Muawiyah's Theft from Prayer and Exhuming the Martyrs of Uhud

The most influential and dangerous threat that has faced Islamic society and swallowed many Muslims is innovation. Innovation is so dangerous that if it is neglected and its dangers are not noticed, it can overturn the foundation of Islam. For this reason, the most dangerous enemies of Islam are the innovators.

The Noble Qur'an constantly reminds us of this danger and points to the practical methods of the innovators. For example, the most important work of the hypocrites in destroying Islam is the tactic of innovation, a matter to which the Noble Qur'an gives much attention.

A very important point explicitly mentioned in the Qur'an is the reformist appearance of the innovator. The sedition-makers commit corruption on earth with the appearance of reformers, and whenever they are addressed and rebuked, "Do not spread corruption," they shamelessly say: "We are only reformers" (1).

The very important point in this noble verse is that they never confess to their corruption and consider their deeds examples of reform. In reality, through this strategy they pursue a very important goal. Their most important work is to mix truth and falsehood and to blend the examples of reform and corruption.

When a society cannot distinguish the example of reform from the example of corruption, then corruption can be offered in the market under the title of reform. The buyer who truly seeks righteousness unknowingly falls into corruption. In that case, misguiding the society and fighting Islam will not be difficult, because the people have erred in identifying reformers and corrupters, and the corrupters can introduce their actions to society as reform.

How beautifully the Qur'an exposes the dangerous plan and conspiracy of the hypocrites and enemies of Islam: their plot aims to destroy the criterion and standard of reform and corruption. In this conspiracy, Nimrod plays the role of Abraham the Friend of God, Pharaoh plays the role of Moses, the Samiris of this ummah claim to be Aaron for the great Prophet, and finally the Khosrow of the Arabs and the most murderous criminal of humanity is given the title "maternal uncle of the believers" or "scribe of revelation."

How can a community be guided when the Samiris of the ummah appear this time in Aaron's clothing while having no relation to Moses? How can one be saved from calf-worship when the fake Aaron calls the people to worship the calf?

Yes, the Qur'an's warning is serious: the corrupters and those who spread corruption not only regard their corruption as righteousness, but call others corrupters. Therefore, the Qur'an addresses everyone who truly wants to hold fast to the Qur'an, follow the path of guidance, and drink from the clear spring of revelation: "Indeed, they themselves are the corrupters, but they do not perceive" (2).

Therefore, pursuing and recognizing the corrupters who have deliberately been introduced in history as reformers is a Qur'anic duty. Truly, how can one hold fast to the Qur'an while the real-world examples of its verses are unknown to its audience?

When the corrupters hidden under the mask of reform are not known, these verses cannot be acted upon. Therefore, studying the conditions of those who came before and those who were contemporaries of the Noble Messenger is necessary, even though some have given them immunity through the weak theory of declaring all companions pure so that no one would dare speak about them. But free thinkers who have made the Qur'an the guide and model of their thought examine their deeds without hesitation.

Without doubt, Muawiyah is among those whom people have tried to count among the great figures of the Islamic ummah by fabricating false virtues for him, presenting him as one of the reformers of the ummah of the Messenger of God, and ignoring or justifying his great corruptions. This is because failing to justify his vile deeds would cause those predecessors who placed him in power to be questioned.

To escape this important question, namely what thought and what party brought Muawiyah to power, his vile deeds must remain hidden or be justified. For it was the Saqifah-based thought of separating caliphate and politics from the Qur'an that placed Muawiyah in power, and his crimes and vile acts are the natural result of Saqifah.

When the reins of religious affairs leave the hands of the caliph appointed and explicitly designated by God and are entrusted to someone other than the Prophet's executor, the one supported by the Holy Spirit, the system of religion falls apart, and the result is the government of Muawiyah and the children of Muawiyah.

Although in personal terms Muawiyah was a worthless and rootless man who is not even worth naming, his history must be examined from two aspects:

1. Muawiyah's caliphate is important because it is the exposed form of the Saqifah plan, namely caliphate based on something other than the Qur'an. Although the theory of the people of Saqifah is false and contrary to the Qur'an, for anyone who has doubt about Saqifah's falsehood, studying the deeds of Saqifah's worthy son leaves no doubt about Saqifah's falsehood.

