Chapter One: Preface
The motivation behind the writing of this book came about from my personal experience. From my humble Christian background Allah (swt) guided me to his deen (religion). The brothers who converted me were themselves Salafi and hence I was indoctrinated to their aqeedah (ideology). The earliest thing that I was told was that I should be weary of the enemies of Islam disguised as Muslims such as Shi’as who portrayed Islam on the outside but were infact kaffir, on account of the “facts” such as:
- They believe that the Qur’an has verses missing from it.
- They curse the Sahaba and wives of the Prophet(s).
- They believe that the revelation should have gone to Ali, but Gabriel (as) accidentally conveyed it to Prophet Muhammad (s). As such they curse Gabriel when they complete their prayers.
- They beat themselves in Muharram and fornicate in the precincts of their mosques on the 10th night – any male product from this illegal union is named Hussain, and any girl is named Zaynab.
You can imagine how this made me feel, being constantly told about this, time and time again. Hence I bore extreme hatred towards the Shi’a in my heart. As a brother told me “You should hate the Shi’a with a vengeance”.
Two years after I reverted I married a Salafi sister of South Asian descent – whilst practising, she was rather less exuberant than I was in active Dawah activities.
A few weeks after we married, very close friends of my wife invited us both to dinner. It was only when I arrived there that I learnt that the family were Shi’a, had I known earlier I would have probably never gone.
The host was very kind, but kept asking me questions on my beliefs etc. I tried to side-track, but he kept prying and this made be feel very uneasy. This was our first meeting but we met many more times in the coming weeks, on account of the fact that his place of work was next to the University where I studied. He tried his hardest to convince me that the Shi’a were correct in their beliefs, but I simply programmed myself to believe that he was a kaffir who was practising Taqiyyah. Despite this after a year of heated discussions my heart was starting to accept some of his arguments. Whilst I would simply regurgitate whatever my Salafi brothers had taught me – he would always reply logically and would back up his comments by citing traditions from classical works such as Sahih al Bukhari.
In truth I had not discussed any of these conversations to my Salafi brothers, until I was out one day and visited a market stall that was run by two Salafi reverts. After our general salutations I informed one of the brothers that I had a friend who was Shi’a and inquired whether he knew anything about the Shi’a faith. No sooner did I say the name “Shi’a” that the brother’s face changed colour, he said:
“Brother don’t talk to them they are kaffir (infidels), they believe that the Qur’an has verses missing”.
I told him that the Shi’a I had spoken to denied this and countered me by presenting a tahreef tradition from Sahih al Bukhari – with Umar stating that a Surah on stoning is missing. The brother was shocked and after about a minute’s silence he said:
“brother they did black magic with your eyes you didn’t see it!”
This really made me laugh and I walked off. I proceeded to do my shopping and was just passing the stall again when the brother called me over and introduced me to a revert who he acclaimed as an “expert on Shi’aism”. The ‘expert’ said:
“So you wanna know about the Shi’a kaffir, all you need to know is that they believe in 12 Gods”.
Even I from my general conversations with the Shi’a brother knew that this was a blatant lie. I then decided to test him by quizzing the fact that Shi’as believe ‘Ali to be the Prophet (s)’s legitimate successor and I cited the Sahih tradition ‘Ali is to me as Harun is to Musa except there shall be no Prophet after me’.
The ‘expert’ then countered this by asking:
“And what did he (s) say about Umar[r]?”
I knew exactly what he was asking and said:
“If there had to be a Prophet after me it would be Umar”.
The expert patted me on the back and said:
“Exactly brother”. I then asked him “That being the case why did Umar not become the first Khalifa? Is this not an insult to Hadhrath Umar?”
The expert looked bemused, smiled and said:
“Brother you’ve just used your Aql (reason) and that’s haraam”.
It was that reply that will act as a permanent memory for me. I still remember looking over to the revert brother who owned the stall following this reply, he smiled a half smile, that to me suggested that he was about as convinced at the reply as I was. For me this was the turning point in my life. The sheer stupidity and lies I heard at that stall convinced me that the Salafis were trying to cover something up. Alhamdolillah, the ‘expert’ achieved greater success in guiding me to the Shi’a than the Shi’a brother had, despite a year of rigorous debating! It was his blatant lies and lack of logic that repelled me away from the Salafis and attracted me to the Ahl’ul bayt (as).
