ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Then I was Guided The in the Military Detachment under Usamah The story in brief is as follows: The Prophet (saw) organized an army to be sent to Asia Minor two days before his death. He appointed Usamah ibn Zayd ibn Haritha, (who was eighteen years old), as its commander in chief, then the holy Prophet attached some important men, both MuHajjireen and Ansar, to this expedition, such as Abu Bakr, Umar, Abu Obaydah and other well-known .

Some people criticized the Prophet for appointing Usamah as the commander in chief of that army, and asked how could he have appointed so young a man as their commander. In fact the same people had previously criticized the Prophet for appointing Usamah's father as an army commander before him.

They went on criticizing until the Prophet became so angry that he left his bed, feverish and with his head bandaged, with two men supporting him and his feet barely touching the ground (may my parents be sacrificed for him). He ascended the pulpit, praised Allah highly then said, “O People! I have been informed that some of you object to my appointing Usamah as commander of the detachment.

You now object to my appointing Usamah as commander in chief as you objected to me appointing his father commander in chief before him.

By Allah, his father was certainly competent for his appointment as commander in chief and his son is also competent for the appointment.”[^1] Then he exhorted them to start without further delay and kept saying, “Send the detachment of Usamah; deploy the detachment of Usamah, send forward the detachment of Usamah." He kept repeating the exhortations but the were still sluggish, and camped by al-Jurf. Events like that made me ask, "What is this insolence towards Allah and His Messenger?

Why all that disobedience towards the orders of the blessed Messenger who was so caring and kind to all the believers?" I could not imagine, nor indeed could anybody else, an acceptable explanation for all that disobedience and insolence. As usual, when I read about those events which touch on the integrity of the , I try to deny or ignore them, but it is impossible to do so when all the historians and scholars, Shi’a and Sunnis, agree on their authenticity.

I have promised my God to be fair, and I shall never be biased in favor of my creed, and will never use anything but the truth as my criterion.