Nuwairi and Maqrizi say:
“In 352 A.H., Moizuddaula Ali bin Buwayh started this Eid, which was a heresy.”
In Nihayatul Arab fee Funoonil Adab1 , Nuwairi says regarding the Eids of Islam:
“It is an Eid, which Shia have innovated and named it as Eid of Ghadeer. They regard it to be the cause of brotherhood [allegiance of brotherhood] of the Prophet of Islam (s.a.w.a.) with Ali Ibne Abi Talib (a.s.) on the day of Ghadeer Khum. The day they have started this Eid is the 18th of Zilhajj, because allegiance of brotherhood took place in the 10th year of Hijri and it was when he was in the Farewell Hajj.
They spend the nights in prayers and in the morning, before Zuhr, they pray two units of prayers. It is their custom to dress up in new garments that day, to free slaves, to do a good turn to others and to sacrifice (animals).
The first to start this heresy was Moizuddaula Abul Hasan Ali bin Buwayh, and if Allah wills, we will mention his story in the events of the year 352 A.H. After this innovation of the Shia, and declaring it to be a Sunnah, the Ahle Sunnat people also, from the year 389 A.H. started celebrating a festival eight days after the Eid of Shia and said: This day the Prophet entered the cave with Abu Bakr Siddiq. Therefore they celebrated this day through dressing up in new clothes and lighting fireworks.”
Maqrizi says in Khatat2 :
“Eid Ghadeer was not a legal festival of Muslims and no Muslim leader ever deemed it to be as Eid. This Eid was celebrated for the first time in Iraq, during the reign of Moizuddaula Ali bin Buwayh; and he was the first to declare it as Eid in the year 352 A.H. From that time the Shia began to regard it as Eid.” What can be said regarding a historian, who writes the history of Shia before
being aware of their reality or he was aware of the facts, but at the time of writing, he forgot, or due to a pre-conceived plan, has ignored the facts, or that he issued statements, while he did not know what to say, or hardly knew what he was saying?
Was it not Masudi (d. 346 A.H.), who in Tanbih wal Ashraf3 says: The descendants of Ali (a.s.) and his Shia commemorate this day?
Is Kulaini, who passed away in 329 A.H., not a narrator of the tradition of Ghadeer in Kafi?4
And before him, Furat bin Ibrahim Kufi, who is of the category of scholars of the level of Thiqatul Islam, Kulaini, was he not the narrator of another tradition of Ghadeer in his Tafseer5 , which is present with us?”
It is absolutely clear that these books, from the aspect of history, pre-date what Nuwairi and Maqrizi claimed in 352 A.H.
Was it was not Fayyaz bin Muhammad bin Umar Tusi, who informed about this in 259 A.H. and said: It was witnessed that Imam Ali Reza (a.s.) (d. 203 A.H.) had commemorated this day as Eid and explained its significance; and he has narrated it from his ancestors from Ameerul Momineen (a.s.).
Imam Ja’far Sadiq (a.s.) (d. 148 A.H.) taught this Eid to his companions and informed them that it was the practice of the prophets that they made their followers celebrate as Eid the day of the appointment of their legatees. In the same way, it was the practice of rulers and kings that the day of their coronation was celebrated as festival. Imams of religion (a.s.) also in the ancient days urged their Shia to do a good turn, recite special supplications and observe its rituals.
This is the reality of Eid Ghadeer, but these two persons wanted to ridicule the Shia and with this aim in mind, they denied those righteous ancestors and declared that it was a heresy started by Moizuddaula!
فَوَقَعَ الْحَقِّ وَبَطَلَ مَا كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ فَغُلِبُوا هُنَالِكَ وَانْقَلَبُوا صَغِرِينَ
“So the truth was established, and what they did became null. Thus they were vanquished there, and they went back abased.”6