THEN I WAS GUIDED chapter1

THEN I WAS GUIDED

Chapter 1

ID Book 

Author: Dr. Muhammad al-Tijani al-Samawi 

Publisher: Ansariyan Publications 

5th Reprint 1381 - 1423 - 2002 

6 Reprint 1383 - 1425 - 2004 

7 Reprint 1384 - 1426 - 2005 

8 Reprint 1386 - 1428 - 2007 

9 Reprint 1386 - 1429 - 2008 

10 Reprint 1389 - 1431 - 2010 

Sadr Press Quantity: 2000 

Number of pages: 232

Dedication 

My book is a modest piece of work. It is a story of a journey... a story of a new discovery, not a technical or natural discovery, but one in the field of religious and philosophical schools. Since any discovery is based primarily on a healthy mind and clear comprehension, which distinguishes human beings from all other creatures, I would like to dedicate this book to every healthy mind. 

A mind which puts truth to the test and knows it from the wreck of wrong. A mind which weighs all that has been said in the scale of justice, and always comes out in favor of reason. 

A mind which compares words and sayings, and has the ability to distinguish between the logical and the not so logical, and between the strong and the feeble. Allah, the Most High, said: 

"Those who listen to the saying and follow the best of it, those are guided by and they are the 

mindful. " 

To all of those I dedicate this book, hoping that Allah, Praise be to Him the Most High, opens our minds before our eyes, to guide us, to enlighten our hearts, to show us clearly the right way so we follow it, and to show us clearly the wrong way so we avoid it, and accepts us with His good servants, for He listens and He answers. Muhammad al Tijani al Samawi 

Foreword 

In the Name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful Praise be to Allah, Lord of the Universe. He created man from clay and shaped him in the best possible way. He favoured him above all other creatures and made His closest angels prostrate themselves before him. 

He graced him with the mind that changed his doubt to an absolute belief. He gave him two eyes, one tongue, two lips and showed him the two ways. 

He sent him messengers giving him the good news, warning him, and alerting him, and preventing him from going astray with the cursed devil. He told him not to worship the Devil, for the Devil is his enemy, and to worship Allah alone and follow His right path, with understanding and a convincing belief, and not to imitate the belief of his forefathers and friends and relatives who followed those before them without any clear reasoning. 

Who could say better things than he who called for Allah and did good deeds and said that he was one of the Muslims, may the Lord's blessings, peace and greetings be upon the Messenger who brought mercy unto the people... supporter of all the Oppressed and the weak... saviour of all mankind from the darkness of ignorance... he who will guide them to the enlightened path of the faithful and the good. 

Our master Muhammad ibn Abdulla... prophet of the Muslims and chief of the singularly radiant. May these blessings and greetings be upon his good and purified posterity whom Allah has chosen from among all the truthful. He stated in the Quran that we are compelled to love them, after he had purified them and made them infallible. He promised that anybody who goes on board their ship will be saved, and anybody who does not do so will perish. 

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May these blessings and greetings be upon his honourable companions who supported him, honoured him and sacrificed themselves for him and for the victory of Islam. 

They knew the truth, so they pledged allegiance to him with conviction and stayed on the right path without 

changing it and were thankful. 

May Allah reward them for their services to Islam and the Muslims. 

May these blessings and greetings be upon their followers and upon those who kept on their path and were guided by their light... to the day of Judgement. 

Please Lord! accept my request for You are the All hearing and the Most Knowledgeable. 

Please my Lord! open my heart for You are the One who guides us to the absolute truth. 

Please my Lord help me to express myself, for you grant wisdom to any one You wish from amongst Your faithful worshippers. 

Please my Lord grant me more knowledge and join me with righteous people.

A Brief Look at My Life 

I still remember how my father took me for the first time to the local mosque where al-Tarawih prayers were performed during the month of Ramadan. I was then ten years old. He introduced me to the men who could not hide their astonishment. 

I knew previously that the tutor had arranged for me to perform al-Ishfa prayers for two or three nights. 

It was customary for me to pray behind the man with some local children, and wait for the Imam to arrive at the second part of the Qur'an, i. e. surat Meriam. 

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My father made sure that we learnt the Qur'an at the Qur'anic school as well as at home through private lessons given to us by a blind man, who was related to us and who could recite the Qur'an by heart. Due to the fact that I learnt to recite the Qur'an at an early age, the tutor tried to show his good influence on me by teaching me the kneeling points in the recital. He tested me repeatedly to make sure that I had understood his instructions. 

After I passed the test and finished performing the prayers and the recital, as well as I was expected to do, all the men came and congratulated me and my father, and thanked my tutor for his good efforts and blessings, and thanked Allah for Islam. 

The memories of the days that followed are still with me today... I acquired so much admiration and my reputation went beyond our alley to the whole town. Those nights of Ramadan have left their religious marks on me to this day, and every time I go through an episode of confusion, I feel that there is a strange power which pulls me and puts me back on the path. 

Every time I felt the weakness of the soul and the meaningless of life, these memories come to me to elevate me to a spiritual level and light in my conscience the flame of belief so that I can carry the responsibility. The responsibility which was given to me by my father, or more appropriately by my tutor, to lead the group in prayers at an early age made me feel as if I was not doing enough, or at least not up to the standard which was expected from me. 

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Therefore I spent my childhood and my adolescence in relative rectitude, but not without some innocent playing and an eagerness to know and to imitate. Throughout that period I was surrounded by the divine care which made me distinguishable amongst my brothers for my calmness and composure and for being on the right path and away from all immoral acts. 

I should not forget to mention that my mother - may Allah bless her soul - had a big influence on me. She opened my eyes as she taught me the short chapters (surahs) of the holy Qur'an, the prayers and the rules of ritual purity. She took special care of me because I was her first son, and perhaps she found pleasure in educating me, as she was sharing the household with my father's first wife and her sons. 

The name Tijani, which was given to me by my mother, has a special meaning in the al-Samawi family which had adopted the Tijani sufi tariqa (order) ever since it was visited by a son of Shaykh Sidi Ahmed al-Tijani who came from Algeria. 

Many people of Gafsa - my family's home town - adopted the Tijani sufi order, especially the wealthy and educated families who helped to spread the order. 

Because of my name, I became quite popular in the Samawi House and outside it, especially with those who were connected with the Tijani order. Therefore, many of the elders who were present at the above mentioned night during Ramadan came to congratulate my father and then kissed my head and hand and said, "These are the blessings of our master Shaykh Ahmad al-Tijani. " It is worth noting that the Tijani sufi order is widely spread in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Lybia, Sudan and Egypt, and those who believe in it are, somehow, fanatical about it. 

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They do not visit the graves of other sages because, according to their belief, they acquired their knowledge from each other, whereas Shaykh Ahmed al-Tijani acquired his knowledge from the Messenger of Allah Muhammad (s. a. w. ) directly, despite the fact that he came thirteen centuries after the Prophet (s. a. w. ). 

It has been said that Shaykh Ahmed al-Tijani used to communicate with the great Prophet (s. a. w. ) by talking to him while he was awake and not in his sleep. Also it is believed that the complete prayers which were devised by the Shaykh are better than finishing the Holy Qur'an forty times. 

In order to be brief I shall stop talking about the Tijani sufi tariqa at this stage of the book, and if God wills it, I will refer to it elsewhere. 

Thus I grew up with this belief, like any other youth in our town. We were all - praise be to Allah - Sunni Muslims following the teaching of Imam Malik ibn Anas, Imam of Dar al-Hijra. However, we, in North Africa, are divided in our Sufi orders. For example in Gasfa alone there are al- Tijaniyya, al-Qadiriyya, al-Rahmaniyya, al-Salamiyya and al-Isawiyya. 

For each of the above orders, there are followers and supporters who could recite the order, poems and Dhikrs (invocation of God) in all special ceremonies such as weddings, circumcisions and vows. Apart from some negative aspects, these Sufi Tariqas played an important role in preserving the religious rites and in maintaining the respect for the sages.

The Pilgrimage to the House of Allah 

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I was eighteen years of age when the Tunisian national society of Scouts agreed to send me as 

one of six Tunisian representatives to the first conference for Islamic and Arab scouts which 

took place in Mecca. I was the youngest member of the mission, and certainly the least 

educated, for there were with me two headmasters, a teacher from the capital, a journalist and 

a fifth whose job I did not know, although I later realized that he was a relative of the then 

minister for education. The journey was rather indirect, our first stop was Athens where we 

stayed for two days, next was Amman, the capital of Jordan, in which we spent four days, and 

then we arrived in Saudi Arabia and participated in the conference and performed the rites of 

pilgrimage and Umra. 

I cannot describe my feelings when I entered the House of Allah for the first time... my heart 

was beating so fast. I felt as if it was coming gut of my chest to see this ancient House for 

itself, and the tears kept coming out of my eyes endlessly. I imagined the angels carried me 

over the pilgrims and up to the roof of the Holy Kaba and answered the call of Allah from 

there: "Allah... here I am, your servant came to you to be at your service... Labbayka 

Allahumma Labbayk. " Listening to other pilgrims, I gathered that most of them had waited 

for a long time and saved up throughout their lives to come to Mecca. 

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In my case, the journey was sudden and I was not prepared for it. I remember may father 

bidding me a tearful farewell, when he saw the aeroplane ticket and knew for certain that I 

was going to perform the Pilgrimage, saying, "Congratulations, my son, Allah has willed that 

you should perform the Pilgrimage before me at this age, for you are the son of Sidi Ahmed 

al-Tijani... pray for me at Allah's House to forgive me and grant me the pilgrimage to His 

House... ". I felt that Allah Himself called me and cared for me and brought me to the place 

where everybody longs to visit, although some cannot make it. 

I appreciated this opportunity, therefore I threw myself into my prayers and tawaf (circling 

around the Kaba)... even when the drinking from the water of Zamzam and going up the 

mountains where people competed to get to Hara cave in al-Nur mountain. I was only beaten 

by a young Sudanese pilgrim... so I was "second of two". When I got there, I rolled myself 

on the floor as if I was rolling on the Great Prophet's lap and smelled his breathing... what 

great memories... they left such a deep impression on me that I will never forget. 

Allah has cared for me in many ways, for I was liked by everybody I met in the conference, 

and many asked for my address in order to write to me in the future. As for my Tunisian 

companions, they looked down on me from the first meeting we had at the Tunisian Capital 

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when we were preparing for the journey. I sensed their feeling, but I was patient, for I knew 

that the people of the North look down on the people from the South and consider them 

backward Soon enough their views started to change. 

Throughout the journey and during the conference and the pilgrimage I proved myself to be 

worthy of their respect due to my knowledge of poetry and my winning of many prizes. I 

went back to my country with mare than twenty addresses from different nationalities. 

We stayed twenty five days in Saudi Arabia, during which we met many learned Muslim 

scholars (Ulama) and listened to their lectures. I was influenced by some of the beliefs of the 

Wahahi sect and wished that all Muslims followed them. Indeed, I thought that they were 

chosen by Allah among all His worshippers to guard His House, for they were the purest and 

most knowledgeable people on earth, and Allah had given them oil so that they could serve 

and could care for the pilgrims, guests of the Merciful. 

When I came back from the pilgrimage to my country I wore the Saudi national dress and was 

surprised by the reception that my father had prepared. Many people gathered at the station, 

led by Shaykhs of the Isawiyya, Tijaniyya and the Qadiriyya Sufi order, complete with 

ceremonial drums. 

They took me through the streets of our town chanting and cheering, and every time we 

passed a mosque I was stopped for a short time whilst people, especially the old folk, came to 

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congratulate me with tears in their eyes longing to see the House of Allah and to visit the 

Prophet's grave. People looked at me as if they have not seen a young pilgrim (Haj) of my age 

in Gafsa before. 

I lived the happiest days of my life during that period, and many people, including the 

notables of the town came to visit and to congratulate me, and often asked me to read al- 

Fatihah (the Opening Sura of the Qur'an) with the prayers in the presence of my father, from 

whom I was embarrased although he kept encouraging me. Every time a group of visitors left 

the house, my mother came to the sitting area to burn incense and read some amulets in order 

to rid me of bad spells. 

My father kept the celebration going for three nights in the centre of the Tijani Sufi order, 

each night he slaughtered a sheep for a banquet. People asked me all sorts of questions, and 

my answers were mainly to praise the Saudis for their efforts to support and spread Islam. 

Soon people started calling me Haj (Pilgrim) , and whenever somebody shouted Haj, it only 

meant me. Gradually I became known amongst the various religious groups especially the 

Muslim Brotherhood, and I went around the mosques lecturing on religious issues, telling 

people not to kiss the graves or touch the woods for blessing because these are signs of 

Polytheism. My activities started to increase and I was giving religious lessons on Fridays 

before the Imam's speech. I moved from Abi Yakub mosque to the Great Mosque because the 

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Friday prayers were held in different times in those mosques; at midday in the former and 

during the afternoon in the latter. 

On Sundays, my lessons were mostly attended by my students at the secondary school where 

I taught Technology. They liked me and appreciated my efforts because I gave them a lot of 

my time trying to help them in removing the clouds from their minds due to the teachings of 

the atheist and communist teachers of Philosophy... and there were plenty of them! My 

students used to wait with eagerness for these religious circles and some of them came to my 

house for I bought a number of Islamic books and read them thoroughly to bring myself up 

the standard of the questions I used to be asked. During the year in which I did the pilgrimage 

to Mecca, I completed the other half of my religious duties by getting married. It was the wish 

of my mother to see me married before she passed away, for she had seen the weddings of all 

my half-brothers... and Allah gave her what she swished and I got married to a young lady 

that I had never met before. My mother died after having been present at the birth of my first 

and second child, and she was preceded by my father who had died two years before her. 

Prior to his death he did the pilgrimage to Mecca, and two years later before his death, he 

turned to Allah in repentance. 

The Lybian revolution succeeded during the period when the Arabs and the Muslims were 

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feeling their humiliating defeat at the hands of the Israelis, and we saw that young 

revolutionary leader speaking on behalf of Islam and praying among his people calling for the 

liberation of al-Ouds I became attracted to his ideas, as did many young Muslims and Arabs, and as a result we 

organized an educational visit to Lybia by a group consisting of forty men for the Education 

Department. We visited the country at the beginning of the revolution. and when we came 

hack home we were very optimistic and hopeful for a better future far Muslims and Arabs in 

the whole world. 

During the previous years I had corresponded with some friends, and my friendship with a 

few of them became very close, so that they even asked me to visit them. Thus, I made all the 

preparation for a journey during the summer vacation which lasted three months. I planned to 

go to Libya and Egypt by road and from there across the sea to Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and 

then to Saudi Arabia. I meant to do Umra there and to renew my commitment to the 

Wahabiyya in whose fervour I campaigned amongst the students and in the mosques which 

were frequented by the Muslim Brotherhood. 

My reputation passed from my hometown to other neighbouring towns through visitors who 

might attend the Friday prayer and listen to the lessons then go back to their communities. My 

reputation reached Shaykh Ismail al Hadifi, leader of the Sufi order in Tuzer, capital of al- 

Jarid and the birthplace of the famous poet Abu al-Qasim al-Shabbi. This Shaykh has many 

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followers in Tunisia and abroad, especially among the working classes in France and 

Germany. 

I received an invitation from him through his agents in Gafsa who wrote me a long letter 

thanking me fur my services to Islam and the Muslims. In the letter they claimed that the 

things I was doing would not bring me nearer to Allah because I had no learned Shaykh: He 

who has no Shaykh. his Shaykh will be a devil", and You need a Shaykh to show you the 

way, otherwise half of the knowledge is not completed". They informed me that (the greatest 

of his age) Shaykh Ismail himself had chosen me among all people to he one of his closest 

private circle of followers. 

I was absolutely delighted when I heard the news. In fact I cried in response to the divine care 

which had elevated me to the highest and best places simply because I had been following the 

steps of Sidi al- Hadi al-Hafian, who was a Sufi Shaykh known for his miracles, and I had 

become one of his closest followers. Also I accompanied Sidi Silah Balsaih and Sidi al-Jilani 

and other contemporary Sufi leaders. So I waited eagerly for that meeting. When I entered the 

Shaykh's house I looked curiously at the faces, and the place was full of followers. among 

whom were Shaykhs wearing spotless white robes. After the greeting ceremony ended, 

Shaykh Ismail appeared and every one stood up and started kissing his hands with great 

respect. His deputy winked at me to tell me that this was the Shaykh, but I did not show any 

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enthusiasms for I was waiting for something different from what I saw. 

I had drawn an imaginary picture of him in my mind in accordance with what his agents and 

followers had told me about his miracles, and all I saw was an ordinary man without dignity 

or reverence. During the meeting I was introduced to him by his deputy, and the Shaykh 

received me warmly and sat me to his right and gave me some food. After dinner the ritual 

ceremony started and the deputy introduced me again to take the oath from the Shaykh, and 

everybody congratulated me and blessed me. Later on I understood from what men were 

saying that I was known to them, which encouraged me to disagree with some of the answers 

given by the Shaykh to questions from the audience. Such behaviour led some of the men to 

express their disgust and to consider it bad manners in the presence of the Shaykh who is 

usually left unchallenged. The Shaykh sensed the uneasy atmosphere and tried to cool the 

situation by using his wit, so he said, 

"He whose start is burning, his end will be shining. " The audience took that as a graceful sign 

from the Shaykh, which would guarantee my shining end, and congratulated me for that. 

Howevers the Shaykh was clever and very experienced, so he did not let me continue with my 

irritable incursion and told us the following story: 

One day a learned man attended a class held by a pious man and the pious man asked the 

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learned man to go and get washed, so the learned man went and washed himself then returned 

to the class. The pious man repeated his demand, "Go and get washed". The learned man went 

and washed himself again thinking that he had not done it right the first time. When he came 

back to the class, the pious man asked him to wash again. The learned man started crying and 

said. 

"Master, I have washed myself from my work and knowledge and I have nothing left except 

that which Allah has granted me through your hands. " At that moment the pious man said, 

"Now you can sit down," 

I realized that I was the one whom the Shaykh referred to in the story, and everyone else 

realized that as well, for they rebuked me when the Shaykh left us to have a rest. They asked 

me to be silent and to show respect for the Shaykh lest I fail in my work, basing their 

argument on the Qur'anic verse: 

O you who believe! Do not raise your voices above the voice of the Prophet, 

and do not speak loud to him as you speak to one another, lest your deeds 

become null while you do not perceive. 

(Holy Qur'an 49: 2). 

I then recognized my limits, so I complied and obeyed the orders, and the Shaykh kept me 

near him, and subsequently I stayed with him for three days, during which I asked him many 

questions, some of them to test his knowledge. 

The Shaykh knew that and used to answer me by saying that there are two meanings for the 

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Qur'an. One revealed and another hidden to a seventh degree. He opened his private safe for 

me and showed me a personal document which contained the names of pious and learned 

people connecting him with Imam Ali via many people such as Abu al-Hasan al- Shadhili. 

It is worth noting here that these meetings held by the Shaykh are spiritual ones, and usually 

start with the Shaykh reciting and chanting some verses from the Qur'an. After that he reads a 

few poetic verses followed by chants and "dhikrs" by the men, and these chants are mainly 

centred around asceticism, piety and the renunciation of this life and the eagerness to seek the 

life hereafter. After having finished with this part, the first man on the right hand side of the 

Shaykh reads what he can from the Qur'an, and when he says "And Allah said that truthfully" 

the Shaykh reads the beginning of another piece of poetry and the whole congregation recites 

it after him, each person then reading a Qur'anic verse. Shortly after that the men start leaning 

gently to the left and to the right, moving with the rhythms of the chants until the Shaykh 

stands up, and with him all the congregation, forming a circle with him at the centre. 

Next they start chanting Ah, Ah, Ah, Ah, and the Shaykh turns around in the centre, then goes 

to each one of them, and shortly after that the tempo heats up and the men start jumping up 

and down, shouting in an organized but irritating rhythm. After some hard work, quietness 

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gradually prevails, and the Shaykh reads his last pieces of poetic verse, and then everybody 

comes to kiss the Shaykh's head and shoulders until they finally sit down. I have shared with 

those people in their rituals but not convincingly, for they contradicted my own beliefs of not 

attributing any associates to Allah i. e. not to request anything but from Allah. I fell on the floor crying and my mind scattered between two contradictory ideas. 

One being the Sufi ideology in which a man goes through a spiritual experience based on the 

feeling of fear, on asceticism and on trying to approach Allah through the saints and the 

learned men. 

The second idea was the Wahabi which had taught me that all of that was an attempt to 

attribute associates to Allah, and that Allah will never forgive them. 

If the Great Prophet Muhammad (saw) cannot help, nor could he intercede, then what is the 

value of those saints and pious people who came after him. 

