Light On the Muhammadan Sunnah Or Defence of the Hadith

Some Companions Relating From Jewish Rabbis:

The Companions’ trust in the Ahl al-Kitab’s embrace of Islam and being beguiled by them made them (Sahabah) to believe their utterances and relate from them their fabricated traditions. Men of hadith state in their books that the three ‘Abds, 298 Abu Hurayrah, 299 Mu’awiyah and Anas beside others, have reported from Ka’b al-Ahbar and his brothers (Jewish rabbis). It is known that Abu Hurayrah was much more than all the Companions in having trust in and relating from him and following him, as can be seen clearly from his biography which I published in a separate book under the title Shaykh al-mudirah to which everyone can refer.

This Jew (Ka’b al-Ahbar) managed, through his devilish methods and plans, to foist so many superstitions, fancies and falsities into religion, that filled books of tafsir, hadith and history, in a way that distorted them and created doubt among people in their regard, and still causing us detriments and troubles that only God knows. I have previously referred to some of these superstitions as covering all of them requires independent full compilations.

Companions Disproving Ka’b:

As is known, the Companions used to trust Ka’b in the beginnings, but some of them did not wait to take notice of his truth after disclosure of his

falsities and revelation of his reality, whereat they stripped him of this trust and started to suspect his reports, or even belied him. Whereas some of them, among whom be Abu Hurayrah and three Abds and others, kept on believing and taking from him till his last hour.

Umar has forbidden Ka’b from relating the hadith, threatening to exile him to his homeland in case of continuing this practice, saying to him: You should give up narration of hadith or otherwise I shall make you join the land of apes. 300 Ali used to say in his regard: He is verily a liar.

Al-Bukhari reported from al-Zuhri that Hamid ibn Abd al-Rahman heard Mu’awiyah addressing a group of the Qurayshis, when he referred to Ka’b saying: He was the most truthful 301 of all the narrators from among Ahl al-Kitab though we used to put falsity to test through him.

Ibn Abi Khaythamah, through a good sanad (chain of narrators), reported from Qatadah as saying: Hudhayfah was informed that Ka’b used to say: The sky revolves round a pivot like a handmill. Thereat he said: Ka’b told a lie, as Allah says: “Verily God holdeth the heavens and the earth lest they come to naught.” 302 Ibn Abbas said to a man coming from the Sham: Whom did you meet? He replied: I met Ka’b. He asked him: What did you hear him saying? He said: I heard him say: The heavens revolves round a shoulder of an angel. Ibn Abbas said: Ka’b uttered falsehood...hasn’t he abandoned his jewishness yet? Then he recited: “Verily God holdeth the heavens and the earth lest they come to naught.” 303

There are numerous reports in this regard, but I suffice with the examples cited above.

Story of the Rock between Umar and Ka’b:

After conquest of Ilya and its land during the reign of Umar in Rabi’ al-Thani 16 H., and when Umar entered Bayt al-Maqdis, he summoned Ka’b al-Ahbar and said to him: Where do you think better to build the oratory (musalla)? Ka’b said: Beside the rock!!

have resembled the Jewish creed. 305 In another narration: O son of the Jewish woman, the Jewishness is mingled with you (with your blood). I shall build it at the forefront of the mosque, as to us belong the forefronts of the mosques, and I saw you and the way you took off your shoes! He said: I liked to conduct it with my foot! When he started to clean Bayt al-Maqdis from the sweeping which the Romans buried into it, 306 he heard the takbir (God is Greater) from behind him, while he was averse to evil of dissimulation 307 in everything. He said: What is this? They replied: Ka’b said God is Greater and people repeated after him. He (Umar) said: Bring him here. Ka’b said: O Amir al-Mu’minin, a prophet foretold of what you did today five hundred years ago!! He asked: How is that? He replied: The Romans attacked Banu Israel and buried it (Bayt al-Maqdis), till you were appointed a ruler, when Allah delegated a prophet over the sweepings who said: O Jerusalem, I have good tidings for you, al-Faruq has come to cleanse you of that which inside you. 308 In another narration: Al-Faruq came to you with obedient soldiers, who will retaliate and take vengeance of your people upon the Romans... etc. Beside other similar superstitions that were fabricated by this impostor and liar.

