Abdullah Ibn Saba’ and Other Myths

Preface

How and why this book came about.

In 1949 (1369 H.L.) I came across some dubious Muslim stories in Islamic History books. These I collected from different sources. After careful study I was convinced that some of them were forged for special purposes. Then I felt a moral obligation to publicize them. I arranged my notes so as to make a book to be called the stories of Saif.

A most learned, eminent brother Sheikh Razi Aale Yasin, author of the book Solhol Hasan encouraged me to continue the work, and suggested I call the book ‘Abdullah Bin Saba΄, and I gladly agreed. The notes were kept for about seven years and except for a few of my learned brothers, no one knew of them.

I was afraid that I may arouse the feelings of Eastern People, for they were about the events in the Prophet's time up to the year 36 H.L. History books of those years were accepted as gospel truth, and undoubtedly people had faith in them, and learned from them of our early

Muslim ancestors. This discussion destroys the historical foundations upon which the historians based their books. It shows how unreliable are some Islamic stories, and disproves the authenticity of some sources. The reader will see that the discussion is not restricted to the stories of ‘Abdullah Bin Saba΄, but through this discourse it will be found that there are many other unreliable sources.

For this reason I was afraid until I learned that two other writers had discussed some part of it. Then I began to publish my book. I have mentioned only the sources which were written before the year 500 H.L.

Murtadha al-’Askari
Baghdad 1955 A.D
15th Ramadhan 1375