Muhsin ibn Ali
Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Muhsin ibn Ali (Arabic: محسن بن علي), was a son of Fatima Al Zahra (the daughter of Muhammad) and Ali. Academic writers disagree on whether he was a still-born infant[1] or died at a very young age after birth.[2] In Shi'a belief, he was the unborn child of Fatimah miscarried after she was crushed behind a door during the events of Umar at Fatimah's house, when Umar and Abu Bakr attacked Fatima and Ali's house in order to force Ali into submission. Sunnis, however disagree and insist that Muhsin ibn Ali died in his infancy of natural causes and that the story was made up after not even Alis followers but the ones that came after them. The salafi movement based in saudi arabia mostly have issues regarding such incidents with shia practicing muslims.
According to Imamite/duodeciman Shiite narrations, Fatima was very angry at the new Caliph Abu Bakr, so much so that she would not have talked to him until her death.[3][4][5] Muhammad had forbidden people from hurting Fatima, saying that whoever hurts Fatima, he has hurt me, and whoever makes her angry, he has made me angry.[6][7][8] Thus Fatima even asks Ali not to let Abubakr and Omar pray for her after her death. This story is considered totally fabricated by the various sunni practicing muslims.[9][10][11][12]
Contents
The death of Muhammad
Muhammad died in the city of Medina in 632 CE. In the ten years between the Hijra (the flight of the small Muslim community from Mecca to Medina) to the death of Muhammad, Islam had grown by leaps and bounds. It had become the greatest power in the Arabian peninsula.
The question of who was to succeed Muhammad was thus both a religious and a political question. Shi'a Muslims believe that Muhammad had settled the question before his death, by indicating that he wanted Fatima's husband Ali as his successor-since the practice of naming a successor was a tradition from all of the previous prophets. The majority Sunni Muslims believe that Muhammad had not made any formal arrangements, leaving it up to the Muslim community to choose their own leader—as was the practice (called shura) in the pre-Islamic, tribal times.
Shi'a muslims believe that, a small, informal gathering of Muslim notables, which Ali did not attend, ended up throwing its support behind Abu Bakr as the new leader. Ali protested this arrangement. He and his supporters refused to swear allegiance to Abu Bakr. His supporters at that time were known as the Shi'at Ali, the party of Ali. Where as Sunni muslims believe that Ali was not present at the time of meeting as he was busy in arranging the funeral of Muhammad (peace be upon him). But as soon as he met Abu Bakr and Umar, he announced his support to Abu Bakr as Abu Bakr used to lead the prayer in the absence of Muhammad.
Pressure against the followers of Ali
It is not clear how many of the early Muslims supported Ali, or how long they held out against pressure from Abu Bakr's supporters. German researcher Wilferd Madelung[13]'s book (The Succession to Muhammad, p. 43), says that Ali and another prominent Muslim, Al-Zubayr, resisted for six months.
Nor is it clear exactly how the pressure was applied. Sunni versions of the events of this time tend to say that Ali resisted for only a short time, or even deny that he resisted at all, and insist that the only pressure applied was peaceful persuasion. Shi'a sources, on the other hand, depict a lengthy, violent persecution in which roving gangs of armed bullies threatened Ali and his supporters with instant death if they did not submit to Abu Bakr.
Who is right?
The whole question of the events surrounding the Succession to Muhammad is an extremely vexing one, discussed at length in the article of that name. When both sides to the argument are marshalling competing oral traditions, or hadith, it comes down to a question of which hadith are authentic. Hadith classification into different categories of hadith (authentic, good, weak, fabricated) is part of the Hadith studies, one of the most important branches of Islamic studies. For a longer treatment of the difficulty of evaluating the sources, see Historiography of early Islam.
Sources
Madelung, Wilferd -- The Succession to Muhammad, Cambridge University Press, 1997.
References
- ↑ Fāṭima." Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs. Brill Online, 2014. Reference. 08 April 2014
- ↑ Jean Calmard, FĀṬEMA, Encyclopedia Iranica
- ↑ صحیح البخاری، ج 6، ص 1667، ح 6726، کتاب الفرائض، باب قول النبی ص لا نورث ما ترکنا صدقه، دار ابن کثیر
- ↑ صحیح البخاری، ج4، ص 1040، ح 4241، کتاب المغازی، باب غزوه خیبر، دار ابن کثیر
- ↑ صحیح البخاری، ج3، ص 762، ح 3093، باب فرض الخمس، دار ابن کثیر
- ↑ صحيح مسلم ، ج 4، ص 1902 و 1903، حديث 93 و 94 از مسلسل 2449
- ↑ صحيح بخارى ، ج 4،ص 210.
- ↑ جامع ترمذى ، ج 5، ص 259 و 260، حديث 3959 و 3961
- ↑ شرح نهج البلاغه ابن ابى الحديد، ج 16، ص 232 و 253 و 265.
- ↑ طبرى ، ج 2، ص 236.
- ↑ الامامة السياسة ابن قتيه ، ج 1 ص 14.
- ↑ شرح نهج البلاغه ابن ابى الحديد، ج 16، ص 280و 281و286.
- ↑ Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Ismaili Studies in London
.
Further reading
After the Prophet: The Epic Story of the Shia-Sunni Split in Islam, By Lesley Hazleton