The rock remained uncovered during caliphate of Umar and Uthman when ruling over the Sham, and also caliphate of Ali though he didn’t rule over it (Sham), continuing till the government of Mu’awiyah, his son and the son of his son. When Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan came to power, with that known sedition that occurred between him and Ibn al-Zubayr, it was him who built the dome over the rock, 309 extolling the position of the rock through what he built and the garment he covered it in winter and summer. All this was aimed at encouraging larger number of people to make pilgrimage to Bayt al-Maqdis (Quds), and abandon their visit to Ibn al-Zubayr, since people usually follow religion of the kings. In this way, people started from that time to venerate and sublimate this rock to an extent unanticipated by Muslims, with some embarking on reporting Jewish fabricated traditions in its praise and high status. To cite an example for this, some have reported from Ka’b al-

Ahbar near Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, with the presence of Urwah ibn al-Zubayr, that he said: “Allah said to the rock: You are My lowermost Throne”.

Some others have even made compilations on the merits of Bayt al-Maqdis and other regions of the Sham, transmitting many reports from Ahl al-Kitab and those who followed them, upon which the Muslims are unallowed to establish their religion. Ka’b al-Ahbar was the most vivid example from whom those Jewish traditions were reported, as in the case of the people of Sham.

In his Mir’at al-zaman, al-Sibt ibn al-Jawzi writes: People hesitated in regard of the traditions reported by Ka’b al-Ahbar from the Messenger of Allah, upon whom be God’s peace and benediction, since he embraced Islam under the hands of al-Faruq (Umar), who used to hit him with the pearl saying to him: Let us be far from your Jewishness.

Jewish Traditions on Excellence of Bayt al-Maqdis:

Ka’b said: Allah looked at the earth and said: I am treading a portion of you. Thereat the mountains contended in a race toward Him, and the rock became dilapidated, when He appreciated that conduct on its part and placed His foot on it!!

He also said: Presentation and reckoning (on Doomsday) will be verily done in Bayt al-Maqdis, and anyone buried in this place no torment will ever befall him.

He further said: It (Quds) is only eighteen miles nearer to the heaven, and it is the land of mahshar (gathering) and manshar (resurrection).

He again said: The Hour (Doomsday) will never come till when Bayt al-Haram (Ka’bah) visits Bayt al-Maqdis, and both of them including their inhabitants will be led toward the paradise.

In another place he said: In the Torah it is written that Allah said to the Rock of Bayt al-Maqdis: You are My lowermost Throne, and from you I

ascended to the heaven. From underneath you I stretched out the earth, and whatever flowing down from the tops of mountains passes too from under you. When one dies on you it is as if he has died in the heaven ... etc.

Also Abu Hurayrah – the disciple of Ka’b al-Ahbar – reported that the Prophet (S) said: All the rivers, clouds, seas and winds are altogether under the Rock of Bayt al-Maqdis.

Ka’b again said: Allah, the Glorified and Exalted, said to Bayt al-Maqdis: You are my Garden, Holiness, and choice from among my land. Whoever inhabits you, it verily be out of My mercy, and that who departs you, it is only through a wrath on My part against him.

Ka’b said too: In Bayt al-Maqdis the day is like a thousand days, the month is like a thousand months, and the year is like a thousand years. Whoever dies in it, it is as if he has died in the heaven, and when anyone dies around it, it is as if he has died inside it.

Wahb ibn Munabbih is reported to have said: People of Bayt al-Maqdis are neighbours of Allah, and Allah’s right is not to torment His neighbours. Whoever is buried in Bayt al-Maqdis will be verily delivered from the trial and distress of the grave.

In a hadith, it is said that the party from among his Ummah, standing by the truth, who are never harmed or affected by their opponents till God’s command is revealed to them, are living in Bayt al-Maqdis and its vicinities.

Al-Allamah al-Ustadh Ni’mat Allah al-Saljuqi, the head of Fakhr al-Madaris (Herat) in Afghanistan, in his review of my book Adwa’ ‘ala al-Sunnah al-Muhammadiyyah, in a valuable book he sent to me, says:

“Concerning the traditions reported on the merit of Sham, we admit that most of them were only foisted by the Jews. Of them some are recorded in books stating that whoever begins the new moon for hajj from al-Masjid al-Aqsa, Allah shall verily forgive all his past and latter sins. This narration – though indicating the excellence of al-Masjid al-Aqsa – leads to atheism and negligence in regard of perpetrating guilts, paving the way for debauchery.

