14th July 2006

In the light of what is happening today in the Middle East, we Muslims must know our Deen. The Prime Minister of Iran spoke as if on behalf of all the Muslims. He cannot say do this. Shi‘ism is another religion.
The Battle of the Camel was followed by further hostilities which came to a head at the Battle of Siffin on the Euphrates in 37 Hijra, between the partisans of ‘Uthman, radiyallahu ’anhu. Mu’awiya was the leading relative of ‘Uthman and, as such, the most justified in seeking retribution. Mu’awiya was from the tribe of the Bani Umaya while ‘Ali was from the Bani Hashim – two tribes which had shown opposition to each other since the time of the Jahiliyya.
Mu’awiya was unwilling to accept the Khalifate of ‘Ali until justice had been done, or the murderers handed over to him. The two sides were initially extremely reluctant to do battle and indeed many refused to fight against their brother Muslims. After three days and great loss of life, arbitration was agreed upon.
Allah ta’ala says in Surat al-Hujurat, The Private Quarters (49: 9):
If two parties of the muminun fight, make peace between them.
But if one of them attacks the other unjustly,
fight the attackers until they revert to Allah’s command.
In other words, fight them at a time of Fitna until the party acting unjustly accepts counsel. In his work “Defence against Disaster”, Qadi Abu Bakr points out that Allah ta’ala does not declare that such parties lack Iman or that they have ceased to be brothers on account of their mutual opposition ­– both parties, he stresses, are Muslim. It was only certain elements from within the factions who broke away and eventually left the Deen, namely the Khawarij and the Shi‘a – namely those who refused any attempts at reconciliation.
The Khawarij were enemies both to the Shi‘a and to the Muslims. They deemed the lives and property of both to be Halal for them and that both were outside the Deen. They opposed ‘Ali’s acceptance of arbitration, arguing that the judgment of Allah was clear and that no arbitration was needed. Their activity was accompanied by the slogan: “There is no judge, no arbiter but Allah”, to which ‘Ali, karramullah wajhahu, responded with the words, “Words of truth by which falsehood is intended.”
The reality of the Khawarij is to be seen in the importance they attached to the bare laws of Islam, devoid of the compassionate Sunna of the Rasul, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam. It was as if they were declaring: “Let us hold fast to the Qur’an as a pure legal book, and not allow ourselves to become caught up in the complicated human affairs of Muslim society.”
Amir al-Muminin ‘Ali then fought and defeated them at the Battle of Nahrawan, killing large numbers of them, but was unable to wipe them out completely. They continued to plot against him until they succeeded in assassinating him at the hand of Ibn Muljam. So the Khawarij had made takfir of ‘Uthman because of his alleged changes to the purity of the Deen, and they then made takfir of ‘Ali because of his alleged compromise of the pure Deen by accepting arbitration at Siffin. According to them, the proper Khalif was to be elected on the bases of the free choice of the Muslims, which prompted one prominent contemporary Arab writer to remark that the Khawarij are the representatives of “Islamic Democracy”.
As for the Shi‘a, it is they who, by their own admission, and as their name indicates, chose to separate from the Jama’at, from the body of the Muslims, by their insistence that the Khalifate was restricted to the House of the Rasul, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam. We Muslims assert that the Khalif is not thus confined. It is for this reason that our ‘Ulama began to use the term ‘Rawafin’ to denote the Shi‘a. In other words, those who ‘rafada’ – who rejected the legitimate Khalifate, the Jama’at and authority in general.
Peculiar to the Deen of the Shi‘a is also that all sources of knowledge are conditioned upon their coming from, or being sanctioned by the Ahl al-Bayt, the Family of the Prophet, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam. Thus, according to them, all but a handful of the Sahaba are rejected as transmitters of knowledge. As a result, their deen differs from ours both with respect to ‘Aqida as well as the Usul and Furai’. In the realm of ‘Aqida for example, the obligation to believe in the reality of up to twelve Imams, all having the capacity to amend and reinterpret the teaching of the Messenger of Allah, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, contradicts the words of Allah ta’ala in Surat al-Ma’ida, The Table (5: 3):
 […] Today I have perfected your Deen for you
and completed My blessing upon you
and I am pleased with Islam as a Deen for you.
Thus Allah declares the He has perfected for us our Deen and has made it victorious over all other Deens. This in turn implies He has laid down definitively the foundations of ‘Aqida, the parameters of the Shari’at and the limits of Ijtihad. The Deen of the Shi‘a separated itself still further from ours by their claim that their Imams were Ma’sum, that is, free from wrong action, and that their infallibility was on a par with, or superior to that of the Messenger’s, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam. Moreover, their teaching that one submit to the absolute authority of these Imams and that one fulfil the conditions associated with the disappearance of the final Imam, as laid down by their mullah priests, effectively rendered the Deen of Islam unnecessary. So while the Muslims were pledging their allegiance to the very real and legitimate Khalif Mu’awiya, radiyallahu ’anhu, and to all the real and legitimate Khalifs after him, the Shi‘a were pledging their allegiance to what they considered to be a spiritual line of authority but which had no existential reality on the ground. In doing so, they were ignoring the Command of Allah ta’ala in Surat an-Nisa’, The Women (4: 58):
You who have iman! Obey Allah and obey the Messenger
and those in command among you.
If you have a dispute about something,
refer it back to Allah and the Messenger […]
Thus, obedience to those in command is even necessary an occasion when their behaviour appears to be contrary to Shari’at, if disobedience of them would lead to chaos, Fitna, or a break-up of society. The Prophet, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, said:
Rulers will govern you: the good will rule by their goodness and the corrupt by their corruptness. So listen to them, obey them in anything which corresponds to the truth, and perform the Salat behind them. If they act well, then they will be rewarded and if they act badly you will be rewarded, and the Reckoning will be against them.
Qadi Abu Bakr says of the Rawafid, that they interpret the Ayats of the Qur’an according to their whims, reject Sahih Hadith and attribute false Hadith to the tongue of the Messenger, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam. This is compounded, he says, by their subsequent rejection of the Decree and their integration with the Mu’tazilis and those Madhhabs which accord inordinate importance to intellect, ‘Aql, over transmitted knowledge, Naql.
In short, the Shi‘a regard themselves as a persecuted underclass who are obliged to put right and avenge the so-called mistakes of the Battles of the Camel, Siffin and Kerbala. Their waiting for the Mahdi and a future age of justice ensures that they are relieved of the responsibility of putting things right, here and now. Their religion is certainly not based on love or worship of ‘Ali, karramullah wajhahu, but rather a rejection of ‘Amr, of legitimate political authority.
When the real ‘Aqida of the Shi‘a is known, people here in Cape Town will stop celebrating Ashura in the Shi‘a manner, whereby they read three Ya Sins in mourning for Sayyiduna ‘Ali, Hassan and Husayn.
Allah ta’ala says in Surat al-Anfal, Booty (8 :47):
Obey Allah and His Messenger
and do not quarrel among yourselves
lest you lose heart
and your momentum disappear.
And be steadfast.
Allah is with the steadfast.
The Deen is clear, crystal clear. It is the five Pillars of Islam, the six elements of Iman, and the station of Ihsan as related in the famous Hadith describing the Rasul’s encounter, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, with Jibril, ‘alayhi salam, and narrated by Muslim in his Sahih.