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Rabi' al-Awwal 21, 1428/ April 10, 2007 #29
Thinking outside the box:
The Zionists call their victims, the Palestinians, terrorists!
Try to think of the stories they must have manufactured about
people who really hated them such as Hitler and the National
Socialists. Did Germany start World War II? Did Hitler hate the
Jews without cause? If we want understanding, we'll have to
study objectively and find the facts. Do you know that parts
of Germany, with large German populations, were given to France,
Poland and Czechoslovakia after the First World War? The German
populations in these areas as well as German minorities in the
Soviet Union were subjected to genocidal actions. Germany wanted
to liberate its people. Read the "other side of the story." Don't
be brainwashed. Many Jews were part of Communism and committed
crimes against humanity working for Stalin. It's not without reason
that many Poles, Latvians, Ukrainians etc hate the Jews, often more
than Hitler ever did. Read up! The truth will set you free!
Jamaat al-Muslimeen News
P.O. Box 10881
Baltimore, MD 21234
Outreach: 200 Muslims Receive Message in Philadelphia
April 6, 2007: At a crowded masjid behind the University of Pennsylvania,
Jamaat al-Muslimeen's message was distributed after Juma' salat to 200
people. The crowd was mostly African and African-American with a
sprinkling of Arabs and Indo-Pakistanis. The handout listed the
Islamic slogans which were chanted for the first time during the
anti-war rally at the Pentagon on March 17. The chants condemned
the Zionist occupation of Palestine and the U.S. occupation of Iraq,
Afghanistan and the threat to Pakistan and Iran; they included calls
for the closing down of major U.S. prison complexes, Gtmo, Abu Ghraib,
Bagram as well as some in the U.S., such as Reidsville, Terre Haute,
Lewisburg etc where humanity is being degraded.
The handout included an intro to ISNA leader Siraj Wahhaj's betrayal of
the great Islamic scholar Dr. Omar 'Abdel Rahman [the blind Shaikh].
Thanks go to Br. Aqeel of the local Jamaat al-Muslimeen, as well as
Br. Amin, founder-member of the Jamaat, who introduced us to the Ameer
of the masjid, an elderly gentleman from Sudan.
A Muslim American of African Descent is a Transforming Force for
Students of Mathematics.
Dr. Abdulalim Shabazz, Distinguished Professor of Math at Lincoln University, Pennsylvania.
Go to http://DrAAS.info
[Web site with thanks to Br. Richard ]
Here is what this genius, Dr. Shabazz, lives for, in his own words.
Here is how he serves Allah:
"What I consider my greatest achievements are my developed and
developing students, who are prepared to face life in all of its
beauty and ugliness. I am especially proud of my recent students and
mentees, whom I have inspired to become experts in mathematics, some
with and some without doctorates. Presently I know of at least 14 who
have received PhD's in mathematics or computer science (3 of them)
since 1998, and I know of at least 4 others who have completed all
their work, except their dissertations for the PhD degree. This is
what I have lived for, what I am living for, and what I shall continue
to live for. This, indeed, is GRACE AMAZING."
Jamaat al-Muslimeen's Shoora:
Muslims Need Analytical Thinking, Evaluation, Scientific Planning:
We have Women Role Models in History along with Men
Host: Imam Badi Ali
Secretary General: Sis. Karen English
Ameer: Dr. Kaukab Siddique
The National Shoora will meet, inshallah, in Greensboro, North Carolina,
from 9 AM to 5 PM, inshallah, on May 19.
Muslims are invited to join Jamaat al-Muslimeen. If you would like to
join, please write to the address above about yourself and what you
would like to offer in a movement which is peaceful but UNCOMPROMISING
on the Qur'an and the Hadith.
If you wish to work in an interracial group where TAQWA, not race or
gender, is the standard, Jamaat al-Muslimeen is for you.
If you do not want to join but would like the Jamaat to consider a
matter of great concern to you, please write to the Secretary General
by email at this address:
pradia2@aol.com
Jamaat al-Muslimeen respects all schools of Islamic Thought and admires
the work of great modern leaders of Islam such as Iqbal, Maudoodi,
Syed Qutb, Malcolm X, Usman Dan Fodio, Shaikh Omar 'Abdel Rahman,
Imam Jamil al-Amin. However, Jamaat al-Muslimeen is different from
others in that we also have as leaders the great women of Islam, such
as Hajirah, r.a., and Sumayya, r.a., and 'Ayesha Siddiqa, r.a., and
Umm Ammara, r.a., and Nailah, r.a., and Asma, r.a., and Fatima Zahra,
r.a., and Umm Waraqah, r.a., and the Kharijite woman leader Ghazala,
and the Sufi woman leader Rabia Basri, and the women sacrificing
themselves for Islam in Somalia, Sudan, Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan,
Chechnya, Kashmir and Pakistan.
