AhlulBayt News Agency: The hadith concerning the "two weighty trusts" known as hadith
al-thaqalayn is one of the most widely accepted and authoritative of all
the traditions narrated from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon
him and his family, and it has also been recorded in the principal Sunni
books of tradition. It possesses the highest degree of authenticity and
acceptance. The text is as follows:
"I leave among you two precious and weighty trusts, one being
the Book of God and the other my Progeny. These two legacies will never
be separated from each other, and if you lay firm hold of them you will
never go astray."1
Certain Sunni scholars even add the following sentence at the end of the hadith: "'Ali is always with the Qur'an and the Qur'an is with 'Ali; they too will not be separated from each other."2
Hadith scholars attribute the transmission of this tradition to roughly thirty Companions of the Prophet.3
According to numerous hadith scholars and historians, Shi'i and Sunni
alike, the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him and his family,
never failed at different times in this life, including its difficult
last moments, to draw people's attention to the profound link between
these two great and authoritative sources of Islam, the Qur'an and his
Progeny (Ahl al-Bayt), tracing out thereby an entire program for the
future of Islam in a single instructive sentence. Small differences are
to be seen in the form of the relevant traditions, some being detailed
and others concise depending on the occasion, but the content and
meaning are always the same: the profound and indissoluble link between
the Qur'an and the Progeny of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon
him and his family, the absolute interrelatedness of the two.
Ibn Hajar, a Sunni scholar, writes:
"We have mentioned earlier different versions of this hadith. Some of
them relate to the utterances made by the Prophet at Arafah in the
course of his Farewell Pilgrimage; others to pronouncements made while
he was on his deathbed in Madinah, surrounded by the Companions; another
to his address at Ghadir Khumm; and yet another to statements made
while returning from Ta'if."
He then adds: "None of these versions contradict each other, for there
is no reason why he should not have repeated the same truth on all these
occasions, and on others as well, given the great significance that
both the Qur'an and his Progeny possess.4
In another tradition known as the hadith of the Truth (hadith al-haqq),
the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him and his family, says: "'Ali is with the truth and the truth is with 'Ali; wherever the truth is, 'Ali will incline to it."5
We know that the verses of the Noble Qur'an form a compendium of the
divine commands and laws of Islam; the teaching contained in them are a
guarantee for man's happiness and salvation. However, the interpretation
and exegesis of the Qur'an have to be undertaken by persons who are
acquainted with the language of revelation and who fully possess the
necessary competence, in terms of both knowledge and conduct. The Shi'ah
therefore believe that those who possess this competence must be
identified by the Prophet himself and appointed by him to administer the
affairs of the people and guide them. It is they who understand the
language of revelation and can properly acquit themselves
of the task of interpreting and explicating God's verses. The
juxtaposition of the Progeny of the Prophet with the Qur'an is thus due
to the need of the Qur'an for an exegesis that will set forth its
purposes and regulations.
If we look carefully at the content of the hadith, we will see that to
separate the Qur'an from the Progeny of the Prophet and to follow the
utterances and views of persons unacquainted with its symbols and truths
is bound to lead to error and misguidance. The tradition therefore
implies that only the Progeny of the Prophet can establish the firm and
categorical meaning of the verses in God's Book that are allegorical.
The fact that the Prophet places the Qur'an and his Progeny side by side
indicates that both are advancing in the same direction and toward the
same goal: the Qur'an is a divine law and book, and the Progeny are its
interpreters, executors and guardians. To separate and distance oneself
from the Progeny is therefore to invite destruction.
The decline and deviance of the Muslims began when such a separation
started to occur and men attempted to hold on to each one separately.
The thesis, "God's Book alone is enough for us" came to prevail in their
religious thinking, leading to the emergence of such schools as the
Ash'ari and the Mu'tazilite. It was as if they knew the value of God's
Book better than the Prophet himself and better comprehended its
significance!
It is possible to understand the Qur'an and explain the knowledge it
contains only by referring to the utterances of those persons upon whom
knowledge has been directly bestowed by God, or at least whose knowledge
is derived from instruction by a particular source. Such persons can be
only the Inerrant (ma'sum) Imams of the Prophet's Progeny.
Ibn Hajar also cites the following sentence uttered by the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him and his family:
"Do not attempt to go beyond these twin trusts (the Book and the Progeny
of the Prophet), for that will lead you into perdition, and do not fall
short in adhering to them, for that too will encompass your ruin. Do
not imagine the People of the Prophet's House to be ignorant, for they
are infinitely more knowledgeable than you and understand well the
language of revelation."6
The Commander of the Faithful, 'Ali, peace be upon him, said:
"You will never remain faithful to your covenant with the Qur'an
unless you recognize who it is that has betrayed his covenant, and you
will never lay firm hold of the Qur'an unless you recognize who it is
that has abandoned it. Seek the straight path of fidelity and the means
of adhering to the Qur'an from the people of the Qur'an, for it is they
who keep alive knowledge and learning and uproot ignorance. They it is
by means of obedience to whom you become aware of the knowledge they
hold. You comprehend their silence from their speech and their outer
appearance from their inner state. They never rebel against the command
of religion and never fall into dispute. Religion is a silent and
veracious witness dwelling in their midst."7
What is meant here is that the Progeny of the Prophet are free from sin
and pollution and even minor errors, for it is obvious that whatever is
indissolubly linked to the Qur'an until both trusts are brought together
before the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him and his family, on
the Day of Resurrection must be followed and obeyed by mankind together
with the Qur'an itself. God cannot command men to obey one who is
polluted by error and sin, nor can He create an indissoluble link
between the Qur'an and such a person Only those who are utterly beyond
the reach of impurity can be juxtaposed with the Qur'an, for those
obedience to whose commands God has made incumbent on all
Muslims must be free of all defect.
