The Tradition of the two Sheikhs has no value

The explicit, free and righteous men always pertain to the indemnity of seeking freedom, truth and reality, and they do not deviate from the right path, and for the sake of rightness and truth, they bear heavy burdens.

          Many a times, these people do not pay heed to the opportunities and sensitive situations, and great positions and posts which are offered to them, only for the sake of refraining from falsehood, from cheating people, and for not deviating from the pious political path or indulging in breaking promises.

          Islam is the religion of truth, justice and righteousness. As it has arrived in the holy Quran:

          “O you who have faith! Be maintainers of justice and witnesses for the sake of Allah, even if it should be against yourselves or [your] parents and near relatives”.[1]

          Imam Ali (peace be upon Him) has also said:

“The sign of faith is to choose truth, while it will harm you, over a lie, which will benefit you”.[2]

          One of the main causes of the apparent dominance of the wrong people over the right people is that they pertain to all sorts of deceits; they misguide people; they tell lies; they make false promises; they buy people by giving bribes and positions; they violate all the rights; they make the fraud, treacherous and tyrant men their agents and commit all the indecent and shameful actions. They do all these deeds only for defeating their opponents and achieving their motives.

          These acts are legitimate according to their logic, because their motive is to rule, govern and dominate their enemies. But the righteous people, who are men of freedom and truth, refrain from making use of these satanic acts and for them, the result which is achieved by implying deceit, cheatings and trickeries, is not success, rather, it is the actual defeat.

          If the righteous people apparently get defeated, the cause of their defeat is neither due to their weak methods and bad politics, and nor due to the powerful method and good politics of the wrong people. Instead, it is related to the conditions of the surrounding, the opportunities, social atmosphere and situations, and the intellectual growth and upbringing of the society. 

          In a society which is filled with ignorant people and men who lack intellectual growth, the wrong people can lay their traps for the innocent and unaware people with their cunningness, deceits, schemes and hypocrisies.

          But the righteous people, for achieving success, will never make use of deceits and trickeries and lies, and they will never make the people ignorant and misguided, they will not speak against the truth because their motive is to lay the foundation of the true government and to nurture people upon the principles of truth.

          It is a government whose leader says:

          “If they gift me the seven dominions of the world with what lies under their heavens so that I may disobey Allah by taking away a grain of barley from the mouth of an ant, I will never do it.”[3]

          In the history of Islam, one of the manifestations of these two methods, was the opportunity and situation which arrived for two renowned individuals, i.e. Ali (peace be upon Him) and Othman. One of them gave up his confirmed right due to his unacceptance of innovation and abstinence of leniency, and the other officially accepted that innovation and the oath which he didn’t fulfill, and forcibly became the ruler of people.

          As we know, when Umar realized that the attack of Abu Lulu will turn out to be fatal for him, he brought a fresh innovation and accepted an unprecedented method upon which neither his reign, nor the reign of his predecessor, Abu Bakr, had been established.

          As we know the detail, Abu Bakr ascended the position in the name of election and consensus (which did not occur)! But on his death bed, he himself refrained from the election of nation and consensus, by appointing Umar for the caliphate. At the time of his death, Umar came with another innovation, which was that he handed over the issue of selecting the caliph to a six member council and deprived the entire nation from casting their vote.

            It is evident that the reason behind all the three methods was to put aside the caliph who has been appointed and confirmed by the holy Prophet (peace be upon Him and His Progeny).

          They firstly raised the issue of allegiance and nation – wide consensus; because on this basis, it was definite that if the case was consulted in the presence of Imam Ali (peace be upon Him) and he got involved in the matter, they could never appoint Abu Bakr so quickly. With the presence of Ali (peace be upon Him) and the guidance of his holiness, Abu Bakr could never be appointed. Therefore, they concluded the issue in the absence of Imam Ali (peace be upon Him) and all the other sons of Hashim, and as Abu Bakr already knew that Umar would never be selected by the consensus of the nation, and Ali (peace be upon Him) would be appointed, he deprived the entire nation of its right to elect and the consensus based on which he himself was selected; and he personally allotted Umar as his successor.