U.S. Islamic Woman Leader Speaks
Time for Fake Muslim Leaders to Step Down: Our Situation is Bad.
These "leaders" are Often the Worst Offenders
It is time for Muslims to be savvy in the political arena. We must read,
analyze and ask questions (many, many) questions. We must be sure that
we have all the information we need to stand firm any cause. We must
know who is leading us. Too many of us are just following the person
with the loudest voice or someone we have been told is okay by a friend.
We must stop this and stop wasting our time in this manner.
Too many women in Islam are very loyal to men who by their actions
show they do not care about them or their families. It is time for
women to read and study like we are told to in the Qur'an. This is not
the time nor the place to be stupid. Also it is not the time or place
for us to lash out at each other so that our true enemies can use the
inter-religious conflict to their advantage. We must find ways to talk
to each other and straighten out our concerns amongst ourselves.
We also need to do some house cleaning before we can jump on board
with others (interfaith activities). We do not have any social services
to speak of in the Islamic community, yet our leaders want to sit on
the stage with Ministers, Rabbis and Priest who have multi-million
dollar social service agencies in the communities. Our schools need
a lot of work and attention (even the best of them). Some of our
leaders will sit among ministers, rabbis and priests who have some
of the finest private schools in their communities, social service
agencies and other vehicles they need to support family life as
though they have the level of development in their communities nod,
smile and just fake it. Then, after the event is over, they return
to their communities and, either by design or by neglect, are party
to the closing of the few small services we have (food pantries,
feeding programs and the like). It is time we hold these lying and
faking leaders accountable.
However we can't do that until we hold ourselves accountable. How can
we say we love people and we can't put them up for at least three
nights as stated in the sunnah or feed them? Most brothers can go to
a masjid and sleep at least three days (most of the time they are
there until they get put out) and get a decent meal. However most
sisters do not have a place to go and many of their own sisters will
look down on them. Our cold hearted Imams who lie on any given Friday
as they deliver their Khutbuhs will say they love you, you are a
queen, etc. However will not support the opening of places for you
to sleep in dignity when in trouble. Nor help maintain the few that
are open if the leader or manager is not to their liking. Usually the
leaders of the organization are targeted and blamed for not running
it right so they can not help this or that group due to its leadership.
What actually is the reality most of the time is that the leaders
have some idea of what they are doing and will not allow the Imams
to micro-manage from a distance. Nor will they allow people to make
the place out of a pick up spot for brothers looking for desperate
sisters to marry and dominate. Or a depository for second, third
and fourth wives of brothers who can not afford to maintain these
women and their children. Nor will they play favorites.
We have a lot to do as a community before we jump on a stage yell and
scream for human rights in the public. Most of our leaders are the
worst offenders of human rights in their communities. Unfortunately
the women who are mesmerized or intimidated by them are efficient
GATEKEEPERS! These misguided women will go on the attack if a sister
is not in their clique or if the Imam drops the word. "She does not
like me." He has to say no more. The sister guilty or not is the
target. No justice for her in the community and lots of lies, gossip
and the like. Many of us need to learn what Human Rights is before
we set among those who practice their scripture to the best of their
ability daily, study international law, work diligently to make
themselves free of oppression and do all they not to be oppressors.
We need to be real about what we are doing. Stop faking and pretending.
Or just get out of the way.
Hadayai Majeed
Moderator
Muslim Women Political Action Committee
Interview with Umm Hasan Principal of Jamia Hafsa, Islamabad, Pakistan
Why Did Islamic Women Decide to Risk their Lives to Defy
General Musharraf in his Stronghold?
New Trend: Sis. Umm Hasan, I decided to interview you after I saw that
the forces opposed to Islam are busy trying to discredit Jamia Hafsa
on the Internet. It is obvious that your Islamic university is having
a tremendous impact on the situation in Pakistan, located as you are
in the capital of Pakistan. BBC interviewed you ....