In spite of the new position given to me by the Shaykh, for he appointed me as his deputy in 

Gafsa, I was not totally convinced, although I sometimes sympathized with the Sufi orders 

and felt that I should continue to respect them for the sake of those saints and God fearing 

people. I often argued, basing my argument on the Qur'anic verse: 

And call not with Allah any other god, there is no other god but He. (Holy 

Quran 28: 88) 

And if somebody said to me that Allah said: 

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O you who believe be careful of (your duty to) Allah and seek means of 

nearness to Him. (Holy Quran 5: 35) 

I answered him quickly in the way that the Saudi Ulama had taught me by saying "The way to 

seek Allah is by doing a good deed. " In any case, my mind was rather confused and troubled 

during that period, but from time to time some followers came to my house, where we 

celebrated al-Imarah (a type of dhikr). Our neighbours felt uneasy about the noises which we 

produced, but could not confront me, therefore they complained to my wife, via their wives, 

and when I learnt about the problem, I asked the followers to celebrate dhikr elsewhere. I 

excused myself by informing them that I was going abroad for three months, so I said 

farewell to my family and friends and sought my God, depending on Him, and not believing 

in any other god but Him.

In Egypt 

I stayed in Tripoli, the Lybian Capital, long enough to obtain an entry visa from the Egyptian 

Embassy to enter the land of Kinana i. e. Egypt. I met a few friends who helped me in this 

matter, so may Allah reward them for their effort. The road to Cairo is a long one, it took us 

three days and nights, during which I shared a taxi with four other Egyptians working in 

Libya who were on their way home. Throughout the journey I chatted too them and read the 

Qur'an for them, so they liked me and asked me to be their guest in Egypt. I chose one of 

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them, Ahmed. I felt very fond of him for he was a pious man and he gave me the highest level 

of hospitality. I stayed in Cairo twenty days during which I visited the singer Farid al-Atrash 

in his flat overlooking the Nile. I liked him for what I had read about his modesty in the 

Egyptian press, but I only managed to meet him for twenty minutes because he was on his 

way to fly to Lebanon. 

I visited Shaykh Abdul Basit Muhammad Abdul Samad, the famous reciter of the Qur'an, 

whose voice I liked very much. I stayed with him for three days, and during that time I 

discussed with his friends and relatives many issues and they liked me for my enthusiasm, 

frankness and knowledge. If they talked about art, I sang; and if they spoke about asceticism 

and sufism, I told them that I followed the Tijani order as well as the Medani; and if they 

spoke about the West I told them about Paris, London, Belgium, Holland, Italy and Spain 

which I visited during the summer holidays; and if they spoke about the pilgrimage, I told 

them that I had made the pilgrimage to Mecca and that I was on my way to perform the 

Umrah. I told them about places which were not known to people who had been on 

pilgrimage seven times such as the caves of Hira and Thawr and the Altar of Ismail. If they 

spoke about sciences and technology I gave them all the figures and the scientific names; and 

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if they spoke about politics, I told them my views saying, "May Allah bless the soul of al- 

Nasir Salah al-Din al- Ayyubi who deprived himself from smiling, and when some of his 

closest friends criticized him by saying: The great Prophet (s. a. w. ) was often seen smiling, he 

answered: How do you want me to smile when the al-Aqsa Mosque is occupied by the 

enemies of Allah... Nay... by the name of Allah I will never smile until I liberate it or die. " 

Some of al-Azhar's Shaykhs used to come to these meetings and liked what I recited from the 

Qur'anic verses and the sayings of the Great Prophet Muhammad (s. a. w. ) , besides they were 

impressed by my strong arguments and asked me from which university I had graduated. I 

used to answer them proudly that I graduated from al-Zaituna University which was 

established before al-Azhar, and added, that the Fatimids - who established al-Azhar - started 

from the town of al-Mahdiah in Tunis. 

I met many learned people in al-Azhar, and some of them presented me with a few books. 

One day while I was at the office of an official responsible for the al-Azhar affairs, a member 

of the Egyptian Revolutionary Command Council came to attend a mass meeting for the 

Muslim and Coptic Communities in one of the biggest Railway Companies in Cairo. The 

mass meeting was held in protest against Sabotage activities in the aftermath of the June war. 

The member of the Command Council insisted on my accompanying him to the meeting, so I 

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accepted the invitation, and sat on the VIP rostrum between father Shnoodah and the Azhari 

Shaykh. I was also asked to address the meeting, which I did with ease due to my experience 

in giving lectures in Mosques and Cultural Committees in Tunis. 

The main point which I have mentioned in this chapter is that I started feeling big and 

somehow over confident, and I thought I had actually become learned. Why should I not feel 

so when there were a number of Ulama from al-Azhar who attested for me, some of them 

even told me that my place was there, i. e. at al-Azhar. What really made me proud of myself 

was the fact that I was allowed to see some of the Great Prophet's (s. a. w. ) relics. An official 

from Sidi al-Husayn Mosque in Cairo took me to a room which could only be opened by 

himself. After we entered he locked it behind us, then he opened a chest and got the Great 

Prophet's (s. a. w. ) shirt and showed it to me. I kissed the shirt, then he showed me other relics 

which belonged to the Prophet (s. a. w. ) , and when I came out of the room I cried and was 

touched by that personal gesture, especially when the official did not request any money from 

me, in fact he refused to take it when I offered it to him. In the end, and only after my 

insistence, he took a small amount and then he congratulated me for being one of those who 

have been honoured by the grace of the Great Prophet (s. a. w. ). 

p: 21 

Perhaps that visit left a deep impression on me, and I thought for a few nights about what the 

Wahabis say regarding the Great Prophet (s. a. w. ) , and how he died and passed away like any 

other dead person. 

I did not like that idea and became convinced of its falsity, for if the Martyr who gets killed 

fighting in the name of Allah is not dead but alive (by his God) , then how about the master of 

the first and last. My feelings became clearer and stronger due to my early encounters with 

the teachings of the Sufis who give their Shaykhs and Saints full power to see to their affairs. 

They believe that only Allah could give them this power because they obeyed Him and 

accepted willingly what He offered them. Did He not state in the sacred saying: "My 

servant... Obey me, then you will be like me, you order the thing to be, and it will be. " 

The struggle within myself started to have its effect on me. By then I had come to the end of 

my stay in Egypt, but not before visiting, in the last few days, a number of mosques and I 

prayed in all of them. I visited the mosques of Malik, Abu Hanifah, al-Shafii, Ahmed ibn 

Hanbal, al-Sayyidah Zaynab and Sidi al-Husayn; I also visited the Zawiah of al- Tijani Sufi 

order, and I have many stories about the visits, some of them are long, but I prefer to be brief.

A Meeting on board the Ship 

p: 22 

I traveled to Alexandria on the exact day when there was an Egyptian ship on her way to 

Beirut. I felt exhausted both physically and mentally, so as soon as I got on the ship I went to 

bed and slept for two or three hours. I woke up when I heard a voice saying: "The brother 

seems to be tired. " I replied positively and said: "The journey from Cairo to Alexandria made 

me feel so tired, because I wanted to be on time, so I did not have enough sleep last night. " I 

realized that the man was not Egyptian because of his accent, and I was, as usual, curious 

about him and eager to introduce myself to him. Apparently he was an Iraqi lecturer from the 

University of Baghdad and his name was Munim. He came to Cairo to submit his Ph. D. thesis 

at al-Azhar University. 

We started our conversation by talking about Egypt and the Arab and the Muslim worlds, and 

we talked about the Arab defeat and the Jewish victory. The topics we covered through our 

conversation varied, and at one point I said that the reason behind the defeat was because of 

the divisions of the Arabs and Muslims into many small countries, so that despite the great 

number of their populations, their enemies do not pay any consideration to them. 

We talked about Egypt and the Egyptians, and we both agreed about the reasons behind the 

defeat. I added that I was against these divisions which were emphasized by the colonial 

p: 23 

powers in order to facilitate our occupation and humiliation. I said that we even differentiated 

between the Hanafi and the Maliki and told him a sad story about an incident which happened 

to me in the "Abu Hanifah Mosque" in Cairo. While I was there I prayed the afternoon prayer 

"al- Asr" with the men, and after we finished, the man standing next to me asked me with 

some anger, "Why did you not fold your hands in front of you during the prayers? " I replied 

with respect and courtesy that the Malikis prefer to drop their hands, and after all I am a 

Maliki. His reaction was: "Go to Maliki mosque and pray there. " I left the mosque feeling 

disgusted and bitter, and I became even more perplexed. 

The Iraqi teacher then smiled and told me that he was a Shi'i. I was a little disturbed by his 

answer and thoughtlessly said, "If I knew you were a Shi'i, I would not have spoken to you. " 

He asked: "Why?. " I replied, "Because you are not Muslims. You worship Ali ibn Abi Talib, 

and the moderates among you worship Allah but do not believe in the message of the prophet 

Muhammad (s. a. w. ). You curse the Archangel Gabriel for betraying what he was entrusted 

with. Instead of delivering the message to Ali he gave it to Muhammad. " 

I continued with this type of anecdote while my companion listened carefully, at times 

smiling and at times showing his astonishment. When I finished talking, he asked me again, 

"Are you a teacher, teaching students? " I answered, "Yes. " He said, "If that is what the 

p: 24 

teachers think, then we cannot blame the ordinary people who barely have any edu- cation. " I 

said, "What do you mean? " He answered, "I beg your pardon, but from where did you get all 

these false allegations? " I told him that my information came from famous history books, and 

the rest is common knowledge. Then he said, "Well let us leave the people, but could you tell 

me what books have you read? " I started mentioning a few books, such as those by Ahmed 

Amin "Fajr al-Islam, Duha al-Islam and Zuhor al-Islam" and many others. He asked: "Since 

when has Ahmed Amin been an authority on the Shia? " He added, "To be fair and objective, 

one has to refer to the original sources of the subject. " I said, "Why should I investigate a 

subject which is common knowledge to all people? " He replied, "Ahmed Amin himself has 

visited Iraq, and I was one of the teachers he met in Najaf, and when we rebuked him about 

what he had written about the Shia, he said that he was sorry, and he did not know anything 

about the Shia, and that was the first time he had met Shias. We told him that his excuse was 

worse than his mistake, for how could he write bad things about us when he did not know 

anything about us? " 

He added, "Brother, if we judge the Jews and the Christians through the Holy Qur'an, they 

would not accept the judgement, despite the fact that the Qur'an is our absolute proof. 

p: 25 

Therefore, we should show their mistakes in their books, because then the proof would be 

stronger, in accordance to the saying: From among them, there was one who bore witness 

against them. " His speech fell on my heart like cold water falling on the heart of a thirsty 

man, and I changed from a bitter critic to someone who is willing to listen and think, because 

I felt there was a sound logic and a strong proof. So I had to show some modesty and listen to 

him. I said to him, "So you are one of those who believe in the message of our prophet 

Muhammad (s. a. w. )? " He replied, "All Shias like me believe in it. Brother, you had better 

investigate the matter yourself, so you do not have any doubt about your brothers, the Shias 

because perhaps some doubt is a sin. " He added, "If you really want to know the truth and to 

see it with your own eyes so you could convince yourself, then I invite you to visit Iraq, and 

there you will meet the Ulama of the Shia, as well as the ordinary people, and then you will 

recognize the malicious lies. " 

I said, "It has been my wish to visit Iraq one day to see its famous Islamic heritage, especially 

the Abbasid heritage, and in particular that of Harun al-Rashid. But, first of all, my financial 

resources are limited, and I have just enough to enable me to perform Umrah. Secondly, my 

present passport does not allow me to enter Iraq". 

p: 26 

He replied: "Firstly, when I invited you to come to Iraq, that meant that I will take care of all 

your traveling costs between Beirut and Baghdad, both ways, and while you are in Iraq you 

will be staying with me, for you are my guest. Secondly, as far as the passport which does not 

allow you to enter Iraq, let us leave it to Allah, praise be to Him the Most High, and if Allah 

has decreed that you will visit, then it will be, even without a passport. However, we shall try 

to obtain an entry visa for you as soon as we arrive Beirut". 

I was very glad about that offer, and I promised my friend to answer his question the next 

day, if Allah the Most High willed it. I got out of the bedroom and onto the ship's deck 

breathing the fresh air, thinking seriously, while my mind was taken by the sea which filled 

the horizon. I thanked my God, Who created the universe, and who brought me to this place. I 

asked Him, praise be to Him the Most High, to protect me from evil and the wicked and to 

guard me against errors and mistakes. 

My mind wandered as I started to recall a series of events that I had experienced in the past... 

I remembered that happiness of my childhood up to that day and dreamed of a bet- ter 

future... I felt as if Allah and His Messenger were providing me with a special care. I looked 

p: 27 

towards Egypt, whose shores appeared from time to time on the horizon, and remembered 

how I had kissed the shirt of the Messenger of Allah (s. a. w. ) , they were my most precious 

memories of Egypt. 

I recalled the words of the Shi'i which brought great joy to my heart, for it would fulfill an old 

dream of mine, that is to visit Iraq the country which reminded me of the court of al-Rashid 

and al-Mamun, who established Dar al-Hikmah which was sought by many students from the 

West in the days when the Islamic civilization was at its peak. In addition to that, it is the 

country of Shaykh Abdul Qadir al-Jilani, whose reputation had reached all countries, and whose Sufi order had entered every village... a man whose high-mindedness surpassed 

everyone else's. That, I thought, was another divine care from Allah to fulfill the dream. My 

mind wandered again until I was awoke by the sound of the loudspeaker calling the 

passengers to go to the canteen for their dinner, I made my way to the place but I found it was 

crowded with people, shouting and bustling as they were trying to enter it. 

Suddenly, I felt the Shi'i pulling me by my shirt, saying: "Come here brother do not bother 

yourself, we will eat later without this crowd. In fact I looked for you everywhere. " Then he 

asked me, "Have you prayed? " I answered, "No, I have not prayed yet. " So he asked me to 

join him in his prayers and later to come and eat after all the hustle and bustle had gone. 

p: 28 

I liked the idea, so I accompanied him to an isolated place where we did our ablution, then I 

asked him to lead the prayers in front to test him and to see how he prayed, with the intention 

of doing my prayers later on. As soon as he called for the obligatory prayers at sunset and 

started reciting (Qur'anic verses) and reading various supplications, I changed my mind. I felt 

as if I was led by one of those pious and God fearing Companions of the Prophet, about 

whom I had read a lot. After he finished his prayers he read long supplications that I had not 

heard either in my country or in the countries I knew. I felt at ease every time I heard him 

praising the Prophet Muhammad (s. a. w. ) and his family and giving them what they rightly 

deserve. 

After the prayers I noticed tears in his eyes, also I heard him asking Allah to open my eyes 

and to lead me to the right direction. 

We went to the canteen which was almost empty, and he did not sit down until I had sat 

down, and when they brought us the food, he changed his dish for mine because his had more 

meat than mine. 

He treated me as if I was his guest and kept telling me stories that I had never heard before 

concerning food, drink and table manners. I liked his manners. He led the evening prayers and 

extended it by reciting long supplications until I started crying, then I asked Allah, praise be 

p: 29 

to Him, to change my suspicions about the man because "Some doubt might be a sin. " But 

who knows? 

I slept that night dreaming about Iraq and the Arabian Nights, and I was awoke by my friend 

calling the dawn prayers. We prayed together, then sat and talked about Allah's graces on the 

Muslims. We went back to sleep and when I got up again I found him sitting on his bed with a 

rosary in his hand mentioning the name of Allah, so I felt more at ease with him, and asked 

my God for forgiveness. 

We were having our lunch in the canteen when we heard from the loudspeaker that the ship 

was approaching the Lebanese shores, and with Allah's help, we would be in Beirut harbour 

in two hours time. He asked me if I had thought about the matter, and what I had decided. I 

told him if Allah willed it and I got an entry visa, then I did not see why not, and I thanked 

him for his invitation. 

We arrived in Beirut, where we spent one night then we left for Damascus. 

As soon as we got to Damascus we went to the Iraqi Embassy there and obtained a visa at 

incredible speed. When we left the Embassy he congratulated me, and we thanked Allah for 

His help.

My first visit to Iraq 

We left Damascus for Baghdad in one of the al-Najaf International Company coaches. 

When we arrived in Baghdad, where the temperature was 40 degrees, we went to the Jamilah 

p: 30 

quarter in the district of al-Ummal, and entered my friend's airconditioned house. We had a 

rest, then he brought me a long shirt called Dishdasha. Some fruit and food were also brought 

for me. Then members of his family came to greet me with respect and politeness, and his 

father embraced me as if we had known each other before. As for my friend's mother, who 

stood at the door wearing a long black coat, she also greeted me and welcomed me. My friend 

apologized on behalf of his mother who could not shake my hands, because it was not 

permitted. I liked their manners and said to myself, "These people whom we accused of being 

deviants seem to observe the religion more than us. " During the days of our travel together I 

sensed in my friend his noble manners, his self-esteem and his generosity. I also sensed in 

him modesty and piousness that I had never experienced with anybody else before. I felt that I 

was not a stranger, but as if I was at home. 

When darkness fell, we went up on the roof of the house where there were some beds 

prepared for us. I could not go to sleep easily for I was in a state of delirium: Was I really in 

Baghdad next to Sidi Abdul Qadir al-Jilani? My friend laughed as he asked me what do the 

Tunisian people think of Abdul Qadir al-Jilani. 

I started telling him about the miracles which are attributed to him, and all the places which 

p: 31 

are established and named after him. I told him that he is the "Centre of the circle", and as 

Muhammad the Messenger of Allah is the master of all the prophets, Abdul Qadir is the 

master of all the saints. His feet are on the necks of all the saints, and it was him who said, 

"Everyone goes round the house seven times, and I will go around the house with my tents. " 

I tried to convince him that Shaykh Abdul Qadir came to see his followers and treat them if 

they were ill and comfort them if they were depressed. I might have forgotten the influence of 

the Wahabi ideas on me, which state that all of that is polytheism. When I noticed the lack of 

enthusiasm in my friend, I tried to convince myself that all of what I have said was not right. I 

also asked him about his opinion. 

My friend laughed and said, "Tonight have a good sleep and rest your tired body, and 

tomorrow, if Allah wills it, we will go and visit the grave of Shaykh Abdul Qadir. " 

I was absolutely delighted with the news and wished it was dawn then. I was so tired that I 

went into a deep sleep and did not get up until the sun was shining on me. I missed my prayer, 

and my friend told me that he tried several times to wake me up but without success, so he 

left me to rest.

Abdul Qadir al Jilani and Musa al Kazim 

p: 32 

After breakfast we went to Bab al-Shaykh and saw the place that I had always wished to visit. 

I ran to enter the place like a man who was eager to see him and to throw myself on his lap. 

I mixed with the multitude of visitors who were gathering around the place like the pilgrims 

in the House of Allah. Some of the visitors were throwing sweets, so I quickly picked up two. 

I ate one for blessing and kept the other in my pocket as a souvenir. I prayed there, recited 

some supplications and drank water as if I was drinking from Zamzam. 

I asked my friend to wait for me until I wrote a few postcards to my friends in Tunisia to 

show them the picture of the place of Shaykh Abdul Qadir with its green dome. I wanted to 

prove to my friends and relatives in Tunisia my high state which brought me to this place that 

they have never been able to reach. 

We had our lunch in a popular restaurant in the middle of the capital, then I was taken by my 

friend to a place called al- Kazimiyyah. I only got to know that name through him mentioning 

it to the taxi driver who took us there. When we arrived in al-Kazimiyyah we joined a 

multitude of people, children, men and women walking in the same direction. Everyone was 

carrying something with him or her, which reminded me of the time of the pilgrimage. I did 

not know where they were going until I noticed a glittering coming from golden domes and 

p: 33 

minarets. I understood that it was a Shia mosque, because I knew before that they decorate 

their mosques with gold and silver; something Islam has prohibited. I did not feel at ease 

when we entered the mosque, but I had to respect my friend's feelings and follow him without 

choice. 

When we entered the first door I noticed that some old people were touching it and kissing it, 

so I engaged myself with reading a plaque saying: "Unveiled Ladies are not allowed to enter", 

with a saying by Imam Ali: "A day will come when women are seen wearing transparent 

clothes or even naked... etc. " 

When we reached the shrines, my friend started reading the permission to enter, while I 

occupied myself by looking at the gate and I was astonished by all the gold and engravings of 

the Qur'anic verses which covered that gate. My friend entered first then I followed him, and 

my mind was full of the legends and fables which I had read in books which condemn the 

Shia. Inside the shrine I saw engravings and decorations that I have never seen before, and I 

was surprised by them and felt as if I was in an unknown and unfamiliar world. From time to 

time I looked with disgust at those people who were going around the grave, crying and 

kissing its bars and corners, while others were praying near the grave. At that moment a 

tradition of the Prophet Muhammad (s. a. w. ) came to my mind, which states: "Allah cursed the 

Jews and Christians for making mosques of the graves of their saints. " I walked away from 

p: 34 

my friend, who, as soon as he entered, started crying, and left him to do his prayers. I 

approached the plaque which was written especially for the visitors and read it but could not 

understand most of it because it contained strange names that I did not know. I went to a 

corner and read the Opening Surah of the Qur'an (al-Fatiha) and asked Allah for mercy on the 

person who is inside the grave saying: "O Allah if this dead person is a Muslim then have 

mercy on him for You know him better than I do. " My friend came near me and whispered in 

my ears, "If you want anything. you better ask Allah in this place because we call it the gate 

of requests. " I did not pay much attention to what he said. God forgive me, rather, I was 

looking at the old men with black or white turbans on their heads and the signs of prostration 

on their foreheads, with their long perfumed beards, which added to their dignity alongside 

their awesome looks. 