          At the time of his death, Umar also knew that if the decision regarding the caliphate is handed over to the people, they would definitely elect Imam Ali (peace be upon Him), therefore he appointed a six member council in order to put aside Ali (peace be upon Him) in the council. With this act, he stabbed Islam and the Islamic motives in a manner that wasn’t compensable. It was such that Sayyid Qutub expressed his sadness that an eligible, appropriate and ideal leader like Ali (peace be upon Him) was forced to sit at home and an incapable, weak and personality – less person like Othman became the leader of the Muslims.

          The move of Umar and the commands issued by him, for various reasons, was an illegitimate act and a crime whose weak points and illegalities are not intended to be mentioned here.

          In this section, we would like to explain a corner of the six member council and the manifestation of its two contradicting motives and methods.      

          Umar placed the responsibilities of the council in the hands of Abdur Rahman bin Awf, who was the husband of Othman’s sister; because he commanded Abu Talha al – Ansari: if five members reach an agreement and one member disagrees, strike off the neck of that one member; if four members reach an agreement and two members disagree, strike off the head of those two members; and if three members agree on a decision and three others agree on another decision, accept the decision of those three members among whom Abdur Rahman bin Awf exists; and if the other three members did not give up their decision, strike off their heads! (It is extremely astonishing).

          In this council, it was known that four or five members out of the six members – whose pasts with Ali (peace be upon Him) was known to Umar very well –  will never vote for his holiness; because Talha had hostility against Ali (peace be upon Him), and Abdur Rahman bin Awf, apart from being his holiness’s enemy, was also the husband of Othman’s sister.

          Sa’d bin Abi Waqqas, apart from being deviant from Imam Ali (peace be upon Him), belonged to the tribe of Abdur Rahman bin Awf and was under the influence of his opinion.

          At last, these six members were constituted in such a way that if three members voted in favour of Imam Ali (peace be upon Him), as Abdur Rahman bin Awf wouldn’t be one of them, their vote would be rendered invalid.

          This council was formed in this sequence and format, and with this strange and astonishing program, along with a specific intention. Talha voted for Othman and Zubair voted for Ali (peace be upon Him), and Sa’d e Waqqas voted for Abdur Rahman bin Awf. In this manner, three men were set aside and three others remained, Ali (peace be upon Him), Abdur Rahman and Othman, which made the secret plot of Umar effective.

          Nevertheless, as Abdur Rahman was cautious about his respect and dignity, and he knew that if without any reason and rational proof, he appoints an incapable, knowledge – less and inefficient person from the Umayyad dynasty – which was always an anti – Islamic and anti – Prophet (peace be upon Him and His Progeny) tribe – over someone like Ali (peace be upon Him) who was the brother, the successor and the cousin of Prophet (peace be upon Him and His Progeny), and the only inheritor of the knowledge of his holiness, the victor of all the battles and the holder of all those virtues and merits; then he would be targeted with people’s accusations, disgraces and curses, and would have initiated the common sentiments against himself, and everyone would’ve understood that in this selection, apart from observing kinship, no other welfare of Islam and Muslims has been considered, and his treachery would become evident. Eventually, for attaining the approval of the tribes of ‘Taym’ and ‘Adi’, as well as the supporters of Abu Bakr and Umar, he laid hands on an astonishing deceit and found an excuse to put Ali (peace be upon Him) aside.

          Abdur Rahman and his group knew that Ali (peace be upon Him) is a man of truth and apart from the slogan of truth, nothing else can be uttered from his tongue, and that he will not accept a path which is not brought by the religion of Islam, and he would not approve of any innovation; he is one who wants Islam to remain pure and clean. Therefore, they designed a scheme and laid a condition for the allegiance of Abdur Rahman, which was not acceptable for Ali (peace be upon Him) by any means.

