Why Did The Ummah Go Against The Prophet's Appointment? - The Event Of Ghadir 7/8

'Eid al-Ghadeer is an event that all Muslims should be celebrating. If, truly, the Prophet appointed Imam Ali, alayhi assalam, as a successor, then why did the people not follow him? There has never been a case where either a prophet or a successor of a prophet has ever been chosen by people.

Bismillahir-Rahmanir-Rahim, wal-Hamdulillah Rabbil-'Alameen wa assalatu wa assalamu 'ala Muhammadin wa alihi at-tayyabeen at-tahareen. Dear brothers and sisters, assalamu 'alaykum wa Rahmatullahi wa barakatu.

Welcome to the seventh episode of these special series discussing 'Eid al-Ghadeer. Over the past few episodes, we looked at the concept or the theory of council or shura or voting system with regards to choosing imams in Islam and we saw that there was absolutely no precedent for such a theory before the time of Rasul Allah, sallallahu 'alayhi wa aali, during the time of Rasul Allah, sallallahu 'alayhi wa aali, or even after the time of Rasul Allah, sallallahu 'alayhi wa alihi wa sallam.

Then we said that if that is the case, then the Prophet must have appointed somebody and that somebody was Ali ibnu Abi Talib, salawatullahi wa asssalam 'alayh, as his successor, as this khaleefa and there were several confirmations to this from the Holy Qur'an, from the Sunna, the traditions of Rasul Allah, sallallahu 'alayhi wa aali, that finally led to the day of 'Eid al-Ghadeer, where the Prophet, sallallahu 'alayhi wa aali, took the hands of Amir al-Mu'minin, salamullahi 'alayh, and said that whomever his master Ali is his master. As we discussed in the previous episode, where there were tens of thousands of Muslims witnessing the event and they pledged their allegiance to Amir al-Mu'minin Ali ibnu Abi Talib, 'alayhi assalam as that khaleefa.

But then what happened after the death Rasul Allah, sallallahu 'alayhi wa alihi wa sallam, there was a setback. Many companions, unfortunately, deliberately disobeyed and betrayed their allegiance to the Prophet, sallallahu 'alayhi wa aali, and hence they obeyed the command of the law Subhana wa Ta'ala. The majority in fact, disobeyed, and only a few handful of individuals who remained loyal to Imam Ali, alayhi assalam, and remained faithful to him.

So the question that is likely to be posed as how is it possible that you have so many Muslims you were saying tens of thousands of people, pledge their allegiance to Ali ibn Abi Talib, alayhi assalam? How is it that they all changed or the majority of them changed? Is that possible? These companions who fought with Rasul Allah, sallallahu 'alayhi wa aali, defended Rasul Allah, sallallahu 'alayhi wa aali, the message of Rasul Allah, sallallahu 'alayhi wa aali, how is it possible?

To answer this question, we need to go back to the Qur'an. And let's take a look at some examples from the Qur'an, from before the time of Rasul Allah, sallallahu 'alayhi wa aali, and during the time of Rasul Allah, sallallahu 'alayhi wa aali, where people betrayed their allegiance. The first example will take a look at is the example of Prophet Musa and Prophet Haroon, alayhihum assalam. When Orophet Musa 'alayhi assalam, just saved Bani Isra'eel, just saved them from the water and from Fir'aun. They came across a group of people who were worshipping idols.

This is in the Qur'an. They told their Prophet Musa alayhi assalam. They said, Why don't you make us idol like those people so we can worship them as well? Now, they've just witnessed the greatest miracle, Allah has just saved them and they're asking the prophet to make them idol so that they can worship them. Now, as-Samiri, who was a companion of Musa, 'alayhi assalam, saw that and he kept it all in mind. Then when the time came, of course, Musa 'alayhi assalam, told them, how could you even ask me for something like this one when Allah has just saved us? Allah is the one who protects us, He looks after us. So while Musa 'alayhi assalam was there, everything was OK, but you could see there was something cooking up here. Those people asking Musa 'alayhi assalam to create a god wa 'ayadhu bi Llah for them on behalf of Allah that they could worship, despite all these miracles they have witnessed for Musa 'alayhi assalam, they're asking for this.

But as long as Musa, 'alayhi assalam, was with them, they were OK. They couldn't really show their hatred. But when the time came for Musa, 'alayhi assalam, to leave, to go and get the Tawrat and he chose 70 people, he chose them to go with him, whom he thought were pious believers. So he took them with. And then he put Haroon, 'alayhi assalam, as their leader. Musa told them, I will go for 30 days because that's what Allah has told me, but then Allah added 10 more days and these 10 days were added to test Bani Isra'eel the children of Israel.

