coming out of his palace wearing a waist-cloth
that reached to the middle of his shank and an outer garment tucked up at the
sleeves, walking in the marketplace while hitting a small drum (dirra)
and enjoining upon people Godwariness and honesty in transactions. He would
say: ‘Observe good measure and do not bloat up the meat.’" When one of the
Khawârij criticized him for what he was wearing, he said: "What do you
want with my clothing? This is farther from arrogance and more suitable for me
as I am imitated by Muslims."
Al-Hasan ibn
`Ali narrated that the morning of his murder `Ali said: "Last night I woke up
my family [to pray] because it was the night before Jum`a and the
morning of Badr û the seventeenth of Ramadan û then I dozed off and the
Prophet came before me. I said: ‘O Messenger of Allah! What crookedness and
contention have I found coming from your Community!’ He said: ‘Supplicate
against them.’ I said: ‘O Allah! Substitute them with something that will be
better for me, and substitute me with something that will be worse for them.’"
Then `Ali went out to pray preceded by the mu’adhdhin Ibn al-Nabbah and
followed by al-Hasan. `Ali came out of the gateway calling the people to
prayer and was faced by two men armed with swords. Ibn Muljam struck him on
the head with a poisoned sword and was caught, while the other hit the arch of
the gate and fled. `Ali said: "Feed the prisoner and give him water, if I live
I shall decide about him, and if I die, kill him as I was killed without
further enmity. ‘Lo! Allah loves not aggressors’ (2:190, 5:87, 7:55)."
It was
decided to make `Ali’s grave a secret lest the Khawârij dig it up.
After his son al-Hasan prayed the funeral prayer over him, he was buried at
the Caliphal palace in Kufa, then all traces of his grave were effaced. It is
also narrated that al-Hasan conveyed the body in a coffin to Madina and that
on the way the camel that carried the coffin got lost by night and was found
by members of the Tayyi’ tribe who buried the body and slaughtered the camel.
Among `Ali’s
sayings narrated by Abu Nu`aym with his chains:
From al-Husayn
ibn `Ali: "The most sincere of people in their actions and the most
knowledgeable of Allah are those who are strongest in their love and awe
for the sanctity of the people of lâ ilâha illallâh."
From `Abd
Khayr: "Goodness does not consist in having much property and children,
but in doing many good deeds, increasing your gentle character, and
adorning yourself before people with the worship of your Lord. Then, if
you do well, glorify Allah; if you do ill, ask forgiveness of Him. There
is no good in the world except for two types of people: someone who sins
and then follows up with repentence, and someone who races to do good
deeds. What is done in Godwariness is never little, and how can something
be little if accepted by Allah?"
From Abu
al-Zaghl: "Remember five instructions from me in following which you shall
sooner exhaust your camels than run out of their benefit: let no servant
hope for anything except from his Lord; let him not fear anything except
his own sin; let no ignorant person feel ashamed to ask about what he
knows not; let no knowledgeable person, if asked about what he knows not,
feel ashamed to say Allah knows best; and patience is in relation to
belief like the head to the body, one has no belief if he has no
patience."
From
Muhajir ibn `Umayr: "What I fear most is the hankering after idle desires
and long hopes. The former blocks one from the truth and the latter causes
forgetfulness of the hereafter. In truth the world has gone its way out,
in truth the hereafter has come journeying to us û and each of the two has
its own sons. Therefore be a son of the hereafter and do not be a son of
the world! Today there are deeds without accounts, and tomorrow, accounts
without deeds."
From Abu
Araka: "I have seen a remnant of the Companions of Allah’s Messenger. I
see no-one that resembles them. By Allah! They used to rise in the morning
disheveled, dust-covered, pale, with something between their eyes like
goat’s knees, as they had spent the night chanting Allah’s Book, turning
from their feet to their foreheads. If Allah was mentioned they swayed the
way trees sway on a windy day, then their eyes poured out tears until û by
Allah! û they soaked their clothes. By Allah! It is as if folks today
sleep in indifference."
From al-Hasan
ibn `Ali: "Blessed is the servant that cries constantly to Allah, who has
known people while they have not known him, and Allah has marked him with
His contentment. These are the true beacons of guidance. Allah repels from
them every wrongful dissension and shall enter them into His own mercy.
They are not the wasteful tale-bearers nor the ill-mannered
self-displayers."
From `Asim
ibn Damura: "The true, the real faqîh is he who does not push
people to despair from Allah’s mercy, nor lulls them into a false sense of
safety from His Punishment, nor gives them licenses to disobey Allah, nor
leaves the Qur’an for something else. There is no good in worship devoid
of knowledge, nor in knowledge devoid of understanding, nor in inattentive
recitation." This is comparable to al-Hasan al-Basri’s own definition:
"Have you ever seen a faqîh? The faqîh is he who has
renounced the world, longs for the hereafter, possesses insight in his
Religion, and worships his Lord without cease."
From `Amr
ibn Murra: "Be wellsprings of the Science and beacons in the night,
wearing old clothes but possessing new hearts for which you shall be known
in the heaven and remembered on the earth."
"This
world lasts for an hour: Spend it in obedience."
"Thus
does Knowledge die: when those who possess it die. By Allah, I do swear
it! The earth will never be empty of one who establishes the proofs of
Allah so that His proofs ans signs never cease. They are the fewest in
number, but the greatest in rank before Allah. Through them Allah
preserves His proofs until they bequeath it to those like them (before
passing on) and plant it firmly in their hearts. By them knowledge has
taken by assault the reality of things, so that they found easy what those
given to comfort found hard, and found intimacy in what the ignorant found
desolate. They accompanied the world with bodies whose spirits were
attached to the highest regard. Ah, ah! How one yearns to see them!"
Imam al-Nawawi
narrated a remarkable patrolinear chain for a hadith going back to `Ali:
"Among the best of the narrations of the type ‘sons from fathers’ is that of
al-Khatib with a chain going back to `Abd al-Wahhab ibn `Abd al-`Aziz ibn al-Harith
ibn Asad ibn al-Layth ibn Sulayman ibn al-Aswad ibn Sufyan ibn Yazid ibn Akina
al-Tamimi who said: I heard my father (Yazid) say: I heard my father (Sufyan)
say: I heard my father (al-Aswad) say: I heard my father (Sulayman) say: I
heard my father (al-Layth) say: I heard my father (Asad) say: I heard my
father (al-Harith) say: I heard my father (`Abd al-`Aziz) say: I heard my
father (`Abd al-Wahhab) say: I heard `Ali ibn Abi Talib say: ‘The
compassionate (al-hannân) is he who comes to the one who shunned him.
The granter of favor (al-mannân) is he who extends the favor before he
is asked for it."
Main sources: Abu Nu`aym, Hilya al-Awliya’ 1:100-128
#4; al-Dhahabi, Siyar A`lam al-Nubala’ 1/2:615-660 #5.
The Rightly-Guided Caliphs & The Four Imams by Gabriel Fouad Haddad, Damascus,1998
© copyright ASFA, 1998
