The Notion of Descendants of Muhammad's Household Is a False, Hateful, Racist One of Disbelief
Published in February 10, 2017
Translated by Ahmed Fathy
Introduction:
We have received this email message that we quote below, followed by our reply in an article form.
(... Dear Sir, ... Apart from your harsh criticism of the four pre-Umayyad caliphs, what about Prophet Muhammad's household members and progeny? I mean the progeny and descendants of Fatima [Muhammad's daughter] and Ali her husband ... Royal family members of Jordan claim to be descendants of such bloodline, and so other people in some Arab countries including Egypt ... Is there such a thing as holy bloodline? This is a shared notion by Sunnites, Shiites, and Sufis as you know ... What about your Quranist view of that topic? ... Thank you for taking the pains and time to answer my question ... God bless and reward you ...)
OUR REPLY:
Firstly:
1- Deification, glorification, and sanctification of a supposed 'holy' family or progeny of Fatima and Ali is undoubtedly deemed as polytheism and as disbelief in the Quran. the reason, in real Islam (i.e., Quranism), deification, glorification, and sanctification are exclusively for, and confined to, Almighty God/Allah. Those who deify, sanctify, and glorify mortals/humans (prophets and the so-called 'saints') are polytheists in terms of beliefs.
2- Prophet Muhammad, and this applies as well to any other prophets and messengers, was never sanctified or made 'holy' or 'immortal' by God at all; let alone the prophet's relatives, fellow tribesmen, and in-laws. All prophets or messengers, including Muhammad, will have these Quranic verses applied to them (like all human beings) ion the Last Day: "The Day when a person will flee from his brother. And his mother and his father. And his consort and his children. Every one of them, on that Day, will have enough to preoccupy him." (80:34-37); "O people! Be conscious of your Lord, and dread a Day when no parent can avail his child, nor can a child avail his parent, in anything. The promise of God is true. Therefore, do not let this life deceive you, nor let illusions deceive you regarding God." (31:33); "When the Horn is blown, no relations between them will exist on that Day, and they will not ask after one another." (23:101). As for this the worldly existence, there are some relatives of prophets who died as disbelievers, as we know from the Quran: the father of Abraham, the son of Noah, the wife of Noah, and the wife of Lot. Even Muhammad was been reproached in the Quran for asking God's pardon for those who deserve Hell among his relatives, especially his paternal uncles that rejected Islam , as history tells us, so let readers ponder deeply on this Quranic verse: "It is not for the Prophet and those who believe to ask forgiveness for the polytheists, even if they are near relatives, after it has become clear to them that they are people of Hellfire." (9:113). Hence, we conclude here that Muhammad during his lifetime could not guide some of his relatives, and his attempts in that respect failed. The reason: guidance is a personal, individual responsibility, when one is willing to be guided, God guides one. This is why God has said to Muhammad while he was in Mecca: "Had your Lord willed, everyone on earth would have believed. Will you compel people to become believers?" (10:99); "You cannot guide whom you love, but God guides whom He wills, and He knows best those who are guided." (28:56).
3- The family or household of Muhammad, as per the Quranic terminology, are only his wives, as per the Quranic Chapter 33, when God has said the following to these wives of Muhammad: "And settle in your homes; and do not display yourselves, as in the former days of ignorance. And perform the prayer, and give regular charity, and obey God and His messenger. God desires to remove all impurity from you, O people of the household, and to purify you thoroughly." (33:33). Of course, this Quranic legislation is confined to Muhammad's wives, not all Muslim women, and thee wives had the title "people of the household". The same title means any wife in general in any household, because the same title was addressed to the wife of Abraham when angels told her the lad tidings about her giving birth to Isaac: "She said, "Alas for me. Shall I give birth, when I am an old woman, and this, my husband, is an old man? This is truly a strange thing." They said, "Do you marvel at the decree of God? The mercy and blessings of God are upon you, O people of the household. He is Praiseworthy and Glorious."" (11:72-73).
