Mu'awiyah’s past record was dark and shameful whereas that...

Mu'awiyah’s past record was dark and shameful whereas that of ‘Ali*(Alaiha al-Salam)* [Peace Be Upon Him] was glorious and shining, full of heroism in defense of Islam.

In order to sustain his campaign and raise the status of his likes, Mu'awiyah had to attract the remnant of some companions of the Prophet*(Salla-a-Allahu Alaihi Wa Alihi Wa Sallam) [Peace and Blessings Be Upon Him and His Household]* whose characters were known to be weak and who had a genuine interest in the material things of this world, in its vanishing riches. He employed them to fabricate traditions custom-designed to his own tailoring.

This trend of fabricating hadīth constituted a grave danger to the integrity of the Islamic tenets. It was very important to ward off such a danger. To expose such a trend to the Muslims at large was very vital, pivotal, of the highest priority. It would be accomplished by exposing and disgracing those who embarked upon committing and nurturing such terrible mischief. Imām‎ al-Hussain’s revolution broke out in order to undertake this very task.

Let us now review a few samples of fabricated traditions3 . The main figure “credited” with fabricating “traditions” by the thousands was one Abu Hurayra. Who is this man? In the year 7 A.H./629 A.D., a young and very poor man from the Daws tribe of southern Arabia (Yemen) named Abu Hurayra met the Prophet*(Salla-a-Allahu Alaihi Wa Alihi Wa Sallam) [Peace and Blessings Be Upon Him and His Household]* immediately after the battle of Khaybar and embraced Islam.

He is well known in history as “Abu Hurayra,” the fellow of the kitten, after a kitten to which he was very much attached. His name shone neither during the lifetime of the Prophet*(Salla-a-Allahu Alaihi Wa Alihi Wa Sallam) [Peace and Blessings Be Upon Him and His Household]* nor of the four righteous caliphs but during the un-Islamic reign of terror of the Umayyads which lasted from 661 to 750 A.D.

It was then that the Islamic world witnessed an astronomical number of “traditions” which were attributed, through this same Abu Hurayra, to the Prophet of Islam*(Salla-a-Allahu Alaihi Wa Alihi Wa Sallam) [Peace and Blessings Be Upon Him and His Household]* . Since these traditions, known collectively as hadīth, constitute one of the two sources of the Islamic legislative system, the Sharī’a , it is very important to shed light on the life and character of this man.