01 - Introduction to Biographies of Infallibles (Ahlulbayt) - Sayed Ammar Nakshawani

 All right did you then really think that we created you in vain

  And that you should be never brought back unto us again foreign thank you foreign there was a request for the brothers at the back to please come as close to the front as possible to make room for the

 Brothers coming in Muhammad respected Scholars brothers and sisters foreign nights we will be examining the biographies of the members of the household of the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam an examination of the utmost importance one which affects each and every one of our lives and an examination with a historical basis and a contemporary Significance in Imani's theological circles the members of the household of the Holy prophets are referred to as the 14 infallibles extremely the prophet himself his daughter Fatma his son-in-law Ali then his grandsons Hassan and Hussein and the nine descendants from Hussein namely and the Messiah known as Sharif out [Applause] come on the principal aim of this examination is threefold the first reason we're going to dissect the biographies of each member a household of the Prophet is to apply their lessons into our lives because when we dissect the lives of these personalities we ask ourselves what of their life over one thousand years ago affects our life today in 2011. when I examined these great personalities I asked myself which of their standpoint which of their ethics which of their principles can relate to my standpoints my ethics and my principles today which situations did they face in their life which I may be facing in my life as in when we come to dissect the life of every one of these leaders it shouldn't just be a theoretical discussion about When they were born or how many children they had or who they were married to that part of knowledge is important what it should really be is a practical discussion which examines the way their life affects our life which circumstances did they fall in which we may fall in as well and that's why would you find you find that the first of the important points in dissecting the biographies of these 14 is that we want their Routine history to our life today we hear all these great stories but we don't see our relationship with what we face today the irony is every one of those 14 at one point or another in their life face the situation which we will face in our lives either they had situations or circumstances with their family or with their friends or with their enemies or with people of the same Faith or with people of different religions we find That each of them faced the circumstances when we need to dissect how they reacted to those circumstances at the end of the day when we take them as role models in our life it's not simply Role Models because they are from the line of the Prophet there were many from the line of the prophets rather these members from the line of the prophets were the one who in many Islamic Traditions he narrates you should hold on to them therefore the First point as to why we're going to dissect their biographies is so that we take as many lessons from the anecdotes from their lives as is possible as in there's no point me just taking lessons in my life only or from Hussain only which lessons can I take from Musa which lessons can I take from Muhammad Jawad which lessons can I take from there is a tendency in our communities To focus on a couple of imams from the infallible and neglects many of them this series of lectures on the first point will seek to dissect every Imam every night and ask ourselves which lessons from their lives are applicable to us that's the first point the second point in examining the biography of the 14 infallibles is that there are four key questions every human being will ask in their life which these 14 have answered in their Lives what are these four key questions which a Hindu will ask a sequel ask someone of the Jewish Community will ask someone of the Buddhist Community will ask someone of the Christian Community will ask someone of the atheists Community will ask there's four key questions which every human will ask the first of them is a metaphysical question the second cosmological question the third is a Psychological question and the fourth is an ethical question there is not a single human being who does not go through a moment in their life without asking these four questions and there is not a single moment in the lives of those 14 where they have not answered each of them what are the four questions the metaphysical question is there an unseen Force who is the cause of the effect that we are today is there a god or is it mother nature that's a Metaphysical question it goes above the physical towards the Unseen then there's a cosmological question how did this universe begin many people ask that question then there is a watch a psychological question what is my role in this world then there is an ethical question how do I behave with other human beings whether the human is for my religion or from another religion those four questions are the four most Important questions in the psyche of any human no human being will go through their life without asking these four the second reason we're going to diagnose and dissect and analyze the biography of the 14 infallibles is to look at what their answers were to these questions what did Ali say about the metaphysical what did jaffar Assad say about the ethical what did Ali abna Musa say about the psychological what did Hassan Ali say about the cosmological the second Reason is that we want to see how how holistic approach to the world provides our s on the 21st century be mankind a Muslim or not the third reason we're going to dissect the life of the 14 and fallibles in this series is because we as Muslims have committed Injustice to these 14. how we have cocooned them for ourselves and we don't share them with other religions Many of us have explained golden medical dissertation to the Sikh community discuss