Umm Hasan: BBC gave a totally distorted picture of our struggle. It
said that we wanted to use violence and throw acid on the faces of
women who do not wear Islamic covering. That would be totally
unislamic and against Shari'a [Islamic Law]. BBC tried to defame us.
New Trend: I have also heard that your university [Jamia] is facing a
threat of military action by General Musharraf which could happen at
any time. Is that true?
Umm : Yes, Musharraf has prepared a strike force known as Triple One.
It is heavily armed. We only have lathis [wooden staves] to defend
ourselves, but we will defend ourselves. We have heard that a special
gas has been prepared by Musharraf's forces which would put people
to sleep.
NT: I don't think that will be easy for Musharraf. I have read that
Islamic volunteers from all over the country are coming to your
defense and many have assembled in Lal Masjid which is in the same
complex as Jamia Hafsa. But how did all this start? Why are the
young women in your care coming out to fight?
UH: Women of Islam have been terrorized by General Musharraf for much
too long. We won't take it any longer. We are sick and tired of his
anti-Islam policies and actions. To give you some idea, our
university was attacked first by Musharraf in the year 2004
during the night of August 16-17. In the police rampage, our
young women were terrorized and attacked by the SWAT teams of Musharraf.
NT: That is indeed shameful!
UH: Then in 2005, in the aftermath of the London bombing of 7/7, after
11 days, Tony Blair called on Musharraf to attack the Madrassas.
Hardly had Blair spoken, then on the very next day, July 19,
Musharraf's Special Forces raided Jamia Hafsa. They were shelling
us with tear gas and firing plastic bullets at the girls.
NT: You mean right there in Islamabad? What a dastardly act! The general
is a bloody coward!
UH: In this attack, Musharraf's forces injured 150 of our girls. One
of them had to spend three months in a clinic. When Musharraf learned
that a number of our students were in hospital and were being given
oxygen, he ordered that the oxygen be turned off.
NT: What an accursed coward!
UH: The raids of 2004 and 2005 emboldened Musharraf so much, he decided
to start demolishing mosques in Islamabad. Hamza masjid was actually
demolished along with 8 others. We received notice that Jamia Hafsa,
along with another 80 [eighty] mosques and religious schools and
establishments, were to be demolished and that we should leave. This
was the immediate cause of the uprising of our young women and the
occupation of a small library as the symbol of our resistance.
NT: I have read that the occupation of the library and the young women's
open defiance of the regime had good results. The government announced
that it would rebuild Masjid Hamza and stop the demolition process.
Then why did your struggle continue? I have heard that the young
women kidnapped a "madam" who was running a prostitution den.
UH: Let me explain!
NT: Isn't that a violation of law and due process of law? [Benazir
Bhutto's] Peoples Party is making a big noise, calling on Musharraf
to crack down on Jamia Hafsa for this "violation of law."
UH: There is no "rule of law" in this country. No woman can appeal to
the police for help. Any woman who falls into the hands of the police
is liable to be raped or at least assaulted.
NT: What happened in the case of this "madam?" I read somewhere that
her name is "Shamim Naqvi" [a Shi'ite].
UH: She is known as "Auntie Shamim." Our girls had been watching her
activities for over a month. The neighbors are sick and tired of her
procurement of women for men in the government and the crime and
noise which goes along with it. She was very confident of her power.
She told anyone who objected to the presence of thugs in her area
and the activities related to procuring women that she has
protection right from the top and that no one will dare to touch
her and survive. She was openly working as a procuress. She was
increasing her business with government support, even sending
girls to other cities.
NT: Then what happened?
UH: Our Islamic girls went to talk to her and begged her to stop her
activities, gave her the teachings of Allah and His messenger, pbuh.
The Islamic girls reminded her of the Hereafter. Instead of relenting,
at this advice she became very angry and took out a knife. She cut one
of our Islamic girls. Then the young women picked her up and brought
her over. She was kicking and screaming and used her mouth to bite
two of the girls. She left tooth marks. She was not hurt and was
brought without injury,
NT: All praise belongs to Allah! And then?
UH: She was told that Islamic women mean her no harm and only want to
stop her shameful and sinful activities of procurement of women for
government officials. At first she threatened and said that she has
"long hands" and we will not survive. However, when she realized
that the Islamic women were not going to let go easily, she repented
and wrote a full confession of her misdeeds.
NT: Who were her clients?
