Why a Shia brother rejected Shia sect and embraced Original Islam =================== بسم الله الرحمن الرحیم A Former Shia brother, who recently abandoned Shia sect, was asked what made him leave the sect of Twelver Shiism and embrace original Islam, AhlusSunnah wal Jamaah, the Islam of Prophet (saw), his Ahlulbayt and Sahaba (may Allah be pleased with them). . Here is his response: . Akhi, and may Allah(swt) always guide us towards the Haq. . There many issues that changed my mind over time, however the main one was the concept of Imamate. I wouldnt say that i had doubts over it while I was a Shirazi, but rather, i tended to avoid looking at the details of the doctrine and focused a lot on Sahaba(ra) and other non important issues (which Yasser Al-Habib focuses a lot more). If you have noticed or not from Yasser Al-Habib, he is not as open on the Immamate doctrine as he is on Aisha(ra) and the rest of the Sahaba(ra), in which all of his baseless and deceptive accusations against them have been eloquently refuted on the behalf of the AhlulSunnah. There was one short clip of him where one person asked him why the Immamate doctrine is not in descriptive details in the Quran as other fundamental beliefs are, for example ; Tawheed, prophet hood, Qiyama, justice of Allah(swt), Salat, Zakat and Hajj. His answer was that one must look for the details in the Hadith jin order to fully understand immamate just as one needs to know the details of Salat in the Hadith, because the details on how we pray is not in the Quran. However, this argument is flawed on so many levels, because firstly, Salat according to the Shia falls under Furu Al-Din and Immamate falls under Usool Al-Din making it not only more important than Salat, but a fundamental pillar of the Shia faith that is even more important than prophethood, hence, Al-Habibs comparison of Immamate with Salat is clearly invalid. . Moreover, when we read the Quran, we find no mention of this concept any where. For example, there are numerous verses in the Quran that fully describe the general fundamental islamic such Tawheed, Prophet hood, the angels, resurrection ect, but the Quran is completely silent on imamate. Salat, which according to Shias is less important than the belief of Imamate, is mentioned humorously over 700 times in the noble Quran, where Allah(swt) describes that one must prostrate, face the Qibla and not associate any partner with him during salat, but there are no verses explicitly declaring that a believer must obey the infallible and divinely appointed Awsiya of their time in order to reach salvation . Instead the Allah(swt) describes in the Quran that the believers are those who obey him, obey his prophet(pbuh), do righteous deeds, pay zakat and pray. Moreover, let us now compare, the doctrines of Tawheed, prophet hood, with the verses that the Shias use to support Immamate to see how much each is described by Allah(swt) and emphasized. Lets start of with Tahweed. . Tawheed(Ones of God) “And I (Allah) created not the jinn and mankind except that they should worship Me (Alone).” [Az-Zariyat 51:56] . “And your Lord has decreed that you worship none but Him…”[Al-Isra’ 17:23] . “Say: Serve ye in place of Allah that which possesseth for you neither hurt nor use? Allah it is Who is the Hearer, the Knower.”[Quran 5:76] . “And indeed when we heard the Guidance (this Qur’an), we believed therein (Islamic Monotheism), and whosoever believes in his Lord shall have no fear, either of a decrease in the reward of his good deeds or an increase in the punishment for his sins”[Al-Jinn 72:13] . “Indeed, We sent Nuh (Noah) to his people and he said: “O my people! Worship Allah! You have no other Ilah (God) but Him. Certainly, I fear for you the torment of a Great Day!”[Al-A’raf 7: 59] . “And verily, We have sent among every Ummah (community, nation) a Messenger (proclaiming): “Worship Allah (Alone), and avoid (or keep away from) all false deities” Then of them were some whom Allah guided and of them were some upon whom the straying was justified. So travel through the land and see what was the end of those who denied (the truth).”[An-Nahl 16:36] . “And your Lord has decreed that you worship none but Him…”[Al-Isra’ 17:23] . “You (Alone) we worship, and You (Alone) we ask for help (for each and everything)”[Al-Fatihah 1:5] . “That is Allah, your Lord!. There is no god but He, the Creator of all things. Then worship Him, and He has power to dispose of all affairs”[Al-An’am 6:102] . Prophet Hood . Muhammad is not the father of any of your men, but (he is) the Messenger of Allah, and the Seal of the Prophets: and Allah has full knowledge of all things.