the maxims dissected The Bravery of Hussein outside of karbala and then discussed it with a member of the Jewish Community you notice these 14 were not meant for Muslims rather they were the property of every human being we made them the property of Islam only and we committed an injustice as in how Many of us can sincerely say that we've discussed our imams with our non-muslim Brethren some will say okay I discussed Imam Hussain one day with one of my non-muslim friends I asked him how about did you discuss him well did you discuss Muhammad jawad's knowledge with your non-muslim friends when these 14 were chosen as guidance they were chosen as guidance for mankind not for Islam Islam came as a religion to allow for The evolution of the growth of mankind their role the routine was what they're all growth and the evolution of the human being but any human being not just the Muslim being notice Gandhi does anyone ever say Gandhi the Hindu or do they say Gandhi the humanitarian when they look at Luther King do they say Luther King the Christian or Luther King the humanitarian what we need to do at the end of this series is take the Imams of Al Muhammad and the leaders the infallible's out of the Cocoon of Islam and allow the whole world to learn from their lives from their principles and from their ethics generosity is it an Islamic principle or a human principle is it an Islamic principle or a human forbearance is it an Islamic principle or a human principle all of the trade from these imams are human principles any human being can relate to a patient human being you don't need to belong to Islam to say patience is a virtue the third reason we'll dissect their biographies to allow them to be seen as human Role Models that's why tonight as an introductory lecture tonight I'd like to focus on one area before I begin tomorrow with the Holy prophet's biography tonight the first questions I want to ask are questions regarding my methodology in reconstructing Islamic history and I'd like to ask a number of Key questions number one can we reconstruct Islamic history or is history his story number two how important is intertextuality for us to have a rounded picture of these fourteen's lives number three what are the sources we're going to use to discuss the lives of the 14 and why is it important that we use our sources and sources from other schools in Islam number four these 14 or indeed these 12 was it a made-up notion After the twelfth Imam went into haiba or is there evidence before the 12th Imam of discussions concerning them and number five why is it important for the biblical religions like Judaism and Christianity to discuss the lives of the infallible because of the chapter of Genesis in the Bible let's discuss this and dissect it with an introduction to the biographies the first question that arises in the discussion of the biographies of the infallibles is can we Really reconstruct Islamic history reliably what do I mean there are certain people who oppose this reconstruction of Islamic history why they say that we have true problems with reconstructing early history as in what I'm going to be discussing the prophet's life And discussing the life of the imams I'm going to be discussing the first 300 years of Islamic history isn't it from the time of the Prophet until the time Of the twelfth Imam it's the first 300 years of Islamic history there is a school known as the skeptic school who say that Islamic history cannot be reconstructed reliably and they say there are two reasons we cannot reconstruct our history the first reason which is a very interesting reason is that they say all the books which I'm going to use as the references for the dissection of the lives of the infallibles were books Which were written after the year 300. so they turn around and they say how could you rely on books which are so late to discuss people who were so early what do they mean they say early Islamic history was oral it wasn't written in the time of the Prophet they say everybody used to narrate the history after the prophet died orally I heard rasulallah say I saw rasulallah do it was all oral they say it was late in Islam that you wrote down your history so the first objection they have in reconstructing Islamic history is your written material on early history is very late how can you be so sure that your written material discusses something 300 years before how can you be so sure that it's reliable their second objection is what history is nothing but his story with the word history would you get His story their second objection is those sources you're going to use how do you know the author isn't writing history in a way which looks after his theology or his political opinion it's very interesting point when I'm an author of a book of History am I going to write objectively or am I going to write in a way where I look after my people that's why they say you Muslims trying To reconstruct your history the second objection they had was history is his story he looks back he looks at who he likes so he makes him look great he makes them say great words he makes them sound like he was Brave and he looks at what he dislikes and he makes him sound bad and weak and negative and so on these two objections we cannot begin with the biography of the infallible unless we answer these two objections as I'm not sure because they are very valid Objections the first one they say your book for example like pabari is a book of History isn't it they said is a book written 400 years after Muhammad died or they say for example your book like the book of al-balazari and Ashraf that's written 300 years after Muhammad dies or they say that's written a few hundred years after Muhammad died or they say your books like alcafi 300 years after Muhammad died They begin to name you all these books and when you actually look at when they're written you're like hold on a minute how comes all the books we use are written so late if I'm going to use books which are written 300 years after Jamal safin and karbala you know