Misplaced Pages

Part of a series on
Ali
Views Sunni view of Ali Shia view of Ali
Life Birthplace First Fitna Assassination Timeline of Ali's life Alids Event of Ghadir Khumm
Legacy Nahj al-Balagha Al-Ghadir Zulfiqar Imam Ali Mosque Ghurar al-Hikam wa Durar al-Kalim
Perspectives Military career of Ali Ali as Caliph The Fourteen Infallibles Imam (The Twelve Imams) Ali in the Quran
Burial places Imam Ali Shrine Hazrat Ali Mazar
Related articles Rashidun Caliph Succession to Muhammad Great Mosque of Kufa
Category Islam portal
v t e

Part of a series on
Hadith
Hadith studies Hadith sciences Terminology Sahih hadith Types (categories) Biographical evaluation Musannaf Musnad Israʼiliyyat
Collections Sunni Kutub Al-Sittah ("The Six Books") Sahih al-Bukhari صحيح البخاري Sahih Muslim صحيح مسلم Sunan Abi Dawud سنن أبي داود Sunan al-Tirmidhi سنن الترمذي Sunan al-Nasa'i سنن النسائي Sunan ibn Majah سنن ابن ماجه Others Al-Adab al-Mufrad Al-Jami al-Kamil Kanz al-Ummal Kitab al-Athar Majma al-Zawa'id Mu'jam al-Awsat Mu'jam al-Kabeer Mu'jam al-Saghir Musannaf Abd al-Razzaq Musannaf Ibn Abi Shaybah Musnad Abu Awanah Musnad Abu Hanifa Musnad Abu Ya'la Musnad Ahmad ibn Hanbal Musnad_al-Bazzar Musnad al-Shafi'i Musnad al-Siraj Musnad al-Firdous Musnad al-Tayalisi Musnad Humaidi Musnad Ishaq ibn Rahwayh Mustadrak ala al-Sahihayn Muwatta Imam Malik Sahih Ibn Hibban Sahih Ibn Khuzaymah Sahifah Hammam ibn Munabbih Shama'il al-Muhammadiyya Sunan al-Kubra Bayhaqi Sunan al-Wusta Bayhaqi Sunan al-Daraqutni Sunan al-Darimi Sunan Nasa'i al-Kubra Sunan Sa'id ibn Mansur Shu'ab al-Iman Tahdhib al-Athar Targhib wal Tarhib Shia Al-Kutub Al-Arb'ah ("The Four Books") Kitab al-Kafi الكتاب الكافي Man La Yahduruhu al-Faqih من لا يحضره الفقيه Tahdhib al-Ahkam تهذیب الاحکام Al-Istibsar الاستبصار Others Al-Wafi Wasa'il al-Shia Mustadrak al-wasa'il Bihar al-Anwar Nahj al-Balagha The Book of Sulaym ibn Qays Al-Sahifa al-Sajjadiyya Risalah al-Huquq Sahifah of al-Ridha Al-Risalah al-Dhahabiah Da'a'im al-Islam Uyoun Akhbar Al-Ridha Haqq al-Yaqeen Ain Al-Hayat Al-Ghadir Ibadi Jami Sahih Tartib al-Musnad - Books also revered by Ahmadiyya
Related topics Ahl al-Hadith Criticism Sheikh al-Hadith
Islam portal • Category
v t e

The Shiqshiqiyya Sermon (Arabic: اَلْخُطْبَةُ اَلشِّقْشِقِيَّةُ, lit. 'roar of the camel') is a controversial text in Nahj al-balagha, the best-known collection of sermons, letters, and sayings attributed to Ali ibn Abi Talib, who was the fourth Rashidun caliph (r. 656–661), the first Shia imam, and the cousin and son-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. The sermon is highly critical of the predecessors of Ali, namely, Abu Bakr, Umar, and Uthman, accusing them of usurping the right of Ali to the caliphate.

The sermon also appears in some sources that predate Nahj al-balagha, and a number of Shia authorities have furnished it with multiple chains of transmission, while other Shia scholars accept its authenticity without labeling it as mutawatir, which is the highest level of credibility in the hadith terminology.

