Mu'awiya's Greatest Scholarly Crime

The Qur'an, without the Messenger of God, is not a sufficient guide. Despite its greatness among Muslims, it will not by itself become the complete cause of human guidance. The first deviation began when some wanted the Qur'an alone and advanced the theory of “The Book of God is enough for us.”

In several verses, the Qur'an directs its reciter beyond the Qur'an itself. In other words, the Qur'an does not present itself as sufficient on its own for guidance. It says explicitly: “...if you dispute concerning anything, refer it to God and the Messenger...” (1). In reality, the Qur'an addresses all its followers and says: if you differ over a matter, return that disagreement to God and the Messenger of God. That means the source for resolving disagreement and guidance is not the Qur'an alone. This noble verse says that the Qur'an alone cannot remove disagreement and guide; alongside it, the Prophet's explanation and the hadiths of the Messenger of God (s) are necessary and indispensable.

Elsewhere God says: “We did not send down the Book to you except that you may clarify for them that in which they differ, and as guidance and mercy for a people who believe” (2). That is, the Book was sent down to the Prophet so that he would explain and make clear for people the matters in which they disagree; and it was sent as guidance and mercy for those who believe in God and His Messenger, because they benefit from the guidance and mercy of the Noble Qur'an.

At the end of the noble verse, God states that the purpose of the Qur'an's revelation is guidance and mercy for those who believe. But at the beginning of the same verse He states that the Qur'an cannot, by itself, settle the disagreements of the community. Therefore, He introduces the Noble Prophet (s) as a source for resolving the community's disagreements alongside the Qur'an, saying that the Book was not sent down to him except so that he would clarify for people the things in which they differ. In other words, if the Prophet's explanation does not stand beside the Qur'an, the Qur'an alone cannot resolve disagreement.

The noble verse does not restrict the kind of disagreement that must be referred to the Prophet (s). Therefore, one can conclude that the disagreement meant by the verse includes every kind of disagreement in every field of religion.

Thus, whether the community's disagreement concerns tawhid, resurrection, imamate, or even derivative legal rulings, all these disagreements must be resolved by referring to the Prophet (s) and through his clarification. If the Prophet's explanation is not alongside the Qur'an, the Qur'an cannot perform the task of resolving disagreement.

Accordingly, the Qur'an can be guidance and mercy for believers when the Prophet's explanation accompanies it. For this reason, this noble verse places the Prophet's clarification of disagreements before the Qur'an's function as guidance and mercy.

The verses that do not regard the Qur'an, without the Prophet's explanation, as a guiding book are far more numerous than these two verses. Brevity, however, prevents mentioning and discussing those verses here. In the field of hadith as well, there are many narrations concerning the importance of the Prophetic explanation and the Alid Household beside the Qur'an; without these luminous statements of the noble Messenger of Islam, the Qur'an would not be guiding.

One example is the Hadith of Thaqalayn, which enjoys mass transmission in meaning among both Shi'a and the general Sunni community. The late Hurr al-Amili narrates it: “I say: it has been transmitted mutawatir among the general and the particular from the Prophet (s) that he said: I leave among you the two weighty things; as long as you hold fast to them both, you will never go astray: the Book of God and my progeny, my Household; and they will never separate until they return to me at the Pond” (3).

The Prophet (s) said: “I leave among you two precious things. So long as you hold fast to both of them together, you will not go astray: the Book of God and my progeny, my Household. These two will never separate until they return to me at the Pond.” This narration, by its very wording, states that holding fast to the Qur'an and the Household together brings guidance, and that removing the Household from beside the Qur'an and holding to the Qur'an alone will not bring guidance.

In another narration, Lady Fatima al-Zahra (s) says about the importance of Prophetic narrations: “They are equal in my eyes to Hasan and Husayn,” meaning that those narrations are, for her, equal to Imam Hasan and Imam Husayn, peace be upon them (4). From what has passed, the importance of the Prophet's and the Household's explanation beside the Qur'an becomes clear.

