The Wahhabis
reckon tabarruk (seeking benediction) towards the traces of awliya to be
polytheism and label the one who kisses the altar and pulpit of the Holy
Prophet (s) as polytheist even though in doing that he doesn’t believe in any
kind of godliness in it. Rather, love and affection to the Holy Prophet (s) becomes
the cause of kissing the signs and traces related to him. Here we ask, what
have they to say about the shirt of Yusuf (a')?
Yusuf ('a)
says: ‘Take my shirt and cast it over my father's face so that he regains
his eye-sight." (Yusuf: 93)
Ya'qub ('a)
too kept the shirt of Yusuf over his eyes and at that same moment realized that
he could see. As he says:
“So when the
bearer of good news came he cast it on his face, so forthwith he regained his
sight.” (Yusuf: 96)
If Ya'qub ('a) would
have done such a thing in front of the Najdis and followers of Muhammad
bin 'Abd al-Wahhab, how would have they behaved with him? Now would they
explain the action of an immaculate Prophet who is free from sins and
mistakes!?
Now if the
Muslims keep the soil of the grave of the last of the Prophets or his shrine
over their eyes and kiss out of respect, the grave and shrine of the divine
leaders or seek tabarruk and say that God has exerted some effect in this
soil and wishes to follow the Ya'qub ('a) of today in so and so affair then why
should they be subjected to curse and be accused of heresy. [1]
Those who are
aware of the life history of the Holy Prophet (s) know that the companions of
the Holy Prophet (s) were always taking precedence to each other in doing tabarruk
to the water of his wudhu (ablution). It is sufficient in this case, to
briefly refer to Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim which are thought
to be the most authentic among the six Sihah. Here, we mention some of
them:
(1) About the
event of ‘Peace of Hudaybiyya’ Bukhari writes:
“Whenever the Holy
Prophet (s) was taking ablution, his companions use to take precedence to each
other in collecting the drops of water of his ablution.” [2]
(2) In the
chapter of ‘Last of the Prophets’, Bukhari narrates from Sa'ib bin Yazid that:
“My aunt took me to the Holy Prophet (s) and informed him about my illness. The
Holy Prophet (s) made ablution and asked Allah for blessings for me and I drank
from the water of his ablution.” [3]
(3) In the chapter of
‘The characteristics of the Prophet’, Bukhari narrates from Wahab bin 'Abdullah
that: “People were rubbing the hands of the Holy Prophet (s) over their faces
and I too took the hands of the Prophet and rubbed them over my face and his
hands were more fragrant than musk.” [4]
(4) In the chapter of
‘The characteristics of the Prophet', Bukhari narrates:
The Holy
Prophet (s) was in ‘Abtah’ standing besides the tents. Bilal came out from a
tent and called the people for prayers. Again he went inside and brought out
the remaining drops of water of ablution of the Holy Prophet (s). The people
rushed towards it and sought tabarruk from it. [5]
(5) Muslim
narrates in his Sahih from Anas that: “When the Holy Prophet (s) was
shaving his head his companions were besides him and each one of them held one
string of his hair in their hands.[6]
These were
some examples of affection of the companions and their tabarruk to the
signs and traces of the Holy Prophet (s) and collecting these incidents
neccessiates the writing of one seperate book.
By refering
to the last chapter of Sahih Bukhari about jihad and also the
chapter related to the armour, stick, sword, vessels, seal, ring, hair and
shrould of the Holy Prophet (s) one can become aware of the evident examples of
tabarruk.
These
traditions expose and explain the baseless nature of the culture of the
Wahhabism that prevents the people from seeking tabarruk to the holy
shrine of Prophet (s) and have employed special groups of persons to beat
physically and use foul language with those who seek tabarruk to the
holy shrine of the Holy Prophet (s). They thus stop the Muslims from expressing
such love and affection which had been in practice during the period of the Holy
Prophet (s) in his very presence.
The matter of
prevention of tabarruk to the traces of the Holy Prophet (s) and kissing
of his shrine and pulpit is one of the greatest ideological expressions of the
Wahhabism. The Wahhabi Government of Saudi Arabia under the garb of ‘amr bi
al-ma'ruf (enjoining the good) and nahi 'an al-munkar (forbidding
the evil) have stationed their agents around the holy shrine in order to
prevent the pilgrims from performing such action and they too behave harshly
and mercilessly with the pilgrims. Many times at such occasions innocent blood
is shed and many persons’ honour and prestige got damaged. The root cause of
their belief is that kissing and honouring the shrine amounts to worshipping
the one in grave, as if ‘every respect is worship.’
Since these helpless
people who are far from the reality of Islamic teachings are unable to
interpret 'ibada (worship) in the logical sense, they have become
puzzled and confused and take every type of respect to the dead to be an 'ibada.