Now, you brothers and sisters, tell me what's happened. As-Samiri came when the 30 days passed and Musa did not come back, as-Samiri came and said, you know what, Musa is gone, he probably has died, let me create for you a God that you can worship, bring your jewellery. They brought their jewellery and as-Samiri created for them a calf that they started worshipping as their god. Now, you tell me, this is less than 40 days after the departure of Musa, 'alayhi assalam. It is said that about 600,000 of Bani Isra'eel worshipped the calf, was in fact only 12,000 remained loyal to Haroon, 'alayhi assalam.

That is less, that's about two percent. Two percent. What happened to the remaining 98 percent? What happened? You tell me. What happened when Haroon came to them and told them people what you're doing is wrong. How can you forget about Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala as mentioned as mentioned in Surat Taha? They told him, forget about you, and in fact, they wanted to kill Haroon. When Musa, 'alayhi assalam, came back and asked his brother, he said, why didn't you stop them? He said, I tried, I spoke to them and I told them what you're doing is wrong, but they realized my weakness. This all these 600,000 of them, there's only 12,000 of us. And they and he tells them they were about to kill me, so don't blame me, brother, for what they have done. And Musa said, I'm not blaming you. He comes angry. Isn't that a precedence?

That's one. Now, someone will say, this is before the time of the Prophet. This is not the time of the sahaba, the companions of Rasul Allah, sallallahu 'alayhi wa aali. Brothers and sisters, the Qur'an is it revealed for the time before Rasul Allah or the time of Rasul Allah, sallallahu 'alayhi wa aali, or is it revealed for all times?

Why does Allah tell us about the story of Haroon and Musa, alayhihum assalam, and the, and Bani Isra'eel worshipping the calf? It is to give us a lesson that throughout history you will have people like as-Samiri, people who will come in the form of religious people, companions of messengers, but they will deviate people. And that's what as-Samiri did. So that was a lesson for us, it means it is possible.

Now, let's go to the time of Rasul Allah, sallallahu 'alayhi wa aali. So that was an example from before Rasul Allah us and the Qur'an mentions in Surat Taha and Surat al-'Araf and some other surahs that talk about this story. Then, we come to the time of Rasul Allah, sallallahu 'alayhi wa aali. Now, brothers and sisters, what's happened in the battle of Uhud? The battle of Uhud, go read the books of history, see what historians say. The Prophet, sallallahu 'alayhi wa aali, puts 50 arrow men or archers on a mountain and he tells them that I don't want you to move until I signal to you to come. These people deliberately disobeyed Rasul Allah, sallallahu 'alayhi wa aali, when they saw that Muslims winning, initially, they descended from the mountain. Their leader, a man by the name of 'Abdullah told them, don't go down. The Prophet has not given us permission to go down. They said, forget about him. If we don't go down, we will miss out on the booty, the war booty. So they go down.

Abdullah and two or three other people remain on the mountain. When Khalid ibna Walid, who was the leader of the mushrikeen at the time, realize this, he turned around, killed the Archers. And what's happened? He sandwiched the Muslims in the middle and so many Muslims got killed. Great companions like Mus'ab ibn 'Omair, radhwanee ta'la 'alayh, the father of Jabir ibn 'Abdullah al-Ansaree, 'Abdillah al-Ansaree, radhwan ta'ala 'alayh. The greatest martyr, Sayyid as-Shuhada of his time, Hamza, radhwanee ta'ala 'alayh, was killed as well. So. And what happened? The Muslims they all ran away, ran away. And the Prophet is calling them, come back.

Read Surat Ale 'Imran, where 60 verses were revealed about this issue. Sixty versus and the Prophet is calling them. Itusiduna wala tuloon (3:153) if you go up the mountain and you don't even look back and the Prophet is calling you, come back and you ignore him. What happened there? Only a handful of Muslims remained with Rasul Allah, sallallahu 'alayhi wa aali. And historians all agree, unanimously that 'Ali ibn Abu Talib remained, Abu Dujana remained and a lady by the name of Naseeba bint Ka'ib al-Mazineeya, she remained, the woman started defending Rasul Allah, sallallahu 'alayhi wa aali, and whereas the most of the men, they ran away.