UH: She did indeed have long hands. She gave us the list of her
"customers." Among her clients or customers are Shaikh Rasheed and
his nephew Rasheed Shafiq.
NT: You mean the Shaikh Rasheed who is the closest publicist of
Musharraf? He is Railway Minister perhaps, isn't he? The one who
keeps giving press statements about how great Musharraf is ? Are
you sure?
UH: The very same. Top government women are also involved in this
corruption.
NT: Such as?
UH: Nilofar Bakhtiar and Zubaidah Jalal.
NT: You might get into a lot of trouble. You are mentioning top people
including Shaikh Rasheed by name. He is a powerful man, very close to
Musharraf. Aren't you afraid?
UH: We have been taking names right from the time "Auntie Shamim"
confessed. We want the people of Pakistan to know how corrupt and
degraded this government is. Thus when Musharraf tries to get these
people "elected," Pakistanis will know who is being "voted" into
power. Musharraf is going for new "elections."
NT: You are challenging the power structure. Your girls have long
sticks [lathis]; the government has machine guns and tanks. Why do
you feel so strong? Who is on your side?
UH: Allah and His messenger, sal Allaho alaihi wassalam, and the believers.
NT: How many young Islamic women are holding on to the library?
UH: 150
NT: What's the total enrollment of Jamia Hafsa?
UH: We have a total of 6,000 female students. Of these, 3,000 are at
the middle school and matric level. The rest are at the university
level. In addition to regular courses, we teach Hifz Qur'an and at
the senior level we teach Fiqh [Islamic Jurisprudence\ and
Study of Hadith.
NT: How many of the students are on campus at this time?
UH: About 1,500.
NT: How many teachers?
UH: 175.
NT: Since when have you been the Principal?
UH: Since we began in 1991.
NT: Thank you for the interview. I'll come back to you with more
questions. May Allah keep you safe and strong in Islam.
Veiled female Pakistani Islamic students carry bamboo sticks outside
Jamia Hafsa religious seminary in Islamabad. AFP/Aamir Qureshi)
Ice Storm Snuffs Out Liberty's Lamp
By Edward W. Miller, MD
"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me.
I lift my lamp beside the golden door."
(Inscribed on the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor)
However it wasn't nature's sleet and snow that on March 6th, tarnished
America's image as a champion of liberty and personal freedom, rather,
it was an ICE storm (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) blowing
straight up from Washington, complete with troops, armed and in
uniform, with police cars blocking access roads and helicopters
circling overhead.
The torrent of public and media response to this sudden armed intrusion
into a peaceful New England town serves to remind us that, like tiny
European lemmings, which stampede themselves over the cliffs into the
sea, we Americans are again being stampeded into self-destructive
behavior over such a simple issue as immigration.
That inborn suspicion of any human not quite like our tribe has, through
the centuries, served as the lever by which politicians have
manipulated our attitudes toward foreigners both at home and abroad.
At 8:30 AM on March 6th, 2007, some 300 ICE agents and other law
enforcement officers raided the Michael Bianca Inc. clothing factory
on the New Bedford waterfront, with a warrant charging that the owner
Francesco Insole and three managers had encouraged these illegal
immigrants to work long hours and there and accept substandard
working conditions at the leather goods factory. At least 300
workers were rounded up who could not immediately prove they were
in the country legally were initially detained. And most were then
transferred to nearby Fort Divans for further processing.
As the Boston Globe described the scene (Mar 7th) " a lot of people were
screaming and crying," said Tina Pacheco, a supervisor who has worked
at the company for 14 years. "They told American citizens to stand in
one area and the people without papers to stand in another area. It
was terrible, they were crying and didn't know what was going to
happen." Witnesses said police guarded exits while other officers
grabbed some of the fleeing workers and shouted at them to lie on
the ground. Several officers drew their handguns. Workers tried to
leave the building, but were brought back inside. The majority of
the workers were either Guatemalan or Salvadorian..." Local immigration
activists were outraged at the arrests yesterday."
"On the eve of federal legislation being introduced to fix the broken
system, we should not be using precious federal resources to tear up
families and devastate our communities," said Helena S. Marques,
executive director of the Immigrant Assistance Center in New Bedford."
