Chapter 1Conceptual FoundationsThe division of the community of Islam into Sunni and Shi'i Just as the Prophet was basically a religious and spiritual |
God appointed and sent by Him to deliver His message to The term Shi'a, keeping in view its historical development, The starting point in any study of Shi'a Islam must, by |
or fictitious descent from a common ancestor through whom "His father before him and his father's father A tribe with large numbers but few deeds of fame to its credit "And the joint stock which they have begotten In a rigidly tribal system such as that of the Arabs, the fame |
position in relation to other tribes. Within a tribe a particular Not only physical characteristics were considered by the |
The most privileged in Arab society, in the midst of which It is clear that in the religious sentiments of the Arabs, There was no organized priestly hierarchy, but certain |
political leadership there was originally of a religious and The clans of political rulers could have attained the status It is apparent that not only was priestly status the It is against this background that we have to consider the |
the latter have been treated unsympathetically by the There is no need to go as far back as Qusayy, father of 'Abd The other sons of Hashim having died without male issue, |
same sources which are too often suspected of being biased in After 'Abd al-Muttalib's death, his eldest surviving son |
which soon shared in the sacredness of the sanctuary, was It was in this family background that Muhammad arose as |
the leadership continued in one and the same family for four All the factors discussed above combine to form an The two main constituent groups of the Umma at the time |
highlands of Najd, developed along different lines from the |
had been more sensitive to religion. It was only a matter of When the Prophet died the question of his succession was There were others, especially of South Arabian origin; who |
considerations had to be taken into account by certain of the In this respect, there must be noted the Qur'anic concept of The word Dhurriya, meaning offspring, progeny, or direct |
who laid stress on the religious principle could not accept It seems that these inherent personal qualities and virtues At the very beginning of his mission, when the verse "Warn |
though only thirteen years old, gave the Prophet his 2 The prerogative of the religious brotherhood between 'Ali 3 'Ali's position can only have been elevated in the eyes of the 4 The nomination of 'Ali by the Prophet as his deputy at 5Yet another very important event was the communication of |
once and deliver the Qur'anic message to the people on his There are no serious grounds to doubt the authenticity of As far as the authenticity of the event itself is concerned, it |
writers of biographical works and even Ibn 'Abd Rabbih in Horovitz(61) and Goldziher,(62) in their studies on the tradition The event is, however, not recorded by some of those |
either pass in silence over Muhammad's stop at Ghadir The bone of contention between the Sunnis and the Shi'is |
Prophet spoke in this manner.(66) Accepting this explanation Taking for granted the controversial character in inter- In conclusion, the idea that the question of the succession |
Notes to Chapter 1
(1) W. Montgomery Watt, Islamic Political Thought (Edinburgh, 1968), p.26 (2) See Lane, Lexicon, IV, pp.1632 f. (3) e.g. XIX, 69; XXVIII, 15; XXXVII, 83 (4) Ibn Qutayba, Rasa'il al-Bulagha', p. 360 (5) Aghani, I, p.45 (6) Aghani, I, p.72; Yaqut, Mu'jam al-Buldan, III, p.519 (7) Aghani, X, p.300 (8) Diwan an-Nabhiga adh-Dhubyani, ed. Shukri Faysal (Beirut, 1968), p.165 (9) Mufaddaliyat, XCIII, V.14 (10) Mufaddaliyat, XXXI, v.4: "By God, my cousin, thou art not better in stock than I, (La afdalta fi hasabi)" (11) Ibn Qutayba, op. cit., p.348; 'Iqd, III, p.332 (12) Aghani, I, p.31 (13) 'Amr b. Kulthum, Mu'allaqa, vv. 40, 52, 55; Mufaddaliyat, XL, v.44; LXXXVII, v.2; Zuhayr b. Abi Salma, Mu'allaqa, v, p.26; Aghani, X, p.300 (14) Labid, Mu'allaqa, v.83; 'Amr b. Kulthum, Mu'allaqa, v.52 (15) Aghani, XXII, p. iii (16) Labid, op. cit., v. 8I (17) Lane, Lexicon, V, pp.2020 ff (18) Yaqut, op. cit., III, p.47I (19) Qur'an, CVI, 3 (20) Ibn Hisham, I, p.126; 'Iqd, III, p.333 (21) On this see R. B. Serjeant's "Haram and Hawtah, The Sacred Enclave in Arabia", in Melanges Taha Husain, ed. 