Question:
As-salamu alaykum,
I would first like to extend my gratitude for creating such a wonderful website. It is a blessing for which I am eternally thankful. May Allah (swt) give our Mawlana Shaykh Nazim, Shaykh Hisham and Shaykh Adnan, all very long lives, and may we be with them here and the hereafter.
I wanted to humbly request Shaykh Hisham whether he could kindly recommend some biographies/texts on our Four Caliphs (Sayidina Abu Bakr, Sayidina Omer, Sayidina Ali, and Sayidna Usman (ra)) as well as a book /texts on Hazrat Imam Husayn (as) and his martyrdom at Karbala.
May Allah (swt) bless you and allow us all to be present in the time of Imam Mahdi (as).
Best Regards
Answer:
`Alaykum as-Salam, thank you and may Allah Most High put benefit in this site for its creators and readers. On the Rightly-Guided Caliphs (Allah be well-pleased with them): among the most comprehensive texts is Abu Nu`aym al-Asfahani’s (d. 430) Fada’il al-Khulafa’ al-Arba`a, published in Madina al-Munawwara at Dar al-Bukhari in 1997, and among the most reliable and wisdom-filled texts is al-Husam al-Maslul `ala Muntaqisi Ashab al-Rasul by Muhammad b. `Umar al-Hadrami known as Bahraq (d. 930), published in Beirut at Mu’assasat al-Risala in 2008.
On our liegelord al-Husayn (Allah be well-pleased with him): the chapter on al-Husayn in Siyar A`lam al-Nubala’ by Imam al-Dhahabi.
Also of use on both topics is Imam al-Suyuti’s Tarikh al-Khulafa’ (History of the Caliphs).
And Allah knows best.
Hajj Gibril Haddad
