Mu'awiya and 'Amr al-Aas were “companions” and yet they fought against the successor of the Holy Prophet (S) and cursed and abused Ali ('a) at public meetings and even in the addresses given after Friday prayers. They did so despite the fact, as reported by prominent ulema of the Sunni sect in their authentic books, that the Holy Prophet (S) had repeatedly said, “He who abuses or curses Ali, abuses me. He who abuses me, abuses Allah” The learned Taftazani has elaborately dealt with this topic in his Sharh al-Maqasid. He writes that since the companions were inimical to one another, some of them had deviated from the right path. Some of them, on account of envy and worldly aspirations, perpetrated all kinds of cruelty. It is evident that most of the companions who were not infallible committed heinous acts but some ulema, because they favoured them, have tried to cover up their faults.

In reference to both Ali ('a) and Fatimah ('a), the Holy Prophet (S) said that their trouble was his own trouble. The Holy Prophet (S) said: “He who troubles these two troubles me, and the one who troubles me troubles Allah” It is also written in all the authentic books that the Holy Prophet (S) said, “He who reviles Ali reviles me, who reviles me reviles Allah”

Muhammad Ibn Yusuf Ganji Shafi'i, in his Kifayatu't-Talib, ch. 10, narrates a detailed hadith on the authority of Ibn Abbas, who told a section of the Syrians, who were cursing Ali ('a) that he had heard the Holy Prophet (S) saying about Ali: “He who abuses you abuses me, and he who abuses me abuses Allah, and he who abuses Allah will be thrown straight into Hell”

After this hadith he quotes many other ahadith from authentic sources all of which prove that those who abuse Ali ('a) are infidels. Chapter 10 of his book is entitled: “Concerning the Infidelity of One Who Abuses Ali”1 So according to all these hadith, those who curse Ali, curse Allah and his Prophet. All of them (like Mu'awiya, the Bani Umayya, the Nasibi's, the Khariji’s) are themselves cursed.

Among the many clear proofs that Mu'awiya was an infidel and deserved damnation was his public rejection of the Commander of the Faithful and his ordering the people to recite imprecations against the Imam in their qunut’s (supplication in daily prayers). Both Sunni’s and we acknowledge this fact. Even the historians of other nations have recorded that this vile practice was openly pursued and that many people were put to death because they did not utter the curses. This outrage was discontinued by the Umayya Caliph, Umar Ibn Abd ul-Aziz.

Obviously, one who curses the brother of the Holy Prophet (S), the husband of Fatimah ('a), the Commander of the Faithful, Ali Ibn Abi Talib, and who orders others to do it is definitely damned. This fact has been recorded by all the Sunni ulema in their authentic books and they2 have, in slightly different words, reported that the Prophet (S) said: “One who reviles Ali, really reviles me; who reviles me, really reviles Allah”

Dailami in his Firdaus, Sulayman Hanafi in Yanabi ul-Mawadda have reported that the Prophet (S) said: “One who gives pain to Ali, really gives pain to me, and the curse of Allah is upon him who causes pain to me”

Ibn Hajar Makki in his Sawa'iq narrates a hadith concerning the consequence to one who curses against any of the progeny of the Prophet (S). He reports that the Prophet (S) said: “If anyone curses my Ahl Al-Bayt, there is nothing for him but exclusion from Islam. If anyone injures me concerning my Ahl Al-Bayt, may Allah's curse be upon him”

Therefore, Mu'awiya was certainly cursed. As reported by Ibn Athir in his Kamil, Mu'awiya used to curse Ali, the grandsons of the Holy Prophet (S), Hasan and Husayn and also Abbas and Malik Ashtar in the qunut of his daily prayers.

Imam Ahmad Ibn Hanbal reports in his Musnad from a number of sources that the Holy Prophet (S) of Allah (S) said: “If anyone injures Ali he shall be treated as a Jew or Christian on the Day of Judgment”

Certainly, you must know that it is one of the tenets of Islam that to call Allah and the Holy Prophet (S) by ill names leads to infidelity. Muhammad Ibn Ganji Shafi'i in his Kifayatu't-Talib, part X, reports that once Abdullah Ibn Abbas and Sa'id Ibn Jabir saw on the brink of Zamzam a group of Syrians railing at Ali. They went to them and said: “Who among you was abusing the Holy Prophet of Allah (S)?”

