The Truth About Saqifah - 29th Ramadan 1441/2020

As-salamu alaykum, wa Rahmat Ullahi, wa barakatu. Bismi-Llah, Al-Rahmani, Al-Rahim. Al-hamdulil-Lahi Rabbi al-‘Alamin, wa as-salat wa as-salamu 'ala Sayyidina, wa habibina wa Nabiyyina Muhammad Ibn Abd Allah, wa 'ala Ahli Baytihi, at-tayyibin, at-tahirin, al-ma'sumin, wa al-khullas min ashabihi Al-muntajabin.

My brothers and sisters, the goal of these sessions is to learn and to discover the facts about the history of Islam, the history of the Prophet peace be upon him, and what happened during his lifetime, and after his departure. And our paramount goal is to foster Islamic unity, the intra-faith relationship between the schools of thought. We are a pro unity, we are a pro working together, respecting each other. We have intermarriages between the Sunnis and the Shi'as, we have in one family part of it chose to follow the Sunni tradition the other part chose to follow the Shi'a tradition, and they must remain like that. We must remain brothers and sisters because we have one common enemy and we do not seek any division.

What we seek, my friends, is a mutual understanding, is to get together for our professors, for our leaders, intellectuals, scholars, to get together and study these things and shed a light on some parts of the history that many people do not like to revisit. They do not like to even speak about, which is not good, it is not good. Finding the truth, God says in his book, finding the truth is our goal and we must find the truth, and we must strive but then we must also remain united, and we should put prejudice aside. No cursing, no bad-mouthing, no disrespecting, no tensions, no political games. Our goal is just knowledge, it is to learn and to find out.

And we should put our families aside, our countries aside, we should not say that I am following my family tradition because this is the logic of the Jahilis of the time of ignorance. "Inna wajadna aba'ana 'ala ummatin wa inna 'ala atharahim muhtadun"(43:22). We found, whenever a Prophet comes to them, they say we are following the tradition of our families, our forefathers, and we are happy with that, this is not the right logic. We have to discover. Every day is an opportunity for us. Every day we live, we should give thanks to God to provide us the opportunity to discover, to learn, to investigate, to read, to search, to cross examine, and not just to accept whatever is written in the books blankly. So this is our goal, my friends.

Whatever we say in these sessions should not hurt the Islamic unity. We are brothers and sisters and we love each other. We are one family, the Shi'as and Sunnis are the two wings of Islam. If we differ about history, about law, it does not mean that we differ when it comes to the social life, when it comes to standing together shoulder to shoulder because we are the target of the enemy and the enemy does not differentiate between Shi'as or Sunnis. They hate Islam, period.

My friends, tonight, what happened during the Saqifa? Saqifa is the name of the place where some people gathered immediately after the death of the Prophet to decide the future of Islam, the future of the leadership of Islam between themselves, the Ansars, because they felt that they are threatened. So they decided to get united and to have one word. And Saqifa in Arabic means the canopy, or the large tent, the gathering place where there is shade and they sit under that shade. And it is just outside Medina, not in downtown Medina, not near the mosque of the Prophet salla Allahu alayhi wa alihi wa sallam. So what happened? If you ask Muslims about Saqifa, most of them they do not know about it.

Some of them would say Saqifa was a place where Abu Bakr was peacefully and democratically and smoothly elected and chosen by the Ummah, by the consensus of the Ummah to be the caliph and the successor of the Prophet to the Prophet salla Allahu alayhi wa alihi wa sallam. But this is not the case, my friends, believe me, this is not the case, and we are going to go through this with you and at the end you will find out about the truth what happened in Saqifa. I will show you from very credible Salafi books in Islam, that during Saqifa they were competing for power. They were vying for the seat of the caliphate, there were altercations, there were physical abuse, there were intimidation, there were calling each other names, abuse, verbal abuse, physical abuse. It was like a coup d'état, my friends. It was not peaceful in any way it was not democratic in any way, it was about a tribalism, tribalism. We will go through that.

