Censuring the Turks...

Censuring the Turks: On the occasion of making a reference to the Turks I intend to say: Al-Mu’tasim 225 brought a large number of the Turks into the country till they occupied everywhere in Baghdad, embarking on annoying and oppressing its people, who were averse to their coming, since they constituted a bad omen for them wherever they be.

Then the traditionists started to narrate traditions on censuring the turks, ascribing them to the Prophet (S), some of which are the following: “Verily the Turks are the first to plunder of my Ummah whatever be on their way”. Ibn Abbas also reported that the Prophet said: “Kingdom – or caliphate – shall be verily among my sons (or descendants), till they – at the peak of might – be conquerred by the red-faced people, whose faces are like hammered pots.

Abu Hurayrah reported that the Prophet said: The Last Hour (Doomsday) will never come before the coming of wide-faced, small-eyed, flat-nosed people, who will tie their horses at the coast of Tigris. It was reported also by Ahmad in his Musnad from Abu Hurayrah with different wording: The Messenger of Allah said: The Doomsday will not come till you fight the Turks, who are small-eyed, red-faced and flat-nosed, and whose faces resemble harmed pots.

Besides, the Constantinople hadith was previously referred to. Anyone asking for more traditions can refer to al-Suyuti’s Ta’rikh al-khulafa’. How Fabrication of Hadith was Permitted It was not for fabricators of hadith to let alone their science without supporting it with evidences permitting and justifying whatever they used to compose.

Al-Tahawi, in al-Mushkil, reported a hadith from Abu Hurayrah, that the Prophet said: Whenever you are told a hadith from me, that you know and never deny (by mind), you have to believe it, whether I actually uttered it or not! Verily I utter that which can be known and not denied. And when it is reported to you a hadith from me, that you deny and never recognize, you have to disbelieve it, as I never utter that which is to be disapproved and cannot be known.

A similar hadith was reported by Ahmad, that the Messenger of Allah (S) said: When hearing any hadith ascribed to me, with which your hearts are acquainted and toward which you incline, finding it near to you, I am verily more entitled than you to it.