these books are actually telling the truth because there's such a big gap isn't there say for example karbala was in the 61st Year after Hijra and a book like tabari is writing let's say 250 years after karbala oh that he's reconstructing it exactly the way it should be because they're saying all your material was oral people would hate each other but no one was writing until late how do we reply to both these objections I need you to understand the reply to both because the moment you can reply to both you can reconstruct Islamic history The first reply to the group who say your books are late we reply number one does a solid core of History exist from these books even though they're late there is a concept called the solid core what does the solid core mean Fred Donna and Montgomery what said even though you may have many books which are late and a solid core exists which allows you to paint a picture of early history satifah is it narrated in all the books yes there's a solid quote about sativa Jamal is it narrated there's a solid core safine do all of them talk about yes do they talk about yes do they say karbala happen yes I'm not gonna talk about what motivated the author I'm focusing that do I have a solid core to work with because when I want to dissect the Imam number one until Imam number 12 I need to make sure that the solid core that I have whether it's my school or another school in Islam the solid core exists Jamal happened that solid core number one clearly exists then number two even if you write a book later what's there to stop you finding an a chain which goes back all the way to rasulullah isn't that if I write a book 300 years after rasulallah I need someone who is older than me I said to excuse me did you ever hear anything about rasulullah he says yes I heard him say And he heard from him and he heard from him and he heard from rasulullah isn't it what is that called it's a snud it's a chain when they came and said your books are late we replied by saying hold on but our authors show us the chain and the chain goes all the way back to early works it's one of the earliest books of what does he do when he takes the Hadith on sir he gives you the chain do you know why because he knew there'd be a Day in 2011 when someone says your book of faith is late how do you know Muhammad actually gave that theory of fact what did he do he said okay let me tell you how I got this Hadith I got it from Eben George who got it from ABBA who got it from um who got it from rasulallah what has he given he's given me a chain or in another Hadith he says this is from IBN who got it from Missouri who got it from IBN zubair who got it from Zubair from rasulallah just because our book is written late does not mean you don't have a chain that goes back all that way that's number two number three even if my early history was oral what's just because there is a lot of oral transmission does that mean there was no one writing at home foreign history was mainly oral I replied by saying okay most people were narrating orally Even you find there is an article by Ethan kohlberg the famous academic who says that our fifth Imam was referring to a book called kitabh Ali when he was discussing a Hadith was referring to a book called kitab Ali that means even though most of his words were transmitted orally was also writing a work at home there was already a work which was being produced and that's why even Abdullah Bin zubair who was alive How many years after rasulallah did he live for he lived for 55 60 years after rasulullah Abdullah when you read many of his Works they will always say which transcript or which sahiha did you get that particular narration even further than this which we can go a step when they tell me all your books of History are late I reply to them what is early to you this is a vital line what is early when you tell me my books are late give me a Date that is early I'll give you a source they themselves the term early is bake for them they played psychologically by telling us your books are late I reply by saying to them what is early give me a date if I give you a book from that date will you admit I can reconstruct Islamic history clearly therefore the first group we replied back to them but the second group were more interesting the second group said History is his story how do you know that that writer who you trust of course he's gonna write books praising Ali and hating mohawi because he's from your school so when he writes history he's writing his story he's not gonna write history the way it should be written and they gave two brilliant examples there is two Scholars who are famous historians and theologians one is called Abu Bakr al-bakalani and the other is called Ahmedi they say that you attack Moravia because you say that the books of History say more AWA is not a good person but the people you get your Hadith from how many times on the member have you heard someone saying it's in bukhari it's in bukhari many times you've heard speakers who say it's in bukhari bukhari says this person is bad was working for the Abbasid government you think an Abbas that is going to Write history writing good about the point naturally his political affiliation may affect the way he writes history in his theology therefore when he writes history isn't it he gone to write history with an esharite Vision was the chief judge of al-mutawakil if he is the chief judge of al-mutawa kill and he is an Abbasid of course he's going to hate menu because took over from them the second School of Skeptics what did they say they say you Muslims can't reconstruct your history because your authors write history with the lens of their theology or their politics they don't write it objectively how do we reply back to them is writing history with the lens of the school that he follows that means he can't praise because if he is employee he's not going to praise anyone so many umayya whereas has many narrations where He Praises people Maya was biased in his history and he was an objective he shouldn't