In Praise of Imam Ali – From SAHEEH Al-Bukhari (8)
(Collected from a number of books and websites, presented by Syed-Mohsin Naquvi)
According to the larger Muslim Ummah in the world, there are six great books which contain the most authentic reports on the life and times of the Prophet of Islam. They are known as the SAHAH SITTA, or the six most correct (ones). On the top of that list is the collection of Hadeeth book known as SAHEEH AL-BUKHARI. The actual title of the book is: al-Jaami' al-Saheeh al-Musnad al-Mukhtasar min Umoor Rasool Allah wa sunanihi wa Ayyamihi.
The author's name is Muhammad Ismail Bukhari, as the name implies, he was born in Bukhara in the year 194/810 and died in 256/870. Bukhra, at that time, was a city in the province of Khurasaan, but now lies in Uzbekistan.
Notable Pakistani scholar Amin Ahsan Islahi enumerates the following distinctive features of that collection of Hadeeth:
1. Quality and soundness of the chain of narrators of the selected ahādīth. Muhammad al-Bukhari has followed two principle criteria for selecting sound narratives. First, the lifetime of a narrator should overlap with the lifetime of the authority from whom he narrates. Second, it should be verifiable that narrators have met with their source persons. They should also expressly state that they obtained the narrative from these authorities. This is a stricter criterion than that set by Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj Nayshapuri.
2. Muhammad al-Bukhari accepted the narratives from only those who, according to his knowledge, not only believed in Islam but practiced its teachings. Thus, he has not accepted narratives from the Murjites.
3. The particular arrangement and ordering of chapters. This expresses the profound knowledge of the author and his understanding of the religion. This has made the book a more useful guide in understanding of the religious disciplines.
There are 7000+ numbers of Hadeeth reports in this collection, that includes many repetitions. If we ignore all the repetitions, the actual number of reports are 4,000.
Within that collection, there are those reports which are coming directly from the Sahaba who had lived with the Prophet. Those reports are called the musnads and all such reports are accepted without any doubt about them. Many other reports have been questioned in recent times by Azharite scholars because they seem to conflict with Qur'an. One such work is written by the 20th century Azharite scholars named Mamood Abu Rayyaah under the title: Adhwa Ala Sunnat-e Muhammadiya.
The collection is divided in three volumes, there are "books" (Kitab) in each volume and these books are further divided into chapters(baab) in the book with specific titles, such as Wuzu, Salat, Maghazi, and Fazael of many personalities who lived during the life time of the Prophet of Islam.
So, there is a chapter titled: Bab-e-Fazael Ali ibn Talib in the Kitab-al-Manaqib in volume II. There are 400 reports in the Kitab-al-Manaqib.
Can you guess how many reports would be found in that chapter? One hundred – wrong!, fifty – wrong!, twenty – wrong!, ten – wrong!
There are only four reports in that chapter. In this article we will present the first report from that chapter.
The focus here is this: The very first official collection of Hadeeth began in the 99th year if Hijra on the orders of Umar bin Abdul Azeez, an Umayyad Khaleefa of that time. The Umayyad's hatred of Imam Ali is well-known. Bukhari must have relied on that original source. Bukhari's antipathy towards the members of the Porphet's family is well attested by the fact that he did not take a single report either from Imam Muhamad al-Baqir or from Imam J'afar as-Sadiq. So any report in praise of Imam Ali that is found in Bukhari must have weathered a lot of storms to survive so that it is accepted by scholars of all schools of thought.
HADEETH MINNIYYAT ABOUT IMAM ALI IN SAHEEH BUKHARI (Arabic: Minni مِنِّی- from me, of me)
Hadhrat Ali bin Abi Talib Al-Qarashi Al-Hashimi's kunniyat is Abul Hasan, the Prophet has said about him: "You are of me and I am of you."
Umar (rad) has said that the Prophet was pleased with him at the time of his death.
THE TEXT: Hadhrat Ali bin Abi Talib Al-Qarashi Al-Hashimi's kunniyat is Abul Hasan, the Prophet has said about him: "You are of me and I am of you." Umar has said that the Prophet was pleased with him at the time of his death.
It is a simple statement from the Prophet of Islam about Imam Ali (may Allah's peace and our salams be unto them both).
What could be simpler than this? - Ali is from me and I am from Ali.
Usually an elder would say that about his children or grandchildren - they are mine. But, the other way round? It is very unusual.
