The Messenger of Allāh (ṣ) also drew attention to the group of people that will take upon itself to create dissension among the Muslims in our time. Ibn `Umar has said, “The Prophet (ṣ) once said, `O Allāh! Bless our Syria! O Allāh! Bless our Yemen!” They asked him, “What about our Najd?!” He (ṣ) said, `O Allāh! Bless our Syria! O Allāh! Bless our Yemen!` They again asked him, `O Messenger of Allāh (ṣ)! What about our Najd?` I believe his third statement included the following: `It is there that shall be earthquakes and dissensions, and it is from there that the horn of Satan shall come out.`” [227]
I could not interpret the dissension referred to in this hadīth except with Wahhabism whose inventor, Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, was born in one of the villages of Najd called `Uyayna. This group of people hid under the cover of Tawhīd which they used as a forefront to hide the vile objectives behind charging other sects, especially the one that follow Ahl al-Bayt (`a), with apostasy and shirk. For example, they regard pleading to Allāh through the medium of the prophets and righteous servants of His as a great innovation despite the presence of what contradicts this belief in al-Bukhāri`s Sahīh and in what caliph `Umar had done.
Anas has said, “`Umar ibn al-Khattāb, may Allāh be pleased with him, used to seek help from al-Abbās ibn Abd al-Muttalib in praying for rain. He said, `Lord! We used to plead to You in the name of our Prophet, so you would grant us water, and we now plead to You in the name of the uncle of our Prophet , so do let rain water descend upon us.` And they would thus get rain water.”[228] As for the reason why Wahhabism has so much concentrated on this issue, it is because the followers of Ahl al-Bayt (`a) were known more than others to uphold and to respect the sanctity of the person of the glorious Prophet (ṣ) and the infallible Imāms after him because they realize their great status with Allāh Almighty. They are the ones without whom mankind would not have been guided to the Straight Path of Allāh, and mankind would have kept their ignorance and misguidance.
Suffices for an answer to Wahhabism and to its inventor what is recorded by al-Bukhāri in his Sahīh that the Messenger of Allāh (ṣ) has said, “Some people will come out from the east and recite the Qur`ān; it will not go beyond their throats. They abandon the creed as swiftly as an arrow abandons its bow, then they shall not return to it till the arrow returns to its bow.” He was asked, “What is their mark?” He said, “Their mark is tahleeq (shaving),” or he said “al-tasbeed” (shaving the head)[229]. The meaning of “tasbeed” is the same as has been quoted in this sacred hadīth: “Ibn Abbās came and his head was musbad,” that is, shaven[230]. This has become the “trade mark” of the Wahhabis as is known from their history.
Al-Mahdi (`atfs) will come to support the downtrodden on earth against all arrogant powers; so, what do you expect from his enemies? Will they not try to use the hypocrites from among the Muslims, the sultans` preachers and the imāms of misguidance to fight this new comer? Can you not see how in our own days, how the ruler of Iraq, who earned a reputation for his sins and apostasy, was able to deceive millions of Muslims who went out shouting his name when he pretended to have imān and to rely on Allāh and announce jihād against the unbelievers and the polytheist people till many naive people thought this Dajjāl became the Muslims` Imām in truth?! This suffices to point to what the conditions of the Muslims can be once they are exposed to greater and harder events. The Chosen One (ṣ) explained what the Muslims should do in order to guarantee their salvation from drowning in the swamp of these dissensions after his departure from this world: by upholding His Book and [at the same time] by following the Pure `Itra from among his Ahl al-Bayt (`a) as we explained in the first Chapter.
Hudhayfah ibn al-Yamān has said, “People used to ask the Messenger of Allāh (ṣ) about goodness, and I used to ask him above evil, fearing it might involve me. I said, `O Messenger of Allāh! We used to be in jāhiliyya and in evil, then Allāh brought us all this goodness. Will there be evil after this goodness?` He (ṣ) said, `Yes.` I said, `And will there be after that evil goodness?` He (ṣ) said, `Yes, and it will have smudge in it.` I asked him (ṣ), `What is its smudge?` He (ṣ) said, `People guide others without themselves being rightly guided. What you will know about them you will detest.` I said, `Will there be after such goodness evil?` He (ṣ) said, `Yes, callers at the gates of hell; whoever responds to their call to it they hurl him into it.` I said, `O Messenger of Allāh! Describe them for us.` He (ṣ) said, “They are from our own folks and they speak our [Arabic] tongue.` I said, `What do you order me to do should I live to see that?` He (ṣ) said, `Uphold the Muslim masses and their imām.` I said, `What if they have neither masses nor an imām?` He (ṣ) said, `Then stay aloof from all these groups even if you have to bite on a tree`s root till death comes to your rescue and you are in such a condition.`”[231]
This hadīth clearly explains to us the obligation of upholding the Muslim masses and their imām, and that when there is confusion about the issue, and when one cannot know the truth, the Prophetic instruction directs us to remain silent. This hadīth also makes it clear that the callers stand at the gates of hell; whoever responds to their call, they hurl him into it, that they are not from among the non-Arabs but from among the Arabs, something which stresses what the previous ahādīth have stated regarding the innovating group of people.