praise he should say I work for Ben Abbas read the work of someone like and you will find very clearly that he Praises for example um you know um is the one who stopped the land on Imam Ali in the Friday prayer and if Muslim historians on writing their story then praise because No we have many great historians in Islamic history who are objective when they need to praise their own they will praise but when they need to praise the opposition they will praise as well number two in reply to these people what makes you think there was a crystallized ideology in many of these people's minds at the time you know why they say this they say some of these Scholars they already were crystallized in their opinion that's why They are not objective in their history who told you they were crystallized in their opinion many of them still were trying to understand how Islam developed there wasn't such a thing as a prototype for example follower of Sunnah there was someone who in his theology was following ashari and in his fit was following Abu hanifa can you call that someone who is crystallized no in his theology he follows one scholar and Despicable someone else in other words What are we saying we're saying when someone replies by saying history is his story We reply yes there may be moments where a person's opinions affect the way they write their history but many of our historians are objective but that leads me on to a theory if we are going to only use historical sources to discuss the biography of the 14 infallibles we're gonna find ourselves in a debate which is what cyclical they'll keep coming back to us and They'll keep saying but it's a book of history and you can't rely on history and history is only writing his story so do you know what theory we're going to use in the next 15 nights we're gonna use the theory of intertextuality why should I discuss the biography of the imams only from history why don't I use different genres of Islamic literature christeva was the lady was the person who began the fear of intertextuality do You know what she said she said when you want to discuss a particular figure in history a particular Nation don't discuss them from one genre of literature use different genres of literature and discuss them because you will allow yourself to see different codes of knowledge coming out from different areas of literature what do I mean I mean why should we focus on History why don't we also use books of Jurisprudence known as books of Fick and why don't you we use books of theology known and books of Kalam and why don't we use books or Bell letters known as books of adapt when I want to dissect Jafar a father I don't need to just look at history if I look at history books for a father someone will come to me and say but that historian is good with so I said okay I won't just use books of History I'm going to look at Japan's father and all of the books of history And the books of fact on jaffar's father and the books of theology on jaffar Assad and the books of that Arabic literature tell me won't that give me a more whole picture of Jaffa too many people when they dissect the imans what do they do they use only books of history and then someone comes and says well how's this book reliable okay what we're gonna use is different genres of literature someone's gonna turn around and say why different genres Of literature history will give me a narrative Phil will show me how much they contributed to this religious legal system if I take a book of early jurisprudence I will show how Muhammad al-baqarah is on a different League to anyone around him I only took a book of History I will only look at Muhammad al-baqarah in terms of family wife children Was if I use a book of faith I can show you Muhammad's legal knowledge of Salah and Solomon zakat and hajjan homes and so on also from theology let's look at his sermons on predestination and free will let's look at his sermons on the importance of God's Mercy to Mankind let's look at his sermons on theological issue about Sin and the different types of sin now look I Am from history from theology I don't stop there I'm also going to look at Muhammad al-bakar from Arabic literature let's look at the eloquence of amiral meaning from Arabic literature as well of Imam Ali where he doesn't use the word the letter alef wants Imam Ali where he was asked can you give a whole without meant without using a letter of the Arabic alphabet which has a DOT you gave a whole that's any of the Letters with dots Siri will be narrow to a historical figure let me show Ali from history Ali from thick Ali from theology Ali from Arabic literature now you will see why they are on a different level to those who surrounded them so someone asks so what are the sources you're going to use these are the sources I'm going to use over the next 15 nights I'm mentioning them so that you may go into further Reading on these sources and allow for more Grand picture of these 14 infallible from history I'm going to use the works of balasori babari Adnan these are going to be my historians in theology I'm going to use the works of Sheikh al-mufeed Sharif al-murtaba Alto Hadid these are the people for me for theology in Philip I'm going to use the works The work of later jurisprudence like justice for example and even taking Snippets from The Works of bukhari and Muslim and NASA and so on in Arabic literature we're going to use Jah health and we're going to use sohaidi now we look we've got four genres of literature to examine 14 human beings four genres of literature are you the only source that I'm going to use no I'm going to add you more sources we're going to use for example We can use um is going to be used as well we're going to use the works of later historians and academic Specialists like at God to study lawa Sani Amin even for example The Works of someone like Evan hamda and Eben under you will use all of these works and what are we going to do not just focus on historical Works use the theory of intertextuality let's see how these texts when