Moreover, the Qur'an calls people in the loudest voice to pay attention to the statement of the Noble Prophet (s). It tells those whose lost object is guidance and who seek the path of righteousness and success that the Qur'an alone is not guiding. Therefore, if deviation is to occur in Islam, it is enough for the statements of the Prophet (s) to be separated from the Qur'an. As soon as the Qur'an is separated from the Prophet's clarification, the Qur'an is no longer guiding in that complete sense, and one of the important pillars of guidance has been removed.

In a community where the Qur'an is detached from the luminous statements of the Great Prophet (s), misguidance and deviation are natural. It is clear that any person or group that undertakes this separation of the Messenger's words from the Qur'an is a betrayer of the Qur'an and the Messenger of God, and is both misguided and misguiding for this community. One can easily claim that whoever seeks this separation, if not foolish, is undoubtedly among the great betrayers. The best way to close the path of guidance is to create this rupture between the Qur'an and the Household.

One of Mu'awiya's great betrayals against the Muslims, the Qur'an, and the Noble Prophet (s) was creating separation between the Qur'an and the words of the Prophet (s). Although Mu'awiya introduced many betrayals and innovations into religion, and each of his innovations was a great betrayal of Islam and the Prophet (s), one of his greatest betrayals was creating this rupture.

In a strange action, Mu'awiya announced a ban on transmitting authentic narrations from the Prophet (s). His agents pursued this ban with great severity and force and prevented the transmission of hadith. Of course, Mu'awiya did not stop there. He continued his scholarly crime against the body of the Muslims and formally issued an order to fabricate Prophetic hadiths.

With utter shamelessness he undertook this work and formally treated lying against the Prophet (s) as a governmental decree, appointing betrayers and servants of gold and ornament to carry it out. In truth, he committed two very important acts, or rather two very important crimes, in the history of Islam, and the effects of those scholarly and cultural crimes are plainly visible to this day.

His first act was concealing and removing the Prophetic narrations that were supposed to settle the various disagreements of people and Muslims, and through which the Qur'an could act as guidance. His second crime, after concealing the Prophetic narrations, was fabricating hadith and producing false reports and attributing them to the great Prophet of Islam.

Because of Mu'awiya's abundant spending in the path of fabricating hadith, many people devoted themselves to this fabrication. Many false hadiths entered Muslim beliefs, and through repetition these lies became part of the religion of later generations, who were unaware of how such narrations had been born and heard them from figures who were, in reality, betrayers of religion.

Thus, the narrations that were supposed to explain the Qur'an were removed and fabricated narrations were put in their place. It is obvious that an Islam whose Qur'an is interpreted through Umayyad narrations will be Umayyad Islam. On this basis, Umayyad Islam issues the order to destroy al-Baqi or other blessed shrines of the Household.

In reality, assassinations and suicide operations, or killing innocent human beings solely because they are visitors to the holy thresholds and luminous graves of the Imams, are the result of Mu'awiya's great crime and, in a word, the outcome of Umayyad Islam shaped through fabricated hadith.

Here it must be briefly noted that these fabricated narrations of the children of Umayya did not enter Shi'ism at all for two reasons. The first reason was the presence of the infallible Imams and their protection of the religion of their noble grandfather, the Messenger of God (s). The second was the Shi'a practice of the Prophet's will to hold fast to the Qur'an and the Household.

Therefore, accusing Shi'a narrations by some uninformed people is an unscientific act and shows their lack of awareness of the system of hadith transmission in the Shi'a community, a system that prevented every fabrication and lie from entering Shi'a hadith collections. Beyond this, throughout history no Shi'a has given weight to Mu'awiya or the narrations of Mu'awiya's companions, because the fabrication of hadith by Mu'awiya and his companions is acknowledged by Sunni scholars as well.

Because the occurrence of this great crime by Mu'awiya is self-evident, the late Karaki writes about it: “The Sunni hadith scholars have narrated that Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan would invent vile hadiths concerning the Commander of the Faithful and attribute those fabricated reports to the Prophet (s), and he would bring a number of Companions as witnesses to the authenticity of those false hadiths, to the point that on one occasion four hundred people testified for one of Mu'awiya's slanders and lies...” (5).