The fact is that this dissension in which we pass nowadays and against falling into its nets did the Messenger of Allāh (ṣ) warn us, we are obligated to take extreme caution by selecting the path which safely helps us reach the Sunnah of the Chosen One (ṣ), especially when there are so many paths the number of which reaches seventy-three–according to some narratives–and each one of these paths (sects) claims it is on the right track. But the Messenger of Allāh (ṣ) explained to us that only one of them will receive salvation; others will not.
Allāh has promised to support the saved group. Says the Prophet (ṣ), “A group from among my nation shall remain on the path of righteousness; they are not harmed by those who differ from them, till Allāh`s command comes.” A Muslim nowadays has become perplexed, feeling strange about all what takes place around him of this great fuss, of the grand dissension, seeing himself required to take a second look at his Islamic creed and likewise at many significant events in our Islamic history, something which is considered as a testimony to what the Messenger of Allāh (ṣ) has already said: “Islam started foreign and shall return foreign just as it started...”
Undoubtedly, anyone who takes a discerning look at our Islamic history and at our status quo, contemplating upon what Ahl al-Bayt (`a) had to endure, especially the Imāms from among them, at the calamities, trials and tribulations, at the persecution to which they were exposed, and if he thinks about the reason why the truth has become lost among the Sunnis..., he will realize the meaning of Islam returning foreign. It seems such a return has already taken place especially during the last few years. A part of the darkness which the oppressors spread on following this path, across centuries, and in testimony to what the Chosen One, the Guide (ṣ), has already articulated thus: “We are members of a Household for whom Allāh has chosen the Hereafter over the world. My Ahl al-Bayt (`a) shall face after me discrimination, hardship and exile in the land till some people rise from there–and he pointed with his hand towards the east–people who carry black flags; they will ask for what is right, but they will not be given it, so they will fight and achieve victory; they will be given whatever they want, and they will not accept it till they pass it on to a man from among my Ahl al-Bayt (`a) who will fill it with justice just as it was filled with oppression. Anyone who lives to see that taking place, he must go to them even if he has to crawl on ice.”[232]
Lord! Do hasten his honorable ease and make us among those who march behind his flag. And the last of our supplication is: Praise be to Allāh, Lord of the Worlds, and greetings and salutations upon our master, Muhammad, and his good and pure Progeny.
Notes:
[218]Al-Tirmidhi, Sahīh, Vol. 9, p. 74. Abū Dāwūd, Vol. 2, p. 7. Ahmad, Musnad, Vol. 1, p. 376.
[219]Mustadrak al-Sahīhayn, Vol. 4, p. 557. Ahmad, Musnad, Vol. 3, p. 36.
[220]Ibn Mājah, Sahīh, in a chapter about ijtihād.
[221]Muslim, Sahīh, Vol. 1, p. 373 in a chapter about Jesus son of Mary descending (Dār al-Sha`ab edition).
[222]Fath al-Bāri, Vol. 5, p. 362.
[223]Mu`āmarat al-Mut ājirīn bid-Dīn [plot of those who trade in religion], p. 29.
[224]I took these references from the book titled Li Akoona Ma`a al-Sādiqīn (So I May be with the Truthful) by `allāma Dr. Muhammad al-Samāwi al-Tījāni, p. 196.
[225]Al-Bukhāri, Sahīh, Vol. 6, p. 390 in the book of tafsīr in a chapter about “... As well as (to confer all these benefits upon) others who have not already joined them”.
[226]Refer to the books of Tafsīr by Ibn Kathīr, al-Qurtubi, al-Tabari and Al-Durr al-Manthūr.
[227]Al-Bukhāri, Sahīh, Vol. 9, p. 166 in the book of dissensions in a chapter about a dissension from the east.
[228]Ibid., Vol. 2, p. 66 in the book of praying for rain.
[229]Ibid., Vol. 9, p. 489 in the book of tawhīd in a chapter about the recitation by a sinner and a hypocrite.
[230]Shaykh Imām Muhammad ibn Abū Bakr al-Rāzi, Mukhtār al-Sihāh, p. 282 (published by Dār al-Turāth al-`Arabi for publication and distribution).
[231]Al-Bukhāri, Sahīh, Vol. 9, p. 159 in the book of dissensions in a chapter about “What if there is no Jamā`a?”
[232]Ibn Mājah, Sunan, Vol. 2, ahādīth No. 4082 and 4087. Al-Tabari, Tārīkh