Among the superstitions that were foisted by the Jews and recorded in

the biography and some exegesis books are the following: Some of the heavens are of silver and some are of olivine; the planets are transfixed in the heavens according to the order stated in the Greek books; the moon is transfixed in the lower heaven, and the planet Mercury is in the second heaven, and so forth till the seventh heaven. And so on the heavens are placed on a vertex of a mountain surrounding the earth called Qaf, and the earth is put on a horn of an ox standing on a whale swimming in water.

All that was due to the scholars’ unawareness and negligence of the untoward consequences of the traditions fabricated and foisted by enemies of religion among the Muslims.”

Traditions on al-Masjid al-Aqsa:

The reliable traditions were in the beginning concerned with the merit of al-Masjid al-Haram (Ka’bah) and Masjid al-Rasul (Mosque of the Messenger of Allah), but after building the Rock Dome (Qubbat al-Sakhrah) several traditions began to be reported on the excellence of al-Masjid al-Aqsa.

Abu Hurayrah reported (that the Prophet said): “No pilgrimage should be made but only to three mosques: My mosque, and al-Masjid al-Haram and al-Masjid al-Aqsa.” In another narration, he (S) said: Travel should be made only to three mosques: the Ka’bah, my mosque and Mosque of Ilya (al-Aqsa).

Malik reported in al-Muwatta’, and Muslim in his book (Sahih) reported from Abu Hurayrah that the Prophet said: One prayer (salat) in my mosque is verily better than a thousand prayers in other mosques other than al-Masjid al-Haram. In another narration: ... is like a thousand prayers in any other mosque except al-Masjid al-Haram.

Abu Umar reported that the Prophet said: A prayer in my mosque is better than a thousand prayers in any other mosque except al-Masjid al-Haram.

Ibn Abbas reported: A woman made a complaint saying: If Allah

recovers me I commit myself to perform prayers in Bayt al-Maqdis. On regaining her health she got ready to go out, when Maymunah, the Prophet’s wife, came to greet her, the time in which she told her about her vow. Maymunah said to her: Sit down and eat what I prepared for you, and pray in the Mosque of the Messenger of Allah, as I heard him saying: One prayer performed in it (Masjid al-Rasul) is preferred to a thousand prayers in any other mosque except the Ka’bah Mosque. Had these traditions were truly reported on the excellence of al-Masjid al-Aqsa, Maymunah would have never prevented that woman from carrying out her vow.

Jewish Role in Preferring the Sham:

We stated before that the extolling made by the Jewish rabbis that the Prophet’s rule would be in the Sham was only for a purpose harboured inside their hearts. It is to be stated here that the Sham would have never deserved that extol and flattery, but only because of the establishment of the Umayyad State in it. That State which reversed the rule from a just and fair caliphate to a mordacious deviant government, under whose wing and during whose days the Islamic sects were established, the fact that led to disintegration and decline of the Islamic State, beside prevalence and abundance of hadith fabrication. This phenomenon was exploited by the Jewish priests who embarked on blowing the fire of sedition, providing it with more and more lies and deceit. Among these falsities we can refer to their exaggeration in extolling the Sham and its people, claiming that all good being in it and all evil being in other than it.

However, as previously manifested, the climax of the claims of these priests was that the Prophet’s reign would be verily in the Sham, and that Mu’awiyah alleged as the Messenger said that he was to succeed him as a caliph and asked him to choose the sacred land where the substitutes were living. Through this it is exposed for us another aspect of the Jewish stratagem against Muslims and their religion and rule. That is the claims

uttered by the Jews in the Sham, to some of which we referred before, could never quench their grudge but they added to them the claim that the right-supporting sect would be in the Sham too, and in it would be the descension of Jesus, about whom they said he would be in his land.

In the two Sahihs it is reported (that the Prophet said): A group of my Ummah is still backing the truth, and never be harmed by those who disappointed or opposed them, till God’s decree coming to them on this state. In another narration: …. While they be in the Sham.

In Sahih Muslim, Abu Hurayrah reported that the Prophet said: People of the west keep on supporting the truth till the Doomsday. Ahmad and others said: They (meant by the hadith) are verily the people of the Sham.