Background

Saqifa

Immediately after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad in 632 CE, a group of the Ansar (Medinan Muslims) met at the Saqifa and elected as his successor Abu Bakr, who was a senior companion of the prophet and his father-in-law. The accession of Abu Bakr was met with little resistance in Medina, even though the majority of the Muhajirun (Meccan Muslims) were not present at the Saqifa.

Opposition to the Saqifa

Also absent from the Saqifa were Muhammad's clan, the Banu Hashim. They and some companions of Muhammad gathered in protest in the residence of his cousin and son-in-law Ali ibn Abi Talib, whom they considered as the rightful successor of Muhammad. This soon led to a violent confrontation with Abu Bakr. According to the Shia, later also followed a violent raid on Ali's house in which his pregnant wife Fatima was badly injured and subsequently miscarried. Most likely, Ali did not pledge his allegiance to Abu Bakr until Fatima died within six months of her father Muhammad.

Political views of Ali

In contrast with the lifetime of Muhammad, Ali did not play any significant public role during the caliphates of Abu Bakr (r. 632–634) and his successors, namely, Umar (r. 634–644), and Uthman (r. 644–656), That there were disagreements between Ali and the first two caliphs in this period is well-documented, though they are largely downplayed or ignored in Sunni sources. By contrast, these conflicts are often emphasized in Shia sources. Their differences were epitomized during the proceedings of the council convened by Umar to elect his successor in 644, where Ali refused to be bound by the precedence of the first two caliphs. In Shia sources, Ali views the succession of Abu Bakr as a digression which paved the way for a full-blown deviation with the rebellion of Mu'awiya during his own caliphate. By contrast, he mounts only a passing resistance to the caliphate of Abu Bakr (if any at all) in often apologetic Sunni reports. Ali was also highly critical of the conduct of Uthman, and he was joined in this criticism by most senior companions. The controversial policies of Uthman eventually led to a rebellion and his assassination in 656, after which Ali was elected caliph by the Medinans and the dissidents present there.

Legitimism

Some experts report that Ali shows no inclination to legitimism in Sunni sources, while others point to Shia and some Sunni evidence that Ali considered the caliphate to be his right after Muhammad by virtue of his merits and his kinship with the prophet. There is some evidence that Ali further considered himself as the designated successor of Muhammad, probably a reference to Muhammad's announcement at the Ghadir Khumm. Soon after his death, however, it became clear that Ali did not enjoy popular support, which is perhaps why he resigned himself to the caliphate of Abu Bakr, likely for the sake of the unity of a nascent Islam.

Authenticity

In view of its sometimes sensitive content, the authenticity of Nahj al-balagha has long been a subject of polemic debates, though recent academic research suggests that most of its contents can indeed be attributed to Ali by tracking the texts in sources that predate its compiler Sharif al-Radi (d. 1015). As for the Shaqshaqiya sermon, Sunni sources reject it as the work of al-Radi, himself a prominent Shia scholar. Their verdict is in line with the Sunni tendency to neutralize the conflicts among the companions after the death of Muhammad. By contrast, among other Shia scholars, the traditionist Abdul Hosein Amini (d. 1970) provided several chains of transmission for this sermon, some of which predate al-Radi. Other Shia authorities accept the authenticity of the Shaqshaqiya sermon but do not claim tawatur, which is the highest level of credibility in hadith terminology. Among this last group is the Shia philosopher al-Bahrani (d. 1299), who also authored a commentary on Nahj al-balagha. This lack of tawatur leaves the possibility that some sensitive words in the sermon were not uttered by Ali, according to the Islamic author Reza Shah-Kazemi. Alternatively, the Islamicist Husain M. Jafri (d. 2019) suggests that the sermon is authentic for it was also quoted in works that predate Nahj al-balagha, including Kitab al-Mahasin by the Shia traditionist Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Ash'ari [ar] (d. 887), Kitab al-Gharat by the Shia historian Ibrahim ibn Muhammad al-Thaqafi [ar] (d. 896), and Kitab al-Insaf by the Mu'tazilite theologian Abu al-Qasim al-Balkhi (d. 1108).