This has been a total nightmare," Marques said. "I've never seen so
much panic." Many of those impacted gathered last night at Our Lady
of Guadalupe at St. James Church. Luis Matias came to seek help for
the 9-month-old and 3-year-old daughters of his tenant, Rosa Gutierez,
26, of Guatemala, who was taken into custody." It's inhumane to take
a mother away from her children," he said. "She's not a criminal."
Local citizens expressed concern to ICE officials about the children of
these seized employees, most of whom were already in school some time
before their parents were arrested. During the raid, workers were
processed in the plant cafeteria where many were fingerprinted and
photographed on the spot. All who could not show documents or prove
legal status in the country were detained. Targeted by ICE, the
factory, named Michael Bianco Inc., had an $83 million contract with
the US Defense Department to manufacture backpacks for soldiers and
marines. During that day, ICE officials fitted at least 60 people
with electronic tracking devices and released them to care for children
or for health problems. Local officials of the Defense Security Service
(DSS), a department controlled by the US Department of Defense (DoD)
which monitors security in plants with defense contracts such as
Michael Bianco, Inc., had been informed of plans for the raid back
in December, but were not involved in the immediate arrests and
triage which followed.
On March 7, the day after the plant seizure, Massachusetts Governor
Deval Patrick called Michael Chertoff, head of Homeland Security,
under whose Organization ICE has now been placed and demanded that
DSS workers be allowed access to the incarcerated workers. Chertoff
agreed. However, by the time DSS workers arrived on Wednesday night,
90 workers had already been flown to either of two detention centers
in southwest Texas or one in Florida. By March 8, a federal judge
who had been called to intervene by either the governor, Congressmen
or the local mayor,, ordered the ICE not to move any of the remaining
detainees and to give them access to lawyers. The judge also ordered
DSS and ICE to work together
One of the town locals commented that the people arrested for
immigration violations were, in reality, victims of this country's
lack of a viable immigration policy, adding "All of them were working
and working hard. Some of them had been here for 13 or 14 years.....
Whose fault is it that 13 or 14 years have gone by and there is no
comprehensive immigration reform yet?"
The workers' children were another issue. Many of them, born here in the
US, are automatically US citizens. What of their future if one or both
parents are deported? Many of the immigrants were forced to borrow
heavily, often mortgaging their homes in their native country, just
to get here from countries such as Guatemala or El Salvador. The Bush
Administration has repeated the same mistake made prior to the New
Orleans catastrophe, when FEMA, which had been a well-functioning
federal program since it was initiated during the Carter
Administration, was placed under the control of Homeland Security.
As a result, officials of these two behemoths struggled for power,
as no one understood who was in charge, and operations which should
have been simple got tangled in such red tape as the world observed
during the New Orleans tragedy.
Bush repeated the previous mistake by placing our Immigration Service,
which had always been a division of the Justice Department, under
Michael Chertoff's Homeland Security, and as a result, Chertoff,
who spots a terrorist under every bush, now runs Immigration like
his private militia. The ACLU has just filed a lawsuit against
Chertoff for holding children of undocumented workers with their
parents in converted prisons.
Over the past two years, a campaign of racism, laced with terrorism
threats has been spawned in Washington and its compliant media
regarding the millions of illegal immigrants crossing our southern
border. This brouhaha has also been encouraged by those Republicans
who, upset over Bush's poor showing in the polls, are eager to get
their failed Afghan and Iraqi wars off the headlines. Responding to
this non-crisis, and to the millions who marched in American cities
supporting the immigrants, our President on May 15, 2006 in a rare
Oval Office address to the American people outlined "four proposals"
he would welcome included in forthcoming congressional bills (then
being debated in both House and Senate). (San Francisco Chronicle 16
May 2006)
Though both the Senate and House passed their own immigration bills, no
consensus has been reached. Senator Dianne Feinstein has been most
outspoken on the senate side but Senator Kennedy is coming out with
his own version, which Feinstein may or may not approve. Meanwhile
Bush has militarized our southern border with 6,000 members of a
much-overworked National Guard, while a 700-mile fence is under
construction along the California-Arizona border with México since
the Senate passed the Secure Fence Act on Oct. 12, 2006. The
controversial fence will divide approximately one third of the
southern border and is mightily disliked by our Mexican friends.
On Bush's recent visit to México, President Mexican President Felipe
Calderon, in his public comments pointed out gently, that for the
expense of one mile of the Bush wall, his Mexicans could construct
9 miles of badly needed Mexican highway.