4- Of course, we have written an article about disbelief in glorifying Muhammad by the Muhammadans in their Sunnite tenets, found in English on this link:
http://www.ahl-alquran.com/English/show_article.php?main_id=14140
Secondly:
1- The Arabic Sufi, Shiite, and Sunnite notion of the so-called (Ashraf), which literally in English means "nobles" to indicate exclusively the supposed descendants and progeny of Ali and Fatima, is never to be found in the Quran at all; besides, it was never known during the Umayyad Era and the First Abbasid Era, but it emerged for the very first time during the Second Abbasid Era within the history of the Muhammadans.
2- The falsehood of (''Ashraf'': plural = ''Sharif'': singular) or the myth of claiming to be among the progeny of Fatima and Ali spread among people during the Second Abbasid Era because of several factors as follows.
2/1: Political and religious factors: the military and political struggle for rule of the Shiite Alawites against the Umayyads and then against the Abbasids led them to have high stature in Shiite tenets and creeds, and Shiites claimed at the time that a supposed 'holy' bloodline of Muhammad through his daughter Fatima and her husband Ali (Ali is the supreme immortal deity for Shiites until now) is running through their progeny and descendants, and that bloodline supposedly gave the Shiites the right to rule over the Muhammadans. Based on such myth, all Shiites who ruled some countries at any particular point in time claimed to be descendants of Ali and Fatima, the 'royal' and 'holy' bloodline of Muhammad as per Shiite faulty notions adopted later by Sufis and Sunnites. The Shiite caliphs of the Fatimids who ruled for a while Maghreb, Egypt, and the Levant claimed they were progeny of Fatima and Muhammad, and so did the Idrisid dynasty in Maghreb and other royal households as well.
2/2: Within the margin of this political and military struggle for rule and power, the Shiites have formulated the myth (adopted later on by the Sunnites and Sufis) of the so-called awaited Mehdi (similar to the supposed 'second coming' of Jesus), and this imam Mehdi would be a descendant of Ali and Fatima, and would be named Muhammad Ibn Abdullah, and he would rule the earth with justice for many years before the Day of Resurrection. Naturally, this myth needed to be reinforced and supported by fabricating so many hadiths by Shiites and later on by Sunnite Abbasids, and soon by Sufis as well. Many over-ambitious rule-seekers among Shiite Arabs/Muhammadans claimed to be a "Sharif" among the so-called "Ashraf" and that his name was Muhammad Ibn Abdullah in order to gather people around him to claim the caliphate throne by military force. Of course, this led to corruption, massacres, and bloodshed throughout the history of the Muhammadans until 19th and 20th centuries. It is a funny fact that among those who claimed to be among the bloodline of "Ashraf" and desired to rule and be enthroned non-Arab people of Persian and Sudanese origin!
2/3: Hence, every seeker of the caliphate throne claimed to be a descendant of Ali and Fatima, that is, among the Ashraf, to claim the throne and gather followers who would fight for him based on religious sentiments in this worldly, transient political ambition. Sufism was the context at the time that helped this myth spread as if it were true, because Sufis believed in the so-called 'saints' who were deemed 'immortal' and also among the so-called Ashraf! Since Sufism are of two types: Sunnite Sufism and Shiite Sufism, the myth of Ashraf/Sharif and 'holy' or 'deified' bloodline spread by Sufi charlatans among the societies of the Muhammadans in many eras. Even some of the Mameluke sultans in Egypt, who were originally slaves without known parentage, pretended to be within the Sufi-made family trees of Ashraf! It is funny that some Mameluke sultans used to commission Sufis to refute the claims of others in Egypt to be among Ashraf family trees! It is funnier that some people of non-Arab origin during the Mameluke Era claimed to be a foreign Sharif or Ashraf! This was a very particular habit of the Persian Sufis and Shiite sheikhs of Aryan origin. This goes on inside Iran until now by many charlatans!