And I am choosing only one book, though Saqifa has been mentioned in thousands of sources, Islamic sources. But I have chosen this, the most credible book in the history of Islam, written by a Salafi leader who is named the father of Islamic history, and that is Al-Imam Muhammad Ibn Jarir At-Tabari who was born in Amul Mazenderan or Tabarastan on the Caspian Sea and he died, he lived and died in Baghdad, and he has a shrine in Baghdad. This man is considered the father of Tafsir commentary on the Qur'an and the father of Islamic history. And this is his work in history. His work in history is "Tarikh At-Tabari", "Tarikh al-Umami wa al-Muluk, li Abi Jafar Muhammad Ibn Jarir At-Tabari". Died 310 Hijri, which is almost a little over eleven hundred years.

And this man, people who wrote Islamic history and Tafsir, my friends and Hadith, they were somehow working under the supervision of the political establishments of that time. And the political establishment after the life of the Prophet, after the Prophet died, 99.9% of them were not in favour of Ahl Al-Bayt, the family of the Prophet, 99.9%. Maybe one man came by the name of 'Umar Ibn Abdel Aziz and who only ruled for only two years from year 99 Hijri until 101 Hijri 90 years after the Prophet, peace be upon him. That person respected a Ahl Al-Bayt, it was an exception. But the norm was always that political establishments are not in favour of Ahl Al-Bayt.

This man, At-Tabari is endorsed and accepted by all Sunni and Salafi scholars, someone like Ibn Taymiya who wrote "Minhaj as-Sunna", this polemic book where he excommunicate the Shi'a from Islam. He does not even consider them to be Muslims. Ibn Taymiya who died in 728 in Damascus. He endorses he says everything Tabari said is correct, in his tafsir, in his book of commentary, which is this one, this is his book of commentary "Jami'u Al-Bayan Tafsir At-Tabari. This is his tafsir, great work, really great work. And his tafsir plus his history, these two books this is tafsir commentary on the Qur'an this is history, many volumes, both of them. These were made the basis for all other histories later on, so they took this as a model. And he himself, he took his he depends, Tabari, depends on his history, on Ibn Hisham. Ibn Hisham in his turn depends on Ibn Is-haq. Ibn Is-haq died in 152 hijri. Ibn Hisham, this one, died in 218 hijri.

Let us see what Ibn they say about Ibn Is-haq. Ibn Is-haq min bayniha a'alamil qarn Al-thani. He was one of the scholars of the second century Hijri. "Wa kana lahu 'ilmu wasi'a wa at-tila'u al-ghazir", he had an extensive, vast, knowledge "fi akhbar al-madheen", about the news of the ancients. "Wa sha'ita al-maqadeer an yadkhula Ibn Is-haqin 'ala al-Mansuri bi Baghdad". So Ibn Is-haq goes to Baghdad at that time, the Abbasid was ruling the Muslim Umma, and he enters upon the Mansur Al-Abbasi. The second Abbasid Caliph. Al-Abbas "wa bayna yadayh Ibnuhu al-Mahdi, had a son called Mahdi, "fa qala lahu al-Mansour: ata'rifu hadha ya Ibn Is-haq?" Do you recognise this boy? He said, yes, "hadha Ibnu Amir Al-Mu'minin", this is the son of the Caliph Amir al-Mu'minin, "qala idhhab fa sannif lahu kitaban mundhu khalaqa Allah Ta'ala Adam 'alayhi as-salam, ila yawmika hadha". Go and teach him the history from the day God created Adam until today. "Fa dhahab Ibnu Is-haq fa sannafa lahu hadha al-kitab".

So Ibn Is-haq was commissioned to write the Islamic history, and Ibn Is-haq was the very first person in the history of Islam to write the Islamic history. No one before him wrote anything about the Islamic history and imagine he died 152. The Prophet died 11, year 11, between them, almost 140 years. He was commissioned by Mansur. Mansur Al-Abbasi murdered the 6th Imam of Ahl Al-Bayt, the leader of the Ja'fari tradition. Al-Imam Ja'far Ibn Muhammad As-Sadiq was murdered and poisoned by Mansur Al-Abbasi. Mansur Al-Abbasi was the one who ordered all the speakers during the Friday sermons not to leave the pulpit before mentioning Abu Bakr, 'Umar and 'Uthman. Before that, no, in Friday prayers, people did not mention Abu Bakr, 'Umar and 'Uthman. "Allahumma irdhi 'an al-khulafa ath-thalatha, the cliche that you hear today came from the time of Mansur.