Fences, border police, ICE raids, Homeland Security personnel, and
volunteer militias will not solve our immigrant problem. We Americans
might well learn from our European friends, who, before the wealthier
EU nations admitted economically-disadvantaged Spain, Portugal, Greece
and Ireland to their Union, invested hundreds of billions of EU dollars
to raise the living standards of these poorer four, so that with their
EU open border policy, the richer nations would not be inundated with
economic refugees. It worked!
Just as the EU countries helped their poorer friends, we should invest
in the basic economic structure of México. The only thing keeping the
wolf from México's door today is the migration safety net, by which
in 2005 Mexicans in the U.S. remitted home some $20 billion dollars.
We must also either destroy or rewrite NAFTA, which undercuts tens of
thousands of Mexican farmers whose livelihood depends on selling their
own crops at local markets. Impoverished, they immigrate north to the
US. Arthur Daniel Midlands, Inc., which receives 40 percent of its
income from US federal subsidies, now accounts for 25 percent of corn
consumed in México.
When J.B. Penn, US Under Secretary for agriculture, visited India two
years ago, he was given a message by India's trade minister, Kamala
Nath that Washington should heed.
Kamala warned that: "Importing food was as good as importing
unemployment," adding: "We can open up markets as requested by
Penn, provided the US is willing to provide a visa to every farmer
displaced as a consequence of the import of cheaper and highly
subsidized food,''(Dec. 13, 2005 NEW DELHI) In addition to taking
our Agri-Business millionaires off corporate welfare, we should offer
México a Marshall Plan with a government-enforced "living wage" for
Maquiladora workers. Socially sensitive foreign investment would, in
the long run, prove less expensive in terms of dollars, human lives,
and flawed relationships with our southern neighbors, than our
hunkering down behind an expensive and failing Maginot Line, supported
by voluntary militias and now, a National Guard.
The Golden Rule is not only a moral but an economic statement. Americans
should turn off the light in Miss Liberty's torch and inscribe in large
letters on her base: "I've got mine, to hell with you," until we
relearn our lesson.
From our archives
Reprinted because it appears that W.D. Muhammad's people are
also publicizing against Hadith
Is It True That Hadith Was Not Written in the time of the Prophet, pbuh?
Were Qur'an and Hadith transmitted by same people or different ones?
Question from Sis. N. in Detroit [From a long letter]:
I am originally from Iran, moving to real Islam, Qur'an and Hadith.
I read a good book by Fazlur Rahman (Chicago University) but it
confused me on some points. He writes, Hadith was written in third
century after the Prophet. New Trend's web site says follow Qur'an
and Hadith. I am confused please explain why Hadith was not written
in time of the Prophet ?
ANSWER by Kaukab Siddique:
Dr. Fazlur Rahman was influenced by Christian missionaries and Jewish
orientalists. He tried to confuse the Muslims of Pakistan, with the
support of the military government, but was defeated and fled to
America where he was immediately given a senior position at
Chicago University to teach Islam.
Both the Qur'an and the Hadith were written down in the time of the
Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). The Qur'an is the word of Allah revealed
to Muhammad (peace be on him). The Hadith is the commentary,
explanation, implementation of the Qur'an by Muhammad (pbuh). Both
are interlinked and essential to each other. No authentic Islamic
scholar has ever tried to say that Hadith is not necessary or was
written later.
The people who wrote down the Qur'an, on bits and pieces of materials,
were the SAHABA or companions of the Prophet (pbuh). Paper and
printing were not available at that time. So, people could not go
around with printed and bound copies of the Qur'an. Even the collation
and putting together of the Qur'an was done by the SAHABA so that the
Qur'an became a BOOK between two covers after the Prophet (pbuh) passed
away. This great work was done under the supervision of Abu Bakr, Umar,
Usman and Ali (may Allah be pleased with them all) who were the first
four rightly guided Caliphs of Islam.
The same SAHABA also wrote and transmitted the Hadith and made sure
that nothing was falsely attributed to the Prophet (pbuh).
The QUR'AN was also MEMORIZED by the Sahaba. In fact few of them had it
in writing but many of them knew it from memory. The cross checking of
memory with writing was carried out to make sure that the Qur'an as
revealed to the Prophet, pbuh, was transmitted to future generations.
The HADITH was also memorized by the SAHABA and transmitted to future
generations. Any scholar of Hadith had to MEMORIZE the HADITH from
the written collections of the Sahaba and then RECITE IT FROM MEMORY
to his/her teacher. Thus an accurate record of the Prophet's, pbuh,
life and teachings was enshrined in the scholarship of the Muslim world.
