Shia poets
In his ‘Qasida Hashimiyyah’, Kumayt has included panegyrics in praise of
Zaid, his son, Husain bin Zaid and Bani Hashim. That Qasida begins as follows:
و هل مدير بعد الاساءه مقبل
الاهل عم في رايه متأمل
“Would one, who is blind in opinion, ponder; would one, who has
turned away after oppressing turn back again?”
Regarding Zaid, he says:
“It is hard upon Ahmad what befell his descendants from the son of
Yusuf. Yusuf was the most wicked and filthy. If I say that he was illegitimate
born, it would not be an allegation.”1
Some senior Shia scholars have written whole books on Zaid and his
excellence; among them being:
1. Ibrahim bin Saeed bin Hilal Thaqafi (d. 238 A.H.); he has written a book
entitled Akhbare Zaid.
2. Hafiz Ahmad bin Uqdah (d. 333 A.H.); he has written a book called: Man
Ruya Akhbare Zaid wa Musnada.
3. Shaykh Saduq Abu Ja’far Qummi (d. 381 A.H.); he has written a book on
reports of Zaid.
4. Sayyid Abdul Razzaq Muqarram:2 He is a prominent scholar and researcher
of this age, who has written a large number of books on Shia religion. In
addition to that he has expertise in knowledge and precedence in nobility.
Important and extremely beneficial writings
The book of Al-Imamul Sibtul Mujtaba, and the book of Hayatul Imam aslSibt Shaheed wa Maqtala, and the book As-Sayyadatus Sakina and treatises
regarding Ali Akbar, son of Imam Husain (a.s.) and book of Zaid, the martyr and
a book considering Mukhtar Ibne Abu Ubaidah Thaqafi to be sincere. It was
published with the book of Zaid. Also, a book on Abul Fazl al-Abbas Ibne
Ameerul Momineen.
Conclusion
This was Zaid and his rank and purity according to all the Shia. Thus, now I
don’t know the worth of Ibne Taymiyyah’s statement when he says:
“Rafidhis regard beyond the pale of religion, all those, who regard Zaid bin
Ali bin Husain as pious and everyone devoted to him and they testify for his
infidelity and sinfulness.”3
Sayyid Mahmud Alusi has followed the mistake of Ibne Taymiyyah in the treatise printed in the book of Al-Sunnah wash Shia,4 and written:
“The simile of Rafidhis is like Jews; they are inimical to a large number of
Fatima’s descendants; on the contrary they even abuse them: like Zaid bin Ali,
whereas he commanded a great rank in knowledge and piety.”
Qaseemi has taken this falsehood from him and repeated it in his book of AlSaraa Bainal Islam wal Wathniyya.
They blame Shia for this false attribution and condemn them. Is there
anyone, who would ask when Shia made such statements? And who has narrated
them? And in which books is this sentence mentioned? Whereas these points are
not found in any book or spoken verbally by someone.
Yes, they have no aim, except to defame Shia through these worthless
statements and to reduce their rank, but it has exposed their own falsehood.
Those – like this author – who write regarding some people, but does not
know anything about them. Or knows, but overlooks them completely as implied
in an Arabic proverb.5
So these defenders of the honor of Zaid think that readers are ignorant from
history of Islam and know nothing about it; and would the reality of this
statement, decorated with falsehood remain concealed from them?
Is there no one who may ask them that if Zaid, in their view and in the view
of their community, held a prominent rank in knowledge and piety, then from
which Quran and which Sunnah, the rulers of his time battled with him, slain
him, crucified him, burned him up and a took his head around the country?
Was Yusuf bin Umar Thaqafi, chief of his enemies and his killer, not from
them and their community?
Was his commander, Abbas bin Saad, not from them?
Was Hakam bin Sult, who decapitated him not from them?
Was Hajja bin Qasim, who gave the news of the killing of Zaid to Yusuf bin
Umar not from them?
Was Kharash bin Haushab, who exhumed Zaid’s body not from them?
Was Walid or Hisham bin Abdul Malik, who ordered the burning up of Zaid
not their Caliphs?
Was Zahra bin Salim, who brought the severed head of Zaid to Hisham not
from them?
Was Hisham bin Abdul Malik, who sent the severed head of Zaid and hung
his head on the gate for a night, not their Caliph?
Was it not Hisham bin Abdul Malik, who wrote to Khalid Qasri and adjured
him to pull out the tongue and cut the hands of Kumayt, the poet, for composing a Qasida in praise of Zaid bin Ali, his father and Bani Hashim?
Was it not their agent in Medina, Muhammad bin Ibrahim Makhzumi, who
held gatherings in Medina for seven days and orators present in those gatherings
cursed Ali, Hasan, Husain, Zaid and their Shia?
Was Hakeem bin Awar not their poet, who wrote:
“We crucified Zaid for you on the tree trunk and we have not seen the
Mahdi who was crucified on the tree trunk and compared the foolishness of Ali
with Uthman while Uthman was better and purer than Ali.”?
This is the actual scenario; you can judge it in whatever way you like.
افَمِنْ هَذَا الْحَدِيثِ تَعْجَبُونَ وَتَضْحَكُونَ وَلَا تَبْكُونَ وَانْتُمْ سَمِدُونَ
“Do you then wonder at this announcement? And will you laugh and not weep? While you are indulging in varieties.”6