Otherwise...

Otherwise, if they (both parties) had done it with their distant blood relatives, even if such had been superior in the Sight of Allah, its purpose would have been defeated. This was because the intention was that they (the non-Muslim party) should call their closest people, as he (Muhammad) should also call the closest people to him .[^3] So, ‘Ali, Fatimah, al-Hasan and al-Husayn, ‘alaihim al-salam , were the closest people to the Prophet’s heart.

He cared for them more than he did for anyone else on the face of the earth. At the practical level, the Messenger of Allah, for instance, cared more for ‘Ali than he did for Abu Bakr and ‘Umar! He equally cared more for Umm Abiha Faṭimah than he did for Umm al-Muminin ‘Aishah. If this had not been the case, then the mubahala challenge would have been worthless, as the non-Muslim opponents were directed to summon people closest to their hearts.

For a proper mubahala , things had to be equal on both sides. Our Shaykh asserts that the Messenger’s care for ‘Ali, Faṭimah, al-Hasan and al-Husayn was based upon their blood relationship to him. He however misses the fact that al-‘Abbas was legally a closer blood relative to the Prophet than ‘Ali! This is why the right of the uncle to inherit overrules that of the cousin, as Imam al-Hakim (d.

403 H) states: ولا خلاف بين أهل العلم إن ابن العم لا يرث مع العم There is no difference of opinion among the scholars that the cousin cannot inherit with the presence of the uncle.[^4] Therefore, if the Prophet was choosing people on the basis of their blood closeness to him, he would have picked al-‘Abbas – who was already a practising Muslim then - and not ‘Ali. Alternatively, he could have selected both al-‘Abbas and ‘Ali, and possibly some other cousins like Ibn ‘Abbas.

Sensing the frailty of his own submission, Shaykh Ibn Taymiyyah attempts to apply some cosmetics to it: وآية المباهلة نزلت سنة عشر لما قدم وفد نجران ولم يكن النبي صلى الله عليه و سلم قد بقي من أعمامه إلا العباس والعباس لم يكن من السابقين الأولين ولا كان له به اختصاص كعلي و أما بنو عمه فلم يكن فيهم مثل علي وكان جعفر قد قتل قبل ذلك The Verse of al-Mubahala was revealed in 10 AH when the delegation of Najran arrived.

The Prophet, peace be upon him, had no other uncle other than al-‘Abbas then, and al-‘Abbas was not among the early converts to Islam, and did not have the exclusive qualities of ‘Ali. As for his (i.e.