Question:
Assalamu Alayekum!
According to Sahi Muslim Book 19, Hadith 4352 and Sahi Bukhari Book 59,Vol. 5,Hadith 546 Imam Ali alaye hi salam did’nt want Hazrat Umar RaziAllah anhu to come to his home. And according to the tradition of Muslim,Umar RaziAllah anhu didn’t want Abu Bakar RaziAllah anhu to go there alone (apparently he feared that something unpleasant may happen) .Why was Ali alaye hi salam unwilling for Umar RaziAllah anhu to come and why Umar RaziAllah anhu was insisting upon to go there? And why didn’t Ali alaye hi salam gave oath of alliance for 6 months according to these narrations?
Will these narrations be categorized as weak ones?
Answer:
Alaykum Salam,
As the Prophet (upon him blessings and peace) himself said when praising both of them, Abu Bakr was full of leniency and mercy while `Umar was uncompromising in the way of truth; hence `Ali preferred the former to come rather than the latter. The latter insisted on going because he had already visited them before, in Fatima’s lifetime, and warned al-Zubayr not to meet with `Ali again until he had given bay`a to Abu Bakr, which al-Zubayr then did. However, `Ali delayed it for the reason he gave in the reports you cite, and finally he decided to give it. Allah be well-pleased with all of them and may He occupy us with what is of concern to us and leave the rest, as the Holy Prophet (upon him blessings and peace) commanded in his sahih hadith: “Of the excellence of one’s Islam is to leave alone what is of no concern to him.” Mawlana Shaykh Nazim said this hadith is enough for all of one’s religion and all of one’s dunya and akhira.
Hajj Gibril Haddad
