Hazrat Ali, Tirmidhi (ترمذی) and Our Scholars

Note: I do not belong to any sect.

Hazrat Ali Ibn-e-Abi Talib was the first child among the children of Arab who accepted Islam and accepted Mohammad P.B.U.H as a messenger of Allah. According to history, He was just 10 years old at that time. He had already been brought under the guardianship of Mohammad P.B.U.H when he was just 5 years old because of the economic conditions of his father. Hazrat Ali was the only person who stepped forthwhen Hazrat Mohammad P.B.U.H asked people to assist him in his invitation to Islam after 3 years of secret invitation. He grew up under the brilliant supervision of Hazrat Mohammad P.B.U.H who did not let him be attracted towards bad practices of Arab.

Due to these facts we can say that Hazrat Ali was the most learned, oldest and closest companion of Mohammad P.B.U.H.

But few years back, a controversial explanation of Qur’an chapter 4 verse 43 just knocked me by a powerful stroke and then left me in a state of mental numbness. I extremely criticized that explanation (will explain in next few paragraphs what the reasons behind my refusal of such explanation were) but moved ahead and kept continued my Islamic research. But once again few months back the same explanation from another scholar came in front but this time I was not the only one surprised. However the scholar offered his apology within few days but his apology was not about the wrong explanation, he or majority of muslims consider this as a “bitter truth” (not more than that) that shouldn’t have been spoken openly.

Actually this is not something limited to few scholars or few conformists. There is a majority of Muslims who consider the books of narrations as the main source of extracting DEEN. But at the same time everyone knows that:

• Mohammad P.B.U.H left only Qur’an and best practices of Qur’an after him. (from his last sermon)
• No one tried to compile his narrations for approximately 200 years.
• Narrations were collected when Muslims had been divided into different sects and Muslim brotherhood had been replaced by favoritism.
• Sects did not rely upon the narrators of other sects.
• It was an era when all misconceptions and wrong beliefs/practices that had been removed by Islam had started appearing again.
• Sunni Narrations were collected by six Persian scholars after 200 years of Hijrah.
• Each of them found more than hundred-thousand narrations and trashed more than 80% out of them. Imam Tirmidhi (or Tirmizi, ترمذی) trashed approx 296,885 out of an approximate collection of 300,000 narrations.
• The first exegesis (tafseer) “Tibri” that was written in 3rd century hijri was all based on such narrations. Every verse had its shan-e-nazool (the reason behind a particular revelation) associated with it. Imam Tibri collected all famous narrations and bundled them within his exegesis.

This clarification was required here because the explanation of chapter 4 verse 43 is associated with a controversial “shan-e-nazool” that is recorded in Tirmidhi (ترمذی , Tirmizi - A book of narrations from Sahah-Satta). The interpretation of that shan-e-nazool is that One day Hazrat Abdul Rehman Bin Auf invited few companions on a dinner at his place. After dinner they all drank (alcohol) and then they stood for offering maghrib’s prayer. Hazrat Ali was asked to lead the prayer but due to dizziness he made a mistake in the recitation of chapter 109 during prayer.

I know you may have reasons of its acceptance but I feel myself responsible to present here the reasons of my refusal of this interpretation. I won’t discuss the verse here in detail because it will deviate the topic, I will try to stick to the issue being discussed here.