And the Qur'an, when Allah describes what those people did. He blames them, He says in verse 144 of Surat Ale 'Imran: "Wa maa Muhammadun illaa Rasul... Qad khalat min qablihir Rusul!"(3:144), Muhammad is not, is not but a messenger. Other messengers have come before him. "afa'im maata aw qutil"(3:144), is it when he dies or he gets killed, "inqalabtum 'ala 'aqabikum"(3:144), you return to your old state.

What is the old the state? Of kufur! This is not return or running away from the battlefields. No, it's not a matter of just running away. People just deliberately disobeyed the Prophet here because people ran away also in other battles like Hunain but Allah did not use this word, inqalabtum 'ala 'aqabikum, you go back to your original state, to your state of kufur, of shirk wa, 'aiydh bi Llah, which means those Muslims who disobeyed the Prophet, sallallahu 'alayhi wa aalihi wa sallam made a major sin that could have caused the life of Rasul Allah, sallallahu 'alayhi wa aali, and Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala appreciated from those few individuals who remained loyal to the Prophet, sallallahu 'alayhi wa aali, by fighting with him, defending him, a handful of individuals.

And I can guarantee you and I challenge people to go back and to prove that most of the sahaba remained. In fact, most of them ran away, and if you want, you can refer to a book called as-Sahih min Seerat an-Nabi , sallallahu 'alayhi wa aali, by Sayyid Ja'far Murtadha al-'Amili, where he describes and discusses this whole event proving that indeed the majority ran away, with the exception of Ali ibn Abi Talib, salamullahi 'alayh, where there unanimous, unanimous agreement amongst historians, he remained, most of the others we don't really know.

Nonetheless, that is a clear example. Then when the people realized that the Prophet was still alive, they came back and Allah forgave the Muslims. So that battle of Uhud is a clear example. These are companions who were with Rasul Allah, sallallahu 'alayhi wa aali,, yet they deliberately disobeyed Rasul Allah, sallallahu 'alayhi wa aali, they disobeyed the command of Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala and they would have caused Islam and the death of Rasul Allah, sallallahu 'alayhi wa aali. In fact, they caused the death of Hamza, salamullahi 'alayh. That his example from the time of Rasul Allah, that's one.

Two, the second example from the time of Rasul Allah, sallallahu 'alayhi wa aali, is the battle of Hunain, Hunain. What happened in Hunain? After the Prophet, sallallahu 'alayhi wa aali, got control or took control over Mecca. There was a tribe or a group by then by the name of Hawazin. Hawazin, they teamed up with other Arabs who prepared a big arm y to come and fight against Rasul Allah, sallallahu 'alayhi wa aali.

When the Prophet learnt about them, he prepared an army of 12,000 men, many of them where those who were freed by Rasul Allah, sallallahu 'alayhi wa aali, in Mecca. So the new comers to Islam, which are known at that stage as at-Tulaqaa, the ones who are freed. Among those people were Abu Sufyan, Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan, all of those people from the Tulaqaa. Tulaqaa is expression given by Rasul Allah, sallallahu 'alayhi wa aali, to those people who told him, I set you all free, go, fa adhhabu min tulaqaa, free. So they became known as tulaqa, those people in Mecca when the Prophet could control over them and he released them.

So the army contain some of those people and some of the muhajareen, some of the ansar, great companions, 12,000 of them, they come, they marched towards towards Hawazin and what happens, Allah tells us in the Qur'an, read Surat at-Tawbah. "Bismillah al-Rahman al-Rahim. Wa yawma Hunainin idh a'jabatkum kathratukum falam tughni 'ankum [min Allahi] shai'a wa daaqat 'alaikumul ardu bimaa rahubat thumma wallaitum mudbireen" (9:25). And on the day of Hunain, when you thought that, look at us, we have 12,000 people, the arrogance entered into the heart of the Muslims that you know what, we conquered Mecca, we conquered other cities, we fought in other battles and we become victorious. Now that we have 12,000 people, we can definitely win against these Hawazain. Allah wanted to discipline the Muslims, teach them a lesson.

However, what happened? Hawazin started shooting arrows and attacking the Muslims, and what happened? Allah says, "thumma wallaytum mudbireen" (9:25), you ran away, thumma walaytum mukbireen, ran away. Read Seerat ibn Husham, read what others say, Muslims ran away. In fact, in Sahih al-Bukhari by the name of Abu Qutada, he says, I ran away, and then I saw the man who became a second khaleefah. I said, What are you doing? He says, this is the command of Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala. Meaning that Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala, He wanted us to run away. He's blaming wal a'yadhu biLlah Allah, for making him run away from the battlefield, wal a'yadhu biLlah. You accept this logic?

