The Zulfiqar-sword of Sayyidina ‘Ali (karamallahu wajhahu)

Question:

Salam alaykum. It has been said that the two-edged sword is in fact the dagger of Abu Lu’lu’ah al-Majusi. Please watch this video: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1X2mPQ5hsY

Is there any truth to this? Do we know what the real Zulfiqar-sword looked like?

Answer:

Alaykum Salam,

As for the first question on the weapon used to kill our liegelord `Umar b. al-Khattab, may Allah be well-pleased with him:

(i) the report in Sahih al-Bukhari says the weapon used was a “sikkin dhat tarafayn” i.e. a two-sided knife.

(ii) It was extremely wieldy: “he passed no one right or left except he stabbed them until he stabbed thirteen men, seven or nine of whom died.”

(iii) The Kurdish mufassir and muhaddith Mulla Shihab al-Din Ahmad b. Isma`il al-Gurani (813-893), fourth Shaykh al-Islam of the Ottoman Dawla, in his 11-volume commentary on Bukhari entitled al-Kawthar al-jari (6:459) said “it is called al-hajar [stone]”

(iv) It was probably a haladie dagger such as the one shown here: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/b0/23/d2/b023d245d03df16f2270c6f705e05d15.jpg. Therefore it was neither a sword nor two-bladed in the same direction but a dagger with two blades at the diametrically opposite sides of the handle.

As for the second question on the sword Dhul-Fiqar:

(i) It is narrated that “a sword dubbed Dhul-Fiqar was among the booty that went to the Prophet, upon him blessings and peace, at the battle of Badr” (Ahmad, Tirmidhi, Ibn Majah, and al-Hakim, Mustadrak, `Ilmiyya ed. 3:41, Hyderabad ed. 3:39).

(ii) The sword was taken from a mushrik called Munabbih ibn al-Hajjaj as narrated by Ishaq b. Hammad (d. 269) in Tarikat al-Nabi (saws) (p. 101)

(iii) The Prophet subsequently referred to it as his own sword (al-Hakim, Mustadrak, `Ilmiyya ed. 2:141, Hyderabad ed. 2:129).

(iv) As to the meaning of its name al-Muhibb al-Tabari said in al-Riyad al-Nadira (`Ilmiyya ed. 3:156), “it was thus named because it had [a serrated blade with] small notches, [fiqar is the plural of] faqara: the notch; Abu `Ubayd said: the mufaqqar sword is the one with jags (huzuz) in it” (كانت فيه حفر صغار, والفقرة: الحفرة التي فيها. قال أبو عبيد: والمفقر من السيوف: الذي فيه حزوز). See a good example here: http://www.oriental-arms.com/item.php?id=3230.

(v) There is no mention of it ever belonging to our liegelord `Ali b. Abi Talib (Allah be well-pleased with him) in the sources.

Allah knows best.

Hajj Gibril Haddad