Abu Ja'far al-Iskafi, as transmitted by Ibn Abi al-Hadid, states this meaning: “Mu'awiya would force a group of Companions and Successors to fabricate improper and shameful reports about Ali (a), and he would assign them a considerable sum of money or an important position as the reward for this blameworthy and dishonorable act. They too would fabricate and recite reports according to his wish, reports that would cause reproach against Ali (a). Among the Companions were Abu Hurayra, Amr ibn al-As, and Mughira ibn Shu'ba, and among the Successors was Urwa ibn al-Zubayr” (6).

In the negotiations Mughira held in Kufa with the Shi'a elders to prevent and repel the Kharijites, his conversation with Sa'sa'a ibn Suhan, one of the Shi'a elders, is reported as follows: “Beware, for news has reached me that you narrate reports about Ali's virtues. I am not ignorant of Ali's virtues, but this ruler, Mu'awiya, has become dominant and has ordered us to manifest Ali's faults... So we narrate faults for Ali that were not in him” (7).

Ibn Abi al-Hadid reports: “Abu Hurayra fabricated a narration concerning Ali (a). When Mu'awiya heard it, he honored Abu Hurayra, gave him his prize, and appointed him governor of Medina” (8).

Abu Ja'far al-Iskafi says in al-Tafdil, as transmitted by Izz al-Din Ibn Abi al-Hadid, the following concerning him: “It is narrated that Mu'awiya wanted to give Samura ibn Jundab one hundred thousand dirhams so that he would say the verse, 'Among people is one whose speech in the life of this world impresses you, and he calls God to witness what is in his heart, yet he is the fiercest of opponents' (9), which speaks of the hypocrites, was revealed about Ali (a).

Likewise, he wanted him to say that the verse, 'Among people is one who sells his soul seeking God's pleasure' (10), which after describing the hypocrite describes the believer who gives his life for religion, was revealed about Ibn Muljam.

But Samura did not accept. Mu'awiya doubled the amount to two hundred thousand, but again he refused. He then added another hundred thousand, making it three hundred thousand dirhams, but Samura persisted and did not accept until finally they agreed on four hundred thousand dirhams, and Samura fashioned and narrated a statement exactly as Mu'awiya wanted (11).

It should be noted that verse 204 of Surat al-Baqara and the two verses after it were revealed about Akhnas ibn Shariq al-Thaqafi, one of the hypocrites among the companions of the Messenger of God (s), when he came to the Noble Prophet, claimed faith, friendship, and inclination toward Islam, and swore by God to the truthfulness of his words.

The Prophet was not aware of his hypocrisy and double-facedness; when he left the Prophet and went away from Medina, out of enmity he burned a group of Muslims and killed their animals, and God informed His Prophet of his state.

The second verse is also one of the unique virtues of the Commander of the Faithful (a). It was revealed on Laylat al-Mabit, when the Prophet (s) fled from the polytheists toward the cave and the Commander of the Faithful Ali (a) slept in his bed. This verse was revealed between Mecca and Medina about that great man.

It is narrated that when Ali (a) slept in the bed of the Noble Prophet, Gabriel stood at his head and Michael at his feet, and Gabriel cried: “Bravo, bravo! Who is like you, O son of Abu Talib? God boasts of you to the angels.” How astonishing that Fakhr al-Razi narrates Gabriel's statement about the Commander of the Faithful (a) in his commentary, yet gives precedence to someone else over him.

On a journey Mu'awiya made to Medina, the same journey in which he issued the order to insult Ali (a), he passed by a group of Quraysh. When they saw him, everyone stood up except Abdullah ibn Abbas. Mu'awiya said: O son of Abbas, what kept you from standing was your resentment toward me because I fought you at Siffin. O son of Abbas, my cousin, the Commander of the Faithful Uthman, was killed wrongfully. Ibn Abbas said to him: Umar ibn al-Khattab was also killed wrongfully; why did you not leave the claim for his blood to his son who is here?

Mu'awiya said: Umar was killed by a polytheist. Ibn Abbas said: Then who killed Uthman? Mu'awiya said: Muslims killed him. Ibn Abbas said: This statement invalidates your proof and makes the shedding of his blood lawful, because if Muslims abandoned him and killed him, then it was done by right. Mu'awiya said: We have written to the whole territory of the caliphate and have forbidden mentioning the virtues of Ali and his family. Hold your tongue and watch yourself.