(The Holy Quran, Al-Ahzab 33:40) . “Say (O Muslims): We believe in God and that which is revealed to us and that which was revealed to Abraham and Ishmael, and Isaac and Jacob, and their children, and that which Moses and Jesus received and that the prophets received from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them and unto Him we have surrendered.”(Quran 2:136) . Say: O men! I am sent unto you all, as the Messenger of Allah, to Whom belongeth the dominion of the heavens and the earth: there is no god but He: it is He That giveth both life and death. So believe in Allah and His Messenger, the Unlettered Prophet, who believeth in Allah and His words: follow him that (so) ye may be guided.(The Holy Quran, Al-Araf 7:158) . “And when Jesus son of Mary said, ‘Children of Israel. I am indeed the messenger to you, confirming the Torah that is before me, and giving good tidings of a Messenger who shall come after me, whose name shall be the praised one…”(Quran 61:6) . This is the Scripture whereof there is no doubt, a guidance unto those who fear Allah, believe in the Unseen, are steadfast in prayer, give charity from what We have provided for them, and believe in the Revelation sent to you (O Muhammad) and before you, and (in their hearts) have the assurance of the Hereafter. They are on (true) guidance, from their Lord, and it is these who shall be successful.(The Holy Quran, Al-Bagara 2:2-5) . And We never sent a messenger save with the language of his folk, that he [Hazrat Muhammad(SAW)] might make (the message) clear for them. Then Allah sendeth whom He will astray, and guideth whom He will. He is the Mighty, the Wise.(The Holy Quran, Ibrahim 14:4) . It is not fitting for a Believer, man or woman, when a matter has been decided by Allah and His Messenger to have any option about their decision: if any one disobeys Allah and His Messenger, he is indeed on a clearly wrong Path.(The Holy Quran, Al-Ahzab 33:36) . This Aya directly above ^ , portrays a very important point. Notice how Allah(swt) emphasized on him and the prophet being obeyed and that only a true believer is the one who fully obeys him and his prophet. At the same time, you see in this Aya nothing mentioned about the believers being obliged to obey a divinely appointed imam after the prophet as the Shia claim as a requirement to be a true believer. . There are still many more verses that clearly explain Tawheed and Prophet hood, but these are the only ones I posted to keep this message short. . Now let us look at the verses that the Shia use to prove their Immamate doctrine. . Immamate(Divine leadership) . Your ally is none but Allah and [therefore] His Messenger and those who have believed - those who establish prayer and give zakah, and they bow [in worship].[5:55] . And abide in your houses and do not display yourselves as [was] the display of the former times of ignorance. And establish prayer and give zakah and obey Allah and His Messenger. Allah intends only to remove from you the impurity [of sin], O people of the [Prophets] household, and to purify you with [extensive] purification.[33:33] . O you who have believed, obey Allah and obey the Messenger and those in authority among you. And if you disagree over anything, refer it to Allah and the Messenger, if you should believe in Allah and the Last Day. That is the best [way] and best in result.[4:59] . And this is it for Immamate! Those are the verses mostly used by the Shias to prove their false doctrine. Now compare these verses with the verses that explain Taweheed and prophet hood. Notice the great vibe in the verses that explain them while you see the complete opposite with the verses that the Shias use to try and prove immamte with. For example, from the Tawheed verses, after simiply reading the Ayas without referring to any exegesis and Hadith, we can easily derive from their meaning that Allah(swt) is one that is to be worshiped alone. Moreover, in the verses that explain prophet hood, we can clearly learn that Muhamed is the last messenger sent by God and like past prophets sent by God to warn the people and bring them to worship Allah(swt) alone. Moreover, aside from these verses, a full chapter (Surat Yusef) in the