Seerah 103 - The 1st Rightful Khalifah of Islam Part 1 Incident of the Scrolls - Dr Yasir Qadhi

Typically speaking, seerah finishes not with the death of the prophet PBUH, but rather with the election of Abu Bukr and the sending of Usama ibn Zaid and his c aravan to Syria. These two things are immediately related to the death of the pr ophet PBUH so they should be discussed. The issue of what happens after the death of the prophet PBUH is extremely contr averisal between two strands of Islam, sunni and shi'a. You cannot discuss this issue without mentioning both sides. Today we will discuss one paticular inciden t which took place in the final days in the life of the prophet PBUH. We skipped  over it intentionally so we can discuss it now. That incident is called 'the in cident of Thursday' or 'the incident of the Scrolls', the 'qirdaas'. And 'qirdaa s' is something they would write on i.e. a parchment. This incident involves a v ery contraversial issue - whether the prophet PBUH intended to specify Ali RA to  be the khalifa. At the end of the day, what happened happened, but still there is an issue that every single muslim is exposed to, and every person finds some contraversy in it. Therefore questions arise and so we have to go back to the ve ry beginning and discuss where the split occured between the sunni and shi'a. We  already discussed the incident of the well of ghadir khum. For the shi'a this i ncident is considered to be of upmost importance. For us we affirm the incident 100%, but our interpretation is very different. And that is that, simply, the pr ophet PBUH was defending Ali RA and he said 'who irritates Ali irritates me, who ever is my mola is also Ali's mola'. So it is very clear the prophet PBUH was cr iticising those who found fault with Ali, and from our perspective this incident  was never intended to make Ali RA the khalifa. What demonstrates this are many things, we will mention the main one: 1. The fact that the very last days of his life, he always emphasised Abu Bukr a nd he insisted Abu Bukr lead the salah. For us this is the decisive issue. Never  has the prophet PBUH commanded anyone to lead the salah when he is alive, and h e is in the masjid. And he commands and says "Allah and His messenger do not all ow anyone other than Abu Bukr". And when they could not find Abu Bukr, and inste ad Umar RA is found, what does the prophet PBUH say? He says "No go and find Abu  Bukr" so Umar breaks the salah and Abu Bukr is put in front. This is extremely significant. So in light of all of this, we have to understand this incident of the scrolls w e will discuss now. And this incident is in Bhukari and Muslim, it is mutafuq al ahyi (authentically agreed upon). The hadith occurs in bits and peices, that ibn  Abbass narrates "Thursday, and what a Thursday it was. When the pain of the pro phet PBUH increased, he says 'bring me a book and I will write for you something  that you will never go astray'". And Umar RA said "the prophet PBUH is overcome  by pain, he is clearly suffering, we have the book of Allah, that is sufficient  for us". Some others said (it's not mentioned): "the prophet PBUH is speaking r andomly because of his fever". Others said "confirm what the prophet PBUH wants" . So the sahabah differed amongst themselves, and the prophet PBUH then said "st and away from me, for it is not befitting that any ikhtilaaf goes on in my prese nce". And then ibn Abbass says "the prophet PBUH advised us three things before he died: 1. Expel the mushrikoon from jazeeratul Arab. 2. Treat the delegations that come to you in the same manner I treated them. And one of the sub narrators said 'I forgot what was the third one'. Then ibn Ab bass said "what a calamity, the biggest calamity was what came between the proph et PBUH and the writing of that parchment." Many issues to discuss. Before we get to the contraversy Bhukari mentions 7 diff erent benefits from this hadith. Of those: 1. The importance of writing down knowledge.

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2. Treating delegations that come in a positive and good manner. We should be ho spitable to them and this was of the last bits of advice the prophet PBUH gave. 3. It is haram to differ in front of the prophet PBUH; and moreoever it is disli ked in general. 4. We should not sit too long when we visit the sick, because it becomes a nauce nce for the sick person. Ibn Hajar compiles other hadith regarding the third point the narrator forgot. H e says it seems to indicate two things: 1. The third point was to send Usama's army to as-Sham. 2. His grave should not become an idol. Let's get into the contraversy. According to the non-sunni groups, the prophet P BUH explicitly intended to write the waseeya for Ali RA. That is the whole contr aversy. That because of Umar RA according to them, this didn't happen. And Abbas s is saying "the biggest calamity was the fact that, the prophet PBUH did not ge t to write down Ali should have been the khalifa". Of course he DID NOT say this  - but this is what the shi'a think he means by 'the biggest calamity'. We will discuss the contraversy from three questions. 1. How do we understand Umar's stance? Because he said 'the book of Allah is eno ugh for us' and he diverted the command of the prophet PBUH away. Our scholars have interpreted this in many different ways. We'll go over these b reifly. - Imam al Khatabi said that 'we cannot understand that Umar's statement was mean t to imply the prophet PBUH was making a mistake. Rather, Umar RA saw the pain t he prophet PBUH was in. And he feared that he might say something vague and ambi gious that the munafiqun might take advantage off. Additionally, it is well know n the sahabaa at the time would negoitate directly with the prophet PBUH, if the  circumstances required such as at Badr and Hudaybiyyah. - Imam al Maziri who died 453H, an early commentator of Sahih Muslim, said that 'it appears the prophet PBUH is giving a command 'bring me something to write'. But, there are always signs that could be used to indicate that command is actua lly a request. And it must be assumed that Umar RA saw something that downgraded  the command to a request, and therefore he wanted to go back and forth. And Uma r RA made an ijtihad based on his assumptions and he will be rewarded for that'. - So according al Maziri and also al Qurtubi, the famous scholar from Kardova, w ho died 670H, he also said the same thing that Umar RA must have seen something in the context that he felt this was not a command. - Ibn al Jawzi and ibn Hajar narrated these positions and agreed with them. That  Umar RA out of care and concern saw something and felt now is not the time to g et involved in a side issue. Rather he felt they should leave the prophet PBUH a lone to his pain and suffering so he can rest. - Imam an-Nawawi, 676H, comments and says "scholars have unanimously agreed this  incident shows us the understanding of Umar RA and his excellence, and his far sightedness for he was fearful of something being written down that they could n ot perform, and might have been punished for. And he took the generalities of th