• This incident was reported by Abad-Bin-Hameed who heard from Abdul-Rehman-Bin-Auf who heard from Abu-Jaffar-Al-Raazi who heard from Ata-Bin-Saayib who heard from Abdul-Rehman-As-Salama who heard from Hazrat Ali. Can you imagine a narration narrated like this should be considered reliable?
• Why didn’t they go to mosque for prayer?
• If they all were drunk (obviously they all would be otherwise the one who was not drunk would be leading the prayer) then who told them that Hazrat Ali made a mistake during recitation and exactly what mistake he did?
• I respect Mohammad P.B.U.H, his wives and his companions and this is the reason that I can not accept a narration that goes against Qur’an, or goes against the high moral of respectful personalities. I do not hesitate to refuse such narration. Because I can not associate such stories towards Messenger of Allah or towards his closest companions.
• It is a misunderstanding of our holy scholars that alcohol was allowed by Islam in the beginning. The alcohol was never allowed by Islam. Yes, Arabs used to drink and trade it but still there were families and people who used to consider this as a bad habit/trade. Like today, smoking is very common but still families and people consider it as a bad habit/trade and even smokers do not want their children to smoke. Islam stopped such activities gradually but that doesn’t mean that closest companions of Mohammad P.B.U.H used to perform such activities.
• A man (Hazrat Ali) who was grown up under the supervision of Mohammad P.B.U.H (as discussed in first paragraph) can not even think of such activity when his guardian (Mohammad) was inviting people towards Islam and he himself was the first man who stepped forth to assist him. Just imagine him offering prayer in this befogged mind.
• Chapter 4 Surah Nisa was revealed in Madina. According to the order it was 92nd chapter that was revealed. That means it was at least (could be more than that because I can’t find the exact year of that incident) 13th year of Hazrat Ali’s association with Islam. Were 13 years (or more than 13 years) and 91 chapters not enough for Hazrat Ali to understand the purpose of DEEN and he drank and offered prayer in that condition?
• The word used in chapter 4 verse 43 is “Sukara”. This word has broad meanings. It could be used in any context when a person is in a state when he doesn’t know or understand what he says. The reason behind this state could be anything. Like stupified by alcoholic drink, sleepiness, mental illness or unawareness. (It should now be clear that the purpose of “Sala’at” is served only when one understands what he is saying.)
• It is found in same books of narrations that Qur’an was NOT compiled in the life of Mohammad (well, I don’t believe this) and they struggled hard to compile it. Verses were some in hearts, some on woods and some on the sheepskin. And few verses of Qur’an even had been eaten by goat (unacceptable- How can I or any muslim believe this? but it is from Ibn-e-Ma’aja – a sunni book of narrations).  According to this (false) concept If it was difficult to compile Qur’an after few years of Mohammad’s death then where did those shan-e-nazools come from after 200 years?
• Even date of birth, date of death and age of Mohammad P.B.U.H was not correctly recorded and muslims today are not even united on them then how an exact shan-e-nazool be remembered for a verse?
• There is a major difference between Islam and Islamic History and our holy scholars are interested more in history than Islam itself. You can never understand Islam by history because history is written by historians and they are always human-beings and they are sometime not neutral or if neutral then it might be their own perspective. Like Indo-Pak war fought in 1965 has different history in India and Pakistan. The creation of Pakistan has different history in India and Pakistan even Pakistanis have different viewpoints in that. Same people are heroes and same are villain from different perspective. God can not alter the past but historians can.
• Allah says in Qur’an chapter 4 verse 82 that “Will they not then ponder on the Qur’an? If it had been from other than Allah they would have found therein much incongruity.” It is obvious from this verse that if a book is written by a man then it may have contradictions.

I hope I was able to clarify my viewpoint here. The idea behind this post is “to pointout the issue” instead of “pointing-out anyone”. The main idea behind bringing this post on blog is to make people pay attention on such controversies and then decide what they have been doing since ages. I apologize if any of my words have hurt you. I always try to pointout the nail in the shoe instead of suggesting people to visit the doctor again and again. It was good to see that our scholars have courage to say “TRUTH” (from their own perspective) but it would be better if they had used this courage in any other direction.

Allama Iqbal once said:

Jisay “Naan-E-Jaween” Bakhsha Hai TU Ne
Usay “Bazoo-E-Haider” Bhi Ataa Kar
(Whom YOU (Allah) have granted hobbies like Hazrat Ali please grant him the courage like Ali too.)

Please Think, You Can Think

!mran