2. Because of Muawiyah's method of rule and the policies he applied, his successors, especially Yazid, implemented the policies of Saqifah one after another without any caution or fear. Therefore, what Muawiyah and his successors committed was an old wish of the caliphs who had arisen from Saqifah, and these lofty wishes were carried out by Muawiyah and his successors.

Because of Muawiyah's close relationship with Saqifah, he must be considered much more seriously, because today many regard him as the reformer of his time, praise him with greatness, and try to justify his ugly deeds.

For this reason, we call Muawiyah the special agent of Saqifah, because his actions and conduct are based on the idea that the Prophet's successor does not need to be infallible. This very ignoring of the condition of infallibility for the Prophet's successor and caliph, together with presenting all companions as mujtahids, leads to people like Muawiyah and Yazid becoming rulers. Here, some of the innovations of Saqifah's agent are briefly mentioned.

Among the innovations Muawiyah introduced into the religion of the Messenger of God was innovation in prayer. Prayer, which is the common point of all Islamic sects, did not escape Muawiyah's innovations and underwent this change and alteration, whose difference remains until today.

It is written about him: "The first person to drop the basmalah from the beginning of the surah after al-Fatihah was Muawiyah ibn Abi Sufyan. When the prayer ended, Muslims called out to him from every place: O Muawiyah, did you steal the prayer, or did you forget?" (3)

Shawkani, one of the great scholars of the non-Shi'a, also narrates this event in this way: Muawiyah led the people in congregational prayer in Medina. In the audible prayer, he did not recite bism Allah al-Rahman al-Rahim and did not say takbir between the acts of prayer. When he finished the prayer, the Muhajirun and Ansar called out to him: O Muawiyah, you made the prayer deficient. Where is the bism Allah? Where is the takbir? (4)

Shawkani writes: "Al-Tabari narrated that the first person to abandon takbir in prayer was Muawiyah, and Abu Ubayd narrated that the first person to abandon takbir was Ziyad. These reports are not contradictory, because Ziyad abandoned takbir in prayer because Muawiyah had abandoned it, and Muawiyah abandoned it because Uthman had abandoned it..." (5)

Innovation is one of the very important characteristics of Banu Umayyah, especially Muawiyah. This report from Shawkani clearly shows that Banu Umayyah did not follow a path separate from their predecessors. Muawiyah abandoned takbir in prayer because Uthman had done so, and this shows that Muawiyah followed the same policies as Uthman. Uthman was the one who reached the caliphate on the condition that he govern according to the Sunnah of the two previous rulers, and those two previous rulers were born of Saqifah. Therefore, Banu Umayyah are in truth a very serious continuation of Saqifah.

Jabir ibn Abdullah narrates: When Muawiyah wanted to make a spring flow in the land of Uhud, they wrote to him: We cannot make the spring flow except over the graves of the martyrs. In reply, Muawiyah ordered that the graves of the martyrs of Uhud be exhumed. During this exhumation, a shovel struck Hamzah ibn Abd al-Muttalib, the master of martyrs, and fresh blood flowed from the blessed body of Hamzah, the master of martyrs, after many years (6).

He also narrates that an announcer in Medina called out: Whoever has a slain one at Uhud should come to the martyrs of Uhud. The people rushed toward their slain and found the dead of Uhud intact and fresh (7).

Truly, what was Muawiyah's motive, and how did he dare to exhume the graves of martyrs who had been covered in blood and dust beside the Messenger of God and in defense of Islam? Is it anything other than that he had no respect for these martyrs, because he still lived in regret over the defeat of the polytheists at Badr and Uhud? Did he not want to take revenge from the martyrs of Badr for the polytheists who were killed by the army of Islam at Badr and Uhud?

This special agent of Saqifah left many innovations in religion, and mentioning all of them is beyond the scope of this brief writing. Here, however, one of the innovations of this great Saqifah-man is mentioned, an innovation that no one has been able to justify.

Although Muawiyah spent his entire life trying to negate the Sunnah of the Messenger of God, in a strange act he negated a very important rule that the Prophet had commanded and acted exactly contrary to it. This hadith is agreed upon by non-Shi'a and Shi'a alike: "The child belongs to the bed, and the fornicator gets the stone" (8). A child's lineage is established only through marriage, and no child or lineage is established for the fornicator. But Muawiyah, this fruit and result of Saqifah, established a child for a fornicator in a very vile manner and denied the child whose lineage had been established through marriage.