2/4: It is funnier that the same habit spread within societies of the Muhammadans in Indonesia as traders went there from Yemen and Oman, and South Eastern Asian people believed that Arab traders, settling inside their lands and marrying local women there, were Ashraf! The title ''Sharif'' was often bequeathed from father to son in so many non-Arab families there as a tradition that brought much authority and money!
2/5: the myth of Ashraf spread in many other regions as well: south of Upper Egypt where some Arab tribes settled after immigrating from Arabia, and north of Sudan where some Arabs settled and intermarried there in the 1st century A.H., and so many families claimed to be a progeny of Ali and Fatima, gaining much power and wealth in their societies by virtue of such a lie.
2/6: It is funny that some Egyptians (until now) claim to be Ashraf though Egyptians originally are non-Arabs even when they began to speak in Arabic. Both the Egyptian Copts and Muhammadans are not Arabs as far as their Pharaonic and African origins are concerned, as their ancestors adhered to living near the River Nile Banks for millennia, long before Arab originated in Arabia during the life time of Ishmael. When Amr Ibn Al-As conquered Egypt, the Egyptians were about 12 million people who paid tributes to him, while Arabs who settled in Egypt during the rule of Ibn Al-As as a governor never exceeded 12 thousand persons at the time. Even when the number of Arab settlers increased in Egypt with the passage of time, they remained in the outer peripheries of the Egyptian societies and never liked to intermarry with Egyptians as they ruled over them and felt that the Arab race was superior to the Coptic one. Hence, Arab tribes settling in Upper Egypt despised Egyptian peasants and got married only to people of Arab origin, and in later ages, some of those Arabs claimed to be ''Ashraf'' or nobles among descendants of Fatima and Ali!
2/7: In many cases until now, corrupt clergymen of the Muhammadans would flatter rulers, kings, and presidents by claiming that they are among Ashraf; this happened with Muhammad Ali Pacha, king of Egypt, despite his Albanian origin! This occurred to King Farouk, the last king of Egypt deposed in 1952, descendant of Muhammad Ali Pacha who had no Arab ancestry at all. King Farouk made clergymen of Al-Azhar spread the lie about his being a "Sharif" who would lead the 'Muslim' world as a new caliph after the collapse of the Ottoman caliphate, and he grew a beard. After this king got bored with this story that led to nothing at all as far as leadership in the Arab world is concerned, he shaved his beard after claiming that Sayeda Zeinab (a female Sunnite/Shiite saint whose mausoleum is in Cairo, Egypt) appeared to him in a dream and told him to shave because he looked no so good in beards! Such laughter-inducing lies spread in Cairo at the time. The Azharites now flatter the Egyptian President Abdel-Fatah Al-Sisi by telling people in Egyptian media that he must be declared a ''Sharif'' among the supposed ''Ashraf''. There is nothing much more laughter-inducing until one sheds tears that such claims spreading in newspapers of Egypt now!
3- Of course, as political and military struggles went on within the history of the Muhammadans, many debates occurred around refuting the notion of Sharif/Ashraf, as many historians refuted that the Fatimids were among the Ashraf at all, and Ibn Khaldoun, the famous Arab historian and founder of sociology, mentioned a lot about this debate in his seminal book titled "The Introduction". In our modern times, refutation of the notion of Ashraf goes on; the current king of Jordan, King Abdullah, who is a descended of Al-Sharif Hussein ruler of Hejaz in the early 20th century and late Ottoman Era, is said to be the descendant of either Awn the Hashemite or Gideon the Jewish Arab! Indeed, Al-Sharif Hussein allied himself to Great Britain against the Ottomans in WWI, but he lost control over Hejaz because of the military troops of Abdul-Aziz Al-Saud who conquered Hejaz. When Al-Sharif Hussein fled to Cypress, GB gave his descendants, as kings, rule of Iraq, Syria, and Jordan. Revolutions/coups made Iraq and Syria republics, while Jordan remained a kingdom until now. King Abdullah Ibn Al-Sharif Hussein vowed to be chief ally of Israel, and he ceded two Jordanian cities to be annexed to Israel (Ramla and Lod), and his successor, King Hussein, preserved security of Israel and its eastern borders and he betrayed Arabs and Palestinians in so many cases.
