The Accusation Against Hazrat Mu’awiyah (may Allah be pleased with him) of Killing the Brothers of Sayyidah Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her), and Its Reality
The Killing of Muhammad bin Abi Bakr (may Allah have mercy on him):
As you have already read, Mu’awiyah (may Allah be pleased with him) held a great station and rank in the view of Sayyidah Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her), and she used to pray for him, which is a very great proof in favour of Sayyiduna Mu’awiyah (may Allah be pleased with him). But since the very mission of the people of falsehood and the troublemakers is that, whatever happens, we are going to spread discord in the Ummah and spread only a negative impression about the noble Companions (may Allah be pleased with them), how could the Engineer digest the virtue of Sayyiduna Mu’awiyah (may Allah be pleased with him)? So he played an alternative trick: to spread among the people the impression that Sayyidah Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) was extremely angry with Hazrat Mu’awiyah (may Allah be pleased with him), that Hazrat Mu’awiyah (may Allah be pleased with him) had unjustly killed two of her brothers, and so on and so forth. Then, when he had established this atmosphere, he very comfortably said that all that is false, that Hazrat Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) used to say about Hazrat Mu’awiyah (may Allah be pleased with him) that “may my age also be given to Mu’awiyah”; how could one whose two brothers were killed say such things? Then we proved with evidence, with an authentic chain of narration, that statement of Hazrat Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her), which the Engineer rejected by calling it a “historical narration”. Now, keeping in mind the term “historical narration” and his laughter, see also this objection of his, as to which narration with a sound chain has been presented. So Mirza says in his video:
“Sayyidah Aisha had a brother, Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr; Hazrat Mu’awiyah (may Allah be pleased with him) had him killed………… Muhammad bin Abi Bakr was the governor of Egypt, so obviously it was far from Kufa, it bordered Syria, and from there Hazrat Mu’awiyah’s raiding teams used to attack, so he had Muhammad bin Abi Bakr killed, to the point that they put his corpse in a donkey and set it on fire, Astaghfirullah! And there is consensus on this, no one in the world will deny it, it is present in all our Ahl al-Sunnah books, all that have been written on the biographies of the noble Companions. You can read Tarikh al-Tabari and see, (and) Tarikh Ibn Kathir, you can read Al-Isti’ab and see, (and) Ibn al-Athir’s Usd al-Ghabah, whose commentary Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani wrote as Al-Isabah, in which the life accounts of eight thousand noble Companions (may Allah be pleased with them) are written, it has been translated into Urdu, read in it about Muhammad bin Abi Bakr, what happened to him.”
Mohammad Bin Abi Bakar Brothers of Hazrat Ayesha A.S
Here you go! History, history, history and history. It is another matter whether there is anything of the sort in the references he is giving. Before that, listen from the mouth of our fair-minded and truthful gentleman what the status of these history books is.
The Status of Historical Narrations According to the Engineer, and His Double-Facedness:
Our fair-minded Engineer says in one of his videos:
“Look, in history, lies and truth are all mixed together, right? Whether it is Tabaqat Ibn Sa’d, or Tarikh Ibn Kathir, or the Tarikh of Ibn Jarir (Imam al-Tabari), or Tarikh Ibn Khaldun, or Tarikh Dimashq of Ibn Asakir, in these, that is, lies and truth have all been written down, the chains of narration have been stated, no rulings of sahih or da’if (authentic or weak) have been applied, so they have no authenticity as such. How can you separate the mixture of lies and truth in it? You cannot, it is a difficult task!”
History Books of Islam- Tareekhi Kitabon mein Zaeef Ahadith & Riwayat
Since the topic is about killing, accept one more gift:
“The chains of narration of historical reports must be investigated. It is not that whenever one finds an incident suiting one’s purpose in which a Companion is insulted, one starts narrating it without checking whether it is established or not. For example, these common Shia preachers, the Rafidi preachers of the ignorant sort, in the days of Muharram they keep narrating that Umar threw a door on Fatima………. Now since this story suited their purpose, the Rafidi-type people among the Shia, the extremist Rafidis, took it and narrated it……………”.
Azmat e Sahaba r.a, Radd ul Munafiqeen aur Sunni Shia Ikhtelaf ka Jaizah – 1:37:17
Now it is for you to decide whether the Engineer is an ignorant Shia preacher or not. And remember also that his principles never change under any circumstances. Now let us come to the point:
In short, Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr (may Allah have mercy on him) was killed at the instigation of Mu’awiyah (may Allah be pleased with him), and after he was killed he was put inside the carcass of a donkey and burned, and on this there is “consensus”.
Note that after stating all of this, the Engineer did not give a specific reference to any single book, which is his particular style, but rather very boldly claimed consensus on it, saying that this incident is present in all the books written on the lives of the Companions, so that he would be spared from presenting a sahih chain of narration.
Setting aside what the principles of consensus are, and whether consensus is even established in the way Mirza Sahib describes it, that is, if an incident is reported in many books, does it reach the level of authenticity? Leave aside all the books too, and whether this incident is really present in all of them or not. We will place before you only the passages of the books mentioned by Mirza Sahib himself (in which the killing of Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr is mentioned), then the decision will be in your hands: in these books, is there agreement on the incident as the Engineer has narrated it?
