Did Sayyidah Aisha oppose Mu’awiyah regarding the killing of Hujr bin Adi?
Mu’awiyah in the eyes of Aisha (may Allah be pleased with them):
The video of Mirza under discussion begins with an incident attributed to Sayyidah Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her). In the earlier parts of this video, Mirza mentioned the killing of two brothers of Aisha Siddiqah (may Allah be pleased with her), Sayyiduna Abd al-Rahman bin Abi Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) and Muhammad bin Abi Bakr, and falsely accused Mu’awiyah (may Allah be pleased with him) of killing them both. We are going to explain the reality of that in the next chapter. In any case, after accusing Sayyiduna Mu’awiyah (may Allah be pleased with him) of the killing of these two, Engineer sahib says:
“In this whole context you will now understand the hadith that is in Musnad Imam Ahmad, is in al-Mustadrak of al-Hakim, and Shu’ayb al-Arna’ut, who is the one who evaluated Musnad Imam Ahmad, has called this hadith sahih, and Imam al-Hakim has called this hadith sahih. It is a very detailed hadith. It says in it that Mu’awiyah came in his time to meet Aisha. Sayyidah Aisha said: O Mu’awiyah! Do you not fear Allah for what you did to Hujr ibn Adi and his companions………… and are you not afraid that I would appoint a man who would strike you secretly and kill you? That is, what a level Aisha’s (may Allah be pleased with her) anger was at, that she would have me killed by guerrilla warfare! So he said: O Mother of the Believers! We do not expect that you would do this, because we have heard from the Prophet (peace be upon him) that: a believer never strikes secretly…. Then he said: Mother, tell me, the expenses that I have arranged for you, do you have no complaint in that matter? So she said: I have no complaint in that matter, this was the complaint that I have made to you. So he said: Mother, leave this matter, let us run our worldly affairs, this is a matter between us and Allah, do not interfere in our political matters. Just imagine! And these people bring us narrations from history saying that Aisha used to say: may my life also go to Mu’awiyah. (Then Engineer sahib and those sitting in front of him, deaf, dumb and blind, also laughed, so he said:) These laughs of yours show who has fabricated these narrations, because the hadiths are telling something else! Would someone whose brothers had been killed say this? Someone who had seen such massacre?”
The narration cited by Mirza is weak:
The narration that Engineer sahib has mentioned here with reference to Musnad Ahmad and Mustadrak al-Hakim is the last one of those thirteen narrations, the details of which you have already read. And happily, this narration too is weak, and by citing it Engineer sahib is giving a false impression.
After quoting this narration, Allama Nur al-Din al-Haythami (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
“وفيه علي بن زيد، وهو ضعيف” In it (its chain) is the narrator Ali bin Zayd, who is weak.
Imam Abu al-Abbas al-Busiri (may Allah have mercy on him) writes about it: “هذا إسناد ضعيف، لضعف علي بن زيد بن جدعان” This chain is weak because of the weakness of Ali bin Zayd bin Jud’an.
And remember, the original narration does not contain at all the statement: “Let us run our worldly affairs, this is a matter between us and Allah, do not interfere in our political matters.” Rather, in the narration of Musnad Ahmad, Mu’awiyah (may Allah be pleased with him) said in reply to Sayyidah Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her): “فَدَعِينَا وَإِيَّاهُمْ حَتَّى نَلْقَى رَبَّنَا عَزَّ وَجَلَّ” Leave our matter and theirs until we meet our Lord, Mighty and Majestic. That is, what he meant is that when this matter is presented before Allah, it will be decided there with truth. Now how great is the difference between these two statements, the one Mirza has stated and the one that is in this weak narration?
And what kind of tone is this “expenses” (khercha pani)? Mirza deliberately uses his vulgar and conventional language, employing words by which he can try, as far as possible, to give a wrong impression about the Companions. In the original text, Mu’awiyah (may Allah be pleased with him) said: “كَيْفَ أَنَا فِي الَّذِي بَيْنِي وَبَيْنَكِ، وَفِي حَوَائِجِكِ” That is, how am I with regard to your affairs and with regard to looking after your needs and necessities?