You might ask ‘what has this to do with the preface?’ – well only a handful of brothers are fortunate enough to ever meet knowledgeable Shi’as and learn the actual truth. As the vast bulk of reverts are brought to the Din by the Salafi’s the opportunity of them ever actually meeting and discussing matters with Shi’as is highly unlikely. This is increased when one takes into account the level of propaganda and lies that are pumped into a revert’s mind with regards to the Shi’a and what they allegedly believe. When I look back at my time with the Salafis I recall that they never talked about ‘Ali (as) – why? Well since becoming Shi’a, truth has been made manifest – they are the Nawasib, his enemies – and are hiding their enmity behind the “Sunni label”.
That’s why I had asked the brother who sacrificed so many hours of his time to guide me, to write a rebuttal of their lies and expose their actual aqeedah to the world. I hope that this book opens the minds of my fellow reverts who have been deceived by the Salafis. It is indeed sad that these same reverts who embraced Islam having researched the truth with an open mind and logical reasoning, abandon these same principles when being indoctrinated into the Salafi movement, preferring to blindly follow every word of their Nasibi Shaykhs. I also hope that the book acts as a source of inspiration to my down-trodden Shi’a brothers and sisters who have to put up with the Salafi Nasibi propaganda onslaught on a daily basis.
Your brother in Islam,
Abdul Hakeem Oranu.
Chapter Two: Introduction
There is no doubt that the Shi’a of Ali (as) are a peace loving people, and are the standard bearers of unity amongst Muslims. The Shi’a Ulema have striven hard towards this goal inviting our brothers to sit and talk with us, it should be pointed out that the invitation does not constitute a defect in religious belief on our part.
It seemed that their efforts had borne fruit when in 1959 Shaykh Mahmood Shaltoot, Grand Mufti of Al Azhar University issued a fatwa declaring Fiqh Jafriyah an Islamic school of thought, and adherents were free to adopt it in the same way that they could follow the other four schools.
Despite this major breakthrough, it is with deep regret that we look around us and see that despite entering a new century, this polemical battle, with those who support and revere the enemies of Ali (as) is still going on today.
The contemporary Nawasib, that comprise of the Salafis and certain extremist illiterate ilk amongst the Deobandis (rigid Hanafees from the Indian Subcontinent) have sought to undermine the spirit of the Al Azhar fatwa by orchestrating a well financed / baseless campaign of lies against the Shi’a, aimed at dividing the Muslims. Just like their Nasibi ancestors who sought to undermine and ruin Imam Ali (as) by accusing him of killing Uthman (when they themselves had his blood on their hands) to the point of slandering, cursing and fighting him, their modern day offspring have likewise adopted these same methods against his Shi’a. They have used every form of deception possible to achieve this aim. This has included the common Nasibi tactic of distorting / denying and re-writing historical facts, misquoting Shi’a texts and intentionally lying about the Shi’a faith to the ignorant masses so as to create a hatred of the adherents of the Ahlul’bayt. They are undoubtedly the leaders of sedition and they are responsible for inciting fitnah and sectarian violence everywhere they operate- in exchange for ‘lucrative’ handouts in the form of cash, presents and young boys from their Saudi / US paymasters.
Curiously whilst attacking the Shi’a, these groups are themselves divided and they frequently issue takfir against one another. The Prophet (s) had once compared the Ummah to a body. The Nawasib are a cancer attacking the body. It is imperative that we uproot this cancer from the body so as to save this Ummah from further fragmentation and destruction.
Our methodology
We will adopt the same steps, as would a Doctor seeking to identify a patient’s ailment. He would:
- Diagnose the condition – We will likewise diagnose the symptoms of a Nasibi.
- Determine whether the symptoms have spread – We will examine the extent to which Nasibi thinking has penetrated through the body.
- Take a biopsy to use quantifiable evidence / tissue diagnosis etc – We will likewise rely on quantifiable evidence presenting facts based on history, hadith and the texts of the Nawasib.
We have throughout this article cited references from the texts of both groups. Before proceeding into the relevant chapters, we feel that it is important at this juncture that we highlight two common Salafi objections leveled against this article:
First Salafi objection
The citation of Deobandi texts in a book that is primarily against Salafis evidences the lack of knowledge amongst the AA Team with regards to which Sect they are attacking.