Not content with his other utterances on the subject, the Prophet
declared the number of successors (khulafa') who would come after him:
"This religion will endure until the Day of Judgement, for as
long as twelve persons from Quraysh rule over you as my successors."8
"My successors will be twelve in number, just like the
chieftains of the Bani Isra'il, all of them from Quraysh and (according
to one version of this hadith) from Bani Hashim,"9
Abdullah relates the Prophet to have said: "As long as there are two men left on the earth, leadership will remain among the Quraysh."10
This mention of the twelve successors can refer only to the Inerrant
Imams from the Progeny of the Prophet, peace be upon them, for neither
were the first caliphs twelve in number, nor were the Umayyad and
Abbasid rulers. More importantly, the crimes those rulers committed, far
from assuring the welfare and happiness of the ummah, brought about the
destruction of religion, so that it is impossible in any way to
consider them the successors of the Prophet.
Those who could not deny the authenticity of the hadith concerning
twelve successors but wished nonetheless to avoid recognizing the Twelve
Imams of the Prophet's Progeny were obliged to offer tortuous
explanations that were utterly irreconcilable with the text and content
of the tradition, for the first caliphs and the Umayyad and Abbasid
rulers when added together come to a total of some thirty people, so
that the total number of claimants to the caliphate from among the
Quraysh exceeds the number specified in the hadith. If we refuse to
interpret the hadith as referring to the Imams of the Shi'ah, we are
left with no clear or reliable meaning for it whatsoever.
Shaykh Sulayman al-Qunduzi, a Hanafi scholar, writes the following, in a vein free of all fanaticism:
"According to scholars, the traditions that specify the successors to
the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him and his family, to be
twelve in number are well known and they have been narrated by different
chains of transmission. It became clear with the passage of time that
what the Messenger of God was referring to in this hadith were the
twelve Imams from his Progeny. It is impossible to refer it to the first
caliphs, for they were only four in number, nor can it be applied to
the Umayyads, for they were more than twelve in number, apart from which
with the exception of 'Umar b. Abd al-'Aziz they were all tyrants and
oppressors, and they did not belong to the Bani Hashim, where as the
Prophet had specified that his twelve successors would be from the Bani
Hashim. Jabir b. Samarah mentions that the Prophet spoke this last part
of the tradition softly, because not everyone was happy that the
caliphate would go to the Bani Hashim.
"Equally, this hadith cannot apply to the 'Abbasids, because their
number, too, is more than twelve; they did not act in accordance with
the verse enjoining love for the family of the Prophet;11 and
they ignored the hadith of the Cloak (hadith al-kisa'). The hadith
must, then, refer exclusively to the Twelve Imams from the Progeny of
the Prophet, for they were superior to all others with respect to
knowledge, moral virtues, piety and lineage. They were a line who
inherited their knowledge from the Messenger of God, peace and blessings
be upon him and his family, their great ancestor. This is confirmed by
the hadith concerning the two weighty trusts and numerous traditions
that have reached
us from the Prophet."12
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1- Muslim, al-Sahih, vol. 7, p. 122; al-Tirmidhi, Jami'
al-Sahih, vol. 2, p. 308; al-Hakim, al- Mustadrak, vol. 3, p. 109. Ahmad
b. Hanbal, al-Musnad, vol. 3, pp. 14-17. Ibn al-Sabbagh, Fusul al-
Muhimmah, p. 24; al-Ganji, Kifayat al-Talib, p. 130; al-Qunduzi, Yanabi'
al-Mawaddah, pp. 17-18; al-Ya'qubi, al-Tarikh, vol. 2, p. 92; Fakhr
al-Din al-Razi, al-Tafsir al-Kabir, vol. 3, p. 18; al- Naysaburi,
Ghara'ib al-Qur'an, vol. 1, p. 349.
2- Al-Qunduzi, Yanabi' al-Mawaddah, pp. 32-40; Ibn Hajar, al-Sawa'iq, p. 57; al-Irbidi, Kashf al- Ghummah, p.43.
3- Al-Halabi, al-Sirah, vol. 3, p. 308.
4- Ibn Hajar, al-Sawa'iq, p. 89.
4- Ibn Qutaybah, al-Imamah wa al-Siyasah, vol. 1, p. 68; al-Hamawini,
Fara'id al-Simtayn, Chapter 37; al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, Tarikh Baghdad,
vol. 4, p. 21; Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, Fusul al-Muhimmah.
6- Ibn Hajar, al-Sawa'iq, p. 153.
7- Al-Radi, Nahj al-Balaghah, Sermon 145.
8- Muslim, al-Sahih, vol. 13, p. 202.
9- Muslim, al-Sahih, vol. 6, p. 2; al-Bukhari, al-Sahih ., Chapter 15 of
"Kita'b al-Ahkam". Ahmad b. Hanbal, al-Musnad, vol. 1, p. 397, vol. 5,
p.86; Ibn Kathir, al-Bidayah, vol. 6, p.245; al- Qunduzi, Yanabi'
al-Mawaddah, p. 373.
10- Muslim, al-Sahih, vol. 13, p. 202.
11- That is 42:23.
12- Al-Qunduzi, Yanabi' al-Mawaddah, p.446.
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