Ibn Abbas said to him: Do you forbid us from reciting the Qur'an too? Mu'awiya said: No. Ibn Abbas said: Do you forbid us from interpreting it too? He said: Yes. Ibn Abbas said: Should we recite the verse of the Qur'an and not ask what God meant by it? He said: Yes. Ibn Abbas said: Which is more obligatory upon us, reciting the Qur'an or acting upon the Qur'an?

Mu'awiya said: Acting upon the Qur'an. Ibn Abbas said: When we do not know what God meant by what He revealed, how can we act upon it? Mu'awiya said: Ask about its interpretation and explanation from people other than yourself and your family. Ibn Abbas said: The Qur'an was revealed only upon my Household; should I ask the family of Abu Sufyan, the family of Abu Mu'ayt, or Jews, Christians, and Magians about the Qur'an's interpretation and explanation?

Mu'awiya said: You have placed us in the ranks of Jews, Christians, and Magians and counted us among them? Ibn Abbas said: By my life, I did not place you among them. You are the one who forbids us from worshiping God through the Qur'an and prevents us from acting upon its command and prohibition, lawful and unlawful, abrogating and abrogated, general and particular, clear and ambiguous. If the community does not ask about these, it will be destroyed, fall into disagreement, and be ruined.

Mu'awiya said: Recite the Qur'an and interpret and explain it, but do not narrate anything of what God revealed about you, and do not say what the Messenger of God said about you. Narrate other than that. Ibn Abbas said: God says in the Qur'an: “They desire to extinguish God's light with their mouths, but God refuses except to perfect His light, even though the disbelievers dislike it” (12).

Mu'awiya said: O son of Abbas, leave me alone and guard your tongue. If you must do this, then do it privately, and let no one hear it from you openly. Then he returned to his residence and sent fifty thousand dirhams to Ibn Abbas (13), and Mu'awiya's announcer proclaimed that from that day narrating reports about the virtues of Ali ibn Abi Talib and his Household was forbidden, and that whoever did so would no longer enjoy protection (14).

The people of Kufa suffered more than others under this prohibition, because there were more Shi'a there than elsewhere. For this reason, Mu'awiya appointed Ziyad as governor of the two Iraqs, meaning Kufa and Basra. Ziyad then pursued the Shi'a, knew them well, and killed them wherever he found them.

He frightened the Shi'a, cut off their hands and feet, hung them on palm trees, gouged out their eyes, exiled them, and drove them into flight, until no well-known Shi'a remained in Iraq; those who remained were either killed, crucified, imprisoned, exiled, or fugitive.

The group of people most afflicted by this sedition were hypocritical reciters who displayed humility and piety, then wove lies and fabricated hadith so that they might obtain a share with their governors, gain access to their gatherings, and reach wealth, lands, and houses.

The matter reached the point where those fabricated hadiths and narrations fell into the hands of people who thought they were true and correct. They narrated them, accepted them, learned them, taught them to others, showed love on their basis, and hated anyone who rejected them or expressed even the slightest doubt about them.

This sedition reached the point where the whole group agreed upon it, and all those narrations came into the hands of religious people who did not consider lying permissible and hated liars. They accepted these fabricated hadiths as true, while if they had known they were fabricated, they certainly would have turned away from them and rejected them, and they would have borne no hatred toward those who opposed them. Thus, in that age, truth was transformed into falsehood, falsehood into truth, lies into honesty, and honesty into lies (15).

Undoubtedly, Mu'awiya was not the first person to commit this great crime, namely removing Prophetic hadiths from among the people. Although he played a major role in this path, he was not the first. Mu'awiya acted like someone who had a special mission from Saqifa.

The policy of banning the writing of hadith was implemented among the community from the time of the people of Saqifa, and Mu'awiya continued that policy with the same seriousness and added fabrication of hadith to it. Since hadiths that had reached people's ears in any way could guide them, they had to be neutralized.