So Ibn Is-haq was commissioned by this man to write the history. So imagine, you imagine what sort of history it is going to be. And then: "fa jama'a Ibnu Hisham, fa jama'a hashihi as-Sira". Ibn Hisham came later on, maybe a century later or less than a century, maybe 70 years, 80 years. And then he wrote his book: Siratu Ibni Hisham, according to the history of Ibn Is-haq. And then after that, Tabari comes and he takes much of this book, Sirat Ibn Hisham, he adopts much of this book into his own history. Do you see the connection now? I am simplifying things, trying to simplify the history of Islam for you.

So Tarikh At-Tabari is well respected, and well accepted by the entire core of the school of Caliphs. Even Ibn Kathir, Ibn Kathir is the student of Ibn Taymiya. This is Ibn Taymiya this is Ibn Kathir. He was enchanted by Ibn Taymiya, Ibn Kathir ad-Dimashqi, he respects Tarikh At-Tabari and he quotes in his Tafsir in his book of history: "Al-Bidayatu wa an-Nihaya li Ibn Kathir ad-Dimashqi", he quotes Tarikh At-Tabari because Tabari is before him, 450 years before him, 450 years before Ibn Taymiya and Ibn Kathir.

So this book in the school of companions has no rival. Let me just choose this book, no other sources and read for you what happened during the incident of Saqifa. And you tell me at the end, whether it was consensus, whether it was an agreement, whether it was Shura consultation, whether it was democracy or not. You tell me the answer I am not going to judge. I am just presenting the facts, my job is to read and research these books and come here and show you the volumes. This is volume three this is Tarikh At-Tabari and present you the facts. Let us go to page 122. The story is beginning from page 122 till page 136. Many pages, about 14 pages. I am not going to be able to read all these 14 pages, but I have dissected them into sections and we will go briefly.

Number one fact about Saqifa: not all the Muslims were there, not even half of them were there. Among the Muhajirin were only three people who were a present at Saqifa. Among thousands of Sahaba, companions, who are Muhajirin who came from Mecca to Medina, who settled in Medina were only three and those of three were Abu Bakr, Ibn Abi Quhafa, 'Umar Ibn Al-Khattab, Abu 'Ubaida Ibn Al-Jarrah, those three only. Among the Muhajirin, none of those, none other than those, only those of three. Do you call that democracy, when only three people are present from among thousands? When the Prophet died, he had according to the history, the number of the companions were over 100,000. So, three from the Muhajirin were attending. And those three were not invited my friends, they were not invited, [page] 134. They had to go and burst into this meeting.

Okay, here if you look at Tarikh At-Tabari. "Ama 'alimta anna Al-Ansar", 'Umar came, "wa ata 'Umar al-khabar, fa a'qbala ila manzil An-Nabi, fa a'rsal ila Abu Bakr wa Abu Bakrun fi 'd-dar wa 'Ali Ibn Abi Talib alayhi as-salam da'ibun fi jihazi Rasul Allahi Salla Allahu alayhi wa alihi wa salam". 'Umar was tipped that there is a meeting going on, by the Ansar. So he came to Abu Bakr, Abu Bakr was in the house of the Prophet. Imam 'Ali alayhi as-salam, was busy washing and shrouding the body of the Prophet when the Prophet died, salla Allahu alayhi wa alihi wa sallam.