They replied: “None of us was abusing the Holy Prophet of Allah (S)”

Then they said: “Well, who among you was abusing Ali?”

They said: “Yes, we have been abusing Ali”

Then Abdullah and Sa'id said: “You should bear witness that we heard the Holy Prophet saying to Ali, 'One who abuses you really abuses me; one who abuses me, really abuses Allah. If someone abuses Allah, He will throw him headlong into the fire of Hell”3

M. Shibli, the dean of India's Sunni historians of Islam, writes in his famous biography of Prophet Muhammad (S), Sira-tun-Nabi4: “Among all those extraneous forces which affect and influence the writing of history, none is more powerful than the government. But it will always be a source of pride for the Muslims that their pen was never subdued by the sword. Work on the compilation and collation of Hadith was begun in the times of the Banu Umayya. For full 90 years, from Sind in India (Indo-Pakistan) to Asia Minor and Andalusia in Spain, Ali ('a) and the children of Fatimah ('a) were cursed from every pulpit in every mosque after every Friday sermon. Thousands and thousands of hadith glorifying Mu’awiya, were manufactured, and were put into circulation. In the times of the Abbasid, hadith were invented foretelling the birth and the excellence of each (Abbasi) khalifa by name. But what was the result of all this stupendous effort? The traditionalists (the collectors of the statements of the Prophet (S) declared publicly at the same time (during the caliphates of the Umayyads and the Abbasid) that all these hadith were spurious, and they rejected them.

For the compilation of hadith, Mu’awiya had given the following orders:

1. All the traditions of the Prophet (S) in praise of Ali ('a) or upholding his superiority in any way, should be suppressed.

2. Any man narrating the virtues of Ali ('a) or quoting the hadith of the Prophet (S) in this regard, would do so at his own risk. His subsidies and stipends would be withheld from him. His house and other property would be confiscated. His testimony as a witness would not be accepted in the courts, and he would be ostracized by other Muslims.

3. On the other hand, every conceivable virtue should be attributed to Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, and of course, to Mu’awiya himself. People should be encouraged to make up “hadith” of the Prophet (S) in praise of these four men and their friends. Whoever invents such hadith, would become a favourite at the royal court, and would receive rich rewards in rank or cash or estates etc.

Concurrently with the founding of his “cottage industry” for manufacturing “hadith” of the Prophet (S), Mu’awiya also set up a “brain laundry” for the Muslims. He instituted the practice of cursing & denouncing the memory of Ali ('a) and his children from the pulpit in every mosque in his empire so that the Muslim children were born, they grew up, and they died hearing curses upon Ali, and not knowing who he was. Whole generations lived and died in ignorance. Falsehoods were put into circulation by the government on a scale so vast that they became the staple of their lives. Mu’awiya and his successors kept their “brain laundries” just as busy as their “cottage industry”

Mu’awiya mobilized every means for waging propaganda war against Ali ('a) and the Banu Hashim. The momentum of the blitz he launched against them, has lasted down to our own times. He waged his war from the mosques. The prayer-leaders in them were paid to put weird and fantastic interpretations upon the verses of Qur'an in an attempt to show Ali ('a) at a disadvantage. They tried to convince the rank-and-file Muslims that it would be in their interest “in both worlds” if they supported Mu’awiya against Ali ('a) and the Banu Hashim.

Incumbents have the advantage of the media and educational arms of the state, and they control through subsidies the religious establishment itself.5

It must now be clear to the reader that the history of Islam was written under the direction of the party that held all the instruments of power in its hands. It must also be obvious to him that much of the historical material was “laundered” at the “brain laundries” established by Mu’awiya before it got into his hands. Mu’awiya was a most consummate master of the art of propaganda.