Of course, this formula of MINNI (from me, of me) has been used in the Qur'an, for example:
رَبِّ إِنَّهُنَّ أَضْلَلْنَ كَثِيرًا مِّنَ النَّاسِ ۖ فَمَن تَبِعَنِي فَإِنَّهُ مِنِّي ۖ وَمَنْ عَصَانِي فَإِنَّكَ غَفُورٌ رَّحِيمٌ
My Lord! Surely they have led many men astray; then whoever follows me, he is surely of me, and whoever disobeys me, Thou surely art Forgiving, Merciful. (Q.14:36)
Here, in this prayer of prophet Ibraheem, the term 'of me' simply means 'of my Ummah,' or, 'of my following,' etc. Obviously, this is not something as significant that it would warrant a special statement from the Prophet. On the face of it, Ali was raised by the Prophet himself as a son, he was a brother and a son-in-law.
Let us now look at another Qur'anic term here.
مُّحَمَّدٌ رَّسُولُ اللَّهِ ۚ وَالَّذِينَ مَعَهُ أَشِدَّاءُ عَلَى الْكُفَّارِ رُحَمَاءُ بَيْنَهُمْ ۖ تَرَاهُمْ رُكَّعًا سُجَّدًا يَبْتَغُونَ فَضْلًا مِّنَ اللَّهِ وَرِضْوَانًا ۖ سِيمَاهُمْ فِي وُجُوهِهِم مِّنْ أَثَرِ السُّجُودِ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ مَثَلُهُمْ فِي التَّوْرَاةِ ۚ وَمَثَلُهُمْ فِي الْإِنجِيلِ كَزَرْعٍ أَخْرَجَ شَطْأَهُ فَآزَرَهُ فَاسْتَغْلَظَ فَاسْتَوَىٰ عَلَىٰ سُوقِهِ يُعْجِبُ الزُّرَّاعَ لِيَغِيظَ بِهِمُ الْكُفَّارَ ۗ وَعَدَ اللَّهُ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ مِنْهُم مَّغْفِرَةً وَأَجْرًا عَظِيمًا
Muhammad is the apostle of Allah, and those with him (ma'ahum) are firm of heart against the unbelievers, compassionate among themselves; you will see them bowing down, prostrating themselves, seeking grace from Allah and pleasure:....................... (Q.48:29)
It is quite clear that the Prophet wanted to say something more than ma'ahum in his statement about Imam Ali. Imam Ali is one of those people who were with the Prophet, but they were not such that the Prophet would say – "they are from me and I am from them." The only people about whom the Prophet seems to have used this phrase are the people known as the Ahl al-Bayt of the Prophethood, namely, Ali, Fatima Zahra and their two children.
The Prophet used the term 'Ummo Abiha' (the mother of her father) for Fatima Zahra, which, once again, expresses that two-way MINNIYYAT. The Prophet also seems to have said about Husayn - Husaynun Minni wa ana min al-Husayn.
Then that expression about Imam Ali is explicitly repeated by the Prophet at the time when the first 37 verses of Sura Tawba are revealed. This was just before Hajj. The Prophet made Abu Bakr the Ameer al-Hajj that year and gave him those verses of the Qur'an to be read out to the people in Makkah. He then dispatched Ali post haste to take the verses from Abu Bakr and read them out himself. Abu Bakr was disappointed. With tears in his eyes, he inquired about that change in the command. The Prophet explained to him that it was Allah's command that the verses be read out either by he (the Prophet) himself or by one of
him (MINNI). So that attribute of MINNIYYAT was re-confirmed for Imam Ali.
It is also quite clear that this attribute was not associated with any other companion or relative.
We can see, by putting the Qur'anic verses and the statement of the Prophet together that the Muslim community consists of three kinds of people:
1. People who have achieved the two-way minniyyat (the Ahl al-Bayt),
2. People who have achieved the status of ma'ahum (the faithful, devoted companions), and,
3. All other Muslims.
Why have we separated the people in group 3 from those in group 2? The answer is simple. The Arabic term ma'ahum implies the continuity (istemraar) of companionship. Those who would disobey the Prophet from time to time, those who would run away from the battlefield once in a while, even though they would return afterwards, and those whom the holy Qur'an accuses of raising their voices over that of the Prophet, cannot be included in the group identified as ma'ahum. Therefore, we have to have a group of 'all other Muslims.'
Let us come back to the point at hand - the concept of the two-way minniyyat. We can understand the concept of Ali being 'of the Prophet' or, 'from the Prophet,' because of one or all of the three reasons:
1. The Prophet and Ali are the grandchildren of the same glorious person,
2. Imam Ali was raised as Prophet's own son and then got married to his daughter,
3. Imam Ali was a true and devoted follower of the Prophet.
What does the phrase '... and I am from him' mean?
The only logical answer to this question is that Imam Ali had made so many sacrifices in the path of Islam, he had given the mission everything he had, he had not cared about his own safety and security when it came to protecting the mission and the person of the Prophet that if he wasn't there, there was no one else to provide those essential services. And, therefore, his being and existence had become indispensable for Islam's survival. It is this fact that the Prophet has acknowledged in this hadeeth.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Syed-Mohsin Naquvi
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