'Abd al-Rahman Badawi (Cairo, 1962), pp.42 f.; and "The Saiyids of Hadramawt", BSOAS, XXI (London, 1957); also Ibn Durayd, Ishtiqaq, p.173 (22) Ibn Durayd, op. cit., p.238; Aghani; XIX, p.128; Iqd, III, pp.331 if. (23) Ibn Hisham, I, pp. 143, 145; 'Iqd, III, pp. 313, 333 if; Ibn Durayd, loc. cit.; Serjeant, "Haram and Hawtah", p.43 (24) EI2 articles "Ahl al-Bayt" and "Buyutat al-'Arab" (25) Serjeant, loc. cit. (26) See W. Montgomery Watt, Muhammad at Mecca (Oxford, 1953), p.31; Serjeant, "The Saiyids of Hadramawt", p.7 (27) Ibn Hisham, I, pp.131 ff.; Azraqi, Akhbar Makkah, I, pp.64 ff.; Ibn Sa'd, I, pp. 6q ff.; 'Iqd, III, pp. 312 f. |
(28) Ibn Sa'd, I, p. 74. Azraqi, Akhbar, I, p.66, states that 'Abd Manaf possessed not Only ar-rifada and al-siqaya, but also Al-qiyada, leadership of Mecca. (29) Ibn Hisham, I, pp. 143 f.; Ibn Sa'd, I, p.78. Azraqi, Akhbar, I, p.67, says that after 'Abd Manaf, the offices of ar-rifada and as- siqaya passed to Hashim, and that of al-qiyada was given to 'Abd Shams. (30) Ibn Hisham, loc. cit.; Ibn Sa'd, loc. cit. (31) Ibn Hisham, I, pp.145 f.; Ibn Sa'd, I, pp. 8I if. (32) Cf. Montgomery Watt, Muhammad at Mecca, p.31 (33) Ibn Sa'd, I, p. 85; Ibn Hisham, I, p.150 (34) Cf. EI2 article "Abu Talib" (35) A recurrent theme in the Qur'an, best illustrated in II, I26-7 (36) IX, 19 (37) See Muhammad Hamidullah, "The City State of Mecca", IC, XII (1938), p. 266 (38) Ibn Hisham, I, p.145; Tabari, I, pp.2786 f. (39) Qur'an, II, 135-7 (40) ibid., II, 125 (41) Ibn Khaldun, Proleg., I, p.289. Cf. Von Kremer, Staatsidee des Islam; trans. Khuda Bukhsh, Politics in Islam (Lahore, 1920), p. IO (42) Muhammedanische Studien, trans. S. M. Stern and C. R. Barber, Muslim Studies (London, 1967), I, pp.79-100 (43) The Arab Kingdom and Its Fall, trans. M. Weir (Calcutta, 1927), passim (44) A Literary History of the Arabs (Cambridge, 1969), pp. I ff (45) Goldziher, Muslim Studies, I, pp.12-13 (46) ibid., p.14 (47) Tabari, I, p.2769 f. (48) Most of the supporters of 'Ali in the early disagreement over the caliphate were of South Arabian origin and were quite clear in their Defence of 'Ali's claims on religious grounds. (49) III, 33 (50) Ibn Hisham, I, pp.262 f.; II, pp.150 f.; Baladhuri, I, p.270; Ibn Habib, Muhabbar, p.70 (51) According to Ibn Ishaq, 'Ali was ten years old at the time when Muhammad received his first revelation and was the first who prayed with the Prophet and Khadija (Ibn Hisham, I, p.262; Baladhuri, I, p. 112). Those comparatively few early writers who mention Abu Bakr as the first Muslim among men do so because of 'Ali's young age. See Isti' ab, III, Pp.1090 ff., which gives numerous traditions with different isnads supporting the view that 'Ali was the first male to accept Islam and to pray with Muhammad, whereas Abu Bakr was the first to publicly announce his Islam. (52) Sa'd al-Ash'ari, Firaq, p. 15; Nawbakhti, Firaq, p.23 |
(53) Mas'udi, Muruj, II, p.277. Also See commentaries of Tabari Ibn Kathir, and Tha'labi under verse 214, Sura XXVI (54) Ibn Hisham, II, p.264; III, p.349; Isti 'ab, III, p.1097; 'Iqd, IV, p.312 (55) Ibn Hisham, IV, p.163 (56) Ibn Hisham, loc. cit.; Bukhari, Sahih, II, p.194; Nawbakhti, Firaq, p.19; 'Iqd, IV, p.311; Isti 'ab, III, pp.1099 f. (57) Ibn Hisham, IV, p.190 (repeated by the majority of historians and traditionists) (58) See Veccia Vaglieri, EI2 Art. "Ghadir Khum", where there are mentioned exact references to all of the above works except 'Iqd, IV, p.311 (59) Al-Bidaya wa 'l-Nihaya (Cairo, I348-51 AH), V, pp. 208-I4 (60) Ta'rikh ash-Shi'a (Karbala, n.d.), p.77. In modern times numerous voluminous works on Ghadir Khum have appeared, thus Amini's Al-Ghadir in 38 volumes, and AI-Musawi's 'Abaqat al-Anwar, in 34 volumes; all dealing with the rijal of the tradition. (61) EI1 article "Kumayt" (62) Cf. EI2 article "Ghadir Khum", Bibliography (63) Amini, Ghadir, II, p.32; also see 'Amili, A'yan ash-Shi'a, III/i, pp. 524-32 (64) E12 article "Ghadir Khum" (65) Ibn Kathir, loc. cit. (66) ibid. (67) Azraqi, Akhbar Makkah, I, p.65; Ibn Durayd, Ishtiqaq, p.97 (68) 'Iqd, III, p.315 |