The full effects of propaganda have not yet become plain, yet it is already obvious that whole nations can be indoctrinated with wrong opinions and evil moral standards. Few, if any, minds are strong enough to resist the ideas constantly projected at them.6

If any hadith of the Prophet (S) of Islam was complimentary to Ali (‘a), Mu’awiya placed its narration under proscription. This proscription was not lifted when he died in 680. It was not lifted even when his dynasty, the Umayyads, perished in 750, and it was not lifted even through the long centuries of the caliphate of the Abbasi’s.

The Abbasi’s exterminated the Umayyads but they shared with them their animosity to Ali ('a) and to the children of Muhammad. In this matter, the aims, and interests of the governments of Saqifa, the Umayyads, and the Abbasid converged; there was ideological compatibility among them all.

The Umayyads and the Abbasi’s did their utmost to suppress the facts of history. Many of their khalifas had forbidden their subjects to say or to write anything about Ali ('a) except falsehoods. Truth was under a siege and falsehood was rampant in their dominions. And yet, Truth asserted itself.

وَقُلْ جَاءَ الْحَقُّ وَزَهَقَ الْبَاطِلُ ۚ إِنَّ الْبَاطِلَ كَانَ زَهُوقًا

“Truth has (now) arrived, and falsehood perished: For falsehood is (by its nature) bound to perish” (Qur'an. Chapter 17; verse 81)

True statements were volunteered by sources which, in most cases, were inimical to Ali. Even his most rabid enemies like the Umayyads and the Kharjis, conceded the sublimity of his character. As noted before M. Shibli, the Indian historian, pointed out that the Shi’a Muslims did not write any history. Whatever history we have, has, therefore, come down to us from the non-Shi’a or the anti-Shi’a sources. It has come down to us from the archives of the governments of Saqifa, the Umayyads and the Abbasid. The story of the glorious deeds of Ali Ibn Abi Talib, like the radiance of Truth itself, has filtered out of those archives.

Muslim, in his Sahih, wrote in a chapter entitled, “The virtues of Ali Ibn Abi Talib”, the following: Mu’awiyah ordered his governors everywhere to take the curse [of Ali Ibn Abi Talib] as tradition, and that all the speakers must include it in their speeches. When some of the Companions protested very strongly against such a rule, Mu’awiyah ordered their killing and burning. Among the famous Companions who were killed at the order of Mu’awiyah were Hijr Ibn Adi al-Kindi and his followers because they protested and refused to curse Ali, and some of them were buried alive.

Abu al-Aala al-Mawdudi wrote in his book Caliphate and Kingdom: Abu al-Hasan al-Basri said: Mu’awiyah had four features, and if he had only one of them, it would have been considered a great sin:

1. Making decisions without consulting the Companions, who were the light of virtues.

2. Designating his son as his successor. His son was a drunkard, corrupt and wore silk.

3. He claimed Ziyad [as his son], and the Messenger of Allah said, “There is offspring for the honourable woman, but there is nothing for the whore”

4. His killing of Hijr and his followers. Woe unto him from Hijr and the followers of Hijr.7

There were some good Companions who used to dash out of the mosque immediately after the prayers so that they did not have to listen to the speeches that always ended with the cursing of Ali (‘a). For that reason, the Umayyads changed the tradition of the Messenger of Allah (S). They put the speech before the prayers, so that people listened to it against their will. What kind of Companions were these people! They were not afraid of changing the tradition of the Messenger of Allah (S), or even the laws of Allah, to reach their wicked and low objectives and to satisfy their sinister desires. They cursed a man whom Allah had kept cleansed and purified and made it obligatory for people to pray for him in the same way as they prayed for His Messenger (S). Furthermore, Allah and His Messenger (S) made it obligatory for people to love him (a), and the Prophet (S) said, “Loving Ali is believing, and hating him is hypocrisy”8

The author of Then I Was Guided, Dr. Muhammad Tijani says in his book: “I asked al-Sayyid al-Sadr about Imam Ali ('a) and why they testify for him in the Adhan [the call for prayers] that he is “Waliy Allah” [the friend of Allah]. He answered me in the following way:

The Commander of the Believers, Ali (a), may Allah's blessings be upon him, was one of those servants of Allah whom He chose and honoured by giving them the responsibilities of the Message after His Prophet (S). These servants are the trustees of the Prophet (S), since each Prophet has a trustee, and Ali Ibn Abi Talib is the trustee of Muhammad (S).