And the Prophet is calling them, come back. Again, they deliberately disobeyed the Prophet left, him by himself. Bani Hashim, stayed, defending Rasul Allah, sallallahu 'alayhi wa aali, and 'Ali ibn Abi Talib defended Rasul Allah. He, in fact, went among the mushrikeen, started fighting them, taking them as prisoners, tying them up and bringing them to Rasul Allah, sallallahu alayhi wa aali wa sallam, then he attacked the bearers of the banners and he started killing them and he turned the whole equilibrium of the battle.

Seerat Husham, ibn Husham in his Seerat, he says Muslims started returning back when they saw the prisoners tied up next to Rasul Allah, sallallahu 'alayhi wa aali. Who, who tied them up? Who got them? When they all went away, it was Ali ibn Abi Talib, salamullahi 'alayh. So Muslims ran away, except for a few individuals. Bani Hashim remained because some people from the tulaqa', some people, a man by the name of 'Uthman, 'Uthman ibn Abi Talha'. Human rights, ibn Abi Talha', ibn Shaiba ibn Abi Talha'. That man, he tried to kill Rasul Allah, he was from the thulaqa, those who are freed. So he was fighting next to Rasul Allah. But he wanted to kill them and the Prophet told him. So he said, I bear witness you are Rasul Allah, you are a messenger of Allah because you knew what I was thinking about. So there was betrayal, betrayal. People deserted Rasul Allah, sallallahu 'alayhi wa aali. This is in the battle of Hunain.

Then what happens? A third example. Battle of Tabuk. In the Battle of Tabuk, you had some hypocrites who remained behind and did not join Rasul Allah, sallallahu 'alayhi wa aali. In fact, they built Masjid Dheerar, a mosque which the Qur'an describes as dheerar, a mosque of harm. That one the Prophet came back from Tabuk, Allah ordered him to destroy it, in fact, to burn it. Can you believe it? Someone says the Prophet burns the masjid. Yes he did, Masjid Dheerar, because this Masjid was just named as a masjid, but rather it was an operation cell to spy on the Muslims, so they Prophet wanted to destroy it. So he destroyed it. And then there were people who neglected the command of Rasul Allah, thalatha, three people, Qur'an mentions them in Surat al-Tawbah, who left Rasul Allah, did not join him.

So basically you have a whole range of companions who more than one occasion deliberately disobeyed Rasul Allah, sallallahu 'alayhi wa aali, in Uhud, in Hunain, in Tabuk. Then why do we get surprised that after the Prophet's death, the majority of the companions also changed, when in fact, in Sahih al-Bukhari, it is narrated from Abi Huraira, the Prophet himself says, I will stand on the Day of Judgement, next to the river and some of my companions will come and will be dragged to Jehannam, I will say, oh Allah, these are my companions. They will say, You don't know what they did after you. You don't know what they did after you.

So some writers are trying to kind of patch things up and say, while these companions are not the companions of Rasul Allah, sallallahu 'alayhi wa aali, while he saying my companions, ashabee, okosahaibee, a group of them, who will be, don't tell me that they were hypocrites, whatever. Yes, some of the hypocrites are there as well. But some of those who are companions of Rasul Allah, disobeyed and changed. You had companions fighting each others after Rasul Allah, on the battle of Jamal. Amir al-Mu'minin Ali ibn Abi Talib, with 'Ammar ibn Yasser, with Muhammad ibn Abi Baker Radhuwana Ta'la 'alayh, they were fighting against Talha and Zubair and Umm al-Mu'minin who joined them as well. So there were companions and Talha got killed in that battle. Talha got killed in the battle. So don't tell me the companions did not go. And this was during the khaleefah of Amir al-Mu'minin ibn Abi Talib, people changed.

So unfortunately, what's happened is we see there is precedence in the Qur'an from the time of Musa, alayhi assalam, to that time of Rasul Allah, sallallahu 'alayhi wa aali, and after Rasul Allah where people deliberately disobeyed the command of their Prophet and Sahaba, companions disobeyed the Prophet, and even after his death. They also set back and disobeyed the Prophet, which resulted in the kheelafah of the first khaleefah and then pushing away Imam Ali.

Now a question you might pose. So what? OK, you tell me that Ali did not become a khaleefah, the first khaleefah became. Isn't everything fine afterwards? We will discuss that in the next episode and the final episode of this special series about 'Eid al-Ghadeer, until I see you then Insha'Allah, may Allah bless you. Wa as-salamu alaikum, wa Rahmatullahi, wa barakatu.