This excerpt is taken from Dr. Hafiz Muhammad Zubair's book "Engineer Muhammad Ali Mirza: Thoughts and Ideas".
In mid-January 2019, the undersigned, along with three friends, went to meet Mirza Sahib at his institution in Jhelum. During the meeting, some conversation also took place. The meeting with Mirza Sahib was arranged through our friend Asim Mughal Sahib, and it took him three months to arrange this meeting. We requested Mirza Sahib that we did not want to come for a debate; we wanted to ask a few questions about his own writing "The True Background of the Event of Karbala: In the Light of 72 Authentic Hadiths" and hear his answers. We also wanted to record a one-hour session of this question and answer. At first, Mirza Sahib said to send the questions in writing first. Well, the questions were sent to him in writing a month earlier. Even a child, if given five questions, would prepare, but surprisingly, during the meeting, Mirza Sahib flatly refused, asking which questions? What kind of questions? He said you are allowed to ask only one question, and you cannot record even that, although one of our companions had brought a camera. Moreover, Mirza Sahib said that if any of you record the audio of this conversation, I will hold you accountable before Allah. This shows the extent of his fear.
As for the various messages circulating in social media groups that Mirza Sahib is ready to meet scholars and those who want to meet him should contact these emails or phone numbers, all this is just a facade, or in polite terms, marketing, and ordinary people take such messages as truth. The reason for Mirza Sahib's fear of meeting scholars, which became clear after meeting him, is that Mirza Sahib really cannot sit for two minutes in front of a knowledgeable person. Abu Yahya Nurpuri Sahib has been criticizing Mirza Sahib for a long time with strong scholarly critique, and thousands of people have stopped listening to Mirza Sahib after watching his videos. Mirza Sahib neither responds to him nor gives time for a meeting.
Once, Dr. Israr Ahmed's son, Asif Hameed Sahib, contacted me saying that Mirza Sahib visits Shia madrasas, and since you have met him, if he could also come to our place, some topics could be discussed, and he could visit the centers of Quran Academy and Tanzim Islami, and they could sit together and have a meal. So, through Asim Mughal brother, I sent a message to Mirza Sahib, but the reply was that you know Mirza Sahib does not go anywhere, although just a few days earlier, he had visited Maulana Tariq Jamil Sahib and a Shia center and returned. Our friend Asim Mughal Sahib, who had been impressed by Mirza Sahib for a long time, was quite surprised and said that he considered him sincere, but after dealing with him, he realized that they are outright liars. It is unbelievable that they have such double standards that wherever they see some worldly benefit, they go there, and wherever there is an environment for scholarly discussion or work, they run away.
Even now, if any follower of Mirza Sahib thinks that our statement is wrong and Mirza Sahib is very enthusiastic about meeting scholars, then please get me an appointment with Mirza Sahib, and I will come again wherever he says, but on one condition that the program will be Facebook Live, and I will only raise questions on his writing, no debate, but this time I will not send the questions in writing beforehand.
Well, it is not a problem if you do not know, but on the other hand, when you say that you can point out grammatical mistakes of any religious scholar, it is very sad to hear such lies. If you do not lie, no one will tag you as ignorant, but when you try to prove yourself a genius and a great scholar and think that everyone else should kneel before you, then people will show you your true status. When you yourself are ill-mannered and insult the Companions of the Prophet, harshly criticize scholars and clerics, and speak bluntly to everyone, people will remind you of your place, and then you will feel bad, although you and your companions have opened this front yourself, so you have to close it yourself.
Anyway, disappointed by Mirza Sahib's attitude, we recorded about eighteen hours of videos on his booklet "The True Background of the Event of Karbala: In the Light of 72 Authentic Hadiths" and uploaded them on our YouTube channel, the link of which we are quoting at the end of the booklet. Some friends expressed the wish that since the discussion becomes deep at some points and it becomes difficult to grasp, these videos should be transcribed. For this purpose, the content of the video is being presented in written form, and this booklet is the first episode of this series. The second episode will also be published, God willing.
Mirza Sahib considers this booklet his most fundamental thought, and according to him, this book is his "best product," and he calls it a "hydrogen bomb" against scholars.