For this reason, Mu'awiya first issued a severe order banning hadith in order to fight such narrations, and after that he put the order to fabricate hadith into effect. It is very important that these two decrees were implemented at the same time as Mu'awiya's order to curse and revile the Commander of the Faithful Ali (a) from the pulpits. In other words, Mu'awiya practically stripped Ali (a) and his pure children of their scholarly authority in society and, at the same time, inserted his own lies in place of hadiths.

This is while, from the time of the Prophet (s), there had been an emphatic command to preserve and write hadith. Certainly and undoubtedly, during the time of the Messenger of God (s), a number of his companions and close associates had written collections of hadith that they had heard from the Messenger of God and used them.

This practice continued until the martyrdom of the Messenger of God (s), and the Noble Messenger did not forbid writing or transmitting hadith. Even in the final moments of his noble life, the Messenger of Islam emphasized writing hadith. Alas, the people of Saqifa even beside the Prophet's bed prevented the writing of hadith and committed a tremendous insult against the sacred person of the Prophet (s). After the Prophet's martyrdom, the first important directive of the caliphs who arose from Saqifa, not from the Qur'an and the Prophet's will, was banning hadith; and among their first innovations was fabricating hadith.

Al-Dhahabi narrates that after the Prophet's death, Abu Bakr gathered the people and said: “You narrate hadiths from the Prophet about which you disagree, and the people after you will disagree even more. So do not narrate anything from the Prophet. Whoever asks you a question, say: between us and you is the Book of God; so deem lawful what it deems lawful and deem unlawful what it deems unlawful” (16).

Umar also did not abandon this policy, which preserved the structure of Saqifa and guaranteed the destruction of the Qur'an's guidance. It is narrated from Qaraza ibn Ka'b that he said: “When Umar sent us to Iraq, he accompanied us as far as Sirar and then said: Do you know why I accompanied you? We said: You wanted to see us off and honor us. He said: I had another purpose. You are going to a village whose people have a loud recitation of the Qur'an, so do not distract them from the Qur'an with the hadiths of the Prophet; and I am your partner in this matter. Qaraza says: after that, I did not narrate any hadith from the Prophet (s).”

In another narration it is reported: “When Qaraza ibn Ka'b arrived, they said: narrate hadith to us. He said: Umar has prevented us from doing this” (17). The third caliph from the land of Saqifa also did not break this law, because breaking this law meant breaking Saqifa. Uthman confirmed it and said on the pulpit: “It is not permissible for anyone to narrate a hadith that was not heard in the time of Abu Bakr or Umar” (18).

In order to prevent this, they silenced many transmitters of hadith, Companions, and Successors, people such as Abu Dharr, who was once sitting at the middle jamra while people had gathered and were asking his opinion. A man stood beside him and said: Have you not been forbidden to give opinions and issue fatwas? Abu Dharr raised his head and said: Are you watching me? If you place the sword here, and he pointed to the back of his neck, and I am able before you permit me to utter a word I heard from the Prophet (s), I will surely utter that word (19).

Because of his opposition to the government's commands, Abu Dharr was exiled from city to city until he embraced death alone and cast out in al-Rabadha. Hujr ibn Adi and his companions were killed under torture (20), and Rashid al-Hajari (21) and Maytham al-Tammar (22) were killed and crucified.

In general, transmitting hadith and narrations from the Noble Messenger (s) was forbidden in the time of Abu Bakr and Umar. Al-Dhahabi says in Tadhkirat al-Huffaz that Abu Bakr had written five hundred hadiths from the Noble Messenger, but later burned them. Urwa ibn al-Zubayr says: Umar ibn al-Khattab said, I do not permit anyone to collect and compile hadiths and narrations, because they would become mixed with the Book of God.

But in Mu'awiya's time, the market of hadith fabrication flourished greatly. Mu'awiya compelled a group to fabricate hadiths and reports about the virtues of the caliphs and spread them among Muslims, and also to compose narrations in condemnation of the Commander of the Faithful from the tongue of the Messenger of God (s), so as to distance people from him and diminish his rank and station.

Abu Hurayra, who was among the people of the Suffa, always used to say: “Prayer with Ali (a) is sweeter, but Mu'awiya's table is richer.” Because he had three years of companionship with the Prophet (s), he closed his eyes and opened his mouth, and whatever befits a shameless upstart desert-dweller he uttered in the name of hadith about Ali (a).