In the era after the SAHABA various kinds of sects arose which tried to
disseminate their own versions of the Qur'an. Some of them claimed
that Hazrat Ali (r.a.) had received suras of the Qur'an from the
Prophet, pbuh, which no one else had. The scholars of the line of Ali
(r.a.) and Fatima (r.a.), such as Imam Jafar and Imam Baqir, were able
to repudiate these claims because they had the Qur'an both by memory
and in writing.
Similarly attempts were made to invent "Hadith." This was a very serious
effort by Kings and emperors who wanted religion to justify their
tyranny and to create a "tame Islam." The problem was aggravated by
the fact that various SAHABA had migrated to various cities, and after
they passed away, various people could claim that they had heard Hadith
from them.
It was in that context that great scholars like Imam Bukhari stepped
forward to ENSURE that fabrications did not enter the corpus of Hadith.
I think that these scholars were a bit too strict and as a result they
sometimes designated as "weak" even those Hadith which were authentic
but which would not pass the test of extremely severe scrutiny.
Imam Bukhari and other imams are the ones Dr. Fazlur Rahman was abusing
when he claimed that Hadith was written in the third century after the
Prophet. Fazlur Rahman really was quite ignorant of Hadith and hence
recklessly fell into the trap set for him by Christian missionaries
and Jewish orientalists.
WAS HADITH WRITTEN in the TIME OF THE PROPHET (pbuh)? Yes, the evidence
is overwhelming. Here is one sample from a prominent companion of the
Prophet, pbuh, Abdullah ibn Umru ibn al-Aas. It is authenticated by
two distinct and separate compilers of Hadith, Abu Dawud in his Sunan
(chapter Kitabut al-Ilm) and Darimi in his Musnad (chapter on Rukhs
fi kitabut al-Ilm):
"Whatever I heard from the messenger of Allah, peace be on him, I would
write it down so as to be able to memorize it. Then some in the Quraish
(tribe) said to me: You write down whatever you hear though the
messenger of Allah is a human being and speaks both in anger and
in joy. On hearing that I stopped writing and then I mentioned this
to the messenger of Allah. He pointed with his finger to his mouth
and said: Write on! By Him in whose Hand is my being, no word comes
out of this mouth but the Truth."
Abdullah ibn Umru (r.a.) collected the Hadith he had written in the
presence of the Prophet (pbuh) in a book titled Al-Sadiqa. Abdullah
said: "There are two things I love in life: Al-Sadiqa and al-Wahat."
He explained: "Al-Sadiqa is that manuscript which I heard and wrote
from the messenger of Allah and Wahat is that land which (my father)
Umru ibn al-Aas donated to the cause of Allah and which I take care
of." [Darimi's Sunan.]
The compendium Tahzeeb al-Tahzeeb tells us that on the death of Abdullah,
r.a, the manuscript of Al-Sadiqa was secured by his grandson Shuaib bin
Muhammad and then transmitted to the next generation by his son also
named Umru. THE HADITH WRITTEN BY Abdullah, r.a., DIRECTLY FROM THE
PROPHET, pbuh, AND AT HIS COMMAND, are to be found in the collections
of Hadith which we have under this chain of narration:
"From Umru son of Shuaib from his father from his grandfather." As Hadith
is a very strict discipline, some classical scholars wanted to classify
the collection as Mursal because they thought the grandson should have
SAT DOWN IN FRONT OF THE GRANDFATHER AND RECITED THE WHOLE COLLECTION
TO HIM FROM MEMORY! However, some of the greatest scholars of Hadith,
like Imam Ahmad Ibn Hanbal, accept the authenticity of Al-Sadiqa.
What makes Al-Sadiqa's authenticity irrefutable is that it was also
transmitted by OTHER STUDENTS of Abdullah (r.a.) who had nothing
to do with his grandson.
So, don't let anyone tell you that Hadith was not written in the time
of the Prophet, pbuh.
FINALLY, spend a couple of months in trying to understand this verse
of the Qur'an. It will help you to understand why the Hadith is
essential and ALWAYS goes with the Qur'an:
"The Prophet is closer to the believers than their own selves, and
his wives are their mothers. [33:6]
2007-04-11 Wed 18:03:54 cdt
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