they mix with each other provide you with the Holistic figure that is a member of the household of the prophets but then a question arises from the beginning the question is an interesting one main me a Hadith you want to discuss these 14 oh you want to discuss these 12 someone comes and says name me or give me the reference of one narration which mentions the prophet talking about these twelve but before your mad he went to occultation Because there's a theory which is being spread now that the idea of the infallible is an idea which was concocted after the methi now they have a point in which area they have a point that it's not easy to find a narration where the Prophet says these are the twelve imams after me by name someone will say yes but al-khafi is written after the someone says someone says The theory is therefore that they say that your idea of 12 imams after the prophet you want to discuss them you don't even have an early narration about the prophet mentioning them all your narrations about them somehow come to us after they've all died why shouldn't we suspect that someone came later and formed the theory where he picked out 12 but he said that the prophet said follow these twelve and I tell you you can go to many scholars And if you want to do it play Devil's Advocates go to many scholars and say mawlana can you show me a Hadith where the Prophet says these are the twelfth after me and these are their names but show me a Hadith in a book which wasn't written after that in a book which was written during their lives the moment you can answer this question then you can move on with the discussion and I tell you it's not an easy question To answer because there are many who come and tell you discuss the muscle mean follow the masumi and tell them excuse me where is the Hadith about this muscle mean because I see the Hadith is very late they'll say yes there is a chain which goes back which we can give as an argument No Doubt give a more simple argument to this area what is the more simple argument we do have references which we can build to Highlight why we need to discuss these 14 or these 12. first in the book of al-bukhari time from 196 Hijra until the middle of the third century is the famous he mentions very clear that rasulullah says after me there will be 12 caliphs all of them are from Parish already there you have the number 12 isn't it that's the first point bukhari wrote bukhari after Imam zamano before bukhari wrote his book from you're Looking at let's say the time of the beginning of the third Century before Imam Zaman then number two you have Imam 60 man had 400 or Soul his disciples would write as hadiths from these 400 or Soul only 16 remain there's an article on this whole soul by Ethan kohlberg professor of Islamic Studies at Tel Aviv University which university eats and kohlberg as an article where he talks about the soul of Jafar which of Them remain many of these also many of these hadiths were burnt out or removed only 16 remain and then Iran they've remained the manuscript has remained let's be 16 there is one which is the vital one which is protected today the manuscript called the awful this Hadith is the manuscript is with us until today it's been protected says that the prophet said there are 12 Successes after me and he named them from Iman until Iman number two number three the great companion of a little Bates has a book called was a companion According to some of the eighth ninth tenth and eleventh Imam and he's the one who has the Hadith about the 12th Imam where the Prophet mentions the names of each of the twelfth father bin Shada and came after Iman zamana before before if He came after then people will say you made up this Theory when you had 12 names you made them up no in the time then we have Azadi Azadi leader you know I Was 80 Brothers in Yemen one of their great leaders was living in a time of our tense Imam he has a book called a reply to the rejecters because you know they call the imamis rejecters in the book he talks about our 10th Imam What does he say he says and the tenth Imam of the amrassi is living in the time of the tansima he doesn't say Ali Ali he says no the tense Imam of the proving that the idea of imams was not an idea made after Imam Zaman was an idea which was already in the time it's not an easy concept to understand it may even be I need the concept which you need to go over again after this but understand that these Documents are vital to show in the time of the imams there was already a discussion about the 12th and that's why as a conclusion is it only us as Muslims who need to dissect like we're going to from Tomorrow begin the biography of the Prophet then Imam Ali then Imam Imam Imam every night is it only us no Genesis in the Bible has a fundamental verse which highlights that God has always promised the human being that his message would continue in a certain line Genesis chapter 17 verse 18 to 20 when Sarah cannot give birth to Abraham she does what she says marry my maid servant hijabi hajjad gives birth to who smile and the Bible in Genesis it discusses the story when she gives birth to Ismael in the Bible in Genesis it says that she gave birth to the baby and a spring of water gushed after that it says God says to Abraham I will bless the generations of Ismael And make them blessed and make them fruitful and make them a large nation and allow them to have twelve princes from his line in other words when we're going to dissect this series on the biography of the masumi not the Bible from infallible understand that dissection is not just an Islamic or an imami dissection it's a dissection which is the responsibility of every one of you to spread to your non-muslim brethren that God did promise That there will be 12 princes with a large Nation from the line of smile inshallah tomorrow we will begin with the biography of the Holy prophets let's pray to Allah and allow us to be amongst the companions of our time and allow us to receive his intercession in this world and the Hereafter we pray to Allah