After the martyrdom of Ali (a), he joined Mu'awiya and said in the mosque of Kufa: “O people, do you think I lie against the Prophet (s) and make myself one of the people of Hell? By God, I heard the Prophet (s) say: every prophet has a sanctuary. Medina is my sanctuary, and whoever introduces an incident in it, upon him is the curse of God and the angels.”

Perhaps he spoke truthfully in that statement, but he added to it by taking God as witness that Ali had introduced an incident in Medina. The intention of this accursed man was to allude to the killing of Uthman and suggest that Ali (a) was Uthman's killer. When Mu'awiya heard this statement, he gave him the governorship of Medina.

It is obvious that this statement was an insult against Ali (a) and a result of Mu'awiya's deceitful and wicked policy of banning hadith. The policy of banning hadith was common on the pulpits throughout the Umayyad period. After praising God and praising the Prophet (s), they would insult the Commander of the Faithful Ali (a), may dust be in their mouths, and in coordination with this insult and dishonoring of Ali (a), they would recite hadiths praising the caliphs (23).

Thus, the people of Saqifa committed this great crime against the scholarly inheritance of the Prophet (s) for the stability of their two-day worldly rule. Mu'awiya, who regarded himself as bound to absolute obedience to Saqifa, continued this policy with the greatest financial, military, and propaganda power he had. As a result, the Islamic world today suffers from Umayyad Islam because of these Umayyad policies.

It was Mu'awiya's policy that drove the real religion so deeply into eclipse that, in order to revive and restore that religion, one of the purest of all pure beings in existence had to establish an Ashura, so that the filthy policy of this baseborn caliph of Saqifa lineage could not destroy religion.

1. Surat al-Nisa, verse 59.
2. Surat al-Nahl, verse 64.
3. Wasa'il al-Shi'a, chapter on the prohibition of judging by other than the Book.
4. Mustadrak al-Wasa'il, chapter on the prohibition of obscenity and obligation.
5. Rasa'il al-Karaki, al-Muhaqqiq al-Karaki, vol. 2, pp. 225-226.
6. Adwar-e Fiqh (Persian), Mahmud al-Shihabi al-Khurasani, vol. 3, pp. 176-179.
7. al-Tabari, part 4, p. 144.
8. Adwar-e Fiqh (Persian), Mahmud al-Shihabi al-Khurasani, vol. 3, pp. 176-179.
9. Surat al-Baqara, verse 204.
10. Surat al-Baqara, verse 207.
11. Adwar-e Fiqh (Persian), Mahmud al-Shihabi al-Khurasani, vol. 3, pp. 208-209.
12. Surat al-Tawba, verse 32.
13. Tarikh-e Siyasi-ye Sadr-e Islam, translation of Kitab Sulaym, p. 387.
14. al-Ihtijaj, Ja'fari translation, vol. 2, “The Argument of Imam Husayn, peace be upon him, concerning the virtues of the Commander of the Faithful and his children,” p. 77.
15. al-Ihtijaj, Ja'fari translation, vol. 2, p. 77.
16. Kashf al-Yaqin, Azhir translation, preface; Tadhkirat al-Hafiz, translation of Abu Bakr, 1/2-3.
17. Kashf al-Yaqin, Azhir translation, preface.
18. Muntakhab al-Kanz with the marginalia of Musnad Ahmad 4/64; details of the prohibition of writing hadith during the three caliphs: Tabaqat Ibn Sa'd 5/140; Tadhkirat al-Huffaz 1/7; Kanz al-Ummal, first edition 5/239; Muntakhab Kanz al-Ummal with the marginalia of Musnad Ahmad 4/61; Tarikh Ibn Kathir 8/107.
19. Sunan al-Darimi 1/132; Tabaqat Ibn Sa'd 2/354.
20. Abdullah ibn Saba, vol. 2, chapter “The Reality of Ibn Saba and the Saba'iyya.”
21. Rijal al-Kashshi, p. 131.
22. Rijal al-Kashshi, p. 134.
23. Nahj al-Fasaha, introduction to the second edition.