When Andalusian land was conquered, they (Jews) considered it the west that is intended in the hadith, making this hadith as if said in regard of their homeland. In al-Mu’jib fi talkhis akhbar al-Maghrib, it is reported from Sa’d ibn Abi Waqqas that the Messenger of Allah (S) said: People of the Maghrib continue to stand by the truth (haqq), unaffected or harmed by whoever disappointed them, till when the (destined) Hour comes. 313

In Kashf al-khafa’, it is reported that Ka’b al-Ahbar said: People of the Sham are one of God’s swords with whom Allah revenges upon the rebels. Maybe the term rebels or insurgents here is used for those refusing to submit and be under the command of Mu`awiyah, following other than him, the term used for Ali, may God be pleased with him!

Urwah ibn Ruwaym said: Some man met Ka’b al-Ahbar, saluted him and prayed to God for him. Ka’b asked him: From where are you? He replied: I am from people of the Sham. He (Ka’b) said: You may be one of the host among whom seventy thousand will enter paradise without being called for reckoning, or tormented? He said: who are they? He replied: People of Damascus! He said: I am not among them. Ka'b again asked. You may be

from among the host to whom Allah looks twice a day? He said: Who are they? He replied: People of Palestine. He said: I am of them! In another narration. You might be from the troops whose martyr intercedes for seventy persons? He said: Who are they? He replied: People of Hams. 314

Ka'b said: The first wall built on the surface of the earth after the inundating flood, was the wall of Harran, then of Damascus, then of Babylon. 315

Nafi reported from Ibn Umar, that Ka'b said: A fire will verily appear that takes off people. When you hear news about it you have to go out toward the Sham. 316  It is known that Ibn Umar was a disciple of Ka'b.

Following are some traditions recorded in al-Jami‘ al-saghir of al-Suyuti, that were confirmed by Ka'b:

Sham is God's choice from among the lands (He created). For it He selects the best of His bondmen. Whoever departs the Sham toward another place, he will face wrath (of God), and whoever enters it shall be deserving God's mercy.

-Blessed be the Sham, the Beneficent is extending His mercy upon them.

-From a town in the Sham called Hams, Allah will verily forward seventy thousand persons on the Day of Resurrection. They will neither be subject to reckoning nor to torment. He shall despatch them in it between the olive and the wall... etc.

This town of Hams must be in this high status — even in the Hereafter — to the extent that no other town, even the Medina, can ever be compared to it. That is due to the fact that the Jewish priest, who is considered as a great follower by a large number of shaykhs (leaders) of Muslims, has taken it a place of residence, beside its being his burial ground

after death. I do not intend to prolong the discussion by citing all the available reports of the kind, sufficing with what I have already stated.

Investigators' Opinion about Israeliyyat and their Narrators:

Before ending discussion about Jewish fabricated traditions from which Islam suffered a lot, I present here a number of statements uttered by leaders (Imams) of Muslims about these priests, who pretended to be Muslims, and about their fabricated foisted narration.

About the Jewish traditions cited in honour of Bayt al-Maqdis and other regions of the Sham, Ibn Taymiyyah said the following.

Some have compiled several works on the merits of Bayt al-Maqdis and other places in the Sham, stating in them the reports transmitted from Ahl al-Kitab and from those who followed them, of the kind that no Muslim can take them as a source for religious rules. Ka'b al-Ahbar was the most famous one from whom these Jewish fabricated traditions were reported, particularly by people of the Sham. In this regard Mu'awiyah said: We haven't seen among these traditionists of Ahl al-Kitab anyone more exemplary than Ka'b, though we sometimes would put falsity to test through him. In Sahih al-Bukhari it is reported from the Prophet (upon whom be God's peace and benediction) as saying: "When People of Scripture relate to you any hadith, you should neither believe or belie them. Since they either tell you lies which you may believe, or tell you the truth which you may belie. 317

It is surprising that this preserved 318  and guarded Shari'ah, with this protected Ummah that never comes together on misguidance — when any hadith be related from the Prophet(s) by some of eminent Followers, like `Ata' ibn Abi Rabah, al-Hasan al-Basri and Abu al-Aliyah and others, who were

the most notable scholars and religious authorities- can suspend men of knowledge at their marasil. Then some of them would repulse the marasil (traditions transmitted with no asanid), and some others would conditionally accept them. Till he said. And between any of these people and the Prophet (s), as a chain of transmission, none was there but only one or two or three men, for instance.