We favour him above all the Companions of the Prophet (S) because Allah and the Prophet (S) favoured him, and we have many proofs of that, some of them are deduced through logical reasoning, others are found in the Qur'an and al- Sunnah [the Tradition of the Prophet Muhammad (S)], and these proofs cannot be suspect, because they have been scrutinized, and proven right, by our own learned people (who wrote many books about the subject) and those of the Sunni Madhahibs. The Umayyad regime worked very hard to cover this truth and fought Imam Ali (a) and his sons, whom they killed. They even ordered people, sometimes by force, to curse him, so his followers - may Allah bless them all started to testify for him as being the friend of Allah. No Muslim would curse the friend of Allah in defiance of the oppressive authorities, so that the glory was to Allah, and to His Messenger (S) and to all the believers. It also became an historical landmark across the generations so that they know the just cause of Ali and the wrongdoing of his enemies. Thus, our learned people continued to testify that Ali is the friend of Allah in their calls to prayer, as something that is commendable. There are many commendable things in the religious rites as well as in ordinary mundane dealings, and the Muslim will be rewarded for doing them, but not punished for leaving them aside. For example, it is commendable for the Muslim to say after al-Shahadah [i.e. to testify that there is no God but Allah, and that Muhammad (S) is His messenger]: And I will testify that Heaven is true and Hell is true, and that Allah will resurrect people from their graves.

Mu’awiya had made it compulsory to curse Ali (‘a) and Ahl al-Bayt. This continued for sixty years until Umar Ibn Abdul Aziz stopped it. Some historians inform us that the Umayyads themselves plotted to kill Umar Ibn Abdul Aziz, and he was one of them, because he killed the Sunnah, which was the cursing of Ali Ibn Abi Talib (‘a)”9

• 1. Also, Hakim in his Mustadrak, vol. III, p. 121, has quoted this same hadith.
• 2. For instance, Imam Ahmad Ibn Hanbal in his Musnad, Imam Abu Abdu'r-Rahman Nisa'i in his Khasa'is ul-Alawi, Imam Tha'labi and Imam Fakhr ud-in Razi in their Tafsir (commentary), Ibn Abu al-Hadid in his Sharh an-Nahj ul-Balagha, Muhammad Ibn Yusuf Ganji Shafi'i in his Kifayatu't-Talib, Sibt Ibn Jauzi in his Tadhkira, Sulayman Balkhi Hanafi in Yanabi ul-Mawadda, Mir Seyyed Ali Hamadani in his Mawaddat ul-Qurba, Dailami in his Firdaus, Muslim Ibn Hajjaj in his Sahih, Muhammad Ibn Talha Shafi'i in his Matalib as-Su'ul, Ibn Sabbagh Maliki in his Fusul ul-Muhimma, Hakim in his Mustadrak, Khatib Khawarizmi in his Manaqib, Abraham Hamwaini in his Fara'id, Ibn Maghazili Shafi'i in his Manaqib, Imam ul-haram in his Dhakha'ir ul-Uquba, Ibn Hajar in his Sawa'iq, and other prominent ulema.
• 3. Peshawar Nights.
• 4. Volume I, 4th printing, published by the Maarif Printing Press, Azamgarh, U.P., India, in 1976.
• 5. Islam and Development, p. 16, 1980.
• 6. The Course of Empire - The Arabs and Their Successors, 1965.
• 7. al Khilafah wa al Mulk, Syed Abul A'la Maududi, p 106.
• 8. Sahih, Muslim, vol 1 p 61.
• 9. Then I Was Guided by Dr. Muhammad Tijani.