Whoever has looked carefully at the character of His Eminence, Ali (a.

Whoever has looked carefully at the character of His Eminence, Ali (a.s.) can very well say that he was very straight-forward and that he could never give allegiance to Abu Bakr and then on another occasion, oppose him in bitter words. Hence deep thought over this matter shows that even after the demise of the Lady of Paradise, Lady Fatima (s.a.), Ali did not give allegiance to Abu Bakr. Here, I am not concerned with the question of whether the Caliphate was enacted rightly or not.

What is intended here is to see what was the effect of this Caliphate on the holy progeny of the Holy Prophet (S)? The immediate effect was that rulership was taken away from Bani Hashim as a result of which, the status which the holy progeny enjoyed during the time of the Holy Prophet (S) remained no more. In my view, the active beginning of the apparent downfall of the status of the holy progeny commenced from this point.

We will be able to show gradually that this disrespect to the holy progeny increased so much that after the insults at Karbala’, the ladies of the holy family were paraded with utter disrespect in the bazaars of Damascus very mercilessly. Thereafter too, the holy blood continued to be shed and Ahlul Bayt (a.s.) descendants (Sadaats) were readily killed. Here, I don’t want to inquire whether or not the Sadaats deserved such treatment.

But there is no doubt that the worst behavior was meted out to the holy progeny as can be seen in books of biography and history. [^1]: Refer Milal Wan Nihal by Allamah Shahristani. Also see the last part of Sharhe Mawaqif, Chapter Tanzeelal Kitab (Pg. 746) printed at Naval Kishor Press, Lucknow. [^2]: Ref. Sahih Bukhari, Kitabul Muharibeen and Fathul Bari etc. [^3]: Ref. Rauzatul Ahbab, Vol. II, Pg. 33-34 [^4]: Ref. Sahih Muslim, Pg. 125. [^5]: Sermon no. 3 of Nahjul Balagha. Previous…