          Apart from the conditions of acting upon the Book of Allah and the tradition of Prophet (peace be upon Him and His Progeny), they kept the condition of acting upon the tradition of Abu Bakr and Umar as well. This was the very condition which was not acceptable for Imam Ali (peace be upon Him); because firstly, obeying the Book of Allah and acting upon the tradition of Prophet (peace be upon Him and His Progeny) was sufficient and it had no such deficiency which would be completed with the traditions of these two individuals.

          Secondly, legalizing the traditions of these two individuals in the Islamic affairs and Sharia, was an innovation and discretion in the sanctity of religion and sources of rules.

          Thirdly, how has the tradition of these two people become reliable that someone like Imam Ali (peace be upon Him) is obligated to follow them.

          Fourthly, in the tradition of these two individuals, such methods existed which were evidently anti – Islamic, making it impossible to regard their methods proof and reason for others.

          Fifthly, while in the tradition of these two, there are instances which contradict each other, how could both these traditions be authentic and reliable for the successors?

          Sixthly, didn’t Umar and his group stop Prophet (peace be upon Him and His Progeny) from writing his will after which the nation would never be misguided (as mentioned in the most authentic Sunni books) and misbehaved in front of the holy position of prophet hood such that writing it down will embarrass the pen, and their excuse was Hasbuna Kitaballah (Allah’s book is sufficient for us)[4]. Then today, how is it such that both the book of Allah and the tradition of His Messenger become insufficient and they add on the traditions of the two Sheikhs?

          Wouldn’t every just person give evidence that these men have cheated Islam and Muslims, and gave importance to their filthy and supremacist motives over the sublime welfare of Islam?

          Indeed, accepting this condition and hundreds of such illegal and illegitimate conditions is easy for men like Othman; because there isn’t anything stopping them; they will accept it today and tomorrow, after dominating the conditions, they will ignore each one of them!

          At the end, in this way, this political game and deceit of these misleading and deceitful men, and this story of treachery and this black page of history reach its end. Abdur Rahman addressed Imam Ali (peace be upon Him) and said: I will pledge allegiance with you for the book of Allah, the tradition of Prophet (peace be upon Him and His Progeny) and the tradition of the two Sheikhs – Abu Bakr and Umar.

          Ali (peace be upon Him) said: “Instead, for the book of Allah, the tradition of Allah’s Messenger and my own exegesis”. Abdur Rahman turned towards Othman and gave the same suggestion; and Othman accepted it. Abdur Rahman turned again towards Ali (peace be upon Him) and repeated his suggestion and condition of acting upon the traditions of the two Sheikhs. Ali (peace be upon Him) rejected the proposal and gave the same response. He again turned towards Othman and gave the same proposal and Othman accepted it without any condition. He turned towards Imam (peace be upon Him) for the third time and mentioned the condition of allegiance. Ali (peace be upon Him) did not change his first response.

          Then Abdur Rahman pledged allegiance with Othman and said: “As salaamo alaika ya Ameeral Momineen”.[5] (Peace be upon you O commander of the faithful)

          Abdur Rahman knew very well that if this proposal is repeated even for a thousand times, Ali (peace be upon Him) will not accept it and that he will never approve of this immense innovation which leads to discretion in the basis and source of the actual principles of Islamic prophet hood. But for Othman, there will be no objection in the acceptance of this proposal, because he neither restricted himself for the protection of the principles and the roots of Islamic teachings, nor will he fulfill the promises which he shall make. Therefore, he signed on this innovation and not just distanced himself from acting upon Allah’s Book and Prophet’s tradition, but moreover, he did not pay attention to the method of Abu Bakr and Umar as well. However, in this position and incident, it became very obvious and clear for everyone that to what extent Ali (peace be upon Him) is bounded by the protection of Islamic roots and that he will never forsake these principles in order to obtain the official positions and ranks.[6]

          Meanwhile, with this decision, Imam Ali (peace be upon Him) officially and openly rejected the reliability of the tradition of Abu Bakr and Umar, though at the stake of abstaining caliphate and rule, and he protected Islam from the limitations of personal thoughts and desires.