There are nine ahadith from Ja’far (al-Sadiq) in it...

There are nine ahadith from Ja’far (al-Sadiq) in it, and Malik did not record from ANY of his (i.e. ‘Ali’s) offspring except from Ja’far. This is also the case with what is recorded in the Sahih books, the Sunan books, and the Musnad books. What is recorded in them from his (i.e. ‘Ali’s) offspring is little.

Muhammad (al-Sadiq), a known FRACTION of knowledge was transmitted from them. However, what is recorded from other than them is far, far more than that. As for those after them (from the ), the knowledge that was taken from them was very little .[^4] It was indeed a very widespread, and very deep, boycott of the by the Ahl al-Sunnah. Meanwhile, even if a Sunni today decided to follow the , he would be unable to do so through the Sunni books.

There is “very little” of their teachings and narrations in the books of the Ahl al-Sunnah. The dilemma here gets even more serious when one considers that the Messenger of Allah had ordered his whole Ummah – including all his Sahabah, the Tabi’in, the Tabi’ al-Tabi’in - to take ‘Ali and his offspring - his – as khalifahs after him, and to follow them in absolutely everything, in order to remain truly upon the Kitab and the Sunnah.

But, how does a Sunni adhere to these Prophetic decrees without abandoning the Sunni school? The answer seems impossible to determine. Sunni Islam, apparently, feeds upon disobedience of the said decrees. So, what does a Sunni do in this confusion? The ‘ulama of the Ahl al-Sunnah have adopted four different attitudes to the decrees – contained in Hadith al-Thaqalayn and its branch, Hadith al-Khalifatayn.

Some of them, such as our own Shaykh Ibn Taymiyyah, have taken the easy way by denying the authenticity of the ahadith in the Sunni books. This seemingly saves them the trouble of dealing with the consequences of the apparent Sunni boycott of the . Some other Sunni ‘ulama however accept the authenticity of the riwayat but prefer to rather re-interpret “hold fast to” in them as meaning to simply “love” the Messenger’s offspring and to “be kind to” them!