Heaven's Regard for Hasan and Husain
ONCE WHEN HASAN and Husain were young children, on the eve of a festival, came both the innocents to their holy mother Lady Fatema and said "Mother dear! Tomorrow is the festival, where are our new dresses for the festival day?" What was there in the holy house of the godly family, the inmates of which often starved, for Fatema to provide her dear ones with any new garments, when her own covering mantle was full of patches with the date leaves. With Fidak confiscated by the Kalifate, the daily life of the Ahlul-Bait was rendered further more miserable. The holy lady who always depended upon the Al-merciful Lord, said:
At night when the two innocents had gone to bed, Fatema was on her prayer-mat, supplicating to the Lord saying:-
Imad Zadeh in his famous work says:-
"Early at dawn, the Holy Innocents awoke and the first thing they asked their mother was about the dresses promised to them. Fatema could have given only some excuse but a voice at the door was heard saying:- "0' Ahlul Bait of the Holy Prophet-here are the dresses of Hasan and Husain." Fatema received the dresses and
offered her thanksgiving prayer to the Lord for the ready response to her supplication. Allama Majlisi relates from Omme Salema the righteous wife of the Holy Prophet that she said:
Once Fatema was asleep and the Holy Baby (Husain) in the cradle awoke and cried, the cradle automatically began swinging, when Fatema awoke, she saw the cradle moving and some one talking to the Baby and none seen nearby. She referred the matter to the Holy Prophet who said that it was the Arch Angel Gabriel who was serving the holy child.
(Muntahal Aamaal, Shaikh Abbas-e-Qummi)
The above references are only two of the many instances of the shower of heavenly favours on this Holy Family.The Holy Prophet's Personal Regard for Husain
HISTORIANS SAY THAT once on the morning of a festival day, while going to the Id Prayer (Festival congregational Prayer) in Madina, the whole public of the town saw the Holy Prophet carrying Hasan and Husain on his shoulders, bare-headed with the tassels of his head, divided into two parts, each held by each of the innocents, as the reins of a camel in their tiny hands, and the Holy Prophet running towards the 'Idgah', imitating a camel. The public was amazed at this mysterious behaviour on the part of the Apostle of God and a man seeing this, addressed the holy children saying: 'How excellent a ride .ye have.' The Holy Prophet turning to the man said: "Why loth thou not say, how excellent the Riders are?" On many other instances, Hasan and Husain were found on the shoulders of the Holy Prophet. (F.M., ST., YM.) It is reported that once when the Holy Prophet was on the pulpit in the Mosque in Madina, giving a sermon when Husain who was yet a baby, entered the Mosque and proceeded towards his grandfather, and his garment got twisted in his feet, the Holy Prophet stopped the sermon and rushed from the pulpit to the holy baby lest it might fall.
It is also one of the universally acknowledged events of the life history of the Holy Prophet that once when he was prostrating in prayer in the Mosque, Baby Husain came and getting over the back of his Grandfather the Holy Prophet, sat on it. The Holy Prophet repeated the prayer-phrase 'Subhaana-Rabbiyal-a'la wa behamdeh' seventy times in the state of prostration instead of the only three prescribed repetitions, until Husain himself, of his own accord, got down from his back and then he raised his head from the prostration.
Shaibani reports from Abdullah ibne Shaddad that his father related that he was in prayer in the ranks behind the Holy Prophet and when he found that the duration of the prostration was unusually long, he raised his head several times and seeing the Holy Prophet still in prostration, resumed the prostration, and after the conclusion of the prayer, he asked the cause of the unusual interval between the two prostrations. The Holy Prophet replied that he had to do it until Husain got down from his back of his own accord, the Apostle of God acteth not but at the Revealed Will of the Lord.
(Tafseerul Osool-ila-Jama-e-Osool-e-Shaibani)
Historians have reported numerous other similar intances of mysterious behaviour on the part of the Holy Prophet, with regard to Husain in particular:
The Holy Prophet said: "Let Ibrahim be taken away and Husain be spared. I need him for the preservation of Islam."