During the caliphate of the Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him), by his command Ziyad ibn Abih became ruler of parts of Fars, because until that time no wrongdoing had been seen from him. Muawiyah tried hard to deceive him, but until the end of the caliphate of the Commander of the Faithful he remained steadfast and did not fall for Muawiyah's deception. After the Imam's martyrdom, however, Muawiyah made great efforts to deceive him and claimed that Ziyad was his brother and the son of Abu Sufyan.

Ziyad too was deceived by Muawiyah and, out of greed for worldly wealth and possessions, confessed to illegitimate birth and considered Abu Sufyan his father. After he accepted this illegitimate lineage, Muawiyah's sister, at Muawiyah's request, went to him, removed her veil, called him her brother and mahram, and said to Ziyad: You are my brother, as Abu Maryam informed me.

Then they held a gathering in the mosque. Muawiyah sat on the pulpit and seated Ziyad one step below himself. Then he called Abu Maryam al-Saluli, who was a wine seller, as a witness. Abu Maryam stood and testified, saying: "I testify that Abu Sufyan came to us in Ta'if while I was a wine seller in Jahiliyyah, and he said: Bring me a prostitute. I came to him and said: I found no prostitute except Sumayyah, the slave woman of Harith ibn Kaldah. He said: Bring her, despite her filth and bad smell."

Ziyad became upset at this statement and said to the wine seller who was the witness in Muawiyah's gathering: Abu Maryam, you were summoned to testify, not to insult and curse. Abu Maryam said: I testified only to what I saw.

Then Abu Maryam continued: By God, I saw Abu Sufyan take the sleeve of Sumayyah's garment and close the door, while I sat there bewildered. I had not stayed long before he came out wiping his forehead. I said: O Abu Sufyan, how was it? He said: I have not seen anyone like her, if not for ... and the stench of her mouth.

In short, through this testimony Muawiyah called Ziyad his brother. Of course, it would have been appropriate in Muawiyah's gathering to ask him: Is your own attribution to Abu Sufyan certain? Suppose you prove that Ziyad's father is Abu Sufyan; the fact that your own father is Abu Sufyan cannot be proven.

Yunus ibn Ubayd stood and said: O Muawiyah, the Messenger of God judged and said: "The child belongs to the bed, and the fornicator gets the stone." The child is established through marriage, and for the fornicator there is stoning. You have ruled contrary to the Messenger of God, saying that the child belongs to the fornicator and the stone belongs to the bed, in opposition to the Book of God and far from the Sunnah of the Messenger of God, by the testimony of Abu Maryam regarding Abu Sufyan's fornication (9).

Muawiyah did this while it clearly opposed the luminous verses of the Noble Qur'an. When God commands that you do not even have the right to attribute your adopted children to someone other than their father, and that even an adopted child must be addressed by the real name of his father (10), this child of Saqifah trampled both God's command and the explicit ruling of the divine verses in the Qur'an.

The testimony of Imam Zuhri is also noteworthy. Zuhri was asked: Is it permissible for an illegitimate person to lead congregational prayer? He replied: Yes, there is no problem, because our great imams were illegitimate (11). Truly, this is a disgrace and shame that cannot be washed away by any water unless the whole incident is denied. But it has been narrated so much in the books of the opponents that there is no choice but to accept this masterpiece from the fully authorized representative of Saqifah. Interestingly, no one has denied this masterpiece of Saqifah's agent.

When Fadl ibn Ruzbihan, in refuting Nahj al-Haqq, reaches this point, he commits himself to the view that Muawiyah was not a rightful caliph and that justifying his actions is not necessary. To escape this disgrace, Fadl ibn Ruzbihan erases the question itself and says Muawiyah was not a caliph.

Of course, one must ask him: Was Muawiyah not a companion? What do you do with the theory of declaring all companions pure? Do you still believe that all companions are just? The much more important question is: who placed this vile and shameless man over Syria? Should they not be asked by what criterion and standard they placed such a person over the lives, wealth, and honor of Muslims?

Someone who openly drinks wine, consumes usury, trades in idols, and in the mosque, a sacred and pure place, lets such obscene words flow from the tongues of witnesses; someone who narrates fornication, which God and His Messenger have forbidden, proudly and with the details of the event in the mosque; and who, based on an unlawful act, rules that Ziyad is the son and Abu Sufyan the father.