Content

Nay, by God, the son of Abi Quhafa had exacted the caliphate for himself while he knew full well that my position in it was like that of the pivot in a mill; the flood waters flow down beneath me and the birds do not soar high up to me; yet I hung up a curtain before it and turned aside from it . I then started thinking whether I should attack with a severing hand or should watch patiently the blind darkness in which the old man becomes decrepit and the young man old, in which the believer tries his utmost till he meets his Lord, and I came to the conclusion that patience in a situation like this was wiser.
So I adopted patience, although there was a mote rankling in my eye and a bone sticking in my throat on seeing my heritage being plundered, till the first one died and handed over the reins of the caliphate to another person after him. "How vast is the difference between this day of mine when I am on the back of the camel and the day of Hayyan, brother of Jabir ." How hard did they squeeze its udders and how they made it travel on a rugged path, which inflicts deep wounds and is rough to the touch, in which one stumbles frequently and has to offer excuses, so that its rider is like the rider of a difficult mount: if he draws its reins tight, its nose is pierced, and if he relaxes it, he plunges into destruction. And so the people were afflicted, by God, with stumbling, refractoriness, capriciousness, and cross-purposes. But I kept patience in spite of the length of time and the severity of the ordeal, until he went his way.

— A passage from the Shaqshaqiya sermon

See also

• Nahj al-balagha

Footnotes

1. ^ Gleave 2008.
2. ^ Shah-Kazemi 2019, p. 79.
3. ^ Jafri 1979, p. 77n9.
4. ^ Mavani 2013, p. 131n36.
5. ^ Shah-Kazemi 2019, pp. 79–80.
6. Madelung 1997, pp. 31–33.
7. Walker 2014, p. 3.
8. Madelung 1997, pp. 30–32.
9. Jafri 1979, p. 39.
10. Momen 1985, p. 18.
11. Khetia 2013, pp. 31–32.
12. Madelung 1997, p. 32.
13. ^ Buehler 2014, p. 186.
14. ^ Fedele 2018.
15. Madelung 1997, p. 43.
16. Jafri 1979, p. 41.
17. Khetia 2013, p. 78.
18. Soufi 1997, p. 86.
19. ^ Anthony 2013.
20. ^ Mavani 2013, p. 117.
21. Poonawala 1982.
22. Aslan 2011, p. 122.
23. Madelung 1997, pp. 42, 52–54, 213–214.
24. Abbas 2021, p. 94.
25. ^ Jafri 1979, p. 45.
26. ^ Shah-Kazemi 2019, p. 78.
27. Mavani 2013, p. 114.
28. Dakake 2007, p. 50.
29. Mavani 2013, p. 204n8.
30. ^ Ayoub 2014, p. 24.
31. ^ Veccia Vaglieri 2012.
32. Madelung 1997, p. 108.
33. Momen 1985, p. 21.
34. Glassé 2001, p. 423.
35. Madelung 1997, pp. 141, 142.
36. Jafri 1979, p. 63.
37. Madelung 1997, pp. 141, 253.
38. Mavani 2013, p. 113–114.
39. Mavani 2013, pp. 114, 117.
40. Madelung 1997, p. 253.
41. Amir-Moezzi 2014.
42. Madelung 1997, p. 141.
43. Jafri 1979, pp. 44–5.
44. Momen 1985, pp. 19–20.
45. Shah-Kazemi 2006.
46. Djebli 2012.
47. Lucas 2004, p. 255–284.
48. Soufi 1997, p. 120.
49. Shah-Kazemi 2019, p. 80.
50. Jafri 1979, pp. 61–62.
51. Jafri 1979, p. 62.