Thus Ibrahim was taken away (died). (Almustaqsi-from Habibus Siyar)
The Declaration of the Holy Prophet about Husain
SALMAN-E-FARSI SAYS 'I saw, one day, Husain seated beside his Grandfather the Holy Prophet, who was addressing Husain saying :-
Said the Eighth Holy Imam Ali ibne Musa Ar-Riza, that the Holy Prophet said :-
Shaikh-e-Sadooq reports from Huzaif-e-Yamani who said :-
The following is the famous sayings of the Holy Prophet:-
These are only one or two of the innumerable other sayings of the Holy Prophet, particularly about the unique heavenly position and the status of Husain.
While judging the words and the action of the Holy Prophet, one must remember the following verse of the Holy Qu'ran "And he (the Holy Prophet) speaketh nothing of his desire save, it is the revelation revealed (to him)." 55:3, 4
It is quite obvious that all this was the Divine Plan to demonstrate to mankind, the actual unique position of the issues of Ali and Fatema, particularly the holy status of Husain, lest thereafter, none who misbehaves with these holy ones, gets the excuse to say that he did not know as to who actually they were.The instances of the open acts of the heavenly regard for the 'Ahlul-Bait', demonstrating their unique divine position, are so many that volumes will be needed to enumerate them all. These few brief references will do, to bring home to any sincere one, the idea about the unique excellence and the greatness of the holy souls and the degree of the divinity endowed in them.
The Ancient Prophets-Informed of the Great Sacrifices
ON THE AUTHORITY of Ibne Shahr Aashoob and Shaikh-e-Tabarsiit is reported that the ancient prophets-Viz. Adam, Zachariah, Abraham and Ishmael, Solomon, Moses, and Jesus, were informed by God, about the Great Sacrifices Husain was to offer to re-establish the religion of God in earth.
(Tafseer-e-Ali ibne Ibrahim-Kashful Ghumma-Tazkira-e-ibne Jawzi Mataalebus So'ol)
It is said that one of the interpretations of the symbols, KofHa Ya-Ain-Saad, in the Holy Qur'an is that: Kof stands for Karbala.Ha-do-Halakat-destruction-death.
Ya-do-Yazeed.
Ain-d o-Atash-Thirst.
Saad-do-Sabr-e-Husain-Patience and the fortitude of Husain.
It is reported by the Shahr Aashoob and Shaikh-e-Tabarsi that Syeed ibne-Abdullah-e-Ash'ari reported that the Eleventh Holy Imam, Hasan ibne-Ali-Al-Askari said that the Holy Prophet was informed of the tragedy of Karbala and it is confined in these symbol letters in the Holy Qur'an.
Every Prophet had appointed his Successor
ALONG WITH THE coronation of a king goes the declaration of the heir-apparent to the throne. It is only a following of the example of what is done with regard to the ministries of the apostles of God.
The divine guidance to humanity, be that through an apostle or throogh a deputy of his, is a continuous process decreed by the grace of the All-Merciful Lord. Every apostle of God at the very start of his apostolic mission, did announce his immediate successor so that his followers, after him, might not get beguiled by any imposter. Abraham was succeeded by his sons Ishmael and Isaac. Jacob by his son Joseph, David by his son Solomon, Moses by his brother Aaron and Jesus by Simon and his other disciples.
The Holy Prophet Muhammad appoints his Successor
ACCORDING TO THE divinely decreed course (the Sunnat-e-Ilahiah) which never changes (17:77), at the very inauguration of his apostolic mission under the command from the Lord: "Warn thy nearest kith and kin" (26:214), the Holy Prophet invited his kith and kin to a feast and with the declaration of his nearest apostleship, also declared Ali as his Deputy, Vicegerent and Successor. (TB., IA., AF., GB,. WS., AA., and others.) The above incident has been of such a prominence and significance and was so ever-fresh in the memory of the people that it could not be missed by the historian be he a Muslim or a non-Muslim. History gives a vivid description as to how the Holy Prophet repeatedly asked the assembly as to who among them would be his Deputy, his Vicegerent, and his Successor and Heir, and how at every time, none but Ali, stood up offering himself to the office, which then was only a hopeless proposition, and how ultimately the Holy Prophet called Ali to him, before the assembly of the veterans of the Town (Mecca) and embracing him declared openly in clear cut words:
This is what Carlyle-in his 'Sartor Resartus' says:
(TB., IA., AF., Gibns., W. Smith., Amir Ali and others)
Thus the Holy Prophet had proclaimed the authority of Ali, as next only to his own and had enjoined his followers to listen to what Ali said and to obey him even in the very lifetime of his (the Holy Prophet's) own.Besides the above historic ceremonial event, there are the innumerable other instances when the Holy Prophet gave the practical demonstration of Ali's position as next only to him, and had made innumerable verbal announcements about the unique position of Ali, in relation to him. A few of those instances and the declarations are:
Besides the above few instances there are many other events and declarations demonstrating clearly the unique position of Ali in relation to the Holy Prophet, with special significance to Islam and the Muslims.