I noticed that as soon as one of them entered the shrine, he started crying, and I asked myself, 

"Is it possible that all these tears are false? Is it possible that all these old people are wrong?. 

I came out perplexed and astonished about what I had seen, while my friend walked 

backwards, as a sign of respect, so that he did not turn his back to the shrine. 

I asked him, "Whose shrine is that? " He said, "Imam Musa al-Kazim. " I asked, "Who is Musa 

p: 35 

al-Kazim? " He said, "Praise Allah! You, our brothers, of the Sunni sect ignored the essence 

and kept the shell". 

I answered him angrily, "What do you mean we ignored the essence and kept the shell? " 

He calmed me down and said, "My brother, since you came to Iraq you never stopped talking 

about Abdul Qadir al-Jilani, but who is Abdul Qadir al-Jilani, and why should he attract all 

your attention? " 

I immediately replied proudly, "He is one of the descendants of the Prophet. And had there 

been a prophet after Muhammad it would have been Abdul Qadir al-Jilani, may Allah be 

pleased with him. " He said, "Brother al-Samawi, do you know Islamic history? " 

I answered without hesitation, "Yes. " In fact what I knew of Islamic history was very little 

because our teachers prevented us from learning it, for they claimed that it was a black 

history, and not worth reading. I remember, for example, when our Arabic Rhetoric teacher 

was teaching the Shaqshaqiyyah oration from the book "Nahj al-Balaghah" by Imam Ali, that 

I was puzzled, as were many other students, when we read it, but I dared to ask the following 

question: "Are these truly the words of Imam Ali? " He answered: "Definitely, who would 

have had this eloquence apart from him. If it were not his saying, why should the Muslim 

scholars like Shaykh Muhammad Abduh, the Mufti of Egypt, concern themselves with its 

interpretation? " Then I said, "Imam Ali accuses Abu Bakr and Umar that they robbed him of 

his right to succeed as Caliph". 

p: 36 

The teacher was outraged and he rebuked me very strongly and threatened to expel me from 

the class, and added, "We teach Arabic Rhetoric and not history. We are not concerned with 

the dark episodes of history and its bloody wars between Muslims, and in as much as Allah 

has cleaned our swords from their blood, let us clean our tongues by not condemning them". 

I was not satisfied with the reasoning, and remained indignant towards that teacher who was 

teaching us Arabic Rhetoric without meaning. I tried on many occasions to study Islamic 

history but I did not have enough references nor the ability to buy books. Also I did not find 

any of our learned people to be interested in the subject, and it seemed to me as if all of them 

had agreed to forget all about it and not to look into the matter. Therefore, there was no one 

who had a complete history book 

When my friend asked me about my knowledge in history, I just wanted to oppose him, so I 

answered him positively, but it was as if I was saying, "It is a dark history, full of civil strives, 

intrigues and contradictions. " He said, "Do you know when Abdul Qadir al-Jilani was born? " 

I answered, "Approximately between the sixth and the seventh century. " 

He said, "How many centuries then have elapsed between him and the Messenger of Allah? " I 

said, "six cen- turies. " He said, "If there are two generations in a century then there were at 

p: 37 

least twelve generations between Abdul Qadir al-Jilani and the Messenger". 

I agreed. Then he said, "This is Musa ibn Jafer ibn Muhammad ibn Ali ibn al-Husayn ibn 

Fatima al-Zahra, between him and his great-great-great grandfather, the Messenger of Allah,there were only four generations. In fact he was born in the second Hijra century, so, who is 

nearer to the Messenger of Allah, Musa or Abdul Qadir? 

Without thinking I said, "Him of course. But why don't we know him or hear people refer to 

him? " 

He said, "This is the point, and that is why I said, and allow me to repeat it, that you have 

ignored the essence and kept the shell, so please do not blame me and I beg your pardon. " 

We talked and talked, and from time to time we stopped until we reached a learning place 

where there were teachers and students discussing ideas and theories. As we sat there I 

noticed my friend started looking for somebody, as if he had prior appointment. 

A man came towards us and greeted us then started talking with my friend, and from the 

conversation I understood that they were colleagues at the university, and that another 

colleague was coming to the place soon. My friend said to me, "I brought you to this place to 

introduce you to a historian scholar who is a professor of history at the University of 

Baghdad, and his Ph. D. thesis was about Abdul Qadir al- Jilani and he will be of use to you, 

with the help of Allah, because I am not a specialist in history". We drank some cold juice 

p: 38 

until the historian arrived, and I was introduced to him, then my friend asked him to give me a 

brief historical view on Abdul Qadir al- Jilani. After we had more cold drinks, the historian 

asked me questions about myself, my country and my job and asked me to talk to him about 

the reputation of Abdul Qadir al-Jilani in Tunis. 

I gave him plenty of information in this field and told him that people think that Abdul Qadir 

carried the Messenger of Allah on his neck during the night of Mi'raj [the night of the prophet 

Muhammad's (s. a. w. ) ascension to the seven heavens] when Gabriel was late for fear of 

getting burnt. The Messenger of Allah told him then, "My foot is on your neck and your foot 

will be on the neck of all the saints until the day of Judgement. " 

The historian laughed when he heard what I said, but I did not know whether he laughed at 

those stories or at the Tunisian teacher standing in front of him! 

After a short discussion about the saints and the pious people, he told me that he had 

researched for seven years, during which he traveled to Lahore in Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt, 

Britain and to all the places where there are manuscripts attributed to Abdul Qadir al-Jilani 

and he scrutinized them and photographed them but could not find any proof indicating that 

Abdul Qadir al-Jilani was a descendant of the Messenger. All what he found was a verse 

attributed to one of his offspring in which he says, "... and my forefather was the Messenger of 

p: 39 

Allah: " It was perhaps the interpretation of some of the learned people of the saying of the 

Prophet "I am the grandfather [forefather] of every pious person. " He also informed me that 

recent historical research proved that Abdul Qadir al-Jilani was not an Arab but of a Persian 

origin, and came from a small town in Iran called Jilan, and he moved to Baghdad where he 

studied and then taught at a time when there was a moral decay. He was a God-fearing man 

and people liked him, so when he died they established the Qadiriyyah sufi order in his 

memory, as was the case with the followers of any Sufi teacher. He added, "Truly, the Arabs 

are in a lamentable state with regard to this situation. " 

A Wahabi rage stormed in my mind and I said, "Therefore, Doctor, you are a Wahabi in 

ideology, for they believe in what you are saying, there are no saints. " He said, "No, I am not 

a follower of the Wahabi ideology. It is regretful that the Muslims tend to exaggerate and take 

extreme views. They either believe in all the legends and fables which are not based on logic 

or canonical law, or they deny everything, even the miracles of our Prophet Muhammad (s. a. 

w. ) and his sayings because they do not suit their way of thinking. " 

For example, the Sufis believe in the possibility of Shaykh Abdul Qadir al-Jilani being 

present in, let us say, Baghdad and Tunis at the same time; he could cure a sick man in Tunis 

p: 40 

and simultaneously rescue a drowning man in the River Tigris in Baghdad. This is an 

exaggeration. As a reaction to the Sufi thinking, the Wahabis denied everything, and they said 

that even the pleading to the Prophet is polytheism, and this is negligence. No my brother! 

We are as Allah said in His Glorious Book: 

And thus we have made you a medium (just) nation that you may be the bearers 

of witness to the people. (Holy Qur'an 2: 143). 

I liked what he had said very much, and thanked him for it. I also expressed some conviction 

in his argument. He opened his briefcase and got his book on Abdul Qadir al- Jilani and gave 

it to me as a present. He then invited me to his house but I excused myself, so we talked about 

Tunis and North Africa until my friend came back and then we returned home after having 

spent the whole day visiting friends and holding discussions. 

I felt tired and exhausted, so I went to sleep. I got up early in the morning and started reading 

the book which dealt with the life of Abdul Qadir, and by the time my friend got up I had 

finished half of the book. He asked me several times to have my breakfast, but I refused until 

I had finished the book. I became attached to the book which put me in a state of scepticism 

which lasted until just before I left Iraq.

Scepticism and Questioning 

I stayed in my friend's house for three days, during which I had a rest and thought carefully 

p: 41 

about what I had heard from these people whom I had encountered and who appeared to me 

as if they were living on the moon. Why had people always told us nasty things about them, 

and why should I hate them and despise them without knowing them? Perhaps all this had 

come from the rumours we hear about them that they worship Ali, and that they view their 

Imams as gods and believe in reincarnation, and worship stones rather than Allah, and they - 

as my father had told me after he came back from pilgrimage - came to the Prophet's grave to 

throw dirt on it, and were caught by the Saudis who sentenced them to death... etc... etc... 

After hearing all that, it is not surprising that other Muslims hate and despise, even fight the 

Shia. 

But how could I believe these rumours after all I had seen with my eyes and heard with my 

ears. 

I spent over a week amongst these people and I did not see or hear from them anything that is not compatible with logic. In fact I liked the way they worshipped, I liked their prayers, their 

manners, and the respect they gave to their learned people, and wished that I could be one of them. I kept asking myself, "Is it true they hate the Messenger of Allah, and every time I 

mentioned his name, and often I did that just to test them, they shouted from the heart "May 

Allah bless Muhammad and his household"? At the beginning I thought they were hypocrites, 

p: 42 

but later I changed my mind, especially after I read some of their books in which I found a 

great deal of respect and veneration for the Messenger which I have never found in our books. 

For example, they believe in the absolute infallibility of the Prophet Muhammad (saw) , before 

and after his mission. Whereas we, the Sunnis, believe in his infallibility in delivering the 

Qur'an only, and apart from that he was just another human being, subject to committing 

mistakes. We have many examples to show that the Prophet was wrong and that he was 

corrected by his Companions. The Shia refuse to accept the fallibility of the Prophet while 

others were correct. So after that, how could I believe that they hate the Messenger of Allah? 

How could I? One day while I was talking to my friend I asked him to answer me frankly, and 

the following dialogue took place: 

- You place Ali, may Allah be please with him, and may He honour him, at the same level as 

the prophets, because whenever I hear his name mentioned you say "Peace be on him". 

- That is right whenever we mention the name of the Commander of the Faithful [Imam Ali or 

one of the Imams of his off-spring we say "Peace be upon him", but this does not mean that 

they are prophets. However, they are the descendants of the Prophet, and Allah has ordered us 

to pray for them, therefore we are allowed to say "May Allah bless them and grant them 

p: 43 

peace" as well. 

- No brother, we do not say "May Allah bless him and grant him peace" except on the Prophet 

Muhammad (saw) and on the Prophets who came before him, and there is nothing to do with 

Ali or his descendants, may Allah be pleased with them all, in this matter. 

- I would like to ask you to read more, so that you know the truth. 

- Brother, which books should I read? Is it not you who told me that the books of Ahmed 

Amin are not the authoritative books on the Shia, in the meantime the Shia's hooks are not the 

authoritative books on us and we do not rely on them. Do you not see that the Christians' 

hooks which they refer to, state that Jesus said, "I am the son of Allah" while the Glorious 

Qur'an - which says the absolute truth - quotes Jesus saying "I did not say anything to them 

except what you have ordered me to do, and that is to worship Allah, my God and your 

God. " (Holy Qur'an 5: 117) 

- Well said! I did say that. What I want from you is this, to use one's mind and logic and to 

base one's argument on the Glorious Qur'an and the correct Sunna [the Prophet Muhammad's 

(saw) tradition] as long as we are Muslims, and if we were talking to a Jew or Christian then 

we would have based our argument on something else. 

- Well, in which book will I find the truth? Every writer, every group and every creed claims 

p: 44 

to be the right one. 

- I will give you tangible evidence which is agreed on by all Muslims regardless of their creed 

or group, but you do not know it. 

- Say, God, grant me more knowledge. 

- Have you read the commentary on the following Qur'anic verse: "Surely Allah and His 

angels bless the Prophet. O you who believe call for (Divine) blessing on him and salute him 

always" (Holy Qur'an 33: 56). 

All the commentators, Shia and Sunnis, agreed that the Companions of the Prophet, about 

whom the above Qur'anic verse was revealed, cared to see the Prophet and said, "O 

Messenger of Allah we know how to salute you, but we do not know how to pray on you. " 

He said. "Say, may Allah bless Muhammad and the household of Muhammad in the same 

way as you bless Ibrahim and the household of Ibrahim in the world, You are the Praiseworthy 

and the Glorious, and do not pray on me by the shortened [al-Batra'] prayer. " They 

said, And what is the shortened prayer, O Messenger of Allah? " He said, Why do you say 

may Allah bless Muhammad and then stop, for Allah is perfect and only accepts perfection. " 

After that the Prophet's companions followed the Prophet's order and they performed the 

complete prayer. 

Even Imam al-Shafii said in their honour: 

O household of the Messenger of Allah Your love is an order from Allah 

revealed in the Qur'an You are highly honoured, and he who does not bless 

you, his prayer is not valid. 

p: 45 

I listened very carefully to what he had said, and his words entered my heart and found a 

positive echo. 

Indeed, I had read what he had said in some books but could not remember their titles, and 

confessed to him that when we say our blessings on the Prophet we also include all his 

household and Companions, but we do not specify Ali with the salutation, as the Shia do. 

He asked, "What do you think of al-Bukhari? " 

I said, "He is a great Sunni Imam and his book is the most reliable book after the book of 

Allah [the Qur'an]. " Then, he stood up and pulled "Sahih al-Bukhari" from his library and 

searched for a particular page he wanted and gave it to read: "We have been informed by so 

and so that Ali [may Allah grant him peace]... " I could not believe my eyes and was very 

surprised to the extent that I thought it was not "Sahih al-Bukhari", and looked at the page and the cover again, and when my friend sensed my doubtful looks, he took the book from me and opened another page, it read: "Ali ibn al- Husain - may Allah grant them peace -... " After that I could only say to him, "Glory be to Allah. " He was satisfied with my answer, so he left the room and I stayed behind thinking, reading those pages again and making sure of the book's edition, which I found had been published and distributed by al-Halabi & Sons Co. in Egypt. 

p: 46 

- O my God, why should I be so arrogant and stubborn, for he gave me a tangible reasoning, 

based on one of our most reliable books, and al-Bukhari was not Shi'i at all, in fact he was a 

Sunni Imam and scholar. 

Should I submit to them regarding the fact that Ali is worthy of the title "may Allah grant him 

peace", but I am afraid of this fact, since it might bring other subsequent facts that I do like to admit to. I was beaten twice by my friend, the first time when I accepted the non-holiness of Abdul Qadir al-Jilani, the second when I accepted that Musa al-Kazim was more important than him [i. e. al-Jilani]. Furthermore, I agreed that Ali was worthy of the title "may Allah 

grant him peace", but I did not want another defeat, for only days before I was proud of 

myself for being considered a learned man in Egypt and the scholars of al-Azhar were 

praising me... Today I find myself beaten and defeated, and by whom? By those whom I had 

thought, and still thought, were wrong, and I have always used the word "Shia" as a swear 

word. 

It is arrogance and selfishness... It is stubborness and bigotry... Please God grant me forth 

rightness and help me to accept the truth even if it is bitter, God open my eyes and grant me 

insight and lead me on Your path and make me one of those who listen to the sayings and 

p: 47 

follow the best. 

God show us the right as right and grant us the ability to follow it; and show us the wrong as 

wrong and grant us the ability to avoid it. 

I went back home with my friend and continued to say these pleas, so he said with a smile, 

May Allah lead us and you and all Muslims to the right path, and He said in His 

Book: And [as for] those who strive hard for Us, We will most certainly guide 

them in Our ways, and Allah is most surely with the doers of good. (Holy 

Quran 29: 69) 

The word strive [Jihad] in the Qur'anic verse carries the meaning of scientific research to 

reach the truth, and Allah will lead anyone to the truth, if he chooses to seek it.

The Visit to al Najaf 

One night my friend told me that we were going on the next day, if Allah willed, to al-Najaf. I 

asked him, "What is al-Najaf? " He said,"lt is a centre for learning, also the grave of Ali ibn 

Abi Talib is in that city. " 

I was surprised that there was a known grave for Imam Ali, for all our Shaykhs say that there 

is no known grave for our master Ali. We took a bus to al-Kufa and there we stopped to visit 

al-Kufa Mosque, which is one of the most celebrated Islamic monuments. My friend showed 

me all the historical places and took me to the mosque of Muslim ibn Aqeel and Hani ibn 

Urwa and told me briefly how they were martyred. He took me to the Mihrab where Imam 

p: 48 

Ali was martyred, then we visited the house where the Imam lived with his two sons, our 

masters al-Hasan and al-Husayn, and in the house there was a well from which they drank and did their ablution. 

I lived some spiritual moments during which I forgot the world and imagined the asceticism 

and the modesty of the Imam, despite the fact that he was Commander of the Believers and 

fourth of the Rightly Guided Caliphs. 

I must not forget to mention the hospitality and the modesty of the people of al-Kufa, since 

whenever we passed a group of people they stood up and greeted us, as if my friend knew 

most of them. One of those we met was the director of the Institute of al-Kufa, who invited us to his house where we met his children and spent a happy night. I had the feeling that I was 

amongst my family and my clan, and when they talked about the Sunnis they always said, 

"Our brothers from the Sunna", so I liked their talks and asked them a few questions to test 

their sincerity. 

We continued our journey to al-Najaf, some ten kilometers from al-Kufa, and when we got 

there I remembered al-Kazimiyyah mosque in Baghdad, for there were golden minarets 

surrounding a dome made of pure gold. We entered into the Imam's mausoleum after having 

read a special reading for permission to enter the place, which is customary amongst the Shia 

visitors. Inside the mausoleum I saw more surprising things than that in the mosque of Musa 

p: 49 

al-Kazim, and as usual, I stood and read al-Fatiha, doubting whether the grave actually 

contained the body of Imam Ali. The simplicity of that house in al-Kufa which was occupied 

by the Imam had impressed me very much to the extent that I thought, "God forbid, Imam Ali 

would not accept all this gold and silver decoration, when there are many Muslims dying of 

hunger all over the world. " Especially when I saw many poor people Iying on the streets 

asking for alms. Then I said to myself, "O Shia, you are wrong, at least you should admit this 

mistake, for Imam Ali was sent by the Messenger of Allah to demolish the graves, so what are 

all these gold and silver graves, if this is not polytheism then it must be at least an error that 

Islam does not allow. " 

My friend asked me as he handed me a piece of dry clay. if I wanted to pray. I answered him 

sharply, "We do not pray around the graves. " He then said, "Wait for me until I do my 

prayers. " While I was waiting for him I read the plaque which hung on the grave, I also 

looked inside it through the engraved gold and silver bars and saw many coins and notes of 

different denominations thrown by the visitors as contributions to the charitable works which 

are attached to the mausoleum. Because of the vast quantity of money, I thought it might have been left there for months, but my friend told me that the authorities responsible for cleaning the place collect the money every night after the evening prayer. 

p: 50 

I went out after my friend, astonished by what I had just seen, and wished that they would 

give me some of that money, or perhaps distribute it among the many poor people. I looked 

around the place, which was surrounded by a great wall, and saw many groups praying here 

and there, others were listening to speakers standing on platforms, some of them sounded as if they were wailing. I saw a group of people crying and beating their chests, and I wanted to 

ask my friend why should these people behave in such a way, but a funeral procession passed by us and I noticed some men removing a marble flag from the middle of the great courtyard to lower the body there. Therefore I thought that these people were crying for their lost one.

A Meeting with the Al Ulama (The Learned Men) 

My friend took me to a mosque next to the mausoleum, where the floors were covered by 

carpets, and around its Mihrab there were some Qur'anic verses, engraved in beautiful 

calligraphy. I noticed a few turbaned youngsters sitting near the Mihrab studying, and each 

one of them had a book in his hand. 

I was impressed by the scene, since I had never seen Shaykhs aged between thirteen and 

sixteen, and what made them look so cute was their costumes. My friend asked them about 

the Master "al-Sayyid", so they told him that he was leading the prayer. I did not know what 

he meant by "al- Sayyid", and thought he might be one of the Ulama, but later I realized it 

p: 51 

was "al-Sayyid al-Khu'i" the leader of the Shiite community. 

It was worth noting here that the title "Sayyid" - master for the Shia is given to those who are 

the descendants of the family of the Prophet (saw) , and the "Sayyid", whether he is a student or an Alim [learned man], wears a black turban, but other Ulama usually wear white turbans 

and bear the title of "Shaykh". There are other notables [al-Ashraf] who are not Ulama and 

wear a green turban. 

My friend asked them if I could sit with them, whilst he went to meet al-Sayyid. They 

welcomed me and sat around me in a semi-circle and I looked at their faces which were full 

of innocence and purity, and then I remembered the saying of the Prophet (saw) "Man is born 

to live by nature, so his parents could make him a Jew or a Christian or a Magus"... and I said 

to myself, "Or make him a Shi'i. " 

They asked me, which countly I came from, I answered. "From Tunisia. " They asked, "Have 

you got religious schools? " I answered, "We have universities and schools. " I was bombarded 

by questions from all sides, and all the questions were sharp and concentrated. What could I 

say to those innocent boys who thought that the Islamic world was full of religious schools 

where they teach Jurisprudence, Islamic Law, principle of Islam and Qur'anic commentary. 

They did not know that in the modern world of Islam we have changed the Qur'anic schools 

to kindergartens supervised by Christ- ian nuns so should I tell them that they are considered 

p: 52 

by us as being "backward"? One of the boys asked me, "Which Madhhab (religious school) is 

followed in Tunis'? " I said, "The Maliki madhhab. " And noticed that some of them laughed, 

but I did not pay much attention. He asked me, "Do you not know the Jafari Madhhab? " I 

said, "What is this new name? No we only know the four Madhahibs, and apart from that is 

not within Islam. " 

He smiled and said, "The Jafari Madhhab is the essence of Islam, do you not know that Imam 

Abu Hanifah studied under Imam Jafar al-Sadiq? And that Abu Hanifah said, "Without the 

two years al-Numan would have perished. " I remained silent and did not answer, for I had 

heard a name that I had never heard before, but thanked Allah that he - i. e. their Imam Jafar al-Sadiq - was not a teacher of Imam Malik, and said that we are Malikis and not Hanafis. He 

said, "The four Madhahibs took from each other, Ahmed ibn Hanbal took from al-Shafii, and 

al-Shafii took from Malik, and Malik took from Abu Hanifah, and Abu Hanifah from Jafar al- 

Sadiq, therefore, all of them were students of Jafar ibn Muhammad, who was the first to open an Islamic University in the mosque of his grandfather, the Messenger of Allah. and under him studied no less than four thousand jurisprudents and specialists in Hadith (prophetic 

traditions). 

I was surprised by the intelligence of that young boy who seemed to have learnt what he was 

saying in the same way that one recites a Surah from the Qur'an. I was even more astonished 

p: 53 

when he started telling me some historical references which he knew the number of their 

volumes and chapters, and he continued with his discussion as if he was a teacher teaching a 

student. In fact I felt weak before him and wished that I had gone with my friend instead of 

staying with the young boys. I was not able to answer every question connected with 

jurisprudence or history that they asked me. 

He asked me, "Which of the Imams I followed? " I said, "Imam Malik. " He said, "How do you 

follow a dead man with fourteen centuries between you and him. If you want to ask him a 

question about current issues, would he answer you? " I thought for a little while and then 

said, "Your Jafar also died fourteen centuries ago, so whom do you follow? " He and other 

boys answered me quickly, "We follow al- Sayyid al-Khu'i, for he is our Imam. " I did not 

know who was more knowledgeable, al-Khu'i or Jafar al-Sadiq. I tried my best to change the 

subject so I kept asking them questions such as, "What is the population of al- Najaf? How far 

is al- Najaf from Baghdad? Did they know other countries beside Iraq... " And every time 

they answered, I prepared another question for them to prevent them from asking me, for I 

felt incapable of matching their knowledge. But I refused to admit it, despite the fact that 

inside myself, I accepted defeat. The days of glory and scholarship in Egypt had dissipated 

p: 54 

here, especially after meeting those youngsters, and then I remembered the following wise 

words: 

Say to him who claims knowledge in Philosophy, "You have known one thing but you are 

still unaware of many things. " 

I thought the minds of those young boys were greater than the minds of those Shaykhs whom I met in al-Azhar and the minds of our Shaykhs in Tunisia. 

Al-Sayyid al-Khu'i entered the place, and with him came a group of Ulama who looked 

respectable and dignified, and all the boys stood up, and me with them, then each one of them approached al-Sayyid to kiss his hand, but I stayed rigid in my place. Al-Sayyid did not sit down until everybody sat down, then he started greeting them one by one, and he was greeted 

back by each individual until my turn came, so I replied in the same way. After that my 

friend, who had whispered to al-Sayyid, pointed to me to get nearer to al-Sayyid, which I did, 

and he sat me to his right. After we exchanged the greetings my friend said to me, "Tell al- 

Sayyid the things you hear in Tunisia about the Shia. " I said, "Brother, let us forget about the 

stories we hear from here and there, and I want to know for myself what the Shia say, so I 

want frank answers to some questions that I have. " My friend insisted that I should inform al- 

Sayyid about what we thought of al- Shia. I said, "We consider the Shia to be harder on Islam 

p: 55 

than the Christian and Jews, because they worship Allah and believe in the Message of Musamay Allah grant him peace, but we hear that the Shia worship Ali and consider him to be 

sacred, and there is a sect among them who worship Allah but put Ali at the same level as the 

Messenger of Allah. " Also I told him the story about how the angel Gabriel betrayed his 

charge - as they say - so instead of giving the message to Ali he gave it to Muhammad (saw). 

Al-Sayyid remained silent for a little while, with his head down, then he looked at me and 

said, "We believe that there is no other God but Allah, and that Muhammad (saw) is the 

Messenger of Allah, and that Ali was but a servant of Allah. " 'He turned to his audience and 

said, indicating to me "Look at these innocent people how they have been brain-washed by 

the false rumours; and this is not surprising for I heard more than that from other people - (so 

we say) there is no power or strength save in Allah, the Highest and the Greatest. " Then he 

turned to me and said, "Have you read the Qur'an? " I answered, "I could recite half of it by 

heart before I was ten. " He said, "Do you know that all the Islamic groups, regardless of their 

sects agree on the Holy Qur'an, for our Qur'an is the same as yours? " I said, "Yes I know 

that. " He then said, "Have you not read the words of Allah, praise be to Him the Sublime: 

p: 56 

And Muhammad is no more than a messenger, the messengers have already 

passed away before him (Holy Qur'an 3: 144) 

Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, and those with him are from of heart against the unbelievers (Holy Qur'an 48: 29) 

Muhammad is not the father of any of your men, but he is the Messenger of 

Allah and the last of the Prophets (Holy Qur'an 33: 40) 

I said, "Yes I know all these Qur'anic verses. " He said, "Where is Ali then? If our Qur'an says 

that Muhammad (saw) is the Messenger of Allah, so where did this lie come from? " 

I remained silent and could not find an answer. He added, "As for the betrayal of Gabriel, 

God forbid, it is worse than the first, because when Allah sent Gabriel unto Muhammad 

(saw) , Muhammad (saw) was forty years old then, and Ali was a lad of six or seven years, so 

how could Gabriel make a mistake and did not differentiate between Muhammad (saw) the 

man and Ali the lad? " He stayed silent for a long time, and I started thinking about what he 

had said, which appeared to me as logical reasoning, so that it left a deep impression on me, 

and I asked myself why we did not base our analysis on such logical reasoning. 

Al-Sayyid al-Khu'i added, "I would like to inform you that the Shia is the only group, among 

all the Islamic groups, which believe in the infallability of the Prophets and Imams; so if our 

Imams, may Allah grant them peace, are infallible, and they are human beings like us, then 

p: 57 

how about Gabriel, who is an angel favoured by Allah and He called him "The faithful spirit". 

I asked, "Where did all these rumours come from? " He said, "From the enemies of Islam who 

want to divide the Muslims into groups that fight each other, otherwise Muslims are brothers, 

whether they were Shia or Sunnis, for all of them worship Allah alone and do not associate 

any other God with Him, and they have one Qur'an, one Prophet and one Qiblah (Direction to 

which Muslims turn in praying- i. e. Kabaa). The Shia and the Sunnis only differ on issues 

regarding jurisprudence, in the same way that the different schools of jurisprudence in the 

Sunni school differ among each other; as Malik did not agree all the way with Abu Hanifah 

who himself did not agree all the way with al-Shafii... and so on. " 

I said, "Therefore, all the things which have been said about you are just lies? " He said, "You, 

praise be to Allah, are a sensible man and could comprehend things, also you have seen Shi'i 

countries and have travelled in their midst; so did you hear or see anything related to these 

lies? " I said, "No, I have not seen or heard anything but good things, and I thank Allah for 

giving me the opportunity to meet Mr. Munim on the ship, since he was the reason for my 

presence in Iraq, and indeed I have learnt many things that I had not known before. " 

My friend Munim said, with a smile, "Including the existence of a grave for the Imam Ali? " I 

p: 58 

winked at him and said, "In fact I have learnt many new things even from those young lads 

and wish I had had the opportunity to learn as they do in this Religious School. " 

Al-Sayyid said, "Welcome, if you want to study here, then there will be a place for you in this 

school. " Everybody welcomed the suggestion, especially my friend Munim whose face was 

full of joy. 

I said, "I am a married man with two boys. " He said, "We will take care of your 

accommodation and living and whatever you need, but the important thing is learning. " 

I thought for a little while and said to myself, "It does not seem acceptable to become a 

student after having spent five years as a teacher and educationalist, and it is not easy to take a 

decision so hastily. " 

I thanked al-Sayyid al-Khu'i for his offer and told him that I would think about the matter 

seriously after I came back from al-Umrah, but I needed some books. Al-Sayyid said, "Give 

him the books. " A group of learned people stood up and went to their book cabinets and after 

a few minutes each one of them presented me with a book, so I had more than seventy. I 

realized that I could not carry all these books with me, especially as I was going to Saudi 

Arabia, where the authorities censor any book entering their countries, lest new ideas get 

established, in particular those ideas which do not agree with their creed. However, I did not 

p: 59 

want to miss the chance of having all these books which I had never seen in all my life. I said 

to my friend and the rest of the people that I had a long journey ahead of me, passing through Damascus, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, and on the way back my journey would be even longer 

for I would travel through Egypt and Lybia until I reached Tunisia, and beside the weight of 

these books was the fact that most of the countries prohibit the entry of these books to their 

territories. 

Al-Sayyid said, "Leave us your address and we will send them to you. " I liked the idea and 

gave him my personal card with my address in Tunis on it. Also, I thanked him for his 

generosity, and when I was about to leave him he stood up and said to me, "May Allah grant 

you safety and if you stand by the grave of my forefather the Messenger of Allah please pass my greetings to him. " 

Everybody, including myself, were moved by what al- Sayyid had said, and I noticed that 

tears were coming from his eyes, then I said to myself, "God forbid that such a man could be 

wrong or a liar; his dignity, his greatness and his modesty tell you that he is truly a descendant 

of the Prophet. " I could not help myself but to take his hand and kiss it, in spite of his refusal. 

When I stood up to go, everybody stood and said farewell to me, and some of the young lads 

p: 60 

from the religious school followed me and asked me for my addresses for future 

correspondence, and I gave it to them. 

We went back to al-Kufa after an invitation from a friend of Munim, whose name was Abu 

Shubbar, and stayed in his house where we spent a whole night socializing with a group of 

intellectual young people. Among those people were some students of al-Sayyid Muhammad 

Baqir al-Sadr who suggested that I should meet him, and they promised to arrange an 

interview with him on the day after. My friend Munim liked the idea but apologized for not 

being able to be present at the meeting because he has a prior engagement in Baghdad. We 

agreed that I would stay in Abu Shubbar's house for three or four days until Munim came 

back. 

Munim left us shortly after the dawn prayers and we went to sleep. I benefitted so much from 

these students and was surprised about the variety of subjects they study in the Religious 

School. In addition to the Islamic studies which include Jurisprudence, Islamic Law (Shariah) 

and Tawheed (Islamic Theology) ; they study Economics, Sociology, Politics, History, 

Languages, Astronomy and a few more subjects.

A Meeting with Al Sayyid Muhammad Baqir al Sadr 

I went with Abu Shubbar to al-Sayyid Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr's house, and on the way he 

honoured me and talked to me about the famous Ulama and about Taqlid (adoption of a legal 

decision by the Mujtahid) and so on... until we entered the house where we found al Sayyid 

p: 61 

al Sadr surrounded by many young turbaned students. Al-Sayyid stood up and greeted us, 

then I was introduced to him and he welcomed me warmly and sat me next to him. After that 

he started asking me about Tunisia and Algeria and about famous Ulama like al-Khidr 

Husayn and al-Thahir ibn Ashoor and others. I enjoyed his talk, and despite his high position 

and the great respect he commands from his students, I found myself at ease with him and felt as if I had known him before. 

I benefitted so much from that meeting because I listened to the questions asked by the 

students and his answers to them, also I appreciated then the idea of adopting the decision of the living Ulama who could answer all sorts of questions directly and clearly. I became 

convinced that the Shia are Muslims worshipping Allah alone, who believe in the message of 

our Prophet Muhammad (saw). At the beginning I suspected that what I saw was just acting, 

or perhaps as they call it Taqiyyah, i. e. they show what they do not believe; but these 

suspicions disappeared quickly since it was inconceivable that the hundreds of people that I 

saw or heard coordinated their acting, and why should there be acting any- way? Besides who was I, and why should they be concerned about me to the extent that they used Taqiyyah with 

me? And all their books, whether they were old ones that had been written centuries ago or 

the newly published ones, all professed the unity of Allah and praise His Messenger 

p: 62 

Muhammad (saw). There I was, in the house of al-Sayyid Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr, the 

famous religious authority inside Iraq and outside it, and every time the name of Muhammad 

(saw) was mentioned, the entire audience shouted in one voice "May Allah's blessings be 

upon Muhammad and his household. " 

When the time for prayer was due, we left the house and went to the mosque, which was next door, and al-Sayyid Muhammad al-Sadr led the midday and afternoon prayers. I felt as if I was living among the Companions (of the Prophet) , for there was a solemn invocation from 

one of the men who had a moving voice, and when he finished the invocation the whole 

audience shouted, "May Allah's blessing be upon Muhammad and his household. " The 

invocation was basically to thank and glorify Allah, the Great Majesty, and then Muhammad 

(saw) and his good and purified posterity. 

After the prayer, al-Sayyid sat in the Mihrab (the prayer niche) and people came to greet him, 

some asked him private questions, others asked him general questions, and he answered each one of them accordingly. When the person obtained an answer for his question, he kissed the hand of al- Sayyid then left, what lucky people to have such a dignified learned Imam who 

lives their experiences and solves their problems. 

Al-Sayyid showed me so much care and generosity to the extent that I forgot all about my 

family and tribe, and felt that if I stayed for one month with him, I would have become a Shii, 

p: 63 

because of his manners, modesty and generosity. Whenever I looked at him he smiled and 

asked me if I needed anything, and I did not leave his company during the four days, only 

when I wanted to go to sleep. There were many visitors who came to see him from all over 

the world; there were Saudi Shii from Hijaz, others came from Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab 

Emirates, Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, Turkey and Black Africa; and al-Sayyid spoke 

to each one of them and solved their problems, later they left him feeling happy and 

comforted. Here I would like to mention a case which was brought to al-Sayyid when I was in 

his company, and I was very impressed by the way he dealt with it. I mention it because of its 

historical importance so that the Muslims know what they have lost by leaving the rule of 

Allah. 

Four men, who were probably Iraqis, judging by their accents, came to see al-Sayyid 

Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr. One of them had inherited a house from his grandfather, who had 

died a few years ago, and had sold that house to a second person (he was present then). One year after the completion of the sale, two brothers came and proved that they were also legal inheritors of the dead man (i. e. the father). The four of them sat before al-Sayyid and each one of them produced a number of papers and deeds, which al-Sayyid read, and after he spoke for a few minutes with the men, he passed a fair judgement. He gave the purchaser the full right to his house, and asked the seller to pay to his two brothers their shares from the selling price, and after that they stood up and kissed al-Sayyid's hand and embraced each other. I was astonished about what had happened and asked Abu Shubbar, "Has the case ended? " He said, 

p: 64 

"Yes, everyone received his right. Praise be to Allah! " In such case, and in such a short time, 

only a few minutes, the problem was solved. A similar case in our country would have taken 

at least ten years to resolve, some of the plaintiffs would die and their sons resume the case; 

often the legal costs exceed the price of the house. The case would move from the Magistrate 

Court to the Appeal Court to the Court of Review, and at the end no one is satisfied, and 

hatred between People and Tribes are created. 

Abu Shubbar commented, We have the same thing if not worse. " I asked, "How? " He said, if 

people take their cases to the state courts, then they would go through the same troubles 

which you have just mentioned, but if they follow the Religious Authority and commit 

themselves to the Islamic Laws, then they would take their cases to him and the problem 

would be solved in a few minutes, as you saw. And what is better than the Law of Allah for 

people who could comprehend? Al-Sayyid al-Sadr did not charge them one Fils, but if they 

went to the state courts, then they would have paid a high price. " 

I said, "Praise be to Allah! I still cannot believe what I have seen, and if I had not seen it with 

my eyes, I would not have believed it at all. " 

Abu Shubbar said, "You do not have to deny it brother, this is a simple case in comparison 

p: 65 

with other more complicated ones which involve blood. Even so, the Religious Authorities do 

consider them, and it takes them a few hours to resolve. " I said with astonishment, "Therefore you have two governments in Iraq, a government of the state and a government of the clergy. 

He replied, "No, we have a government of the state only, but the Muslims of the Shii 

Madhhab who follow the Religious Authorities, have nothing to do with the government of 

the state, because it is not an Islamic government. They are subjects of that government 

simply because of their citizenship, the taxes, civil laws and personal status; so if a committed 

Muslim had an argument with a non committed Muslim, then the case must be taken to the 

state courts, because the latter would not accept the judgement of the Religious Authorities. 

However, if two committed Muslims had an argument, then there is no problem, whatever the 

Religious Authorities decide is acceptable to all parties. Thus, all cases seen by the Religious 

Authorities are solved on a day-to-day basis, whereas other cases linger on for months and 

years. " 

It was an incident that made me feel content with rule of Allah, praise be to Him the Exalted 

one, which helped me to comprehend the words of Allah in His Glorious Book: 

... And whoever did not judge by what Allah revealed, those are they that are 

the unbelievers (Holy Qur'an 5: 44). 

... And whoever did not judge by what Allah revealed, those are they that are 

the unjust (Holy Qur'an 5: 45). 

p: 66 

... And whoever did not judge by what Allah revealed, those are they that are 

the transgressors (Holy Qur'an 5: 47). 

That incident aroused in me feelings of anger and resentment about those who change the just rules of Allah with some unjust, man-made rules. They even go further, and with all 

impudence and sarcasm, they criticize the divine rules and condemn them for being barbaric 

and inhuman because it draws the limits. cuts the hand of the thief, stones the adulterer and 

kills the killer. So where did all these new theories, that are foreign to us and our culture come 

from? There is no doubt they came from the West and from the enemies of Islam who know that the application of Allah's rules mean their inevitable destruction because they are thieves, traitors, adulterers, criminals and murderers. 

I had many discussions with al-Sayyid al-Sadr during these days, and I asked him about 

everything I had learnt through the friends who talked to me about their beliefs and what they thought about the Companions of the Prophet (saw) , and about Ali and his sons... beside many other issues that we used to disagree upon. 

I asked al-Sayyid al-Sadr about Imam Ali and why they testify for him in the Adhan [the call 

for prayers] that he is "Waliy Allah" [the friend of Allah]. He answered me in the following 

way: 

The Commander of the Believers, Ali, may Allah's blessings be upon him, was 

one of those servants of Allah whom He chose and honoured by giving them 

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the responsibilities of the Message after His Prophet. These servants are the 

trustees of the Prophet (saw) , since each prophet has a trustee, and Ali ibn Abi 

Talib is the trustee of Muhammad (saw). 

We favour him above all the Companions of the Prophet (saw) because Allah 

and the Prophet favoured him, and we have many proofs of that, some of them 

are deduced through logical reasoning, others are found in the Qur'an and al- 

Sunnah [the Tradition of the Prophet Muhammad (saw) ], and these proofs 

cannot be suspect, because they have been scrutinized, and proven right, by our 

own learned people (who wrote many books about the subject) and those of the 

Sunni Madhahibs. The Umayyad regime worked very hard to cover this truth 

and fought Imam Ali and his sons, whom they killed. They even ordered 

people, sometimes by force, to curse him, so his followers - may Allah bless 

them all started to testify for him as being the friend of Allah. No Muslim 

would curse the friend of Allah in defiance of the oppressive authorities, so that 

the glory was to Allah, and to His Messenger and to all the believers. It also 

became an historical land mark across the generations so that they know the 

just cause of Ali and the wrong doing of his enemies. Thus, our learned people 

continued to testify that Ali is the friend of Allah in their calls to prayer, as 

something which is commendable. There are many commendable things in the 

religious rites as well as in ordinary mundane dealings, and the Muslim will be 

p: 68 

rewarded for doing them, but not punished for leaving them aside. 

For example, it is commendable for the Muslim to say after al-Shahadah [i. e. to 

testify that there is no God but Allah, and that Muhammad (saw) is His 

messenger]: And I will testify that Heaven is true and Hell is true, and that 

Allah will resurrect people from their graves. 

I said "Our learned people taught us that the priority of the succession was for our master Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, then to our master Umar al-Faruq, then to our master Uthman, then to our 

master Ali, may Allah bless them all. " Al-Sayyid remained silent for a short while, then 

answered me, 

Let them say what they want, but it would be impossible for them to prove it on 

legal grounds, besides, what they say contradicts their books which state: The 

best of the people is Abu Bakr then Uthman, and there is no mention of Ali 

because they made him just an ordinary person, however, the later historians 

started to mention him for the sake of mentioning the Rightly Guided Caliphs. 

After that I asked him about the piece of clay on which they put their foreheads during the 

prayers and they call it "al-Turbah al-Husayniyyah". He answered, 

We all prostrate on the dust, but not for the dust, as some people claim that the 

Shia do, for the prostration is only for Allah, praise be to Him the Highest. It is 

well established among our people, as well as among the Sunnis, that the most 

p: 69 

favourable prostration is on earth or on the non-edible produce of the earth, and 

it is incorrect to prostrate on anything else. The Messenger of Allah (saw) used 

to sit on the dust, and he had a piece of clay mixed with straw, on which he 

used to prostrate. He also taught his Companions, may Allah bless them all, to 

prostrate on the earth or on stones, and forbade them from prostrating on the 

edges of their shirts. We consider these acts to be necessary and important. 

Imam Zayn al-Abideen Ali ibn al-Husayn [may Allah bless them both] took a 

Turbah [a piece of clay] from near the grave of his father Abu Abdullah, 

because the dust there is blessed and pure, for the blood of the chief martyr was 

spilt on it. Thus, his followers continue with that practice up to the present day. 

We do not say that prostration is not allowed but on Turbah, rather, we say that 

prostration is correct if it is done on any blessed Turbah or stone, also it is 

correct if it is done on a mat which is made of palm leaves or similar material. 

I asked, with reference to our master al-Husayn, may Allah's blessings be upon him, "Why do 

the Shia cry and beat their cheeks and other parts of their bodies until blood is spilt, and this is prohibited in Islam, for the Prophet (saw) said: He who beats the cheeks, tears the pockets and follows the call of al-Jahiliyyah is not one of us. " 

p: 70 

Al-Sayyid replied, The saying is correct and there is no doubt about it, but it does not apply to the obsequies of Abu Abdullah, for he who calls for the avenging of al-Husayn and 

follows his path, his call is not of the Jahiliyyah. Besides, the Shias are only 

human beings, among them you find the learned and not so learned, and they 

have feelings and emotions. If they are overcome by their emotions during the 

anniversary of the martyrdom of Abu Abdullah, and remember what happened 

to him, his family and his companions from degradation to captivity and then 

finally murder, then they will be rewarded for their good intentions, because all 

these intentions are for the sake of Allah. Allah - praise be to Him, the Highest 

- who rewards people according to their intentions. 

Last week I read the official reports from the Egyptian government about the 

suicide incidents that followed the death of Jamal Abdul Nasser. There were 

eight such incidents in which people took their lives by jumping from buildings 

or throwing themselves under trains, besides them there were many injured 

people. These are but some examples in which emotions have overcome the 

most rational of people, who happen to be Muslims and who killed themselves 

because of the death of Jamal Abdul Nasser, who died of natural causes, 

therefore, it is not right for us to condemn the Sunnis and judge them to be 

wrong. 

On the other hand, it is not right for the Sunnis to accuse their brothers the Shia 

p: 71 

of being wrong because they cry for the chief martyr. These people have lived 

and are still living to this present day the tragedy of al-Husayn. Even the 

Messenger of Allah (saw) cried after the death of his son al- Husayn, and 

Gabriel cried also. 

I asked, "Why do the Shia decorate the graves of their saints with gold and silver, despite the 

fact that it is prohibited in Islam? " 

Al-Sayyid al-Sadr replied, 

This is not done just by the Shia, and it is not prohibited. Look at the mosques 

of our brothers the Sunnis in Iraq or Egypt or Turkey or anywhere else in the Islamic world, they are all decorated with gold and silver. Furthermore, the 

mosque of the Messenger of Allah (saw) in al-Madinah al-Munawarah and the 

Kaba, the House of Allah, in the blessed Mecca is covered every year by a cloth 

decorated by gold which costs millions. So such a thing is not exclusive to the 

Shia. 

I asked "The Saudi Ulama say that touching the graves and calling the saints for their 

blessings is polytheism, so what is your opinion? " 

Al-Sayyid al-Sadr replied: 

If touching the graves and calling the dead is with the understanding that they 

could cause harm or render a benefit, then that is polytheism, no doubt about it, 

the Muslims are monotheists and they know that Allah alone could cause harm 

or render a benefit, but calling the saints and Imams [may Allah bless them all] 

with the understanding that they could be an intermediary to Allah, that is not 

p: 72 

polytheism. All Muslims, Sunnis and Shias, agreed on this point from the time 

of the Messenger up to the present day, except the Wahabiyyah, the Saudi 

Ulama who contradict all Muslims with their new creed. They caused 

considerable disturbances among the Muslims, they accused them of 

blasphemy, they spilt their blood and even beat old pilgrims on their way to the 

House of Allah in Mecca just because they say "O Messenger of Allah, may 

peace be upon you", and they will never let anybody touch his blessed grave. 

They had so many debates with our learned people, but they persisted in their 

stubbornness and their arrogance. 

Al-Sayyid Sharaf al-Din, a famous Shi'i learned man, went on pilgrimage to the 

House of Allah during the time of Abdul Aziz ibn Saud, and he was one of 

those Ulama who were invited to the King's palace to celebrate with the King 

'Id al-Adhha, in accordance with the customs there. When his turn came to 

shake the King'shand, Sayyid Sharaf al-Din presented him with a leather bound 

Qur'an. The King took the Qur'an and placed it on his forehead then kissed it. 

Al Sayyid Sharaf al-Din said, "O King, why do you kiss and glorify the cover 

which is only made out of goat's skin? " The King answered, "I meant to glorify 

the Holy Qur'an, not the goat's skin. " Al-Sayyid Sharaf al-Din then said, "Well 

said, O King. We do the same when we kiss the window or the door of the 

Prophet's (saw) chamber, we know it is made of iron and could not harm or 

p: 73 

render a benefit, but we mean what is behind the iron and wood, we mean to 

glorify the Messenger of Allah (saw) in the same way as you meant with the 

Qur'an when you kissed its goat's skin cover. 

The audience was impressed by al-Sayyid and said, "You are right. " The King 

was forced to allow the pilgrims to ask for blessings from the Prophet's relics, 

until the order was reversed by the successor of that king. The issue is not that 

they are afraid of people associating others with Allah, rather, it is a political 

issue based on antagonizing and killing the Muslims in order to consolidate 

their power and authority over the Muslims, and history is the witness to what 

they have done with the Muslim nation. 

I asked him about the Sufi orders, and he answered me briefly, 

There are positive and negative aspects to them. The positive aspects include 

self-discipline, austere living, renunciation of worldly pleasures and elevating 

one's self to the spiritual world. The negative aspects include isolation, 

escapism and restricting the mention of Allah by verbal numbers and various 

other practices. Islam, as it is known accepts the positive aspects but rejects the 

negative ones, and we may say that all the principles and teachings of Islam are 

positive.

Skepticism and Perplexity 

The answers of al-Sayyid al-Sadr were clear and convincing, but it was very difficult for a 

person like me to comprehend them. Twenty-five years of my life had been based on the idea 

of glorifying and respecting the Companions of the Prophet, especially the Rightly Guided 

p: 74 

Caliphs. The Messenger of Allah commanded us to follow their teachings, in particular Abu 

Bakr al-Siddiq and Umar al-Farooq, but I had never heard their names mentioned since I 

arrived in Iraq. Instead, I heard strange names that I had never come across before, and that there were twelve Imams, and a claim that the Messenger of Allah had stated before his death that Imam Ali should be his successor. How could I believe all that (that all Muslims and the Companions of the Prophet- who was the best of people -, after the death of the Prophet 

agreed to stand against Ali - may Allah honour him) when we had been taught from 

childhood that the Companions of the Prophet - may Allah bless them all - respected Ali and 

knew very well what kind of man he was. They knew that he was the husband of Fatima al- 

Zahra and the father of al-Hasan and al-Husayn and the gate to the city of knowledge. 

Our Master Ali knew the quality of Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, who became a Muslim before 

anybody else, and accompanied the Prophet to the cave, as is mentioned by Allah, the Mighty, 

in the Qur'an, and whom the Messenger of Allah charged with the leadership of the prayers 

during his illness, and said about him, if I was taking a very close friend, I would have chosen 

Abu Bakr. " Because of all that, the Muslims elected him as their caliph. Imam Ali knew the 

position of our master Umar, with whom Allah glorified Islam, and the Messenger of Allah 

p: 75 

called him al-Farooq, he who separates right from wrong. Also Imam Ali knew the position of 

our master Uthman, in whose presence the angels of the Merciful felt shy, and who organized 

al-Usrah's army, and who was named by the Messenger of Allah as "Dhu al-Nurayn", the man 

who is endowed with two lights. How could our brothers al-Shia ignore or pretend to ignore 

all that, and make these personalities just ordinary characters subject to all worldly whims and 

greed so that they deviated from the right path and disobeyed the orders of the Messenger 

after his death. This was inconceivable since we know that these people used to hasten to 

execute the orders of the Messenger; they killed their sons and fathers and members of their 

tribes for the sake of glorifying Islam and its ultimate victory. He who would kill his father 

and son for the sake of Allah and His Messenger could not be subject to worldly and 

transitory ambitions such as the position of Caliph, and ignoring the orders of the Messenger 

of Allah. 

Yes, because of all that I could not believe all the Shia were saying, in spite of the fact that I 

was convinced about many things. I remained in a state of doubt and perplexity: doubtful 

because of what the Shii learned scholars Ulama said to me, which I found sensible and 

logical; and perplexed because I could not believe that the Companions of the Prophet - may 

Allah bless them all - would sink to such a low moral stand and become ordinary people like 

p: 76 

us, neither sharpened by the light of the Message nor able to be enlightened by Muhammad. 

O my God, how could that be? Could the Companions of the Prophet be at the level described 

by the Shia? The important thing is that doubt and perplexity were the beginning of weakness 

and the realization that there were many hidden issues to be uncovered before reaching the 

truth. 

My friend came, then we travelled to Karbala, and there I lived the tragedy of our master al- 

Husayn in the same way his followers, and only then did I know that he had not died an 

ordinary death. People tend to crowd around his grave like butterflies and cry with such 

sorrow and grief that I have never seen before, as if al-Husayn had just been martyred. I heard 

speakers who aroused the feelings of people when describing the incident at Karbala, 

accompanied by crying and wailing, and soon the listener loses control of himself and 

collapses. I cried and cried and let myself go as if crushed, and felt a relief that I had never 

experienced before that day; I felt that I had been in the ranks of al- Husayn's enemies and 

had suddenly changed sides to be one of his followers who sacrificed themselves for his sake. 

The speaker was reciting the story of al-Hurr, who was one of the commanders in charge of 

fighting al-Husayn, who stood in the middle of the battlefield shaking like a leaf, and when 

one of his friends asked him, "Are you afraid of death? " He answered, "No, by Allah, but I 

p: 77 

am choosing between heaven and hell. " Then he kicked his horse and went towards al- 

Husayn and asked, "Is there a repentance, O son of the Messenger of Allah? " 

When I heard that, I could not control myself and fell on the floor crying and felt as if I was in 

the position of al-Hurr, asking al-Husayn, "Is there a repentance, O son of the Messenger of 

Allah? Forgive me O son of the Messenger of Allah. The voice of the speaker was so moving 

that people started crying and wailing, and when my friend heard my cries, he embraced me, 

like a mother embracing her child, and started crying and calling, "O Husayn... O Husayn... " 

These were moments, during which I learnt that meaning of real crying and felt that my tears 

washed my heart and body from the inside, and then I understood the meaning of the 

Messenger's saying: If you knew what I know, you would have laughed little and cried more. 

I was depressed throughout the day, although my friend tried to re-assure me and cheer me up by offering me some refreshments, but I had lost my appetite completely. I asked him to 

repeat the story of the martyrdom of al-Husayn, for I did not know much about it except the 

fact that our religious leaders told us that the enemies of Islam killed our masters Umar, 

Uthman and Ali, and that the same enemies killed our master al-Husayn; and that is all we 

knew. In fact we used to celebrate Ashura, as one of the festival days of Islam; alms were 

p: 78 

distributed and various types of food were cooked and the young boys went to their elders 

who gave them money to buy sweets and toys. 

However, there are a few customs in some villages during Ashura: people do not light fires or 

do any kind of work. People do not get married or celebrate a happy occasion. We usually 

accept them at face value without any explanation given, and strangely enough, our religious 

leaders talk to us about the greatness of Ashura and how blessed it is. 

After that we went to visit the grave of al-Abbas, the brother of al-Husayn. I did not know 

who he was, but my friend informed me about his bravery. We also met many pious religious 

leaders whose names I cannot recall in detail, but I can still recall their surnames: Bahr al- 

Ulum, al-Sayyid al-Hakim, Kashif al-Ghita, al-Yasin, al-Tabatabai, al- Feiruzabadi, Asad 

Haidar, and others, who honoured me with their company. 

They are truly pious religious leaders, possessing all the signs of dignity and respect, and the 

Shia population respect them and give them one fifth of their incomes. 

Through these donations they manage the affairs of the religious schools, open new schools, 

establish presses and assist students who come to them from all over the Islamic world. 

They are independent and not connected in any way with the rulers; unlike our religious 

leaders who would not do or say anything without the approval of the authorities, who pay 

their salaries and appoint them, and remove them whenever they want. 

p: 79 

It was a new world that I had discovered, or rather, Allah had discovered for me. I started to 

enjoy it having previously kept away from it, and gradually blended with it after I had 

opposed it. I gained new ideas from this new world, and it inspired me with the quest for 

knowledge and research until I reached the desired truth which always comes to mind 

whenever I read the saying of the prophet: The sons of Israel were divided into seventy-one groups, and the Christians were divided into seventy-two groups, and my people will be 

divided into seventy-three groups, all of which, except one group will end up in Hell. 

Here is not the place to talk about the various religions which claim to be the right one and 

that the rest are wrong, but I am surprised and astonished whenever I read this saying. My 

surprise and astonishment is not at the saying itself, but at those Muslims who read it and 

repeat it in their speeches and brush over it without analyzing it or even attempting to find out which the group is going to be saved and which are going to be doomed. 

The interesting thing is that each group claims that it is the saved one. At the end of the 

saying came the following: "Who are they, O Messenger of Allah? " He answered, "Those 

who follow my path and the path of my Companions. " Is there any group that does not adhere to the Book [Qur'an] and Sunnah (the prophetic tradition) , and is there any Islamic group that claims otherwise? If Imams Malik or Abu Hanifah or al-Shafii or Ahmed ibn Hanbel were asked, wouldn't each and everyone of them claim that he adheres to the teachings of the Qur'an and the Right Sunnah'? ' 

p: 80 

These are the Sunni Madhahib, in addition to the various Shii-groups, which I had believed at 

one time to be deviant and corrupt. All of them claim to adhere to the Qur'an and the correct 

Sunnah which has been handed down through Ahl al-Bayt (the Prophets Family) who knew 

best about what they were saying. Is it possible that they are all right, as they claim? This is 

not possible, because the Prophets saying states the opposite, unless the saying is invented or fabricated. But that is not possible either, because the saying is accepted by both the Shia and Sunnis. Is it possible that the saying has no meaning? God forbid that His Messenger (saw) 

could utter a meaningless and aimless saying, as he only spoke words of wisdom. Therefore 

we are left with one possible conclusion: that there is one group which is on the right path, 

and that the rest are wrong. Thus, the saying tends to make one confused and perplexed, but in the meantime it encourages research and study by those who want to be saved. 

Because of that, I became doubtful and perplexed after my meeting with the Shia, for who 

knows, they might be saying the truth! So should I not study and investigate? 

Islam, through the Qur'an and Sunnah ordered me to study, investigate and to compare, and 

Allah - the Most High said: 

And (as for) those who strive hard for Us, We will most certainly guide them in 

Our ways (Holy Qur'an 29: 69). 

He also said: Those who listen to the word, then follow the best of it; these are 

p: 81 

they whom Allah has guided, and those it is who are the men of understanding 

(Holy Qur'an 39: 18) 

The Messenger of Allah (saw) said, 

Study your religion until it is said that you are mad. 

Therefore research and comparison are legal obligations for every responsible person. 

Having reached this decision and resolution, and with this promise to myself and my Shii 

friends from Iraq, I embraced them and bade them farewell, full of sorrow since I liked them 

and they liked me. I felt that I had left dear and faithful friends who had sacrificed their time 

in order to help me. They did it out of their own choice and asked for nothing except the 

approval of Allah, Praise be to Him. The Prophet (saw) said, "If Allah chooses you to guide 

one man (to the right path) , then that is worth more than all the riches on earth. " 

I left Iraq having spent twenty days among the Imams and their followers, and the time had 

passed like a nice dream from which the sleeper was loathe to awake. I left Iraq feeling sorry 

for the brevity of this period. and sorry to leave dear friends who were full of love for Ahl-al- 

Bayt. 

I left Iraq for the Hijaz seeking the House of Allah and the grave of the Master of the First 

and the Last (saw).

The Journey to Hijaz 

I arrived in Jeddah and met my friend al-Basheer, who was very pleased to see me and took 

me to his home and showed me the highest degree of generosity. We spent the time by going 

p: 82 

around in his car visiting places, and did the Umrah together, and we spent a few days 

together full of worshipping and other pious works. I apologized to my friend for being late 

due to my long stay in Iraq and told him about my new discovery, or rather new faith. He was 

open minded and well informed, so he said to me, "This is true, for I hear that they have some 

great learned scholars, but also they have many deviant groups that cause us considerable 

trouble during the pilgrimage. I asked him, "What are these problems they cause? " He said, 

"They pray around the graves and enter al-Baqee in groups crying and wailing and they carry 

with them pieces of stones on which they prostrate themselves; and if they visit the grave of 

our master al-Hamzah in Uhud, they make up a funeral ceremony, beating their chests and 

wailing as if al-Hamza had just died. Because of all that, the Saudi government prevented 

them from visiting the graves. " 

I laughed and said, "Is it because of that you judge them as being deviant from Islam? " He 

said, "That and other reasons. They come to visit the Prophets (saw) grave, but at the same 

time they stand around the graves of Abu Bakr and Umar and curse them, and some of them 

throw dirt and litter on the graves. " 

When I heard these allegations I remembered what my father had told me when he came back 

from the Pilgrimage that they throw dirt on the Prophet's (saw) grave. There is no doubt that 

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my father never saw them with his own eyes because he said, "We noticed some soldiers from 

the Saudi Army beating a few pilgrims with sticks and when we protested against their 

humiliating treatment of the pilgrims of the House of Allah, they answered us: These are not 

Muslims, they are Shia who brought dirt to throw on the Prophet's (saw) grave. My father 

said: We then left them at that, and cursed them and spat at them. " 

And now I heard from my Saudi friend who was born in al-Medinah al-Munawwarah that 

they came to visit the Prophet's (saw) grave but throw dirt on Abu Bakr's and Umar's graves. I 

became suspicious of the two stories, for I had been on pilgrimage and had seen the blessed 

room where the graves of Prophet (saw) and Abu Bakr and Umar are locked and nobody 

could come near them to touch the door or window or indeed to throw anything inside them 

for two reasons. Firstly there are no gaps, and secondly there is a strict guard with tough 

soldiers watching each door, and every one of them carries a whip in his hand to beat the 

pilgrims who dare to enter the room. It is very likely that some of the Saudi soldiers in their 

prejudice against the Shia accused them with these allegations to justify their aggression 

towards them or perhaps to provoke other Muslims to fight them and to spread rumours in 

their countries, that the Shia hate the Messenger of Allah and throw dirt on his grave, thus 

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killing two birds with one stone. 

A distinguished man whom I trusted told me the following story: We were going around the 

House of Allah when suddenly a young man suffered a severe pain in his stomach and 

vomited. The soldiers who were guarding the Black Stone started beating the man and 

accused him of defiling al- Kaba. He was taken out in a deplorable way then was tried and 

executed the same day. 