So he said to him: Come out. "Fa arsal ila Abu Bakrin an ukhruj ilay", come out. I want to speak to you, "fa arsala ilayh inni munshaghilun". I am busy, what do you want? "Fa arsala ilayh", 'Umar said to him, "innahu qad hadatha amrun la budda laka min huthurih". There is something going on you must come. "Fa kharaja ilayh", 'Umar said to him: "ama a'limta an Al-Ansar qad ijtama't fi saqifat Bani Sa'eeda yuriduna an yuwallu hadha Al-amr Sa'ad Ibn Ibada". You do not know that Ansar have gathered in their meeting place and they want to appoint Sa'ad Ibn 'Ibada from the Aws tribe of the Ansar? They want to make him the Caliph. So he says, we started "fa mathaya musri'ayn nahwahum". 'Umar and Abu Bakr, they started running towards the Saqifa. They were not invited. "Fa laqiya Aba Ubaidata Ibn Al-Jarrah fa tamashu ilayhim thalatuhum". They found Abu 'Ubaida walking and they bring Abu Ubaida with them to that meeting. So number one, only three of the Muhajirin, they were not invited. They imposed themselves as we are going to see how they impose themselves on that meeting.

Number two: the family of the Prophet, my friends, Imam 'Ali alayhi as-salam, Al-Abbas, the children of Al-Abbas, the uncle of the Prophet, Al-Fadhil and Qutham they were absent from that meeting. They were completely absent because they were busy shrouding and washing the Prophet. And At-Tabari says, At-Tabari speaks about how Imam 'Ali here: Dhikru, this is page 130, always volume three, volume three, page 130. "Dhikru jihazi Rasuli Allahi wa dafnihi", how they prepared the Prophet for burial. He says there were only six people who washed the Prophet: 'Ali Ibn Talib. One is 'Ali second, Al-Abbas Ibn Abdul Muttalib, the uncle of the Prophet, wa al-Fadhil Ibn Al-Abbas the son of Abbas, wa Qutham Ibn al-Abbas, the second son of Al-Abbas. So those are four. Wa Usamatu Ibn Zaid, who was only 18 years old. Wa Shuqran Mawla Rasuli Allah, the servant of the Prophet by the name of Shuqran. Only six people were busy washing the Prophet.

"Huma alladhina walaw ghaslahu". They were the people who took care of washing and shrouding the Prophet. "Fa asnadahu 'Ali Ibn Abi Talib ila sadrihi", 'Ali put the Prophet leaned him against his chest while he was washing the Prophet. "Wa kana Al-Abbas, wa al-Fadhil, wa al-Qutham, humu alladhina yuqallibunahu ma'a". Abbas, the uncle of the Prophet, with his two children they were turning the Prophet over while 'Ali was washing him, and Shuqran wa Usama, those two men, "huma alladhani yasubbani al-ma'", they bring the water. "Wa Aliyun yughassiluhu wa qad asnadahu ila sadrih", and 'Ali was doing the washing. "Wa Aliyun yaqul bi abi anta wa ummi, ma atyabak hayyan wa mayita, wa lam yura min Rasuli Allahi shay'un min ma yura min al-mayyit". 'Ali was washing the Prophet, he said, what a beautiful fragrance you have, Ya Rasul Allah, during your life and after your death.

And then they buried him. Four people went down to the grave of the Prophet. "Wa kana alladhi nazala qabra Rasuli Allahi Aliyu Ibnu Abi Talibin wa al-Fadhlu Ibn Al-Abbas wa Qutham Ibn Al-Abbas wa Shuqran mawla Rasuli Allah". Four people were burying the Prophet. In fact, A'isha, the wife of the Prophet, said, "Qalat A'isha Umm al-Mu'minin: ma a'limna bi dafni Rasuli Allahi hatta sam'ina sawt al-masahi min jawafi layli laylat Al-arbi'a". We did not even realise the Prophet is being buried until the night of Wednesday, when we heard the sound of the shovels. Then we realised the Prophet is being buried. So all were away, including his wives. A'isha was not there. None of his wives were there, during his washing, his shrouding, his burial. Only those six people were there. Among 100,000 companions, a huge core of companions. Only six people according to Tabari my friends, these are facts!

These facts requires reflection. What happened that the greatest man on Earth, the Messenger of God, when he is being washed and buried, only six people are there? Where is the rest of the Umma? Where is those who say we are with the Prophet? We are his companions. We love the Prophet. We give our life, our wealth for the Prophet. Where are they? This is Tarikh At-Tabari, my friends. This is a Salafi source. This is the most authentic source according to the school of companions and school of Caliphs.