An Important Clarification Regarding Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr (may Allah have mercy on him):
Before the details, know first that Muhammad bin Abi Bakr (may Allah have mercy on him) was not a Companion; he was only a few months old when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ passed away. We do not need to discuss this much, because the Engineer himself, in this video, also declared him a Tabi’i. The second important point is that in this same video the Engineer introduced him, but did not even mention one thing that was highly worth mentioning here. It is that, before Sayyidina Uthman (may Allah be pleased with him) was martyred, when unrest was stirred up against the rebels who had besieged his house, this Muhammad bin Abi Bakr was among them. Allama al-Dhahabi (may Allah have mercy on him) wrote: “وكان أحد الرءوس الذين ساروا الى حصار عثمان“………… that is, he was one of the ringleaders of those who besieged Uthman (may Allah be pleased with him).
. He even tried to attack Uthman (may Allah be pleased with him), but later withdrew. Accordingly, it is narrated with a hasan (good) chain from Kinana (thiqa), the freed slave of the Mother of the Believers Sayyida Safiyya (may Allah be pleased with her):
شَهِدَ مَقْتَلَ عُثْمَانَ رَضِيَ اللهُ عَنْهُ……… قُلْتُ: فَهَلْ نَدِيَ مُحَمَّدُ بْنِ أَبِي بَكْرٍ بِشَيْءٍ مِنْ دَمِهِ، فَقَالَ: مَعَاذَ اللهِ دَخَلَ عَلَيْهِ، فَقَالَ لَهُ عُثْمَانُ: لَسْتُ بِصَاحِبِهِ، وَكَلَّمَهُ بِكَلَامٍ فَخَرَجَ وَلَمْ يَنْدَ مِنْ دَمِهِ بِشَيْءٍ۔
“I was present at the time of the martyrdom of Sayyidina Uthman (may Allah be pleased with him) (then he narrated the whole incident, upon which the narrator Muhammad bin Talha says:) so I asked him whether Muhammad bin Abi Bakr (may Allah have mercy on him) was involved in the killing of Sayyidina Uthman (may Allah be pleased with him). He replied: I seek refuge in Allah! He did enter upon Uthman (may Allah be pleased with him) (with the intention of attacking him), but when Uthman (may Allah be pleased with him) said to him: You are not the one who will kill me, and said something else as well, Muhammad bin Abi Bakr returned and did not take part in killing him.”
Shaykh Ghulam Mustafa Zaheer Amanpuri (may Allah preserve him) said: “Its chain is hasan.”
But since a label had already been attached to him (because of taking part in the siege), this is why his own sister, the Mother of the Believers Sayyida Aisha Siddiqa (may Allah be pleased with her), was also severely displeased with him because of this act of his, and would also invoke a curse against him. Mr. Talq bin Khushaf (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates:
وَفَدْنَا إِلَى الْمَدِينَةِ لِنَنْظُرَ فِيمَ قُتِلَ عُثْمَانُ، فَلَمَّا قَدِمْنَا مَرَّ مِنَّا بَعْضٌ إِلَى عَلِيٍّ، وَبَعْضٌ إِلَى الْحُسَيْنِ بْنِ عَلِيٍّ رَضِيَ اللهُ عَنْهُمَا، وَبَعْضٌ إِلَى أُمَّهَاتِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ رَضِيَ اللهُ عَنْهُنَّ، فَانْطَلَقْتُ حَتَّى أَتَيْتُ عَائِشَةَ فَسَلَّمْتُ عَلَيْهَا، فَرَدَّتِ السَّلَامَ……… فَقُلْتُ لَهَا: يَا أُمَّ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ، فِيمَ قُتِلَ عُثْمَانُ أَمِيرُ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ رَضِيَ اللهُ عَنْهُ؟ قَالَتْ: قُتِلَ وَاللهِ مَظْلُومًا، لَعَنَ اللهُ قَتَلَتَهُ، أَقَادَ اللهُ ابْنَ أَبِي بَكْرٍ بِهِ، وَسَاقَ اللهُ إِلَى أَعْيُنِ بَنِي تَمِيمٍ هَوَانًا فِي بَيْتِهِ، وَأَهْرَاقَ اللهُ دِمَاءَ بَنِي بُدَيْلٍ عَلَى ضَلَالَةٍ، وَسَاقَ اللهُ إِلَى الْأَشْتَرِ سَهْمًا مِنْ سِهَامِهِ، فَوَاللهِ مَا مِنَ الْقَوْمِ رَجُلٌ إِلَّا أَصَابَتْهُ دَعْوَتُهَا۔
“We set out to Madinah as a delegation to find out for what reason Uthman (may Allah be pleased with him) had been killed. When we arrived there, some of us went to Sayyidina Ali (may Allah be pleased with him), some to Sayyidina Husayn bin Ali (may Allah be pleased with them both), and some to the Mothers of the Believers (may Allah be pleased with them). I went to Sayyida Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) and greeted her with salam. She (may Allah be pleased with her) returned the greeting. Then I said: O Mother of the Believers! Why was the Commander of the Believers Sayyidina Uthman (may Allah be pleased with him) martyred? She (may Allah be pleased with her) said: By Allah! He was killed unjustly. May Allah curse his killers. May Allah take retribution from Muhammad bin Abi Bakr for it, and may Allah bring humiliation to the house of Banu Tamim before their eyes, and may Allah shed the blood of Banu Budayl in misguidance, and may Allah send to al-Ashtar al-Nakha’i one of His arrows. (Mr. Talq bin Khushaf (may Allah be pleased with him) says:) By Allah! The curse of Sayyida Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) struck all of these people.”
Its chain is hasan. Talq (may Allah be pleased with him) is a Companion.
This clarification was necessary because in the books of history that Mr. Mirza cited regarding the story of his killing, it is also explicitly stated that he was killed in retribution for Uthman (may Allah be pleased with him).