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ke things easy. He saw the suffering of the prophet PBUH, the pain, and he simpl y felt compassion and mercy for him. The point here is that, we really, and there is no denying this, look at this in cident and we are bias. Just like the other group is also bias. Our bias is: in light of the track record of Umar RA, in light of the previous 20 years and all that he has done, and the next 13 years he will live, we have to understand what  he has done in a positive light. Even if we don't understand the details, we we re not there so we do not know what Umar RA saw in the prophet PBUH to make his decision. But there must be a leap of faith and knowing Umars past and future, a nd all of the ahadith that praise Umar RA: "if there was a nabi after me it woul d be Umar"; "if shaytan sees Umar coming down a path he will run away"; "if anyo ne in the future were to be inspired it would be in Umar". In light of all this,  we simply have to have a leap of faith and say 'whatever was his decision, ther e must have been a good reason'. Obviously the shi'a have a negative view of Uma r RA from day one. And if you don't have a positive view of someone, and they do  something vague, you will read in and have a bad opinion. The fact of the matte r is, Umars actions are ambigious - no one was there. What did Umar RA see? What  was the issue that caused Umar RA to not immediately execute the command of the  prophet PBUH? We were not there, but our opinion of Umar RA is that he must hav e a had a very very good reason. This is therefore a point of theology to make a  jump and believe Umar RA saw something; he was worried for the sickness of the prophet PBUH, he had compassion and mercy, and didn't want the prophet PBUH to w rite something the ummah could not follow. 2. What did the prophet PBUH actually want to write? In one version we learn the three things he wanted to say; and when he couldn't write it, he simply said it. However another opinion that a number of early scho lars follow including Suffyan ibn Uyayna who died 198H, that the prophet PBUH wa nted to write the exact oppisite of what the shi'a say: he wanted to dictate a l etter that Abu Bukr RA should the khalifa after him. Where is this coming from? There are authentic narrations in Bhukari and Muslim that before the prophet PBU H fell that sick (this took place on Thursday), he said to A'isha that "call for  me Abu Bukr and your brother, so that I may write a letter because I am worried  someone may desire or aspire from something (leadership) and say 'I have more r ight' but Allah and His messenger will refuse anyone other than Abu Bukr". This hadith is in Bhukari and Muslim but it's not on Thursday, its a few days before.  So one can argue the exact oppisite - and this is also the position of ibn Tamm iyah. He wrote a 10 volume book 'minhaja sunnatun nabuweya' where he discusses t hese differences between the two groups. And in this book he clearly mentions th is letter was a letter in favour of Abu Bukr RA. It was also supported by a numb er of early scholars; there seems to be far more evidence for this than the prop het PBUH wanting to say Ali is the next khalifa. 3. Can it be imagined that he wanted to write a waseeya for Ali RA? Is it logica lly rational? From our perspective, to claim this is to claim the prophet PBUH failed in his m ission. Because, regardless of what you want to say about Umar RA, the undeniabl e fact that both groups affirm is this incident occured on Thursday. He passed a way on Monday. 4 full days later. And if the matter was of such importance, then  how could he have allowed 4 days to go by without saying anything about it? Why  didn't he do something for 4 days? Who else is visiting him? Fatimah RA is visi

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at happened he changed his mind and said 'no need to write it down'." So we say the incident of the scrolls, from our perspective, we assume Umar RA m ust have had reason for his actions. Second, we have evidences what the prophet PBUH wanted to write is other than what is claimed by the shi'a. It was either t he three commands he spoke, OR the exact oppisite which is that Abu Bukr RA shou ld be khalifa. And thirdly, regardless of anything, what will we say to the fact  that for 4 days he didn't say anything else about Ali being the khalifa? This i s ignoring the fact there is so many other evidences for Abu Bukr. The year the prophet PBUH could not go on Hajj, he sent Abu Bukr first. And even when Ali RA was sent, Abu Bukr asked "are you coming as the ameer or ma'moor?" Ali RA said n o "I am not the ameer". Very explicit. So in Hajj he delegates Abu Bukr. And in Salah. And so on, so indeed for us it is clear the prophet PBUH intended Abu Buk r RA to be the khalifa.