All these dramatic stories went round in my mind and I thought for a second about the 

justification of my Saudi friend for blaspheming the Shia, but could not find anything apart 

from the fact that they beat their chests and cry and prostrate themselves on stones, besides 

the fact that they pray by the graves. I asked myself, "Is this sufficient proof to blaspheme he 

who believes that there is no God but Allah and that Muhammad (saw) is His Servant and His 

Messenger? And he prays, gives alms, fasts Ramadan, visits the House of Allah on 

pilgrimage, does good deeds and prevents bad deeds. 

I did not want to antagonize my friend and to enter into a useless discussion with him so I 

briefly said, "May Allah enlighten us and enlighten them, and lead us on the right path, and 

may Allah curse the enemies of Islam and the Muslims. " 

Every time I went around the House of Allah during al- Umrah, and during my visit to the 

Blessed Mecca where I found only a few visitors, I prayed and asked Allah genuinely to open 

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my eyes and to lead me to the truth. I stood by the place of Ibrahim (a. s. ) and recited the 

following verse from the Qur'an: 

And strive hard in (the way of) Allah (such) a striving as is due to Him: He has 

chosen you and has not laid upon any hardship in religion; the faith of your 

father Ibrahim; he named you Muslims before and in this, that the Messenger 

may be a bearer of witness to you, and you may be bearers of witness to the 

people; therefore keep up prayer and pay the alms and hold fast by Allah, He is 

your Guardian, how excellent the Guardian and how excellent the Helper. 

(Holy Qur'an 22: 78). 

Then I started calling our master Ibrahim. or rather our forefather Ibrahim, as the Qur'an calls 

him: 

O Father, you, who called us Muslims. your off spring have disagreed after 

you, some of them became Jews, others Christians and some others became 

Muslims; and the Jews were divided among themselves into seventy one groups 

the Christians were divided into seventy two groups and the Muslims were 

divided into seventy-three groups; all of them are in darkness, as you told your 

son Muhammad (saw). but only one group stayed faithful to your oath. O 

Father! 

Is it the way that Allah wants it to be for His creation, as the fatalists believe, so Allah assigns 

to each soul its destiny, to be Jewish or Christian or Muslim or atheist or polytheist; or is it for 

the love of this world and deviation from Allah's commands, that they forget Allah, so that He 

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makes them forget themselves. 

I could not make myself believe in fatalism, and that Allah assigns a destiny to each 

individual, rather I tend to believe that Allah has created us and inspired us to understand 

what is right and what is wrong, and sent us His messengers to explain the complicated 

matters and to show us what is right or wrong. But man fell under the spell of this life's 

temptation and with all his arrogance, selfishness, ignorance, curiosity, stubbornness, injustice 

and tyranny deviated from the right path and followed the devil. 

He distanced himself from the Merciful, so he lost his way, and the Holy Qur'an expressed 

that in the best way in the words of Allah: 

Surely Allah does not do any injustice to men, but men are unjust to themselves 

(Holy Qur'an 10: 44). 

O our father Ibrahim! We cannot blame the Jews nor the Christians for not 

following the right path after they have been shown the way... Look at this 

nation which Allah rescued when He sent your son Muhammad (saw) to it, who 

took it out of the darkness and enlightened it and made it the best nation in the 

world. It too has been divided into too many warring groups, despite the fact that the Messenger of Allah (saw) has warned them and pressed them until he 

said, "It is forbidden for a Muslim not to speak to his brother Muslim more than 

three times. " 

Whatever happened to this nation which is divided into many small and 

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warring states, some of which do not even know one another. O our father 

Ibrahim, whatever happened to this nation... It used to be the best nation in the 

world; it ruled from the East to the West and introduced knowledge and 

enlightenment to other nations. 

Today it has reached a low ebb in its history; its land has been violated and its people have 

been expelled... Its al- Aqsa Mosque is occupied by a Zionist gang and no one is able to 

liberate it. If one visits their countries, one will find nothing except wretched poverty, 

terminal hunger, barren lands, diseases, bad manners, intellectual and technical backwardness, 

tyranny, persecution, and dirt. It is enough to compare the toilets in Western Europe to that in 

our countries, and see how much difference there is in hygiene between the two. It is ironic to 

find this low level of hygiene in our countries despite the fact that Islam has taught us that 

"cleanliness is a sign of faith, and dirt is a sign of the devil". Has the faith moved to Europe 

and the devil come to live in our midst? Why Muslims are frightened to declare their faith 

even in their own countries! Why the Muslim cannot even be the master of his own face, 

since he cannot grow his own beard! The Muslims cannot dress in Islamic costumes, whereas 

the sinful publicly drink alcohol and commit awful wrongs, and the Muslim cannot even 

correct them and show them the right way. In fact I have been informed that in some Islamic 

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countries like Egypt or Morocco there are fathers who send their daughters to sell their 

bodies, out of need and poverty, may there be no power or might but that of Allah the High 

and the Mighty. 

O God why have you abandoned this nation and left it in darkness? No, my God, please 

forgive me, for it is this nation that abandoned You and chose the devil's path, and you, with 

all Your wisdom and might said, and Your saying is the truth: 

And whoever turns himself away from the remembrance of the Merciful God, 

We appoint for him a devil, so he becomes his associate (Holy Qur'an 43: 36). 

There is no doubt that the deterioration of the Islamic nation to this low state of 

submissiveness and backwardness is a sign of its deviation from the right path, and a small 

minority or one group among seventy three would not effect the destiny of a whole nation. 

The Messenger of Allah (saw) said: 

You are commanded to do good deeds and to prevent any objectionable act; 

otherwise Allah will put your wicked ones in charge of you, then your good 

people would call, but no one will listen to them. 

O God, we believe in what you have sent us and we follow the Messenger, so will you 

consider us with the believers? O God, please do not change our hearts after you have 

enlightened us. Please God, have mercy on us, for you are the Giver. O God, we have unjustly 

treated ourselves, and if you do not forgive us and have mercy on us, then we will certainly be 

p: 89 

among the losers. 

I left for al-Medinah al-Munawwarah with a letter from my friend al- Basheer for one of his 

relatives there, so that I could reside with him during my stay in al-Medinah. 

He had already spoken to him on the phone, and when I arrived he received me warmly and 

put me up in his house. As soon as I arrived, I went to visit the grave of the Messenger of 

Allah (saw) , so I cleaned myself and put on my best clothes. There were only a few visitors in 

comparison to those who come during the season of Pilgrimage, therefore I managed to stand 

before the graves of the Messenger of Allah (saw) , Abu Bakr and Umar, something which I 

could not do during the Pilgrimage because of the crowds. As I tried to touch the doors for 

blessing, one of the guards rebuked me, and when I stayed for a long time to do my 

supplication and salutation, the guards ordered me to leave. I tried to speak to one of the 

guards, but it was in vain. 

I went back to the blessed court and sat down to read the Qur'an and to improve my recitation 

of it. I repeated the recitation several times because I felt as if the Messenger of Allah (saw) 

was listening to me. I said to myself: Is it conceivable that the Messenger (saw) is dead like 

any other dead person? If so, why do we say in our prayers "May peace be with you O great 

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prophet, and may Allah's mercy and blessings be upon you" in a form which sounds as if we 

were addressing him. The Muslims believe that our master al- Khidr (sa) is not dead, and that 

he would return the greetings of anybody who greets him. Also, the followers of the Sufi 

orders believe that their Shaykhs, Ahmed al-Tijani or Abdul Qadir al-Jilani come to see them 

openly and not in their sleep, so why are we reluctant to grant this noble deed to the 

Messenger of Allah, and he is the best of all mankind? But the reassuring thing is that the 

Muslims are not reluctant towards the Messenger of Allah except the Wahabis, from whom, 

for this and various other reasons, I started to feel estranged. I found their manners very 

coarse, because they treat other Muslims who disagree with their beliefs very harshly. I 

visited al-Baqee Cemetery once, and while I was calling for mercy upon the souls of Ahl al- 

Bayt, I noticed an old man standing near me crying, and because of that I realized he was a 

Shii. He positioned himself towards the Kaba and started to pray, and suddenly a soldier 

rushed towards him, as if he had been monitoring his moves, and kicked him while he was in 

a position of prostration. The man fell on his back unconscious, then the soldier started 

beating him and cursing him. I felt so sorry for the old man and thought he might have been 

killed and so I shouted at the soldier, "You must not do that! Why did you beat him while he 

p: 91 

was praying? " He rebuked me and said, "You be quiet and do not interfere, or else I will do to 

you what I have just done to him! " I realized that the soldier was full of aggression, so I 

avoided him, but I felt angry at myself for not being able to help those who are unjustly 

treated, and felt angry at the Saudis who treat the people as they like without any check or 

accountability for their actions. There were some visitors who witnessed the attack, but all 

that they could do was to say, "There is no power or might but in Allah. " Others said, "He 

deserves what he got because he was praying by the graves. " I could not control myself, so I 

said to that particular person, "Who told you that we must not pray by the graves? He 

answered, ' The Messenger of Allah (saw) prevented us from doing so. " I replied angrily. You 

are lying about the Messenger of Allah. " I became aware of the dangerous situation and 

feared that some of the visitors might call the soldier to attack me, so I said gently, if the 

Messenger of Allah prevented us from praying by the graves, why should millions of pilgrims 

and visitors disobey him and commit a sin by praying by the graves of the Prophet (saw) , Abu 

Bakr and Umar in the Holy Mosque of the Prophet and in many other mosques around the 

Islamic world. Even if praying by the graves is a sin, should it be prevented with such 

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harshness? Or should we prevent it by gentle action. Allow me to tell you the story of the man 

who urinated in the mosque of the Messenger of Allah and in his presence, and some of his Companions drew their swords to kill him, but he stopped them and said: Let him go and do 

not harm him, and pour some water on the place where he urinated. We are sent to make 

things easy and not difficult. We are sent to spread the good words and not to make people 

keep away from us. 

The Companions obeyed his orders, and the Messenger of Allah (saw) asked that man to 

come and sit next to him and spoke to him nicely. He explained to him that the place was the 

House of Allah and should not be dirtied, and the man seemed to have understood the point, 

for he later was seen in the mosque wearing his best and cleanest clothes. Allah - the Great - 

was right when He said to His Messenger (saw): 

If you had been rough and hard-hearted with them, they would certainly have 

dispersed from around you (Holy Qur'an 3: 159) 

Some of the visitors were moved when they heard the story, and one of them took me aside 

and asked me, "Where do you come from? " I said, "From Tunisia. " He then greeted me and 

said, "O brother, by Allah, take care of yourself and do not say such things here at all, and this 

is my advice to you, for the sake of Allah. " I became so angry and bitter about those who 

p: 93 

claim that they are the guardians of al- Haramayn and treat the guests of the Merciful with 

such harshness, so that no one is allowed to voice an opinion or to believe in a belief that does 

not suit their way of thinking, or indeed, to recite a saying (of the Prophet) that does not 

coincide with their own recitation of the sayings. 

I went back to the house of my new friend, whose name I did not then know, and he brought 

me some supper and sat in front of me and asked me where I had been. I told him my story 

from the beginning to the end and said, "My brother, I have started to be dissatisfied with the 

Wahabis and have begun to lean towards the Shia. " 

Suddenly the expression on his face changed and he said to me, "I warn you not to say 

anything like that again! " Then he left me without even finishing his supper, although I 

waited for him, until I went to sleep. I woke up next morning with the call for prayers from 

the Mosque of the Prophet (saw) , and found the food was untouched, which meant that my 

host had never come back. I became suspicious and feared that the man might have been a 

member of the secret service, so I left the house quickly and went to the Prophet's Mosque 

praying and worshipping. After the afternoon prayers I noticed a speaker giving a lesson to 

some worshippers, so I went towards him, and later learnt from one of the listeners that he 

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was the Qadi (magistrate) of al- Medinah. I listened to him as he was explaining some 

Qur'anic verses, and after he had finished his lesson and was about to leave, I stopped him 

and asked him, "Please Sir, could you give me some indications as regard the interpretation of 

the following Qur'anic verse: 

And Allah only desires to keep away the un-cleanness from you, O people of 

the House, and to purify you a (thorough) purifying. (Holy Qur'an 33: 33). 

I asked, "Who is being referred to as Ahl al-Bayt in this Qur'anic verse? " He answered me 

immediately, "The wives of the Prophet (saw) , and the verse started by mentioning them: 

O wives of the Prophet, you are not like any other women, if you fear God. 

Holy Qur'an (22: 32) 

I said to him, "The Shia Ulama say that it is Ali, Fatima, al-Hasan and al-Husayn, but of 

course I disagree with them because the beginning of the verse states: O wives of the Prophet. 

But they answered me as follows. That if the verse meant them [i. e. the wives of the Prophet], 

then the grammatical form would have been feminine throughout. But the Highest says: 

You are not (like any other women) if you fear God, be not soft in your speech, speak, stay in 

your houses, do not display your finery, keep up your prayers, give the alms, obey Allah and 

His Messenger. (All the above verbs are in the feminine form. ) 

And then, in the section of the verse which refers to Ahl al-Bayt, the form changes, so He 

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says: To keep away the uncleanness... and to purify you (in the masculine grammatical form). 

He removed his spectacles and looked at me then said, "Beware of these poisonous ideas, the 

Shias change the words of Allah in the way they like, and they have many verses about Ali 

and his off-spring that we do not know. In fact they have a special Qur'an. They call it The 

Qur'an of Fatimah. I warn you not to be deceived by them. " 

I replied, "Do not worry Sir, I am on my guard, and I know many things about them, but I just 

wanted to find out. " He asked, "Where are you from? " I said, "From Tunisia. " He asked, 

"What is your name? " I replied, "Al-Tijani. " He laughed with arrogance and said,"Do you 

know who Ahmed al-Tijani was? " I answered, "He was the Shaykh of a Sufi order. " He said, 

"He was an agent of the French Colonial authorities, and the French Colonial system 

established itself in Algeria and Tunisia with his help, and if you visit Paris go to the National 

Bibliothique and read for yourself in the French Dictionary under "A" and you will find 

France gave the Legion de Honour to Ahmed al-Tijani who gave them incalculable help. " 

I was surprised at what he said, but I thanked him and bade him farewell. 

I stayed in al-Medinah for a whole week, and I prayed forty prayers and visited all the holy 

places. During my stay there I made very careful observations, and as a result I became more 

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and more critical of the Wahabis. 

I left al-Medinah al-Munawwarah and went to Jordan to see some friends I had met while on 

my way to the pilgrimage, as I indicated before. I stayed with them for three days, and found 

them full of hatred towards the Shia, more so than the people in Tunisia. 

There were the same stories and the same rumours, and everyone I asked for proof, answered 

that "he had heard about them", but I found nobody who had had contact with the Shia or read 

a book by the Shia or even met a Shii in all his life. 

From Jordan I went to Syria, and in Damascus I visited the Umayyad Mosque, next to which 

is the place where the head of our master al-Husayn is resting; also I visited the grave of 

Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi and our lady Zaynab bint Ali ibn Abi Talib. 

From Beirut I took a ship that was going directly to Tripoli. The journey lasted for four days, 

during which I relaxed physically and mentally. I reviewed the whole trip in my mind and 

concluded that I had developed an inclination and respect towards the Shia; in the meantime I 

started to resent and keep away from the sinister Wahabis. I thanked Allah for what He had 

given me and for His care. and asked Him, Praise he to Him the Highest, to lead me to the 

right path. 

I arrived home eager to meet my family and friends. and found them all well. I was surprised 

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when I entered my house and found many books had arrived home before me. hut I knew 

where they had come from. When I opened these books, which filled the whole house, I felt 

grateful to those people who had not broken their promises. In fact the books they sent me by 

post exceeded the number of books that had been given to me as presents there.

The Beginning of the Research 

I was very grateful for the books which I organized and kept in a special place, which called 

the library. I rested for a few days, and received the time-table for the new academic year, and found out that I had to work for three consecutive days, and that for the rest of the week I was off- duty. 

I started reading the books, so I read "The Beliefs of al-Imamiyya" and "The Origin and 

Principles of al-Shia", and felt that my mind was at ease with the beliefs and ideas of the Shia. 

Then I read "al-Murajaat [correspondences]" by al-Sayyid Sharaf al-Din al-Musawi. As soon 

as I read the first few pages, I became engrossed in it and could not leave it unless it was 

necessary, and even took it with me to the institute. I was surprised at the straight forward 

clarity of the Shii scholar when he solved problems that appeared complicated to the Sunni 

scholar from al-Azhar. I found my objective in the book, because it is not like any ordinary 

book where the author writes whatever he likes without criticism or discussion, for "al- 

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Murajaat" is in the form of a dialogue between two scholars, who belong to a different creed, 

and are critical of each other's statement. Both base their analysis on the two important 

references for all Muslims: The Holy Qur'an and the Right Sunnah which is approved in 

Sihah al-Sittah. I found that there was something common between myself and the idea of the book: for I was an investigator searching for the truth, and was willing to accept it wherever it was found. Therefore I found this book immensely useful, and I owe it a great deal. 

I was astonished when I found him talking about the refusal of some of the Companions to 

comply with the orders of the Prophet (saw) , and he gave many examples, including the 

incident of "Raziyat Yawm al-Khamis (The Calamity of Thursday) ", for I could not imagine 

that our master Umar ibn al-Khattab had disagreed with the orders of the Messenger of Allah 

(saw) and accused him of Hajr (talking irrationally) , and I thought at the beginning that it was 

just a story from the Shia books. However, I was even more astonished when I noticed that 

the Shii scholar made his reference to the incident in the "Sahih of al-Bukhari" and the "Sahih 

of Muslim". 

I travelled to the Capital, and from there I bought the "Sahih of al-Bukhari", the "Sahih of 

Muslim", the "Mosnad of Imam Ahmed", the "Sahih of al-Tirmidhi", the "Muwatta of Imam 

Malik" and other famous books. I could not wait to get back to the house and read these 

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books, so throughout the journey between Tunis and Gafsah I sat in the bus looking through 

the pages of al-Bukhari's book searching for the incident of "The great misfortune of 

Thursday" and hoping that I would never find it. 

Nevertheless, I found it and read it many times; and there it was, exactly as it has been cited 

by al-Sayyid Sharaf al-Din. 

I tried to deny the incident in its entirety, and could not believe that our master Umar had 

played such a dangerous role; but how could I deny it since it was mentioned in our Sihahs; 

the Sihahs of al-Sunnah, in whose contents we are obliged to believe, so if we doubt them or 

deny some of them, it means that we abandon all our beliefs. If the Shia scholar had referred 

to their books, I would not have believed what he said, but he was referring to the Sihahs of al- Sunnah, which could not be challenged, because we are committed to believe that they are the 

most authentic books after the Book of Allah. Therefore, the issue is a compelling one, 

because if we doubt these Sihahs we are left with hardly any of the rules and regulations of 

Islam to rely on. This is because the rules and regulations which are mentioned in the Book of 

Allah take the form of general concepts rather than details. We are far from the time of the 

Message, and have thus inherited the rules of our religion through our fathers and 

grandfathers with the help of these Sihahs, which cannot be ignored. As I was about to 

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embark on long and difficult research, I promised myself to depend only on the correct 

Hadiths that are agreed by both the Shia and the Sunnah, and that I would drop all the sayings which are mentioned exclusively by one group or the other. Only through this just method could I keep myself safe from emotional factors, sectarian fanaticism and national tendencies. 

In the meantime I would be able to pass through the road of doubt and reach the mountain of 

certainty, and that is the correct path of Allah.

The begining of the detailed study 

The Companions of the Prophet as seen by the Shia and the Sunnis

The Companions of the Prophet as seen by the Shia and the Sunnis 

One of the most important studies which I consider to be the cornerstone for all the studies 

that lead to the truth is the research into the life of the Companions, their affairs, their deeds 

and their beliefs; because they were the foundations of everything, and from them we took the principles of our religion, and they enlightened our darkness, so that we can see the rules of Allah. Many Muslim scholars- convinced of the above - embarked on the study of the lives 

and deeds of the Companions, among them: "Usd al-Ghabah fi Tamyeez al-Sahabah", and "al- 

Isabah fi Maarifat al-Sahabah", and "Mizan al-I'tidal" and various other books which look 

critically and analytically at the lives of the Companions, but all from the point of view of the 

Sunnis. 

There is a slight problem here, and that is that most of the early scholars wrote in the way 

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which suited the Umayyad and Abbasid rulers who were well known for their opposition to 

Ahl al-Bayt and all their followers. Therefore, it is not fair to depend on their works alone 

without reference to the works of the other Muslim scholars who were persecuted and 

ultimately killed by these governments simply because they were followers of Ahl al-Bayt 

and the cause behind the revolutions against the oppressive and deviant authorities. 

The main problem with all that was the Companions themselves, for they disagreed about the 

wish of the Messenger of Allah (saw) to write them a document which would help them to 

remain on the right path until the Day of Judgement. This disagreement deprived the Islamic 

nation of a unique virtue, and has thrown it into darkness until it was divided and plagued 

with internal quarrels and finally ended up as a spent force. 