Reply
We would like to make it clear that when it comes to post modern anti Shia polemics the texts of both groups are virtually identical, indeed it seems that they copy and paste from one another. The similarities between both Sects is a modern day phenomenon, one only needs to gauge the texts of the founding fathers of the Deobandi movement to recognize that their beliefs were markedly different to today’s Salafis and extremist Deobandis. Tragically the lure of Saudi / US petro dollars, fame and all the luxuries that come with it has been such that the testosterone fuelled Deobandis from Sipah-e-Sahaba have deemed it imperative to align their beliefs with those of their Saudi donors. The result of this merger has been the formulation of a shared set of beliefs that distinguish them from other Muslims and evidence their Nasibi status, since both groups:
- deem celebrating the birthday of the Prophet (s) and commemorating Moharramto be a Bidah that must be stopped
- oppose any Moharram gatherings, and deem it right to attack such mourning processions
- deem Yazeed to be innocent of Imam Husayn (as)’s murder
- advocate on behalf of Marwan, Mu’awiya and Yazeed and praise them
- play down the virtues of Imam Ali (as)
- deem the parents of Rasulullah (s) and Maula Ali (as) to be kaafirs (astaghfirullah)
- deem Rasulullah (s) to be fallible who could commit mistakes and sins
- deem it legitimate to shed the blood of Muslims that do not ascribe to their beliefs
The nexus between these Nawasib is such that we can see how the adherents of both Sects behave like inseparable Siamese Twins on Anti Shia Chat Forums, wherein they heap accolades on one anothers efforts in attacking the Shia. If these two forces are prepared to unite in their assault on the Shia it is only fair that we group them together for this refutation.
Second Salafi Objection
Salafis deem Deobandis to be the adherents of a deviant Sect, so how can you group them under one category?
Reply
When it comes to Shia bashing all grudges that the two groups bear against one another are set aside, in favor of meeting the better goal of inciting hatred of the Shia. Such a merger is no different to the partnership forged between Amr bin Aas and Muawiyah. Other than both being conceived through a four way sex orgy there was little evidence that would indicate that both men would become such close sleeping partners in the future. If anything the greater probability was that both men would live a life of animosity towards one another, after all Amr bin Aas had played a major role in inciting people to kill the Caliph Uthman. This being the case, how did the same Amr bin Aas then join forces with Muawiyah and demand vengeance for the very blood that he had shed? How did these two men enter into this unlikely alliance? Simple, they were motivated by their hatred of Ali ibn Abi Talib (as). Exactly the same principles apply when we observe the unlikely alliance between the Salafis and Neo Deobandis, who have merged to target their resources against the Shia of Ali (as).
We would equate both Sects with the example of two guard dogs. Both dogs might share the same DNA, eating and sleeping habits. Both might ferociously guard their Masters home. If the dogs were out running in the park and saw a cat, they would work together to chase it away. That would be as far as the alliance would go. If you was to alter the scenario, and placed both dogs in a room with no other external stimuli, they would automatically attack one another. The same is the case with the Salafi / Neo Deobandi alliance. Both Sects are working in unison to attack the Shia, if you were to however remove this agenda and leave both in the same room together, they would automatically adopt canine traits and set about attacking one another’s beliefs.
If the Salafis are going to suggest that we have failed to corroborate this position then allow us to cite the example of the Ahlelbayt.com website. The author Ibn al Hashimi has openly declared the website to be Salafi. Despite this Ibn al Hashimi in his articles has sought reliance on the opinion of Gibril Hadad in his article ‘the status of the twelve imams’ even though the Salafis deem both men to be deviant Sufis, as can be evidenced by the this Salafi Chat Site that has forums dedicated to attacking both men. The same approach was adopted by Salafi Bilal Philips whose translation of Afghanis ‘Mirage in Iran’ that included a section wherein the author cited the opinion of scholars condemning the Shia, including Ibn Arabi. In his footnotes Philips wrote short biographies about each, without uttering even a word that would suggest he was a deviant. The innocent Salafi reader would assume that he was a man of authority and repute in Salafi eyes. Curiously the same Philips launches a scathing attack on the deviations of Ibn Arabi in his own books. Why are the opinion of deviant scholars valued by Ibn al Hashimi and Philips? Simple, because those opinions are vented against the Shia. This proves that Salafis are prepared to rely on the opinions of deviant Sects to aid the propagation of anti Shia hatred. The Salafi / Neo Deobandi alliance is what could best be described as a marriage of convenience, wherein both ‘spouses’ whilst hating one another have entered into this union to further their sectarian agenda. If these two Sects are prepared to share the same platform and present a united front against the Shia then we are entitled to refute them both members of this alliance in one book.