4- Of course, historically, we know that most of those who claimed to be "Ashraf" were indeed among the worst and most tyrannical people ever: Alawites used to commit massacres and attack and kill pilgrims inside the Sacred Kaaba Mosque itself and along the pilgrimage routes in caravans all over the Abbasid Era. Such violations in relation to pilgrimage is the topic of a coming book of ours. Of course, historical accounts of Al-Sharif Hussein and his descendants are filled with massacres, tyranny, oppression, betrayals, and many injustices, and Hejaz inhabitants used to hate Al-Sharif Hussein and to join forces with Abdul-Aziz Al-Saud, despite the unparalleled monstrosity and savagery of his Najd Brothers.
Thirdly:
1- Surely, the notion of the so-called Ashraf is a racist, hateful, false one, and of course, racism is never acceptable in Islam.
2- God created all human beings as equal to one another, not into two castes of 'nobles' and 'ordinary ones', but as brethren who should get to know each other: "O people! We created you from a male and a female, and made you races and tribes, that you may know one another. The best among you in the sight of God is the most righteous. God is All-Knowing, Well-Experienced." (49:13). Hence, God ordains this equality of all human races; yet, the polytheistic and the inveterate liars, the Muhammadans, spread their grave falsehood of Ashraf all over the ancient world to commit more injustices!
3- This hateful racism and chauvinism has carried a religious banner, while we deplore the no-longer-there racism of the white European man though it is of a secular nature. As far as the false notion of Ashraf is concerned, the Muhammadans who disagree on countless matters agree to added religious nature to their racism/chauvinism, by deifying mortals within the polytheistic Sufi, Shiite, and Sunnite notions. It is as if in their worldview, people are two castes: deified nobles whose great-grand-father is Muhammad and his daughter Fatima, and the rest of humanity! Such fabricated notion was the source or founding tenet of so many grave injustices, oppression, and massacres as well we ascribing falsehoods to God, Islam, and Muhammad, because the prevalent higher value inside the Quranic text and the most frequently mentioned one is justice (and equally the value of charity), but the Muhammadans manipulated the name of Islam to commit many grave injustices and so many heinous crimes.
Fourthly:
1- To falsely reinforce the silly, racist notion of ''Ashraf'', the Muhammadans (past and present) in their deification of the progeny of Ali have dared to claim that Ali's descendants are alluded to in the Quranic text, and outright lie, and that these descendants have certain rights in Islam! Thus, the Muhammadans has lost the rights of one's relatives, rights which are ordained in the Quranic sharia legislations.
2- The Muhammadans have claimed within their falsehoods that Ali's descendants (i.e., the supposed Ashraf) are mentioned in this verse: "... Say, "I ask of you no wage for it, except affection among the near of kin."..." (42:23). There is a gross misconception in their understanding of this verse, and the misunderstanding of the Muhammadans in this respect is refuted by the Quranic fact that Muhammad never asked for fees/wages from anyone, let alone asking for wages given to his relatives! Besides, such relatives are dead centuries ago and no one could trace their progeny since the 1st century A.H. at all, among the Hashemites, Alawites, Abbasids, etc. Hence, 42:23 refers to affection toward a believer's kin and relatives in general not the relatives or household members of Prophet Muhammad at all. Muhammad asked for no wages or anything in return for his ministry and preaching the celestial message of the Quran, except the divine reward from God: "Say, "Whatever compensation I have asked of you, is yours. My compensation comes only from God, and He is Witness over all things."" (34:47).
