The Shī‘ahs treat the Companions realistically, and know that they are essentially human beings dominated by the same rules and conventions governing man, and can quite possibly err just as others do. I hope that the Wahhābīs will not take my words as “a criticism of the justice of the Companions”, but will ponder on realities instead. I say this because the Wahhābīs greatly fear to talk about the issue, and are intolerant towards any criticism. I do hope, however, that they will see the content of the discussion, without giving it a particular label.
What the Shī‘ism denounces is “the absolute justice of all Companions”, but not partial justice of some Companions.
As I was a Wahhābī myself, I know it well that the Wahhābīs value the name and the appearance of things so highly that they begin severely striving merely for a name or for an event, but end their struggle as soon as the headings are changed. They refuse to read certain books simply because they are sensitive to the title, but eagerly take up studying the same books as soon as the names are changed. In none of over the three hundred taped discussions I have had with the Wahhābīs will you hear me using the term “Shī‘ah”. I have, instead, used “Ithnā ‘Ashariyyah” to make it easier for them to listen, because they bitterly hate the word “Shī‘ah”.
When speaking to the Wahhābīs, you should not talk about the Companions before you have discussed the thaqalayn hadīth, because the Wahhābīs, favoring the idea of the justice of the Companions—a negative outcome of their opposing the thaqalayn narration—will reject the discussion. Once you have explained the thaqalayn narration, the issue of the Companions will have automatically found a due solution.
You should not talk about Ghadīr before you have made a mention of the thaqalayn narration, otherwise you will be driven into a polemic on the Companions [sahābah] and on the event of Saqīfah as soon as you mention Ghadīr. The Wahhābīs imagine that the two events are interrelated in the same way that most of them consider the Ghadīr report, a mere political outdated discussion,[1] but not so on the thaqalayn narration. This is because they consider the latter narration directly linked with the religious authority of the Prophet’s Household (‘a)—a belief that is valid even for these days.
I do not mean to devalue the reports on the Ghadīr event, but would like to mention that in talking to a Wahhābī we should remember that he has his own mentality. We desire to help him breakaway from the grip of some troublesome images. A Wahhābī cannot understand the Ghadīr before he has understood the thaqalayn. The discussion should be delayed a bit until things are clear to him.
As I mentioned in the prologue, we had better begin with tathīr and mubāhilah verses of the Qur’an before we begin to speak about wilāyah since the Wahhābīs believe that wilāyah and the Companions are closely related. They will be unable to grasp the Ghadīr event correctly until they have not made sense of the issue of the Companions. That is why beginning the discussion with the tathīr and thaqalayn verses before any mention is made of the Ghadīr—will prepare him to ponder over the Ghadīr narration on the one hand and the Qur’anic verses on wilāyah on the other.
The Sunnīs and the extremists’ ideas on the Companions indicate two exaggerations, two extreme ends of a scale: one considering them all perfectly just, the other denouncing justice in all of them. The Shī‘ahs, however, do not equate all the Companions but give each one the respect he deserves, thus maintaining a moderate and reasonable stance.
[1] It is entirely wrong to abandon the discussion on the Ghadīr event, contrary to what some Sunnīs and a number of Shī‘ahs, with an identity loss, believe that it should. We have answered their claim in our book “A Re-reading of the Idea of Taqrīb”.