In the next chapter, we shall draw a precise limit and boundary for 'ibada,
but what is important now is to know what was the practice of the Muslims in
this matter:
(1) After the
Holy prophet's burial, his daughter Fatima (‘a) stood near his grave and then
taking some soil from the grave she put it over her face. She later cried and
recited these two poems:
“What happens to the one
who smells the soil of grave of Ahmad, who till he is alive, shall smell no
more the expensive musks”.
“I was faced with such
calamities that if it had befallen on the bright day it would have changed to
night” [7]
(2) The great companion
Bilal who left Medina for some reason and settled by order of the frontier guards,
in the districts of Syira saw in his dream that the Holy Prophet (s) was
saying:
“What kind of injustice
is this, O Bilal? Has not the time come that you visit us!? He woke up from his
sleep in sadness and sat on his horse and left for Medina. When he reached the
grave of the Holy Prophet (s) he started to cry and rubbed his face over it.
Later he saw al-Hasan and al-Husayn and kissed both of them. [8]
(3) Amir al-mu'minin
'Ali ('a) says: “Three days had lapsed from the burial of the Holy
Prophet (s) when a bedouin Arab came and threw himself over the grave of the
Holy Prophet (s). He sprinkled the soil of his grave over his head and started
to converse with the Holy Prophet (s). He said: ‘O Prophet of Allah, you spoke
and we listened. You received the truth from Allah and we too received it from
you. From the things which Allah revealed to you is this
I have done injustice
upon myself. So seek forgiveness for me from Allah. Suddenly he heard a voice
saying: Your sins have been forgiven.
This incident
has been narrated by most of the historians mainly al-Samhudi in Wafa'
al-wafa', vol. 2 page 612 and Shaykh Dawud al-Khalidi (died in 1299 AH) in Sulh
al-'Ikhwan and others.
(4) al-Hakim narrates in
al-Mustadrak that: Marwan bin al-Hakam entered the mosque and saw a man
putting his face over a grave. Marwan caught hold of his neck and said: “Are
you aware of what you are doing?” The man lifted his head and it became
apparent that he was Abu Ayyub al-Ansari. He said: ‘I have not come to visit a
stone, but have come to visit the Holy Prophet (s). O Marwan, I have heard the
Holy Prophet (s) saying: When the pious people bear the leadership do not cry
for that. Do cry when unworthy men become the leaders (i.e. you and your
Umayyad household).’ [9]
This period of
history reveals the root of ‘creation of obstacle’ to prevent seeking tabarruk
from the grave of the Holy Prophet (s) and shows that the companions of the
Holy Prophet (s) were constantly seeking tabarruk from the holy grave of
the Holy Prophet. It was people like Marwan bin al-Hakam who used to prevent
people from this well-known deed.
The historical incidents
in this case are so numerous that narrating all of them will lengthen our
discussion. Interested readers can refer to the book Tabarruk al-sahaba
and the valuable book al-Ghadir vol. 5 page 146-156.
In the end, we are bound
to mention that all these historical narratives can never be false and
baseless. Now, even if we assume that all of them are false and baseless yet
they will serve our purpose. Because, if such an action was heresy, polytheism,
unlawful or forbidden, then the fabricators would have never attributed them to
religious personalities since the liars fabricate instances which are worthy of
approval by the society so that the people believe and accept their made up
stories. They never attribute anything which is heresy, polytheism, forbidden
or unlawful to the pious people because in such a case they will be confronted
with the resistance and non-acceptance of the people and their arrows will hit
the stone and miss the target.
Notes:
[1] All the Muslims,
right from the time of the Holy Prophet (s) till now, have been seeking tabarruk
to the traces of the Holy Prophet (s) and Shaykh Muhammad Thahari Makki has
proved this matter with decisive historical evidences in his treatise which was
printed in 1385. This treatise is called 
and has been translated into
Persian.
and has been translated into
Persian.
[2] Sahih
al-Bukhari, vol.3 page 255.
[3] Sahih al-Bukhari,
vol.4 page 227; and Sahih Muslim, Chapter of ‘Last of the Prophets’.
[4] Sahih al-Bukhari,
vol.4 page 226
[5] Sahih al-Bukhari,
vol.4 page 231.
[6] Sahih Muslim,
vol. 4., Book of ‘Virtues of Companions’
[7] Many of the research
writers have narrated this incident such as al-Shabrawi in al-Tuhaf page
9 and al-Samhudi in Wafa' al-wafa', vol. 2 page 444 and al-Khalidi in Sulh
al-'Ikhwan, page 57 and others.
[8] This incident has
been narrated by a group like al-Subki in Shifa al-Saqam narrating from
Ibn 'Asakir, and Ibn al-'Athir in Usd al-ghaba, vol. 1 page 28.
[9] Mustadrak
al-Hakim, vol. 4 page 515
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