In regard of those traditions recorded in the present books of Muslims, that are reported in a mursal way, their veracity can never be confirmed as unanimously agreed by the ulama’. So what about those which were reported by Ka'b al-Ahbar and his likes from the prophets while about a thousand years were separating between him and the prophet from whom he used to report. Besides, he did not support these traditions with a chain of trustworthy men, but his intention was only to convey hadith from some books that were compiled by chiefs of the Jews.

“Establishment of abundant knowledge does not necessitate denial of falsity. Most of his (Ka'bs) knowledge in their view was confined in whatever he used to relate and quote from the Torah, or some other books of his people with ascribing everything to it (Torah) so as to get approval among people. Undoubtedly Ka'b was the most sagacious among the Jewish `ulama’ before embracing Islam, and most competent in cheating the Muslims through his narration after adopting Islam.

He also said that he was among the atheists (Zanadiqah) of the Jews, who used to display Islam and devotion so as to delude people to accept his sayings in regard of religious affairs. His intrigue became so rife that even some of the Companions were beguiled by him and embarked on reporting from him, and communicating his utterances without ascribing them to him (in the chain of transmission). Some of the Followers and their followers have even thought them (his traditions) to be among what they heard from the

Prophet, with some authors counting them among the mawqufat that having the degree of marfu' traditions (whose sanad goes back to the Prophet), as stated by Ibn Kathir in several places of his Tafsir.

About him he also said: He was a volcano of superstitions, I decisively determine his being a liar, and rather I never trust his faith.

In regard of both Ka'b and Wahb, he said:

and asked him to excuse them from rising out with him(S) to Tabuk: "God forgive thee (O Our Apostle!) Why didst thou give them leave (to stay behind) until it was manifest unto thee those who spoke the truth, and thou hadst known the liars.”

What al-Zarqani quoted of his opinion that whatever is reported from the Companion which can't be counted among the entailed (mawquf) traditions, has the position of a marfu' tradition (though having the option of being taken from Ahl al-Kitab as a sign of thinking well of it, is a false and rejected opinion, that can never be taken as a rule and principle in our religion. And what he gave as a reason for it is totally false as no room be here neither for good intention nor for the opposite way. It is usually known in the tempers of human beings to believe every report for whose utterer no evidence is there to charge (as a liar) nor to prove its falsehood by itself. If some of the Companions believe some of the fabrications which Ka'b al-Ahbar used to delude them as learning from the Torah or other scriptures of Banu Israel, as he being one of their rabbis, or in other than this, it will never entail having evil intention regarding them. Had these Israeli superstitions been among restrainers of Islam and of which people used to speak ill, though being reported from those whose sayings and opinions were neither regarded as religious texts nor legal proofs, despite their being among `ulama’ of ancestors — as is actually true — so what would be our standpoint in regard of those defaming Islam, among the atheists and callers to religions who harbour enmity against Islam and Muslims, and also the Zanadiqah of Muslims beside Muslims among Zanadiqah of Muslims too, when holding that these Israeli superstitions and trifles were narrated by Companions in part, and counted among the traditions whose chain of transmission goes back to the Prophet (S) in which should all believe? But this being a vast bab on

defamation and restraining of Islam, had it been opened by other than al-Zarqani from among the imitators of darksome medieval ages, we would have closed it to his face saying to him the scholars of usul have unanimously concurred that occurrence of potentiality in the marfu’ (hadith reported from the Prophet) in regard of existing states, will clothe them with garment of generality whereat inference would lose its validity.

This probability is more proper than that one, in preventing from considering the mawquf as marfu’, and taking it as a legal evidence.

He further said: 325  We, after experiencing a third of a century in tackling and solving the ambiguities and debating the atheists and their likes from among the opponents of Islam, and refuting them orally and in writing, it was already proved for us that the narration of Ka'b and Wahb, recorded in books of exegesis, history and tales, constituted numerous suspicions not only for the atheists and apostates, but also for the believers. The free-thinking people reject their saying that; whoever believed to be reliable by men of sarcasm and modification (jarh wa ta’dil) is verily reliable, though known for their successors to be having means of sarcasm that were unknown for them.

