Question
Thank you very much for your answer regarding Offering Prayer according to the Shi‘ī Fiqh. My would-be husband wouldn’t have any problem if I still followed my fiqh school. Still, I am trying to see if it is possible to practise Islam in the same way to teach our children one way for wudu, praying and fasting because, for example, if we pray differently, how will our children pray?
That’s why to me it is very important to agree with him on a way to bring up our children later and to think of all the problems which may occur in the future, and this, of course, before getting married.
If you don’t mind, I would also like to ask you another question as I am trying to know more about Shia/Sunni beliefs. I found out that there are many Sunni ahadith which tell us to follow Ahl al-bait:
Tirmidhi, vol.5. Page 626, Hadith 3788 / Mustadrak al–Hakim, Vol.3, Page 160, Hadith 4711:
“Verily I am leaving in you that to which if you firmly hold onto you will not go astray after me; The Book of Allah and my family the Ahl al-bait. These two will not be separated until they meet me at the Fountain (of Kawthar), so look (take care) at how you deal with them after me.”
Both al Tabrani’s Al-Mujma` al-Kabir and Rafi`i’s Musnad, quoting Ibn `Abbas, state that “The Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him and his progeny, has said: `Let whoever is pleased to live like me and die like me and inhabit Eden’s Paradise which my Lord cultivated take `Ali as his master after me, and let him obey whoever he places in charge over him, and let him follow the example of my Ahl al Bayt after me, for they are my progeny: they are created of my own mould and blessed with my own comprehension and knowledge. Woe unto those who reject them and separate me from them! May Allah never permit them to enjoy my intercession.’”
Al Matir, al Barudi, Ibn Jarir, Ibn Shahin, and Ibn Mundah have all quoted Ishaq citing Ziyad ibn Matraf saying: “I have heard the Messenger of Allah saying: `Whoever wishes to live my life and die my death and enter the Garden which my Lord promised me, the Garden of eternity, then let him take `Ali and his progeny after him as his masters, for they shall never take you out of guidance, nor let you stray.’”
Similarly, Zayd ibn Arqam is quoted in one hadith saying:
“The Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him and his progeny, has said: `Whoever wishes to live like me and die my death and inhabit the perpetual Garden promised to me by my Lord, let him take `Ali as his master, for he shall never get you out of guidance, nor shall he let you stray.’”
Sahih Muslim, Vol.4, Page 36, hadith 1837/ Musnad Ahmad, Vol.5, Page 492, hadith 18780 / Sahih Ibn Khuzaymah, Vol.4, page 62, Hadith 2357:
“I remind you of Allah (to fear Him) about my Ahl al-bait“.
Tabarani in Al-Awsat, Vol.3, page 122, Hadith 2251| Al-Shifa, Vol.2, Page 48:
“Make the love of our Ahl al-bait compulsory for whoever meets Allah having love for us shall enter paradise with our intercession and By He in whose Hand is my life no deed will benefit a servant except by recognizing our right”
There are many other ahadith similar to the ones I have shared.
Thus, my question is how do Sunni Muslims explain them?
Thank you again very much for your explanation and your answers.
Answer
First, I answer this as a Muslim not as a Sunni Muslim, if you are interested in a Sunni Muslim answering your questions then please send your question to the Sunni websites. Al-Mawrid tries not to associate itself with any sects.
Second, it is of course good that you are trying to bring some harmony in between by performing your prayers in the Shia way. While I believe that there is no religious problem in a Shia and a Sunni Muslim marrying each other, I would like to bring to your attention a point that is more important than the differences in prayers.
If the brother you mentioned is a typical Shia brother then you need to be aware that the differences are not only in the way we pray and in who to prefer among the companions and the family of the Prophet (pbuh).
The main difference between a Shia Muslim and a mainstream Muslim (including a Sunni Muslim) is that according to a Shia Muslim, after the death of the Prophet (pbuh), there were 12 God-appointed infallible Imams from the generation of the Prophet (pbuh) who were supposed to be followed by Muslims and that it is only their guidance that is the true guidance. Whoever tries to take their place and become the leader of Muslims is a transgressor and is disobeying God. According to them the last Shia Imam went to occultation around 1100 years ago and is supposed to return before the end of the world to bring justice to the world.