3- Hence, 42:23 refers to the Quranic command to Muslims, each to be kind and charitable toward one's relatives as helping them is their right, and NOT relatives of Muhammad at all. This is a call for social solidarity, ignored on purpose by the tenets and notions of the Muhammadans in their earthly, man-made Sunnite, Shiite, and Sufi religions, because of the false notion of Ashraf. Let us in the next points tackle this great Quranic sharia legislation about caring for one's relatives and social solidarity.
4- During the era of Moses, God commanded the Israelites to care for one's relatives in charity and kindness: "We made a covenant with the Children of Israel: "Worship none but God; and be good to parents, and relatives, and orphans, and the needy; and speak nicely to people; and pray regularly, and give alms." Then you turned away, except for a few of you, recanting." (2:83). Of course, relatives mentioned in this verse means any relatives of one, NOT relatives of Muhammad or any other prophet. Hence, the concept of ''Ashraf'' nobles or 'holy' bloodline is nonexistent.
5- The same legislation related to caring kindly for one's relatives is addressed to the real and faithful Quran-believing people: "Worship God, and ascribe no partners to Him, and be good to the parents, and the relatives, and the orphans, and the poor, and the neighbor next door, and the distant neighbor, and the close associate, and the traveler, and your servants..." (4:36); "Righteousness does not consist of turning your faces towards the East and the West. But righteous is he who believes in God, and the Last Day, and the angels, and the Scripture, and the prophets. Who gives money, though dear, to near relatives, and orphans, and the needy, and the homeless, and the beggars, and for the freeing of slaves..." (2:177); "God commands justice, and goodness, and generosity towards relatives. And He forbids immorality, and injustice, and oppression. He advises you, so that you may take heed." (16:90); "Those of you who have affluence and means should not refuse to give to the relatives, and the needy, and the emigrants for the sake of God. And let them pardon, and let them overlook. Do you not love for God to pardon you? God is All-Forgiving, Most Merciful." (24:22).
6- In addition, rights on one's relatives include the following.
6/1: Zakat alms or donations to poor relatives: "And give the relative his rights, and the poor, and the wayfarer, and do not squander wastefully." (17:26); "So give the relative his rights, and the destitute, and the wayfarer..." (30:38).
6/2: Inheritance shares to relatives who are not to be given a specified share but will be given kindly and charitably as they are present within distribution of inheritance shares: "If the distribution is attended by the relatives, and the orphans, and the needy, give them something out of it, and speak to them kindly." (4:8).
6/3: Money given to relatives of those who fight in self-defense for God's sake: "Whatever God restored to His messenger from the inhabitants of the villages belongs to God, and to the messenger, and to the relatives, and to the orphans, and to the poor, and to the wayfarer; so that it may not circulate solely between the wealthy among you. Whatever the Messenger gives you, accept it; and whatever he forbids you, abstain from it. And fear God. God is severe in punishment." (59:7). This applies in peaceful times when one is to care for poor, impecunious relatives as well.
6/4: The above point is asserted in this verse as well: "And know that whatever spoils you gain, to God belongs its fifth, and to the messenger, and the relatives, and the orphans, and the poor, and to the wayfarer..." (8:41).
6/5: Hence, relatives and kin in general and in all cases in the Quranic text are simply any believer's, and NEVER those of any prophet at all, and this kindness to one's relatives has nothing to do with any supposed bloodline of Fatima and Ali at all.
Lastly:
1- This great Quranic legislations about caring for one's relatives have been overlooked and ignored by the Muhammadans in their man-made, fabricated tenets and notions, especially about the supposed ''Ashraf'' or nobles of any imagined bloodline.
2- Indeed, Islam today needs those who are engaged into peaceful intellectual jihad for its sake to please God, especially Quranists who refute and debunk myths of the Muhammadans who distort Islam and tarnish its great name.