He also said: Through their 326  narration I found a lot whose falsity is definitely certain for us, due to its contradiction to what they used to ascribe to the Torah and other scriptures of the prophets. So we were sure of their being liars, the fact that was undiscovered by the predecessors since they were never acquainted with the books of Ahl al-Kitab. Besides, refuting their narrations would drive so many suspicions away from the books of Islam, particularly Tafsir Kitab Allah, which is replete with superstitions.

About their narrations he said: Most of them are Israeli superstitions that spoiled books of tafsir and others, and constituted doubts into Islam with which its enemies from among the atheists used to argue, charging Islam to be

a religion of superstitions and fancies. While suspicion in any other religion might be bigger than this, like what Ka'b stated about attribute of the Prophet in the Torah. 327

But though the investigating imams have confuted the narration of these two priests, still there are — regrettably — some who trust them and believe in their narrations as a whole, refusing any criticism against them.

298. The three Abds are: Abd Allah ibn Abbas, Abd Allah ibn Umar, and Abd Allah ibn 'Amr.

299. Refer to my book Shaykh al-mudirah to see how has Abu Hurayrah contacted Ka'b al-Ahbar and how has he fallen in his trap.

300. Al-Bidayah wa al-nihayah, Vol. VIII, p. 106.

301. In another narration, the word used is amthal (the most distinguished).

302. Ibn Hajar, al-Isabah, vol. I, p. 323.

303. Ibn Hajar al-Asqallani, al-Kafi al-shafi, p. 139.

304. In another narration: If you seek my advice, I prefer to pray behind the rock, i.e. the rock would be the qiblah.

305. Mudahat the Jewism is to resemble and be like it in taking the rock as qiblah, due to the resemblance it had in view of that believing it to be still a qiblah.

306. The Roman Christians have thrown these sweepings out of pertinacity against the Jews who were attaching much importance to it and pray toward it (as qiblah).

307. The bad dissimulation and plety.

308. I have quoted this statement briefly from Tafsir al-Tabari, vol. IV, p. 160 and following pages.

309. In regard of Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan who built the rock, I cite here what Ibn al-Athir said in vol. IV, p. 190 of hid book: Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan went on pilgrimage in 75 H., when he addressed people in al-Madinah saying: After all I am neither the oppressed caliph (i.e. Uthman), nor the sycophant caliph (meaning Mu'awiyah), nor the ma'fun caliph (meaning Yazid). I will never treat this Ummah but with the sword till make you submit to my will, and you learn by heart the acts of the earlier immigrants, but never act like them. You bid us to God-fearing but forget about yourselves. By God no one of you would bid to God-fearing after this incident, but I will behead him!

310. See vol. I, p. 35.

311. Refer to al-Nuwayri's Nihayat al-arab , vol. I, p. 232 to see these reports and more wonderful than them.

312. In the narration of Abu Umamah al-Bahili: When the Prophet was questioned he said: Bayt al-Maqdis and its vicinities (Nihayat al-arab, Vol. I, p. 333).

313. See p. 15.

314. Ta'rikh Ibn Asakir (the manuscript), Vol. I, p. 57; and Hams is the place where his (Ka'b's) corpse was buried.

315. Ibid, p. 14.

316. Fath al-Bari, vol. XIII, p. 69.

317. This is the correct hadith through which the light of Prophethood emanates. But one of the disciples of Ka'b, Abd Allah ibn 'Amr ibn al-As, would come and report from the Prophet the following hadith: "Relate from me even one verse, and relate from Banu Israel with no harm," contradicting the Prophet's order then and enraging him by relating from the Zamilatan (two Sahihs).

318. That is the Islamic Shari'ah.

319. That with supposing them to report from their shaykhs, but in fact they used to invent and fabricate (traditions) from their own!

320. Iqtida' al-sirat al-mustaqim, pp. 208, 209.

321. Al-Manar Journal, p. 541 and following pages.

322. Ibid., vol. XXVII, p. 752.

323. Ibid., Vol. XXVII, p. 697.

324. Ibid., Vol. XXVII, p. 783.

325. Ibid., Vol. XXVII, p. 539.

326. I mean Ka'b and Wahb.

327. See Vol. XXVII, p. 618.