by Brother Muhammad Yusuf
BisMillah Hir Rahman Nir Rahiim
In the Name of Allah, Most Compassionate, Most Merciful
How
did I, a Sunni following Hanafi fiqh, come to find and embrace the
Right Path of Ahl ul-Bayt? All Praise and all Thanks are for Allah
(Subhana wa'tala) who in His Mercy and Compassion guided me toward the
truth.
My
journey began when, on starting a new job, I first met a follower of
Ahl ul-Bayt. Up until that time, I knew little about those who were
called Shi'as - except what I had heard from Sunni brothers, which to
say the least was not very complimentary. I had read nothing about them,
for I had never found anything to read: all the books on Islam I came
across over a period of many years were about Sunni Islam, written by
Sunni Muslims. All the Muslims I had met, in my country of residence and
in places like Egypt, were Sunni, and even on that modern medium of
communication, the Internet, I had not come across any Shia sites,
probably because I had not looked for them specifically and just
followed links from one Sunni site to another Sunni site. I also knew
very little about the early history of Islam, except of course what I
had read in Sunni books about how wonderful the 'pious Caliphs' were.
And
yet I had already begun to think seriously about certain questions,
such as predestination, and begun to be a little concerned about some
Hadith which I read in Bukhari and Muslim which seemed to me in my
innocence and with my lack of knowledge to contradict the words of the
Holy Quran. I had concerns also about following scholars, for I was
always being told that I could choose which Madhhab to follow, and that
if I personally was not happy with something, I could follow another
school in certain matters just as I could take advice from, and follow
the advice of, any scholar of any School. This just did not seem to be
right.
Perhaps
I should add that at this time I was a relatively recent convert to
Islam, having over a period of some years come to discover the truth
about Islam and the Prophet Muhammad (Allahumma salli 'ala Muhammadin wa
Ali Muhammad) and having become convinced that not only was Allah the
one and only God, but also that Muhammad (Allahumma salli 'ala
Muhammadin wa Ali Muhammad) was his Messenger and Prophet. [ I had
previously been a Christian, and indeed, a Catholic monk for a while.]
The
Shia brother and I were the only Muslims in our place of work so it was
natural that we prayed Zuhr and Asr together. He was kind, considerate
and well-mannered - in fact, an example of what Muslims should be - and
it did not matter that he prayed in a slightly different way from me. I
just assumed in my naivety that he was simply following a different
Madhhab.
Then
I mentioned that I was praying with a Shia to a brother at the local
Masjid. His negative reaction just made me interested in finding out
more about them. So I asked some questions of my Shia brother. He
answered simply, always stressing that I must make my own judgement and
use reason as a guide.
One
incident I remember vividly. I had been sent several articles by a
group, who were influenced by the Wahhabi, which were vehemently
anti-Shia, and which made all sort of allegations about the followers of
Ahl ul-Bayt. I mentioned this group to my Shia brother, and he said,
calmly and simply: "What you you think about them?"
I
replied that I could not see the Prophet Muhammad (Allahumma salli 'ala
Muhammadin wa Ali Muhammad) acting in such an intolerant way, for I
remembered the Hadith about how the Prophet treated the man who was
ill-mannered enough to urinate in a Mosque while the Prophet himself
(Allahumma salli 'ala Muhammadin wa Ali Muhammad) was there.
My
Shia brother said nothing, but a few days later (as I remember it) he
leant me a copy of an English translation of Nahj al-Balagha containing
some of the wisdom of Imam Ali (Alayhi salaam). I read it, and marveled
at his wisdom, and decided to try and find out more about these Shia's -
at this time, I still knew so little I did not even know that Shia
meant follower, and that the Shias were followers of Ahl ul-Bayt, a term
which again meant nothing to me.
Then,
not long after, I left my job to take up new employment and so lost
contact with my Shia brother, although I did try to contact him, once,
but my E-mail was returned as I obviously had not remembered the right
address. Several months went by before I began a more serious study,
prompted by reading about the sermon of Ghadeer Khumm as related in
Tirmidhi and Muslim: Sunni sources which I still implicitly accepted.
For were they not Sahih - second only to the Holy Quran itself?
Here
was the Prophet (Allahumma salli 'ala Muhammadin wa Ali Muhammad)
stating that we should follow and hold onto his Ahl ul-Bayt, just as I
had read how he had many times praised Imam Ali (Alayhi salaam) in such
terms that surely meant he saw or wanted Ali (Alayhi salaam) to be his
successor.
I
discovered some of the basic beliefs of the followers of Ahl ul-Bayt,
such as Taqlid and the Fourteen Infallibles and the more I considered
these, the more rational and logical they seemed. They were natural,
logical consequences of the Holy Quran itself. This really enlightened
me about the Shia: it was as if I had come across a fundamental truth
for the first time, something simple and yet profound.
A
few days later, on an Internet site, I read about Karbala. I admit I
cried. How could those who called themselves Muslims treat fellow
Muslims as they did - and in particular how could they fight, and kill,
the grandson of the Holy Prophet himself? I found this fact quite
astonishing. How did this tragedy come about? And then, I read some of
the words spoken by the fourth Imam (Alayhi salaam) about this tragedy,
and what it meant and would always mean.
I
then spent several days reading about the early history of Islam -
about the Umayyads and Abbasids and how they viciously persecuted the
followers of Ahl ul-Bayt. I read Muhammad Tijani's Then I Was Guided and
his Shia are the Real Ahl al-Sunna, several other books and many, many
articles written by followers of Ahl ul-Bayt. I read the sermon of Imam
Husain (Alayhi salaam) at Mina which described the appalling state of
Arabia only fifty years after Muhammad's death (Allahumma salli 'ala
Muhammadin wa Ali Muhammad) - the corruption of Yazid, and the
corruption of the scholars of that time. And I remembered a saying I had
read somewhere: "Every day is Ashura and every land is Karbala."
I
thought deeply about the issues my reading had raised, and became
convinced that it was my duty, as a Muslim, to follow Ahl ul-Bayt - for
that was clearly the wish of the Holy Prophet (Allahumma salli 'ala
Muhammadin wa Ali Muhammad) who was revealing the will of Allah, which
as a Muslim I must submit to. There were simply no rational arguments
against the beliefs of the followers of Ahl ul-Bayt, since it seemed to
me that these beliefs not only expressed what was reasonable, and
logical, but were also based on the teachings of the Holy Prophet
himself (Allahumma salli 'ala Muhammadin wa Ali Muhammad).
So
it was that I tried to find my Shia brother. I found a name similar to
his in the telephone directory of the city where I knew he lived, and
telephoned. A fax machine answered, so I sent a brief fax, asking him to
contact me, not knowing whether he would ever receive it.
Alhamdulillah,
the fax machine belonged to his Uncle and less than a week later I was
with him, and the Imam, at his local Masjid, affirming that Ali (Alayhi
salaam) was the rightful successor of the Prophet (Allahumma salli 'ala
Muhammadin wa Ali Muhammad).
