Ibne Asakir writes: “This complete tradition is strange (unknown) and
among its reporters are persons, who are unrecognized, and their circumstances
are not known. So they cannot be trusted; and this tradition is more likely a
fabricated tradition rather than being a weak tradition.”
Note: What is strange is that this tradition and its like were fabricated for
reiterating the excellence of those three or four persons when they are arranged
together, it is as if they are an iron foundation in which there is no dispute; thus
no one other than Abu Bakr is mentioned first, and then Umar and then Uthman
and if the fourth is mentioned it is Ali (a.s.).
What an idea! As if the fabricators have colluded and thus none of them
changes their sequence.
Whether it is a command of divine destiny that these four persons would
become caliphs one after another in this sequence? Or the event of collusion took
place throughout the lifetime of Prophet that people would not accept it in any
other way? Or it is a natural command, having no contradiction? Or it was a
coincidence that occurred in every instance? Or it was intention of the fabricators
that they wanted the sequence of excellence to be as such? Perhaps the last is the
most likely option.
7. In his Tarikh,1 Ibne Asakir has narrated from Abu Amr Zahid2 from Ali
bin Muhammad from his father that: “I saw Husain when he came to meet
Muawiyah; so he came to him on Friday when he was seated on the pulpit and
reciting a sermon; a person from those people said: “O chief of believers, allow
Husain to speak from the pulpit.”
Muawiyah said: Woe upon you, leave me to honor him. Thus, he glorified
and praised God, and then said: O Abu Abdullah, I adjure by God, I you ask
whether I am not the son of Batha? He replied: Yes, by the one who sent my
grandfather as the giver of glad tidings. Then he said: O Abu Abdullah, I adjure
you by Allah, I ask you: am I not the maternal uncle of the believers? He replied:
Yes, by the one who sent my grandfather as a prophet. Then he asked: O Abu
Abdullah, I adjure by God, I you ask whether I am not the scribe or revelation?
He replied: Yes, by the one who sent my grandfather as a warner.
Then Muawiyah descended from the pulpit and Husain bin Ali ascended it
and he praised and glorified Allah in such a way that no one from the formers and
latters had ever done. Then he said: My father has narrated from my grandfather from Jibraeel from Almighty Allah that He said: Under the legs of the throne (Arsh) there is a tree of Aas,3 having green leaves on which is inscribed:
There is no god, except Allah, Muhammad is the messenger of Allah; O
Shia of Aale Muhammad, none of you would say on Judgment Day “There is no
god, except Allah, Muhammad is the messenger of Allah” except that God will
admit him to Paradise.
Muawiyah said: “O Aba Abdullah, I adjure by God, I ask you: who are the
Shia of Aale Muhammad?”
He replied: “Those who do not curse Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, my father
and you O Muawiyah.”
Allamah Amini says: Ibne Asakir has written that: This tradition is false
and against reality, and I don’t regard its chain of narrators connected to Husain.
We say: This tradition is pure falsehood and the knots of its chains of
narrators are untied and its circles are weak. As for Abu Amr Zahid, he was a liar
and owner of calamities and troubles, and has written a book on fabricated
traditions about Muawiyah.4 And he died in the year 345 A.H.
As for his teacher, Ali Saigh – he is very weak, and Khatib has described
him in his Tarikh with the same weakness,5 and Darqutni has also, as mentioned
in Lisanul Mizan, has regarded him as weak.6
As for his father, he is unknown and he is not mentioned anywhere; and he
is at the level of those who narrate from Malik (d. 179 A.H.).
So, where he is and where is our master, Imam Husain (a.s.), who was
martyred in 61 A.H. How he could have met him? And how he met Muawiyah,
who died in 60 A.H.? and whether he saw and met him in dream or wakefulness?
Moreover, if we testify these dreams and regard them as true, indeed, the
demand of this fiction and baseless statements is that Muawiyah should not be
included among the Shia of Muhammad, whom Almighty Allah will admit to
Paradise, because he cursed Ali Ameerul Momineen (a.s.) and his two sons, two
Imams and two chiefs of the youths of Paradise and some righteous people. This
same degradation is sufficient for him. And this matter regarding him and the
wayward persons of Bani Umayyah and his followers, who all followed him are
same.