Regrettably, in response to the videos we prepared, we heard a lot of abuse from Mirza Sahib's followers and even some of his companions, although we hardly said a single sentence in the video that could be objectionable to the addressee. Some friends say that after dealing with them, it became clear that they are a gang of thugs whose job is just to curse and abuse scholars and religious groups and distort their personalities. Well, I can also testify that the filthy language Mirza Sahib uses about scholars is beyond words. During a meeting with me, he said that these scholars bark at me. Now, who speaks like this? Well, he will say not to consider him respectable, and he did say such things to us. When you call scholars Nasibi (anti-Ahl al-Bayt), they will call you Rafidi (Shia) in return, what else can they say! But he did not even call them Rafidi, only semi-Rafidi, which is his kindness to them, while you have started calling them outright Nasibi. Whoever slightly disagrees with you, you start issuing Nasibi fatwas against them. Then your video is still on social media on record, in which you said that show me one madrasa in Pakistan where children are not available to blacken the face of the molvi in the room. And your words that you will pull down the shalwar of those molvis and hold it in their hands. Indeed, we belong to Allah and to Him we shall return.
So, this conversation is made because Mirza Sahib and his companions like to play the victim, saying this was said to us, that was said to us, just like a child in the neighborhood who, after teasing every child in the street, comes home crying and complains to his mother that so-and-so hit me, but he does not think that the one who hit him did so in response, and they do not think either. As for Mirza Sahib's booklet, it has six sources: authentic hadiths, weak hadiths, Mirza Sahib's additions in the translations of hadiths, superficial and useless footnotes to deviate from the meanings of hadiths, references from history books, and references to chapters. So Mirza Sahib's thought is composed of these six things, including authentic and weak hadiths, Mirza Sahib's arbitrary interpretations, and those statements of chapters that supported Mirza Sahib's thought.
These were Mirza Sahib's sources, and as for the subject of this booklet, it consists of six chapters with 32 pages, of which two chapters, especially 17 pages, and even the other chapters contain a large number of narrations related to Amir Muawiya (may Allah be pleased with him), which Mirza Sahib has twisted, sometimes adding derogatory additions in brackets in the translation, and sometimes adding cheap footnotes, turning every positive thing about Amir Muawiya (may Allah be pleased with him) into negative. This booklet seems less about the background of the event of Karbala and more like a charge sheet against Amir Muawiya (may Allah be pleased with him). In fact, the correct title of this booklet would be "Charge Sheet Against Amir Muawiya (may Allah be pleased with him)" because Mirza Sahib has tried to prove that the root of every corruption in this Ummah is Amir Muawiya (may Allah be pleased with him).
So, while explaining the true background of the event of Karbala, Mirza Sahib has devoted five out of six chapters to Amir Muawiya (may Allah be pleased with him), and in the last chapter, he mentions Yazid, implying that the real culprits of the great oppression in Karbala are less Yazid and more his honorable father, who was not even alive at that time, God forbid, then God forbid. Reading this entire booklet gives the impression that people blame Yazid for Karbala, but actually, the blame belongs to his honorable father, who created the entire background that led to the tragedy of Karbala.
Now, how these dishonest and treacherous people distort hadiths that are general in meaning, twisting them to apply to Amir Muawiya (may Allah be pleased with him) and his companion Sahaba! On one hand, they write "may Allah be pleased with him" and accept them as companions, and on the other hand, they consider beheading them as jihad. Their only demand is that since such-and-such is a companion of the Prophet, before beheading him, just say "may Allah be pleased with him" so that the beheading is done with full respect and decorum, God forbid. And this is exactly what Mirza Sahib and his followers are doing: after putting all their effort into proving Amir Muawiya (may Allah be pleased with him) as, God forbid, a drunkard, sinner, usurer, innovator, rebel, and deserving of death, they only request that before accepting and saying all this, say "may Allah be pleased with him" after his name, فيا اللعجب..
In his research paper known as the hydrogen bomb "The True Background of the Event of Karbala," Mirza Sahib tries to prove here and there that Amir Muawiya (may Allah be pleased with him) and his group of companion Sahaba were a rebellious group. And they do not stop at just calling them rebels but in the fifth chapter of his booklet titled "After Amir Muawiya (may Allah be pleased with him) got the government, gradually what kind of monarchy was imposed on this Ummah and what was its terrible result?" on page 25, he also quotes this hadith from Sahih Muslim that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: "After me, some incompetent people will become successors; whatever they say with their tongues, they will not do. Whoever fights them with his hand is a believer, whoever fights them with his tongue is a believer, and whoever fights them with his heart is a believer, and after that, there is not even a mustard seed's worth of faith."
Abul Hasan Alavi