Quran talks about the history of prophet Yusef(as). . However, when we get to examine the verses that the Shias use to prove Immamate, we do not feel that same vibe and strength when reading the verses that refer to Tawheed and prophet hood. In other words, from these verses , nothing clearly mentions that after the prophet, there will be divinely appointed men by God who will guide the Ummah and just as prophets guided them and that rejecting their authority constitutes to disbelieve just as rejecting a prophet. . Now to examine this verse that has been misinterpreted to death for the past hundreds of years. O you who have believed, obey Allah and obey the Messenger and those in authority among you. And if you disagree over anything, refer it to Allah and the Messenger, if you should believe in Allah and the Last Day. That is the best [way] and best in result.[4:59] . This verse, does not prove immamate. In fact, if we look at the context, its still isnt as detailed in a way to support the claim of the obligation to follow divinely appointed Imams who are infallible and above all prophets except Muhamed(pbuh). The word Ulul Al-Amr from the noble verse in Arabic translates to those in authority among you. This type of authority is not regarded to a specific individual or people, but rather, generally states ANY authority . For example, those in authority can refer to our parents, because in Islam, we are obliged to obey our parents despite the circumstances unless they bring you away from Islam, then you do not have to obey them. Moreover, religious scholars are recognized as those in authority among us. There are many hadiths(both in sunni and Shias texts) which emphasis on the importance and virtuous status of knowledgeable scholars. Moreover, the prophet stated that the scholars of the Ummah have a higher status than the ordinary people and must be respected and obeyed. It is also worth to mention that during the lifetime of the prophet, the prophet would assign leaders that represent him to armies or caravans that travel to far cities and places where the prophet himself does not accompany them. For example, at times, he would assign Imam Ali(ra) as his representative to lead a group of his companions(ra) on journeys to far cities and towns where the prophet does not accompany them and obliges his companions to obey those in authority among them(being Ali) , otherwise, they would have disobeyed the prophets command. . Moreover, the second part of the Aya is actually an indirect rebuttal to the Shia claim on Immamate. In other words, the second part of the Aya, Allah(swt), tells us that when ever we differ among ourselves, then we refer back to Allah(swt) and the messenger. What Allah(swt) meant by that, is when ideological differences arise between the Muslims then we refer back to him by going back to his book; the noble Quran and the prophets Sunnah, being the authentic hadith. With that being said, Allah(swt) does not tell us that if we differ among ourselves, that we refer back to a divinely appointed Imam that guides his people of his time. Allah(swt) in the second part of the verse only tells up to refer back to his book, and the Sunnah of his prophet. Moreover, this verse also helps defend what Im stating because Allah(swt) described the unbeliever to reject him and the prophet, but no where does he mention that if one rejects a divinly appointed Imam that comes after the prophet, he will be considered a disbeliever as the Shia believe in. In fact the verse and its meaning is very clear!.It is not fitting for a Believer, man or woman, when a matter has been decided by Allah and His Messenger to have any option about their decision: if any one disobeys Allah and His Messenger, he is indeed on a clearly wrong Path.(The Holy Quran, Al-Ahzab 33:36) . With that being, any unbiased person after reading the noble Quran, can no doubt conclude that the Immamate doctrine is an innovated myth that has no roots in the orthodox teachings of Muhamed(pbuh). . I have more to say on other issues, for example, Tahrif, Saqifa, Sahaba(ra) and other issues, but time does not permit me to do that for now. Inshallah once I free up sometime in university, I will be fully explaining my position on Immamate and Sahaba(ra) on sc and here. . [ END of RESPONSE ] ===================== please share it as much as you can and tag your friends. #saif
Posted on: Sun, 03 Nov 2013 14:45:42 +0000