References

• Abbas, Hassan (2021). The Prophet's Heir: The life of Ali ibn Abi Talib. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-25205-7.
• Amir-Moezzi, Mohammad Ali (2014). "Ghadīr Khumm". In Fleet, Kate; Krämer, Gudrun; Matringe, Denis; Nawas, John; Stewart, Devin J. (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam (Third ed.). doi:10.1163/1573-3912_ei3_COM_27419. ISBN 978-90-04-26961-3.
• Anthony, Sean W. (2013). "'Ali b. Abi Talib (ca. 599-661)". In Bowering, Gerhard; Crone, Patricia; Kadi, Wadad; Mirza, Mahan; Stewart, Devin J.; Zaman, Muhammad Qasim (eds.). The Princeton encyclopedia of Islamic political thought. Princeton University Press. pp. 30–2. ISBN 978-0-691-13484-0.
• Aslan, Reza (2011). No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam. Random House. ISBN 978-0-8129-8244-2.
• Ayoub, Mahmoud M. (2014). The Crisis of Muslim History: Religion and Politics in Early Islam. Oneworld Publications. ISBN 978-1-78074-674-6.
• Buehler, Arthur F. (2014). "Fatima (d. 632)". In Fitzpatrick, Coeli; Walker, Adam Hani (eds.). Muhammad in History, Thought, and Culture: An Encyclopaedia of the Prophet of God. Vol. 1. ABC-CLIO. pp. 182–7. ISBN 978-1-61069-177-2.
• Daftary, Farhad (2013). A History of Shi'i Islam. I.B. Tauris. ISBN 978-1-78076-841-0.
• Dakake, Maria Massi (2007). The Charismatic Community: Shi'ite Identity in Early Islam. State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0-7914-7033-6.
• Djebli, Moktar (2012). "Nahd̲j̲ al-Balāg̲h̲a". In Bearman, P.; Bianquis, Th.; Bosworth, C.E.; van Donzel, E.; Heinrichs, W.P. (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam (Second ed.). doi:10.1163/1573-3912_islam_SIM_5752. ISBN 978-90-04-16121-4.
• Fedele, Valentina (2018). "Fatima (605/15-632 CE)". In de-Gaia, Susan (ed.). Encyclopedia of Women in World Religions. ABC-CLIO. p. 56. ISBN 978-1-4408-4850-6.
• Glassé, Cyril (2001). "Ali ibn Abi Talib". The New Encyclopedia of Islam. AltaMira Press. p. 39. ISBN 978-0-7591-0189-0.
• Gleave, Robert M. (2008). "ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib". In Fleet, Kate; Krämer, Gudrun; Matringe, Denis; Nawas, John; Stewart, Devin J. (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam (Third ed.). doi:10.1163/1573-3912_ei3_COM_26324. ISBN 978-90-04-17137-4.
• Jafri, S.H.M. (1979). Origins and Early Development of Shia Islam. Longman.
• Khetia, Vinay (2013). Fatima as a Motif of Contention and Suffering in Islamic Sources (Thesis). Concordia University.
• Lucas, Scott C. (2004). Constructive Critics, Ḥadīth Literature, and the Articulation of Sunnī Islam: The Legacy of the Generation of Ibn Saʻd, Ibn Maʻīn, and Ibn Ḥanbal. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-13319-8.
• Madelung, Wilferd (1997). The Succession to Muḥammad: A Study of the Early Caliphate. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-56181-5.
• Mavani, Hamid (2013). Religious authority and political thought in Twelver Shi'ism: From Ali to post-Khomeini. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-62440-4.
• Momen, Moojan (1985). An Introduction to Shi'i Islam. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-85398-200-5.
• Nasr, Seyyed Hossein; Afsaruddin, Asma (2022). "Ali". Encyclopedia Britannica.
• Poonawala, I.K. (1982). "'Alī b. Abī Ṭāleb I. Life". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Online Edition.
• Shah-Kazemi, Reza (2006). "Ali ibn Abi Talib". In Meri, Josef W. (ed.). Medieval Islamic civilization: An encyclopedia. Routledge. p. 36. ISBN 978-0-415-96690-0.
• Shah-Kazemi, Reza (2019). Imam 'Ali: Concise History, Timeless Mystery. The Matheson Trust. ISBN 978-1-908092-18-2.
• Soufi, Denise Louise (1997). The Image of Fatima in Classical Muslim Thought (PhD thesis). Princeton University. ProQuest 304390529.
• Veccia Vaglieri, L. (2012). "ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib". In Bearman, P.; Bianquis, Th.; Bosworth, C.E.; van Donzel, E.; Heinrichs, W.P. (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam (Second ed.). doi:10.1163/1573-3912_islam_COM_0046. ISBN 978-90-04-16121-4.
• Walker, Adam H. (2014). "Abu Bakr al-Siddiq (c. 573-634)". In Fitzpatrick, Coeli; Walker, Adam Hani (eds.). Muhammad in History, Thought, and Culture: An Encyclopaedia of the Prophet of God. Vol. 1. ABC-CLIO. pp. 1–4. ISBN 978-1-61069-177-2.

External links

• Shaqshaqiya sermon in English

• Islamic sermons
• Shia Islam
• Ali
• 7th-century speeches