It was they who disagreed on the issue of the Caliphate [the successorship of the Prophet], 

and were divided between a ruling and an opposing party, thus dividing the nation into the 

followers of Ali and the followers of Muawiyah. It was they who differed in the 

interpretations of the Book of Allah and the sayings of His Messenger, which led to the 

creation of the various creeds, groups and subgroups; and from them came many scholars of 

scholastic theology and schools of thoughts and philosophies inspired by political ambitions 

with one aim in mind and that was to obtain power. 

The Muslims would not have been divided and in disagreement had it not been for the 

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Companions, for every disagreement that has been created in the past, or is being created at 

the present time is due to their disagreement about the Companions. There is one God, one 

Qur'an, one Messenger and one Qiblah, and they all agree on that, but the disagreement 

among the Companions started on the first day after the death of the Messenger (saw) , in the Saqifah [house] of Bani Saidah, and has continued up to the present day, and will continue for as long as Allah wills it. 

Through my discussions with the Shiite scholars, I discovered that, in their views, the 

Companions were divided into three categories: 

The first category included the good Companions who knew Allah and His Messenger truly 

well, and they acclaimed him [the Messenger] to the last moments of their lives. They were 

truly his friends by words and deeds, and they never abandoned him, but rather stood their 

ground with him. Allah - the most High - praised them in many places in His Holy Book, and 

the Messenger of Allah (saw) also praised them in many places. This group of Companions 

are mentioned by the Shia with reverence and respect, they are also mentioned by the Sunnis 

with the same reverence and respect. 

The second category were the Companions who embraced Islam and followed the Messenger 

of Allah (saw) either through choice or through fear, and they always showed their gratitude 

to the Messenger of Allah (saw) for their Islam. However, they hurt the Messenger of Allah 

(saw) on a few occasions, and did not always follow his orders, in fact they often challenged 

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him and challenged the clear text with their points of view, until Allah, through the Holy 

Qur'an, had to intervene by rebuking them or threatening them. Allah exposed them in many 

Qur'anic verses, also the Messenger of Allah (saw) warned them in many of his sayings. The 

Shia mention this group of Companions only because of their deeds, and without respect or 

reverence. 

The third type of Companions were the hypocrites who accompanied the Messenger of Allah 

(saw) to deceive him. They pretended to be Muslims but inside themselves they were bent on 

blasphemy and on deceiving Islam and the Muslims as a whole. Allah has revealed a 

complete Surah in the Qur'an about them, and mentioned them in many other places, and 

promised them the lowest level in Hell. Also the Messenger of Allah (saw) mentioned them 

and issued warnings about them, and even informed some of his close friends about their 

names and characteristics. The Shia and the Sunnis agree in cursing this group of Companions 

and have nothing to do with them. 

There was a special group of Companions who distinguished themselves from the others by 

being relatives of the Prophet (saw) , in addition to having possessed ethical and spiritual 

virtues and personal distinctions from Allah and His Messenger that no one else was 

honoured with. These were Ahl al-Bayt (the Prophet's Family) whom Allah cleansed and 

purified, and ordered us to pray for them in the same way as he ordered us to pray for His 

Messenger. He made it obligatory for us to pay them one fifth of our income, and that every 

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Muslim must love them as a reward for the Muhammadan Message. They are our leaders and 

we must obey them; and they are people firmly rooted in knowledge who know the 

interpretation of the Holy Qur'an and they know the decisive verses of it, as well as those 

verses which are allegorical. 

They are the people of al-Dhikr whom the Messenger of Allah equated with the Holy Qur'an 

in his saying "the two weighty things" (al-Thaqalayn) , and ordered us to adhere to them [2], 

He equated them to Noah's Ark: whoever joined it was saved, and whoever left it drowned 

[3]. The Companions knew the position of Ahl al-Bayt and revered them and respected them. 

The Shia follow them and put them above any of the Companions, and to support that they 

have many clear texts as proofs. 

The Sunnis respect and revere the Companions but do not accept the above classification and 

do not believe that some of the Companions were hypocrites, rather, they see the Companions 

as being the best people after the Messenger of Allah. If they classify the Companions then it 

would be according to their seniority and their merits and their services to Islam. They put the 

Rightly Guided Caliphs in the first class, then the first six of the ten who were promised with 

heaven, according to them. Therefore when they pray for the Prophet (saw) and his household 

they attach with them all the Companions without exception. 

This is what I know from the Sunni scholars, and that is what I heard from the Shii scholars 

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regarding the classification of the Companions; and that is what made me start my detailed 

study with the issue of the Companions. I promised my God - if He led me on the right path - 

to rid myself from emotional bias and to be neutral and objective and to listen to what the two 

sides said, then to follow what was best, basing my conclusions on two premises: 

1. A sound and a logical premise: that is to say that I would only depend upon what 

everybody is in agreement with, regarding the commentary on the Book of Allah, and the 

correct parts of the honourable Sunnah of the Prophet. 

2. The mind: for it is the greatest gift that Allah has given to human beings, and through it He 

honoured them and distinguished them from the rest of creation. Thus, when Allah protests about what His worshippers do, He asks them to use their minds in the best possible way, and 

He says: Do they not understand? Do they not comprehend? Do they not see?... etc. " 

Let my Islam primarily be the belief in Allah, His angels, His Books and His messengers; and 

that Muhammad is His servant and His Messenger; and that the Religion of Allah is Islam; 

and that I will never depend on any of the Companions, regardless of his relation to the 

Messenger or his position, for I am neither Umayyad nor Abbasid nor Fatimid, and I am 

neither Sunni nor Shii, and I have no enmity towards Abu Bakr or Umar or Uthman or Ali or 

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even Wahshi, the killer of our master al-Hamzah, as long as he became a Muslim, and the 

Messenger of Allah forgave him. Since I had forced myself into this study in order to reach 

the truth, and since I had rid myself, sincerely, from all my previous beliefs, I decided to start, 

with the blessing of Allah, by considering the attitudes of the Companions.

The Companions at the Peace Treaty of al Hudaibiyah 

Briefly the story is as follows: 

In the sixth year after the Hijrah (emigration of the Prophet from Mecca to Madinah) , the 

Messenger of Allah with one thousand and four hundred of his Companions marched towards 

Mecca to do the Umrah. They camped in "Dhi al-Halifah" where the Prophet (saw) ordered 

his Companions to put down their arms and wear the Ihram (white gowns worn especially for 

the purpose of the pilgrimage and the Umrah) , then they dispatched al-Hady (an offering for 

sacrifice) to inform Quraysh that he was coming as a visitor to do the Umrah and not as a 

fighter. But Quraysh, with all its arrogance, feared that its reputation would be dented if the 

other Arabs heard that Muhammad had entered Mecca by force. Therefore, they sent a 

delegation led by Suhayl ibn Amr ibn Abd Wadd al-Amiri to see the Prophet and ask him to 

turn back that year, but said that they would allow him to visit Mecca for three days the year 

after. In addition to that, they put down some harsh conditions, which were accepted by the 

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Messenger of Allah as the circumstances warranted such acceptance, and as revealed to him 

by his God, Glory and Might be to Him. 

A few of the Companions did not like the Prophet's action and opposed him very strongly, 

and Umar ibn al-Khattab came and said to him, "Are you not truly the Prophet of Allah? " He 

answered,"Yes, I am. " Umar asked, "Are we not right and our enemy wrong? " The Prophet 

answered, "Yes. " Umar asked, "Why do we then disgrace our religion? " The Messenger of 

Allah (saw) said, "I am the Messenger of Allah and I will never disobey Him and He is my 

support. " Umar asked, "Did you not tell us that we would come to the House of Allah and go 

around it? " The Prophet answered, "Yes, and did I tell you that we were coming this year? " 

Umar answered, "No. " The Prophet said, "Then you are coming to it and going around it. " 

Umar later went to Abu Bakr and asked him, "O Abu Bakr, is he not truly the Prophet of 

Allah? " He answered, "Yes. " Umar then asked him the same questions he had asked the 

Messenger of Allah, and Abu Bakr answered him with the same answers and added, "O Umar 

he is the Messenger of Allah, and he will not disobey his God, Who is his support, so hold on 

to him. " 

When the Prophet had finished signing the treaty, he said to his Companions "Go and 

slaughter (sacrifices) and shave your heads. " And by Allah one of them stood up until he had 

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said it three times. When nobody obeyed his orders, he went to his quarters, then came out 

and spoke to no one, and slaughtered a young camel with his own hands, and then asked his 

barber to shave his head. When the Companions saw all that, they went and slaughtered 

(sacrifices) , and shaved one another, until they nearly killed one another [4]. 

This is the summary of the story of peace treaty of al-Hudaibiyah, which is one of the events 

whose details both the Shia and Sunnah agree upon, and it is cited by many historians and 

biographers of the Prophet such as al-Tabari, Ibn al-Athir, Ibn Saad, al-Bukhari and Muslim. 

I stopped here, for I could not read this kind of material without feeling rather surprised about 

the behaviour of those Companions towards their Prophet. Could any sensible man accept 

some people's claims that the Companions, may Allah bless them, always obeyed and 

implemented the orders of the Messenger of Allah (saw) , for these incidents expose their lies, 

and fall short of what they want! Could any sensible man imagine that such behaviour 

towards the Prophet is an easy or acceptable matter or even an excusable one! Allah, the 

Almighty, said: 

But no! By your God! They do not believe (in reality) until they make you a 

judge of that which has become a matter of disagreement among them, and then 

do not and any straightness in their hearts as to what you have decided and 

submit with entire submission. (Holy Qur'an 4: 65) 

Did Umar ibn al-Khattab succumb to them and find no difficulty in accepting the order of the 

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Messenger (saw)? Or was he reluctant to accept the order of the Prophet? Especially when he 

said, "Are you not truly the Prophet of Allah? Did you not tell us?... " etc, and did he succumb 

after the Messenger of Allah gave him all these convincing answers? No he was not 

convinced by his answers, and he went and asked Abu Bakr the same questions. But did he 

succumb after Abu Bakr answered him and advised him to hold on to the Prophet? I do not 

know if he actually succumbed to all that and was convinced by the answers of the Prophet 

(saw) and Abu Bakr! For why did he say about himself, "For that I did so many things.. ". 

Allah and His Messenger know the things which were done by Umar. 

Furthermore, I do not know the reasons behind the reluctance of the rest of the Companions 

after that, when the Messenger of Allah said to him, "Go and slaughter [sacrifices] and shave 

your heads. " Nobody listened to his orders even when he repeated them three times, and then 

in vain. 

Allah, be praised! I could not believe what I had read. Could the Companions go to that extent 

in their treatment of the Messenger. If the story had been told by the Shia alone, I would have 

considered it a lie directed towards the honourable Companions. But the story has become so 

well known that all the Sunni historians refer to it. As I had committed myself to accept what 

had been agreed on by all parties, I found myself resigned and perplexed. What could I say? 

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What excuse could I find for those Companions who had spent nearly twenty years with the 

Messenger of Allah, from the start of the Mission to the day of al-Hudaibiyah, and had seen 

all the miracles and enlightenment of the Prophethood? Furthermore the Qur'an was teaching 

them day and night how they should behave in the presence of the Messenger, and how they 

should talk to him, to the extent that Allah had threatened to ruin their deeds if they raised 

their voices above his voice.

The Companions and the Raziyat Yawm al Khamis (The Calamity of Thursday) 

Briefly the story is as follows: 

The Companions were meeting in the Messenger's house, three days before he died. He 

ordered them to bring him a bone and an ink pot so that he could write a statement for them 

which would prevent them from straying from the right path, but the Companions differed 

among themselves, and some of them disobeyed the Prophet and accused him of talking 

nonsense. The Messenger of Allah became very angry and ordered them out of his house 

without issuing any statement. 

This is the story in some details: 

Ibn Abbas said: Thursday, and what a Thursday that was! The Messenger's pain became very 

severe, and he said, "Come here, I will write you a document which will prevent you from 

straying from the right path. " But Umar said that the Prophet was under the spell of the pain, 

and that they had the Qur'an which was sufficient being the Book of Allah. Ahl al-Bayt then 

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differed and quarrelled amongst themselves, some of them agreeing with what the Prophet 

said, while others supported Umar's view. When the debate became heated and the noise 

became louder, the Messenger of Allah said to them, "Leave me alone. " 

Ibn Abbas said: The disaster was that the disagreement among the Companions prevented the Messenger from writing that document for them [5]. 

The incident is correct and there is no doubt about its authenticity, for it was cited by the Shii 

scholars and their historians in their books, as well as by the Sunni scholars and historians in 

their books. As I was committed to consider the incident, I found myself bewildered by 

Umar's behaviour regarding the order of the Messenger of Allah. And what an order it was! 

"To prevent the nation from going astray", for undoubtedly that statement would have had 

something new in it for the Muslims and would have left them without a shadow of doubt. 

Now let us leave the points of view of the Shia, that is that the Messenger wanted to write the name of Ali as his successor, and that Umar realized this, so he prevented it. Perhaps because they do not convince us initially with that hypothesis. But can we find a sensible explanation 

to this hurtful incident which angered the Messenger so much that he ordered them to leave, 

and made Ibn Abbas cry until he made the stones wet from his tears and called it a "great 

disaster"? The Sunnis say that Umar recognized that the Prophet's illness was advancing, so 

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he wanted to comfort him and relieve him from any pressure. 

This type of reasoning would not be accepted by simple-minded people, let alone by the 

scholars. I repeatedly tried to find an excuse for Umar. but the circumstances surrounding the 

incident prevented me from finding an excuse. Even if I changed the words "He is talking 

nonsense" - God forbid - to "the pain has overcome him", I could not find any justification for 

Umar when he said, "You have the Qur'an, and it is sufficient being the Book of Allah. " Did 

he know the Qur'an better than the Messenger of Allah, for whom it was revealed? Or was the Messenger of Allah - God forbid - unaware of what he was? Or did he seek, through his 

order, to create division and disagreement among the Companions - God forbid. Even if the 

Sunni reasoning was right, then the Messenger of Allah would have realized the good will of 

Umar and thanked him for that and perhaps asked him to stay, instead of feeling angry at him 

and telling them to leave his house. May I ask why did they abide by his order when he asked 

them to leave the room and did not say then that he was "talking nonsense"? Was it because 

they had succeeded in their plot to prevent the Prophet from writing the document, so that 

there was no need for them to stay any longer? Thus, we find them creating noise and 

difference in the presence of the Messenger, and divided into two parties: one agreeing with 

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the Messenger of Allah about writing that document, while the other agreed with Umar "that 

he was talking nonsense". 

The matter is not just concerned with Umar alone, for if it was so, the Messenger of Allah 

would have persuaded him that he could not be talking nonsense and that the pain could not 

overcome him in matters of the nation's guidance and of preventing it from going astray. But 

the situation became much more serious, and Umar found some supporters who seemingly 

had a prior agreement on their stand, and so they created the noise and the disagreement 

among themselves and forgot, or perhaps pretended to forget, the words of Allah - the Most 

High: 

O You who believe! Do not raise your voices above the voice of the Prophet, 

and do not speak loud to him as you speak loud to one another, lest your deeds 

become null while you do not perceive (Holy Qur'an 49: 2). 

In this incident they went beyond raising their voices and talking loud to accusing the 

Messenger of Allah of talking nonsense - God forbid - then they increased their noise and 

differences until it became a battle of words in his presence. 

I think the majority of the Companions were with Umar, and that is why the Messenger of 

Allah found it useless to write the document, because he knew that they would not respect 

him and would not abide by the command of Allah by not raising their voices in his presence, 

and if they were rebellious against the command of Allah, then they would never obey the 

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order of His Messenger. 

Thus, the wisdom of the Messenger ruled that he was not to write the document because it 

had been attacked during his lifetime, let alone after his death. 

The critics would say that he was talking nonsense, and perhaps they would doubt some of the orders he passed whilst on his death-bed, for they were convinced that he was talking 

nonsense. 

I ask Allah for forgiveness, and renounce what has been said in the presence of the holy 

Messenger, for how could I convince myself and my free conscience that Umar ibn al- 

Khattab was acting spontaneously, whereas his friends and others who were present at the 

incident cried until their tears wet the stones, and named the incident "the misfortune of the 

Muslims". I therefore decided to reject all the justifications given to explain the incident, and 

even tried to deny it so that I could relax and forget about the tragedy, but all the books 

referred to it and accepted its authenticity but could not provide sound justification for it. 

I tend to agree with the Shii point of view in explaining the incident because I find it logical 

and very coherent. 

I still remember the answer which al-Sayyid Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr gave me when I asked 

him, "How did our master Umar understand, among all the Companions what the Messenger 

wanted to write, namely the appointment of Ali as his successor- as you claim - which shows 

that he was a clever man? " 

Al-Sayyid al-Sadr said: Umar was not the only one who anticipated what the Messenger was 

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going to write. In fact most of the people who were present then understood the situation the 

same way as Umar did, because the Messenger of Allah had previously indicated the issue 

when he said, "I shall leave you with two weighty things: the Book of Allah and the members 

of my Family (Ahl al-Bayt) and their descendants, if you follow them, you will never go 

astray after me. " And during his illness he said to them, "Let me write you a document, if you 

follow its contents, you will never go astray. " Those who were present, including Umar, 

understood that the Messenger of Allah wanted to reiterate, in writing, what he had already 

said in Ghadir Khum, and that was to follow the Book of Allah and Ahl al-Bayt and that Ali 

was the head of it. It was as if the holy Prophet (saw) was saying, "Follow the Qur'an and 

Ali. " He said similar things on many occasions, as has been stated by many historians.

The majority of Quraysh did not like Ali because he was young and because he smashed their 

arrogance and had killed their heroes; but they did not dare oppose the Messenger of Allah, as they had done at the "Treaty of al-Hudaibiyah', and when the Messenger prayed for Abdullah 

ibn Abi al- Munafiq, and on many other incidents recorded by history. This incident was one 

of them, and you see that the opposition against writing that document during the Prophets 

illness encouraged some of those who were present to be insolent and make so much noise in 

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his presence. 

That answer came in accordance with what the saying meant. But Umar's statement, "You 

have the Qur'an, and it is sufficient, being the Book of Allah" was not in accordance with the 

saying which ordered them to follow the Book of Allah and the Household [Ahl al-Bayt] 

together. It looks as if he meant to say, "We have the Book of Allah, and that is sufficient for 

us, therefore there is no need for Ahl al-Bayt. " I could not see any other reasonable 

explanation to the incident other than this one, unless it was meant to say, 'Obey Allah but not His Messenger. " And this argument is invalid and not sensible. If I put my prejudices and my emotions aside and base my judgement on a clean and free mind, I would tend towards the first analysis, which stops short of accusing Umar of being the first one to reject the Prophet's 

Tradition (al-Sunnah) when he said, "It is sufficient for us, being the Book of Allah". 

Then if there were some rulers who rejected the Prophet's Traditions claiming that it was 

"contradictory", they only followed an earlier example in the history of Islam. However, I do 

not want to burden Umar alone with the responsibility for that incident and the subsequent 

deprivation of the nation of the guidance. To be fair to him, I suggest that the responsibility 

should be borne by him and those Companions who were with him and who supported him in 

his opposition to the command of the Messenger of Allah. 

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I am astonished by those who read this incident and feel as if nothing happened, despite that it was one of the "great misfortunes" as Ibn Abbas called it. My astonishment is even greater 

regarding those who try hard to preserve the honour of a Companion and to correct his 

mistake, even if at the cost of the Prophet's dignity and honour and at the cost of Islam and its foundations. 

Why do we escape from the truth and try to obliterate it when it is not in accordance with our 

whims... why do not we accept that the Companions were human like us, and had their own 

whims, prejudices and interests, and could commit mistakes or could be right? 

But my astonishment fades when I read the Book of Allah in which He tells us the stories of 

the prophets- may Allah bless them and grant them peace - and the disobedience they faced 

from their people despite all the miracles they produced.. Our God! Make not our hearts to 

deviate after thou hast guided us aright, and grant us from Your Mercy; surely You are the 

Most Liberal Giver. 

I began to understand the background to the Shia's attitude towards the second Caliph, whom they charge with the responsibility for many tragic events in the history of Islam, starting from "Raziyat Yawm al-Khamis" when the Islamic nation was deprived of the written 

guidance which the Messenger wanted to write for them. The inescapable fact is that the 

sensible man who knew the truth before he encountered the men seeks an excuse for the Shiasin this matter, but there is nothing we can say to convince those who only judge truth through men. 

The Companions in the Military Detachment under Usamah 

The story in brief is as follows: 

The Prophet (saw) organized an army to be sent to Asia Minor two days before his death. He 

appointed Usamah ibn Zayd ibn Haritha, (who was eighteen years old) , as its commander in 

chief, then the holy Prophet attached some important men, both Muhajireen and Ansar, to this expedition, such as Abu Bakr, Umar, Abu Obaydah and other well-known Companions. 