Besides all the above facts, there is the historic ceremonial Coronation enacted by the Holy Prophet at 'Ghadeer-e-Khum', at the conclusion of his apostolic mission, in the mid-way, on his return journey after his Wajjatul-Wida' (the Last or the Parting Pilgrimage) under the most imperative command from the Lord :
Immediately as the command from the Lord was received, the Holy Prophet stopped the caravan, called back the caravans gone ahead, and waited for those coming behind, and when all the Hajies numbering several thousands were collected, a pulpit at his command was improvised, and mounting the pulpit delivered the historic sermon to the multitude of the audience before him and then called Ali to him on the pulpit and raising him high with the miraculous apostolic strength of his godly hands, declared to the huge assembly:-
Immediately following the declaration, the Holy Prophet prayed:
Immediately as he came down the pulpit, the Holy Prophet ordered every one present there, to pay the allegiance Taiyat' to Ali, addressing him as the '.Ameerul-.Momineen' (the Commander or the Ruler or the Governor of the Faithful).
It is reported that the first one to comply with the command of the Holy Prophet was Omar, who paid his 'Bait' saying:
For details see:-
It is also reported that at Omar's addressing Ali as 'son of Abu Taleb', the Holy Prophet, commanded him to address Ali as
'Ameerul-Momineen', (i.e., the Commander or the Ruler of the Faithful).
It is now for the impartial authorities of the seasoned politicians and the learned ones of the scholars of political science, to say if, after the historic declarations of the Holy Prophet at the very outset of his apostolic mission, at the Taawat-e-Asheera', and at the end or the conclusion of his apostleship, at the 'Ghadeer-e-Khune, it could ever be justly said that the Holy Prophet did not nominate any one as his successor and left the matter to the people's choice. And whether such an unjust accusation, unwarranted by the evidences of the historic events and the universally acknowledged declaration, would mean to throw the blame on the Holy Prophet, of all the bloodshed and chaos created in the name of the succession to him ? And the Kalifate passing to tyrants like Yazeed and the other allied characters who have brought nothing but disgrace to the fair name of the faith and the faithful.
It is a matter of disgrace that most of the western writers, either wilfully bully Islam or ignorant of the facts of the Islamic History, betray their prejudice or their ignorance of the truth by criticising the Holy Prophet as the one responsible for leaving his people in chaos and confusion about his succession which resulted in political havoc and disgraceful bloodshed. Reports based on mere folklore, can never be history. It does not become of qualified scholarship to pass any judgments without studying the facts in their fullness and before the necessary scrutiny of their collected data. The truth is that our western writer-friends in the guise of impartial historians and as talented writers on the Islamic faith, serve their respective missionary forces by spreading falsehood against Islam and the muslims, and thus poison the public mind through calumnies against the Holy Prophet, his personality and his teachings. Unfortunately those of our brethren who know neither Arabic nor Persian nor even Urdu properly the languages in which is treasured, most of the true knowledge about Islam and its heroes, and know only the English language, very easily get drifted in the eloquence of the powerful penman and quietly swallow the sugar-coated poisonous pills, and own the wrong information they gather from such prejudiced writings, as the correct knowledge for their own and some of them imagine to own a great store of knowledge about Islam and even debate about the Islamic teachings basing their arguments upon the wrong information which they have
gathered from some anti-Islamic sources, without proper study of the Qur'an or the authentic (beanie literature.
However, the above facts of history clearly assert that the Holy Prophet did not spare any pain in making known to the people about his succession, in every necessary and desirable way possible, from the very beginning of his mission to its conclusion. Inspite of all the possible steps taken by the Apostle of God, if any one still holds his own view, none can stop him to do it, nor shall any one force his views on the other, for Islam is the religion of individual responsibility:
It has been repeatedly declared in the Holy Qur'an :-A muslim has to call his brethren to the right path, only by love and sweet words: (16:125)
The Holy Qur'an declared:
