Question:
Assalamu alaykum,
It seems the shaykhs are pretty adamant that all ahadith in Bukhari are sahih. How can it be that Ali (ra) burned people as a death penalty? I have heard excuses like “Ali was not infallible.” That doesn’t cut it for me. How could a person as knowledgeable and righteous as Ali burn people? This is not an everyday mistake that we can excuse by saying something as simple as “it was a mistake on his part and we don’t apply the burning of people as a punishment.” I also don’t see how it makes sense to say that Ali (ra) made ijtihad and came to the conclusion to BURN people. This is the ijtihad of one of the most knowledgeable companions? How can it be? Why isn’t this issue dealt with more by Muslim scholars? It seems much too important to ignore.
Answer:
`Alaykum Salam,
This is not in Sahih al-Bukhari and he did relatedly burn apostates but after execution.
Hajj Gibril Haddad