Who could make such a person ruler of Syria except someone who had complete affinity with him and was the founder of Saqifah? In a very interesting judgment, he did not carry out the hadd of fornication on Mughirah, even though four male witnesses saw Mughirah's fornication with Umm Jamil clearly. Instead of carrying out the hadd on his old friend, the second caliph punished the four witnesses. Therefore, if his appointee issues such a ruling, one should not be surprised. With regret one must whisper: Muawiyah's house is ruined from the foundation, because he built his house upon Saqifah.

Muawiyah's innovations are far more numerous than can be examined in this brief writing, but the number of his innovations is not very important. What is highly important is why he created innovation.

It is very naive and simple-minded to consider his motive only and solely to be gaining or preserving the caliphate, because many of his vile deeds have no relation to preserving or obtaining the caliphate. When Muawiyah forbade pilgrims from reciting talbiyah in Hajj or removed bism Allah al-Rahman al-Rahim from the Qur'an, the foundations of his government were not strengthened. Therefore, we have no choice but to see Muawiyah and his actions in line with the policies of those before him. In truth, Muawiyah is nothing but the continuer of one plan and design.

A conspiracy that began in the accursed document, was strengthened at Saqifah, and continued its path with the martyrdom of Lady al-Zahra and her six-month-old fetus until it was time for Muawiyah to play his role. He had a fundamental role in the killing and martyrdom of the Commander of the Faithful and Imam Hasan. Finally, through Muawiyah's planning and Yazid's execution, the last remembrance of the Five People of the Cloak fell in his blood at Karbala, and Abu Abd Allah was martyred.

All these bitter events, from the martyrdom of Lady al-Siddiqah al-Kubra to the occultation of the last remembrance of Lady al-Zahra, must be sought in Saqifah. In reality, neglecting Saqifah is a great mistake, and by forgetting and ignoring Saqifah, any analysis of historical events in the Islamic world is either incomplete or wrong.

In any case, this innovation of the child of Saqifah is certain, and lovers of Muawiyah and friends of Saqifah must answer for it, although there is no way to justify this clear opposition to the Book of God and the command of the Prophet. In a letter to that Saqifah-lineage caliph, Imam Husayn wrote: "Are you not the one who claimed Ziyad, the one born on the bed of the slaves of Abd Thaqif, as your brother, while the Messenger of God had said: the child belongs to the bed, and the fornicator gets only the stone? By this act you deliberately abandoned the Sunnah of the Messenger of God and followed your desire without divine guidance. Then you placed him over the two Iraqs, Kufa and Basra, so that he cut off the hands and feet of the people of Islam, gouged out their eyes, and crucified them on palm trees. It is as though you are not from this ummah and they are not from you" (12). The final word about Muawiyah was spoken by Abu Abd Allah al-Husayn: "Muawiyah is not from this ummah, and this ummah is not from Muawiyah."

1. Surat al-Baqarah, verse 11. 2. Surat al-Baqarah, verse 12. 3. Al-Risalah al-Sa'diyyah, Allamah al-Hilli, footnote pp. 103-104. 4. Nayl al-Awtar, al-Shawkani, vol. 2, p. 217; al-Hakim narrated it in al-Mustadrak and said it is authentic according to the condition of the two Shaykhs. 5. Nayl al-Awtar, al-Shawkani, vol. 2, p. 266. 6. Al-Tabaqat al-Kubra, Muhammad ibn Sa'd, vol. 3, p. 11. 7. Al-Tabaqat al-Kubra, Muhammad ibn Sa'd, vol. 3, p. 524. 8. Sahih al-Bukhari, vol. 3, p. 39. 9. Al-Kamil by Ibn al-Athir, 3/442, Beirut edition, and Shifa al-Sudur fi Sharh Ziyarat Ashura (Persian), Mirza Abi al-Fadl al-Tehrani, vol. 1, pp. 312-316. 10. Al-Ahzab, verses 5 and 6. 11. Al-Muhalla, vol. 4, p. 213, Dar al-Afaq al-Jadidah, Beirut. 12. Al-Ihtijaj, Jafari translation, vol. 2, Imam Husayn's argument rebuking Muawiyah for the killing he committed against the Shia of the Commander of the Faithful and his expression of mercy for those killed, p. 86.