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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books ‘Ali: The Best of the Sahabah Hadith Al-Tair, Examining Some Shawahid =========================================== The hadith proves that Amir al-Muminin, ‘alaihi al-salam , is the most beloved of all creatures to Allah after His Messenger, sallallahu ‘alaihi wa alihi . This goes directly counter to the claims of the majority of the Ahl al-Sunnah that Abu Bakr, after the Prophet, is the most beloved to Allah in this Ummah.

Therefore, a lot of their ‘ulama struggle hard to bring down Hadith al-Tair in order to salvage their sect from collapse or confusion. So, they bring up a lot of “ifs” and “maybes” without ever presenting any explicit, positive evidence for their claims. Meanwhile, apart from the hadith , there are numerous other proofs which nullify the Sunni position. Let us have a look at some of them.

We start with the Verse of al-Mubahala : فمن حاجك فيه من بعد ما جاءك من العلم فقل تعالوا ندع أبناءنا وأبناءكم ونساءنا ونساءكم وأنفسنا وأنفسكم ثم نبتهل فنجعل لعنت الله على الكاذبين And whoever disputes with you concerning him after what has come to you of knowledge, then say: “Come, let us call our sons and your sons, our women and your women, our selves and yourselves, then we place the Curse of Allah upon the liars.”[^1] It is clear from the verse that some people were debating with the Prophet, opposing what had been revealed to him from his Lord.

The Qur’an is explicit: the debate was with the Messenger of Allah alone . It was not with the Ummah. The “yous” in the verse, as well as the phrase “say”, are all singular. Therefore, all the “ours” in it are exclusive to the Prophet. “Our sons”, for instance, do not mean the “sons of the Ummah”. Rather, they were his sons. His opponents were refusing to accept the Truth which he had brought from his Lord.

So, he was commanded to challenge them to a mubahala , where each side would invoke the Curse of Allah upon “whoever” was lying in his claims between the two sides. A condition of the mubahala was that each party must participate in it with his sons and women. As such, the effect of the curse would affect the wrong disputant along with his sons and women. The question is – why did the Qur’an name the “sons” and “women” as compulsory participants? The reason is apparent.

A man usually cares most for himself, his sons, his daughters and his wives. He would not want any harm to come their way.