So Muhajirin were only three. The family Bani Hashim no one was there in Saqifa. Ansar, in the beginning, they said, "la nubayi'u illa 'Alayan". This is volume three, page 124. "Fa qalat Al-Ansar aw ba'dhu Al-Ansar la nubay'iu ila 'Alayan". We do not give allegiance and choose for caliphate except 'Ali. This is what the Ansar said. So, in fact, consensus among the Ansar was over 'Ali to become the Caliph, not someone else, because they saw the Prophet, they saw what the Prophet said about Imam 'Ali. And 2487, let me read for you in Ibn Majid what is Ibn Majid Al-Qazwini says 2487 about the Ansar, what the Prophet says about the Ansar. Al-Mu'jam, this is Ibn Majid. "Man ahabba Al-Ansar ahabbahu Allah". Whoever loves Ansar, God would love him. "Wa man abgadha Al-Ansar abgadhahu Allah". Whoever hates the Ansar, God would hate him.

"Law anna an-nasa istaqbalu wadiyan aw shi'aban wa istaqbalat Al-Ansar wadyan la salaktu wadi Al-Ansar wa lawla Al-hijra la kuntu imr'in min Al-Ansar". The Hadith of the Prophet says, if all people follow one path, the Ansar follow another path, I will follow where Ansar are going to follow. And if I was not one of the Muhajirin, if I was not from Mecca and I had to move from Mecca to Medina, I would have been one of the Ansar. This is how the Prophet speaks about Ansar. "Rahim Allah Al-Ansar, wa abna'a Al-Ansar wa abna'a abna'a Al-Ansar". The Prophet says, may God have mercy on Ansar, their children and their grandchildren.

So those Ansar, they said: "la nubayi'u illa 'Aliyun", we would not pay allegiance, we would not shake hand with for Bai'a except for 'Ali. So where is democracy, my friends? How Abu Bakr was elected after that, after that, there was a state of confusion, brawl, fighting, arguments, tribalism inside Saqifa, okay, intimidation and physical violence. Let me show you how 'Umar Ibn Al-Khattab had had to fight, had to have a physical fight, literally physical fight in that meeting, with two leaders of the two main wings of the Ansar. He had a fight with Sa'ad Ibn Ibada and another fight with Al-Habbab Ibn Munthir. Sa'ad Ibn Ibada. Let us go to 137. Both of them are in [page] 137. "Wa kadu yata'un", when 'Umar and Abu Bakr and Abu Ubaida overwhelmed the Ansar and 'Umar first shook hand with Abu Bakr, 'Umar was the one who nominated Abu Bakr and he chose him, followed by Abu Ubaida Ibn Al-Jarrah. The rest were absent. So all this was orchestrated and engineered and designed and planned by 'Umar Ibn Al-Khattab to choose Abu Bakr because 'Umar knew Abu Bakr is an old man, he is going to die and then he is going to succeed.

"Wa kadu yada'una Sa'ad Ibn Ibada fa qalu an-nasu min ashabi Sa'adi ittaqu sa'adan la tada'uh fa qala 'Umar uqtuluh qatalahu Allah". 'Umar was so angry at Sa'ad Ibn Ibada because Sa'ad refused the caliphate of Abu Bakr and 'Umar. Sa'ad refused. He said, no, we are not going to pay allegiance to him. And Sa'ad is part of the Ansar. And then: "thumma qama ala rasihi", 'Umar said, may God kill Sa'ad, may God kill him. Kill him first. He said, kill him, "uqtuluh", murder Sa'ad, "qatalahu Allah", may God kill him. "Thumma qal" and then he stood upon, and Sa'ad was sick, he could not stand, he was very ill, that day. "Fa qal laqad hamamtu an ata'aka hatta tandhur 'adhuduk". I will crush your bones. "Fa akhadha Sa'ad bi lahyati 'Umar", Sa'ad who was sick he grabbed the beard of 'Umar with anger and he was pulling it. This is what happened. This is with Sa'ad Ibn Ibada.

