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