Some people criticized the Prophet for appointing Usamah as the commander in chief of that 

army, and asked how could he have appointed so young a man as their commander. In fact the same people had previously criticized the Prophet for appointing Usamah's father as an army commander before him. They went on criticizing until the Prophet became so angry that he left his bed, feverish and with his head bandaged, with two men supporting him and his feet barely touching the ground (may my parents be sacrificed for him). He ascended the pulpit, praised Allah highly then said, 

O People! I have been informed that some of you object to my appointing 

Usamah as commander of the detachment. You now object to my appointing 

Usamah as commander in chief as you objected to me appointing his father 

commander in chief before him. By Allah, his father was certainly competent 

for his appointment as commander in chief and his son is also competent for the 

appointment [6]. 

Then he exhorted them to start without further delay and kept saying, 

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"Send the detachment of Usamah; deploy the detachment of Usamah, send forward the 

detachment of Usamah. " He kept repeating the exhortations but the Companions were still 

sluggish, and camped by al-Jurf. 

Events like that made me ask, "What is this insolence towards Allah and His Messenger? 

Why all that disobedience towards the orders of the blessed Messenger who was so caring and kind to all the believers? " 

I could not imagine, nor indeed could anybody else, an acceptable explanation for all that 

disobedience and insolence. As usual, when I read about those events which touch on the 

integrity of the Companions, I try to deny or ignore them, but it is impossible to do so when 

all the historians and scholars, Shia and Sunnis, agree on their authenticity. 

I have promised my God to be fair, and I shall never be biased in favour of my creed, and will 

never use anything but the truth as my criterion. But the truth here is so bitter, and the holy 

Prophet (s. a. w. ) said, "Say the truth even if it is about yourself, and say the truth even if it is 

bitter... " The truth in this case is that the Companions who criticized the appointment of 

Usamah disobeyed all the clear texts that could not be doubted or misinterpreted, and there is no excuse for that, although some people make flimsy excuses in order to preserve the 

integrity of the Companions and "the virtuous ancestors". But the free and sensible person 

would not accept such feeble excuses, unless he is one of those who cannot comprehend any 

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saying, or is perhaps one of those who are blinded by their own prejudice to the extent that 

they cannot differentiate between the obligatory task that must be obeyed and the prohibition 

that must be avoided. I thought deeply to find an acceptable excuse for those people, but 

without success. I read the points of view of the Sunnis which provide us with an excuse 

based on the fact that these people were the elders of Quraysh, and were among the early 

followers of Islam, whereas Usamah was a young man who had not fought in the decisive 

battles that gave Islam its glory, such as Badr, Uhud and Hunayn; and that he was a young 

man with no experience of life when the Messenger of Allah appointed him military 

commander. Furthermore, they thought that human nature, by its inclination, makes it 

difficult for elderly people to be led by young men, therefore they [i. e. the Companions] 

criticized the appointment and wanted the Messenger of Allah to appoint a prominent and 

respectable Companion. 

It is an excuse which is not based on any rational or logical premise, and any Muslim who 

reads the Qur'an and understands its rules must reject such an excuse, because Allah- the 

Almighty - says: "Whatever the Messenger gives you, accept it, and from whatever he forbids 

you, keep back" (Holy Qur'an 59: 7). 

"And it behooves not a believing man and a believing woman that they should have any 

choice in their matter when Allah and His Messenger have decided a matter; and whoever 

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disobeys Allah and His Messenger, he surely strays off a manifest straying" (Holy Qur'an 

33: 36). 

So what kind of an excuse could any rational person accept after reading all these clear texts, 

and what can I say about people who angered the Messenger of Allah, when they knew that 

the Messenger's anger is Allah's anger. They accused him of talking "nonsense", and they 

shouted and disagreed in his presence when he was ill (may my parents be sacrificed for him) , 

until he ordered them to leave his room. That did not seem to be enough for them, and instead of returning to the right path and asking Allah's forgiveness for what they had done to His Messenger, and asking the Messenger for forgiveness as the Qur'an taught them, they went on criticizing him, despite all the care and kindness he had for them. They did not appreciate him 

or respect him, and two days after having accused him of talking "nonsense", they criticized 

him for appointing Usamah as military commander. They forced him to come out in the 

appalling condition which the historians describe. Due to the severity of his illness, he had to 

walk with the support of two men, then he had to swear by Allah that Usamah was a 

competent commander for the army. Furthermore, the Messenger informed us that they had 

criticized him previously for appointing his father as a commander, which indicates that these 

people had had many previous confrontations with him, and that they were not willing to 

obey his orders or accept his judgement, rather, they were prepared to oppose him and 

p: 122 

confront him, even if such behaviour went against the rules of Allah and His Messenger. 

What leads us to believe that there was open opposition (to the orders of the Prophet) , was 

that in spite of all the anger shown by the Messenger of Allah, and the fact that he himself 

tied the flag with his noble hand to the post and commanded them to march immediately, they 

were sluggish and reluctant to move, and did not go until he had died (may my parents be 

sacrificed for him). The Prophet (s. a. w. ) died feeling sorry for his unfortunate nation, which he 

feared would go backwards and end up in hell, and no one would be saved except a few, and 

the Messenger of Allah described them as a handful. 

I am surprised that those Companions angered the Prophet on that Thursday and accused him of talking "nonsense", and said, "It is sufficient for us that we have the Book of Allah", when the Holy Qur'an states: "Say if you love Allah, then follow me and Allah will love you" (Holy Qur'an 3: 31). As if they were more knowledgeable about the Book of Allah and its rules than he to whom it had been revealed. There they were, two days after that great misfortune, and 

two days before he [the holy Prophet] went up to meet his High Companion, angering him 

even more by criticizing him for appointing Usamah, and not obeying his orders. Whereas he 

was ill and bed-ridden in the first misfortune, in the second one he had to come out, with his 

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head bandaged and covered by a blanket and supported by two men with his feet barely on the ground, and address them from the top of the pulpit. He started his speech with the profession of the unity of Allah and praised Him in order to make them feel that he was not talking nonsense, then he informed them about what he knew regarding their criticism of his orders. 

Furthermore, he reminded them of an incident which had occurred four years previously, in 

which he was criticized by them. After all that, did they really think that he was talking 

nonsense or that his illness had overcome him so that he was unaware of what he was saying? 

Praise and thanks be to You, Allah, how did these people dare oppose Your Messenger. They 

disagreed with him when he signed the peace treaty, they opposed him very strongly even 

when he ordered them to make the sacrifice and shave their heads, and even repeated it three times although no one cared to obey; and again they pulled him by his shirt to prevent him from praying for Abdullah ibn Ubay and said to him, "Allah forbade you from praying for the hypocrites! " As if they were teaching him what had been revealed to him, when You said in Your Holy Qur'an: "We have revealed to you the reminder that you may make clear to men 

what has been revealed to them" (Holy Qur'an 16: 44). 

And You said: "We have revealed the Book to you with the truth that you may judge between people by means of that which Allah has taught you" (Holy Qur'an 4: 105). 

And You said, and Your saying is the truth: "We have sent among you a messenger from 

among you who recites to you Our Verses and purifies you and teaches you the Book and the 

wisdom and teaches you that which you did not know" (Holy Qur'an 2: 151). 

I am astonished at those people who put themselves in a position higher than that of the 

Prophet. On one occasion they disobeyed his orders, and on another occasion they accused 

him of talking nonsense, and then talked loudly and without respect in his presence. They 

criticized him for appointing Zayd ibn Harithah to the military command, and after him his 

son Usamah. How could they leave the scholars in any doubt, after all this evidence, that the 

Shia are right when they put a question mark on the position of some of the Companions, and 

show their resentment towards these positions purely out of respect and love for the 

Messenger and the members of his Household. 

I have mentioned only four or five of these controversial issues to be brief and to use them as 

examples, but the Shii scholars could recount hundreds of situations in which the Companions 

contradicted the clear texts. In all this the Shia refer to sources written in books by Sunni 

scholars. 

When I look at a number of positions taken by a few of the Companions with regard to the 

Messenger of Allah, I stand astonished; not because of the attitudes of those Companions 

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alone, but because of the position of the Sunni scholars who gave us the impression that the 

Companions were always right and could not be criticized. Thus they prevented any 

researcher from reaching the truth and left him puzzled in the midst of all these 

contradictions. 

In addition to the examples that I have mentioned above, I will bring some more in order to 

establish a better picture of those Companions, so that we may understand the position of the Shia towards them. 

According to al-Bukhari in his Sahih, Vol. 4 Page 47, section "The virtue of Patience when 

one is hurt" and the words of the Almighty "... And those who are patient, surely they will be 

rewarded", in the Book of Conduct he said: 

Al-Amash told us that he heard Shaqiq saying that Abdullah told him: Once the Holy Prophet 

divided something among a group of men, as he used to do, when one man from al-Ansar 

stood up and said, "This division is not for the sake of Allah. " I said, "For my part, I shall 

have a word with the Prophet (s. a. w. ). " So I went to see him, and I found him with his 

Companions. I explained my grievances, and the Prophet's face changed and showed signs of 

anger, and I wished that I had not told him, then he said: "Moses was hurt more than that but 

he was patient. " 

Al-Bukhari mentioned in the same book - i. e. the book of Conduct - in the chapter concerning 

smiling and laughter that Anas ibn Malik was heard saying: I was walking with the 

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Messenger of Allah (s. a. w. ) who was wearing a Najrani cloak with a rather thin edge to it, and 

suddenly a man approached him and pulled harshly at his cloak. Anas continued: I looked at 

the side of the Prophet (s. a. w. ) and noticed that as a result of that harsh pull, the edge of the cloak went up to his shoulder, then the man said, 'O Muhammad, give me some of what you have from Allah's wealth! " The Prophet turned to him and laughed, then he ordered his 

Companions to pay him something. 

Al-Bukhari also mentioned the following incident in the Book of Conduct and put it in the 

chapter concerning "He who does not face people with blame", he said: Aisha said that the 

Prophet (s. a. w. ) did something and made it permissible, but no one followed what the Prophet 

did. The Prophet (s. a. w. ) happened to hear about it, so he decided to address the people. He 

first thanked Allah then said: "What is the matter with people who refrain from the thing I 

did? By Allah, I know more than any of them about Allah, and I fear Him most...! " 

When we look deeply at incidents like those above we find that the Companions put 

themselves on a higher level than the Prophet, and thought that he was wrong and they were 

right. Furthermore, there were some historians who deliberately corrected the position of the 

Companions, even if that contradicted the action taken by the Prophet, and showed them at a level of knowledge and piety higher than that of the Prophet. As is the case when they judge the Prophet wrong in the case of the Prisoners of War at the battle of Badr, so it appears that Umar ibn al-Khattab was right. They also tell wrong stories, such as the following saying attributed to the people: If Allah decided to inflict a disaster on us, no one will escape except Ibn al-Khattab. In other words, they were saying, "If it was not for Umar, the Prophet would have perished. " God protect us from such a corrupt and shameful belief, and he who adheres to this kind of belief is surely far from Islam, and ought to review his thinking or rid himself of the devil. 

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Allah - the most High - said: 

"Have you considered him who takes his low desire for his God, and Allah has made him err 

having knowledge and has set a seal upon his hear and his heart and put a covering upon his 

eye. Who can then guide him after Allah? Will not they be mindful? " (Holy Qur'an 45: 23) 

I believe that those who think that the Prophet (s. a. w. ) was subject to his emotions to the 

extent that he deviated from the right path and made a judgement not for the cause of Allah, 

or those who refrained from doing things which were done by the Messenger of Allah 

thinking that they were more knowledgeable and more pious than the Messenger, do not 

deserve any respect or appreciation from the Muslims. They were put at the same level as the 

angels, as the best people in the whole of creation after the Messenger of Allah, so that 

Muslims are obliged to follow them and take them as an example, just because they were the 

Companions of the Messenger of Allah. 

That contradicts the belief of Ahl al-Sunnah, who pray for Muhammad and his family, and 

then add all the Companions. If Allah - praise be to Him the Most High - appreciated them 

and put them in their correct position and ordered them to pray for His Messenger and the 

purified members of his family, they should have submitted and known their place with 

Allah. Why should we then put them in a position which is higher than they deserve. and 

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equate them with those people whom Allah has elevated and preferred above all people? 

Let me then conclude that the Umayyads and the Abbasids, who opposed-Ahl al-Bayt and 

exiled them and killed them with their followers, got the gist of that distinguished position 

and recognized its danger for them. For if Allah - praise be to Him - would not accept the 

prayers of a Muslim unless he prays for them (Ahl al-Bayt): how could they justify their 

opposition to them. Therefore, they attached the Companions to Ahl al-Bayt in order to give 

the impression to the public that they are equal. 

Especially when we know that their masters and dignitaries were Companions who bought 

some other Companions known to have weak personalities and asked them to distribute 

fabricated sayings (of the Prophet) in praise of the Companions and the next generation, and 

in particular those who reached the position of Caliphs (i. e. the Umayyad and Abbasid) and 

they were the direct reason behind them attaining this position and becoming rulers over all 

the Muslims. History is the best witness to what I am saying: Umar ibn al-Khattab, who was 

well known for his strictness towards his governors whom used to dismiss them on mere 

suspicions, was quite gentle towards Muawiyah ibn Abi Sufyan and never disciplined him. 

Muawiyah was appointed by Abu Bakr and confirmed by Umar throughout his life, who 

never even rebuked him or blamed him, despite the fact that many people complained about 

Muawiyah and reported him for wearing silk and gold, which was prohibited to men by the 

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Messenger of Allah. Umar used to answer these complaints by saying, "Let him be, he is the 

Kisra (king) of the Arabs. " Muawiyah continued in the governorship for more than twenty years without being touched or criticized, and when Uthman succeeded to the caliphate of the 

Muslims, he added to his authority further districts and regions, which enabled him to a mass 

great wealth from the Islamic nation and to raise armies to rebel against the Imam (Leader) of 

the nation and subsequently take the full power by force and intimidation. Thus he became 

the sole ruler of all Muslims, and later forced them to vote for his corrupt and alcohol 

drinking son Yazid, as his heir and successor. 

This is a long story so I will not go into its details in this book, but the important thing is that 

we should understand the mentality of those Companions who reached the position of caliph 

and facilitated the establishment of the Umayyad state in a direct way, so as to please Quraysh 

which did not want to see both the Prophethood and the caliphate in the House of Bani 

Hashim (7). The Umayyad state had the right, or indeed was obliged to thank those who had 

facilitated its establishment, most of all the "story tellers" whom it hired to tell tales about the 

virtues of their masters. In the meantime it elevated them to a higher place than that of their 

enemies, Ahl al-Bayt, simply by inventing virtues and merits, which if (may Allah witness) 

examined under the light of logical and legal evidence mostly disappear, unless there is 

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something wrong with our minds or we have started believing in contradictions. 

For example, we hear so much about Umar's justice which the "story-tellers" attributed to 

him. It was even said about him "You ruled with justice, therefore you can sleep. " It has also 

been said that Umar was buried in a standing position so that justice would not die with 

him,... and you could go on and on talking about Umar's justice. However, the correct 

history tells us that when Umar ordered that grants should be distributed among the people 

during the twentieth year of al-Hijrah, he did not follow the tradition of the Messenger of 

Allah, nor did he confine himself to its rules. The Prophet (s. a. w. ) distributed the grants on an 

equal basis among all Muslims and did not differentiate between one person and another, and 

Abu Bakr did the same throughout his caliphate. But Umar introduced a new method. He 

preferred the early converts to Islam to those who came later. He preferred al-Muhajireen 

(immigrants from Mecca to Medinah) from Quraysh to other Muhajireen. He preferred all the 

Muhajireen to al-Ansar (followers of Prophet Muhammad in Medinah who granted him 

refuge after the Hijra). He preferred the Arabs to the non-Arabs. He preferred the freeman to the slave (8). He preferred (the tribe of) Mudar to (the tribe of) Rabia for he gave three 

hundred to the former and two hundred to the latter (9). He also preferred al-Aws to al- 

Khazraj. (10) 

Where is the justice in all this differentiation, O people who have minds? 

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We also hear so much about Umar's knowledge, to the extent he was described as the most 

knowledgeable Companion, and it has been said about him that he agreed with his God on 

many ideas that were revealed in various Qur'anic verses, and that he disagreed with the 

Prophet about them. But the correct history tells us that Umar did not agree with the Qur'an, 

even after it had been revealed. When one of the Companions asked him one day during his 

caliphate, "O Commander of the Believers, I am unclean, but I cannot find water to wash. " 

Umar answered, "Do not pray. " Then Ammar ibn Yasir had to remind him about Tayammum 

[ritual cleaning with earth], but Umar was not convinced, and said to Ammar, "You are 

responsible only for the duties which have been assigned to you" (11). 

Where is Umar's knowledge regarding the Tayammum verse which had been revealed in the 

Book of Allah, and where is Umar's knowledge of the Tradition of the Prophet (s. a. w. ) who 

taught them how to do Tayammum as well as Wudu [ritual ablution]. Umar himself confessed 

on many occasions that he was not a scholar, and that all people, even women were more 

knowledgeable than him, and he was heard saying many times, "If it was not for Ali, Umar 

would have perished. " And throughout his life he did not know the rule of al-Kalalah 

[relatives of the dead excluding the son and the father], although he passed various different 

judgements about it, as history witnesses. 

We also hear a great deal about the courage and physical strength of Umar, and it has been 

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said that Quraysh feared the day when Umar became a Muslim, and that Islam became even 

stronger when he entered the religion. It has also been said that Allah glorified Islam with 

Umar, and that the Messenger of Allah did not call for Islam openly until after Umar had 

become a Muslim. 

But the correct historical references do not seem to indicate that courage, and history does not mention one famous or even ordinary person who has been killed by Umar in a dual or a 

battle like Badr and Uhud or al-Khandaq. In fact the correct historical references tell us 

exactly the opposite; they tell us that he escaped with the fugitives in Uhud, and escaped on 

the day of Hunayn, and that when the Messenger of Allah sent him to take the city of Khayber he returned defeated. He was never even the leader in the military detachments in which he served, and in the last one (that of Usamah) he was put under the charge of young Usamah ibn Zayd. So where is all that courage compared to these historical facts... O people who have minds? 

We also hear about Umar's piety and his great fear of Allah, to the extent of crying. It has 

been said that he was afraid of being accountable before Allah if a mule tumbled in Iraq 

because he did not pave the road for it. But the correct historical sources tell us that he was a 

rough man who lacked piety and did not hesitate to beat a man until he bled because he asked him about a Qur'anic verse, and even that women used to miscarry their babies out of fear when they saw him. Why did he not fear Allah when he raised his sword and threatened 

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anybody who said that Muhammad had died, and he swore by Allah that he had not died, 

rather, he had gone to talk to his God in the same way as Moses did. Then he threatened to 

kill whoever said that Muhammad was dead (12). 

Why did he not fear Allah when he threatened to burn Fatimah al-Zahra's house if those who 

refrained from voting for the successorship of the caliphate did not come out (13)? It has been 

said that when he was told that Fatimah was inside, he answered, "So what! " He violated the 

Book of Allah and the Tradition of the Prophet and passed rules and judgements during his 

caliphate which contradicted the texts of the Holy Qur'an and the noble Tradition of the 

Prophet (s. a. w. ) (14). 

So where was all that piety and fear of Allah in all these bitter and sad historical facts, O good 

worshippers of Allah? I took this great and famous Companion as an example, and I have 

summarized a great deal to avoid prolongation, but if I wanted to talk in some detail, I could 

have filled many volumes. But as I said I have mentioned these historical references as 

examples and not for specific reasons. 

What I have mentioned is a small amount, but it gives us a clear indication as to the 

mentalities of the Companions and the contradictory attitudes of the Sunni scholars and 

historians. For on the one hand they forbid people from criticizing them or doubting their 

intentions, but on the other hand they write in their books things that make people doubt their deeds and criticize them. 

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I wish the Sunni scholars had not written about these matters in such a way that it clearly 

sullies the dignity of the Companions and ruins their integrity. If they had not we would have 

been spared all that confusion. 

I still remember meeting a scholar from al-Najaf whose name was Asad Hayder (author of 

"Al-lmam al-Sadiq wa al- Madhahib al-Arbaah") and as we were talking about the Sunnis and 

the Shia he told me a story about his father. He (i. e. the father) had met a Tunisian scholar 

from al-Zaytunah during the pilgrimage season some fifty years ago, and started a debate 

about the Imamate of Ali - may Allah's peace be upon him - and his eligibility to the 

succession for the caliphate. The Tunisian scholar listened attentively as the other man mentioned four or five reasons. When he had finished, the scholar from al-Zaytunah asked 

him, "Have you got any other reasons? " The man answered, "No. " Then the Tunisian scholar 

said, "Get your rosary out and start counting, then he listed some hundred reasons that my 

father had not known before. 

Shaykh Asad Hayder added, "If the Sunnis read what is in their books, then they would say 

similar things to what we are saying and we would not have any differences between us for a 

long time. " 

By my life! It is the inevitable truth, if only man would liberate himself from his blind 

prejudice and his arrogance and submit to the clear proof.