With Al-Habbab Ibn Mundhir, again another leader of the Ansar, on his hand. And then he says: "fa qala 'Umar qatalahu Allah. Innahu munafiqun, wa taradha 'Umar bi 's-saifi sakhkhratun fa qat'aha. 'Umar was almost tried to kill Sa'ad Ibn Ibada. A murder was about to be committed, in this Democratic session. In this Democratic assembly. We have to read the history of Islam, my friends. It was altercation. And then Qur'an predicted that, in chapter Surat Aal-'Imran verse 144: "Wa ma Muhammadun illa Rasulun qad khalat min qablihi Ar-Rusul. Afa'in mata aw qutil inqalabtum 'ala a'qabikum" (3:144). If Muhammad gets killed or slain, would you turn back on your heels "inqalibtum 'ala a'qabikum".

And then we come to the books of in fact, here Sa'ad Ibn Ibada when he realised that they are going to choose Abu Bakr, he said, "minna amirun wa minkum amir", we are not going to submit to you. If worst come to worse, you choose caliph, Muhajirin for yourself, and we, the Ansar, are going to choose another caliph. Abu Bakr said to him, no, "minna al-umara'", we become caliphs. And you guys, the Ansar, you become wazir, "wa minkum ul-wuzara'", meaning aides and supporters, and ministers, but not caliphs. And then Abu Bakr, of course, 'Umar did not want people to know the Prophet is dying because he started intimidating: "qa'iman yu'idu an-nas, wa yaqul inna Rasul Allah hayyun, lam yamut". The Prophet did not die. Then Abu Bakr came and said to him, 'Umar, 'Umar, be quiet, please, be quiet. So, people came and they listened to Abu Bakr. The Prophet said, Whoever is worshiping Muhammad, Muhammad is dead. Whoever is worshiping God, God is there.

So 'Umar wanted to buy some time because Abu Bakr was out of town. And then my friends, they came to the house of 'Ali. 'Ali stayed in the house he did not want. "Fa qala bayi'a wa takhallafa 'Aliyun wa az-Zubayr, wa khtarata Az-Zuybayru saifah, wa qal la aghmidhu halta yubayi'a 'Aliyun". They stayed in the house of Fatimah, according to Tabari. 'Ali and Zubayr, they refused. And those are the companions of the Prophet, the relatives of the Prophet. And 'Ali said Zubayr took off his, he was rising his sword when 'Umar came to the house and he said, I am not going to put the sword down until people pay allegiance to 'Ali because 'Ali is a legitimate leader.

The Prophet predicted that. The Prophet, let me read for you, Bukhari 551. The Prophet said, My Umma are going to fight after me. The Prophet says, here, this is Kitab ul-Sahih Al-Bukhari, Kitabu Ar-Riqaq. The Prophet says, on the Day of Judgment: "Yaridu a'laya Yawma al-Qiyamati rahtun min ashabi. Rahtun min ashabi, fa yujlawna a'ni al-hawdh". A group of my companions are going to come on the Day of Judgment to the pond of Kawthar. They are going to be cleared and repelled. Angels do not allow them to come to the pond. So I will say: "fa aqul ya Rabbi as-habi", those are my companions. "Fa yaqul innaka la 'ilma laka bi ma ahddathu ba'dak, innahum irtaddu 'ala adbarihum al-qahqara". Oh Muhammad, you don't know what happened after you. They turned back on their heels.

This is in Sahih Al-Bukhari, not just one hadith. Several Hadith my friends, several Hadith, that some of the companions of the Prophets who used to be with the Prophet 24/7, and now they come to join him on the pond of Kawthar in the Day of Judgment. And the Prophet is about to see them joining him, but they going to be repelled and God is going to say to him: you do not know what they did after you. "Inqalabtum 'ala 'aqabikum". "Inqilab". Turning back on their heels.

This is the summary, the very short version, because I do not have time. If you want to read more, go to chapter three of Tarikh At-Tabari, the most credible book in the history of Islam. These are facts. We should reflect we should reflect on these. We should revisit the history and see what happened after the Prophet and where we are heading. What direction? Direction is important. Direction in this life is important.

"Inna ad-Dina 'inda Allahi Al-Islam" (3:19). God has set a path for us and we must follow only that path that He wants from us. Not what we want. Not what our whims and desires want from us. May Allah bless you. As-salamu alaykum, wa Rahmat Ullahi, wa barakatuh.