Since you referred to your future children, I thought of warning you that I think it will be deciding about fundamental concepts like the above that will be the future challenge of your children. This is not necessarily something bad, every individual needs to find his way through challenges. It could be a blessing for children to have open-minded and tolerant parents from two different schools of thought.
You wrote: ” I found out that there are many Sunni’s ahadith which tell us to follow ahl el beit“.
The primary source of understanding our faith as Muslims is the Qur’an. We first need to consult the Qur’an to understand our religion. We can then look at Ahadith as secondary sources for more details, however in doing that we can only accept those Ahadith that are in line with the Qur’an.
Don’t you think that if we were supposed to follow the Ahl Al-Bayt of the Prophet (pbuh) – particularly in the specific meaning that Shia Muslims interpret the meaning of Ahl-Albayt – then it was only natural that we should find instruction about this in the Qur’an?
Are there any verses of the Qur’an that tell us or inform us (with no need for analysis and sectarian interpretations) that we should follow Ahl-Albayt (meaning Ali – ra – Hassan and Hussain – rta- and nine specific descendants from the generation of Hussain – ra)?
If we cannot find such a verse in the Qur’an, what does this absence of such fundamental information from the Book of Guidance tell us?
On the other hand, let us see, do we have any verse of the Qur’an that informs us that we should follow the path of the companions of the Prophet (pbuh)?
God was pleased with those Muhājirūn and Anṣār and they were pleased with God who took the initiative the foremost, and with those also who have befittingly followed them. God has prepared for them orchards below which streams flow. They shall abide in them forever. This alone is a great success.
“And the forerunners of Mohajerin and Ansar and also those who followed Them in good are those who are Well-pleased by Allah and they are pleased with Him and He has prepared for them Gardens in which Streams flow, to abide therein forever; And that is the Great Achievement.” (9:100)
Don’t you think that if we were supposed to follow Ahl Albayt then in the above verse instead of ” the forerunners of Mohajerin and Ansar” we should have “Ahl-Albayt”? or at least we needed to have a verse stronger than the above about following Ahl-Albayt?
And I can quote a number of other verses of the Qur’an with similar question.
Now as for the Ahadith you mentioned, we also have Ahadith that suggest that the Prophet (pbuh) said we needed to follow his companions. So which group of these Ahadith should we follow? Are we supposed to first decide which faith we want to have and then simply find Ahadith that are inline with that faith? Perhaps a safer and more logical way is to learn our religion from the Qur’an and then when we find a Hadith we test the authenticity of the Hadith based on the Qur’an.
You quoted six Ahadith, I can tell you straightforwardly even without looking at their chains of narrators that 5 of them are definitely fabricated or have been reported inaccurately or because of not knowing the context and the background of the Hadith its apparent meaning is different from its intended meaning.
This is because these five are apparently adding an important concept to the corpus of religion that our primary source of guidance (the Qur’an) does not support. Also these five are not reported in the books of Hadith that are considered as the most reliable books which suggest the possibility that the narrators and the chain of narrators are weak.
As an example you can find detailed analysis of the first narration (which is a version of a Hadith known as Hadith al-Theqelayn) here:
I didn’t think that you were interested in a very technical reply but if you like I am more than happy to examine the narrators of the other Ahadith as well (although as I wrote, once we establish that it is not inline with the Qur’an then this further examination of narrators will be only academically interesting otherwise it is not even needed).
The only Hadith from the ones you quoted that is not out of line with the Qur’an is the one in the book of Muslim: “” I remind you of Allah (to fear Him) about my Ahl al-bait”.
The above Hadith simply advises Muslims to respect and to take care of the family of the Prophet (pbuh) (and in Arabic, Ahl Al-Bayt includes wives as well). I cannot think of a Muslim who does not love Ahl Al-Bayt and does not respecting them. Loving and respecting some one however is not equal to exclusively obeying him/her as a divine source of guidance.
Answered by: Farhad Shafti
Date: 2015-01-14