Engineer sahib’s blatant lie in the name of Imam al-Hakim and Shu’ayb al-Arna’ut:
First he narrated a weak report, then on top of that he embellished this spurious report with his own distortions, and then, wrong upon wrong, he makes the claim with complete fearlessness, composure and full certainty that Imam al-Hakim and Allama Shu’ayb al-Arna’ut declared this report sahih (authentic). Yet this is a blatant lie! Imam al-Hakim never declared this report sahih at all; whoever wishes may open Mustadrak al-Hakim and see. As for Shu’ayb al-Arna’ut declaring it sahih, that too is incorrect. He (may Allah have mercy on him) did not declare this entire report of Musnad Ahmad sahih, but only the portion of a hadith contained in it, which the Engineer narrated with the meaning: “A believer never strikes secretly.” The intent is that this marfu’ hadith is also narrated through another chain. On that basis the Allama declared this portion sahih.
Thus this report is present in Musnad Ahmad under hadith number: 16832, and Shu’ayb al-Arna’ut, in his takhrij of this report, wrote: “Sahih li-ghayrihi”. The word “li-ghayrihi” is also attached to “sahih”, sir! That is, this hadith is sahih because of another report, not in itself.
And which supporting report is it on the basis of which he declared this hadith sahih li-ghayrihi? He (may Allah have mercy on him) has also pointed that out, and so he writes:
وأورده الهيثمي في مجمع الزوائد 96/1، وقال: رواه أحمد والطبراني في الكبير….وفيه علي بن زيد، وهو ضعيف. قلنا: ويشهد له حديث الزبير بن العوام السالف برقم (1426) و(1433)، وإسناده حسن في الشواهد، فيصح به۔
“Al-Haythami (may Allah have mercy on him) mentioned this hadith in Majma’ al-Zawa’id and said: In it is Ali bin Zayd, who is weak. We say: the hadith of Zubayr bin al-Awwam, which has preceded under numbers 1426 and 1433, is a supporting report for this report, and its chain is hasan (good) as supporting evidence, so on the basis of this supporting report this hadith is sahih.”
And look also at the report that has been cited:
1426_جَاءَ رَجُلٌ إِلَى الزُّبَيْرِ بْنِ الْعَوَّامِ، فَقَالَ: أَلَا أَقْتُلُ لَكَ عَلِيًّا؟ قَالَ: لَا، وَكَيْفَ تَقْتُلُهُ وَمَعَهُ الْجُنُودُ؟ قَالَ: أَلْحَقُ بِهِ، فَأَفْتِكُ بِهِ، قَالَ: لَا، إِنَّ رَسُولَ اللهِ صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ، قَالَ: ”إِنَّ الْإِيمَانَ قَيَّدَ الْفَتْكَ، لَا يَفْتِكُ مُؤْمِنٌ“۔
1433_عَنِ الْحَسَنِ، قَالَ: قَالَ رَجُلٌ لِلزُّبَيْرِ: أَلَا أَقْتُلُ لَكَ عَلِيًّا؟ قَالَ: كَيْفَ تَقْتُلُهُ؟ قَالَ: أَفْتِكُ بِهِ، قَالَ: لَا، قَالَ رَسُولُ اللهِ صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ: ”الْإِيمَانُ قَيَّدَ الْفَتْكَ، لَا يَفْتِكُ مُؤْمِنٌ“۔
“That is, a man said to Zubayr (may Allah be pleased with him): If you say so, shall I kill Ali (may Allah be pleased with him)? He replied: No! The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said that faith has restrained treacherous killing; a believer does not kill anyone by treachery.”
There you are! In the report on the basis of which he is declaring this report sahih, there is not even the remotest mention of Aisha and Mu’awiyah (may Allah be pleased with them both). Therefore the Allama’s authentication rests solely on the marfu’ hadith contained in this report, not on the incident contained in it. And this incident, in his view as well, is weak, because both here and in many places in his takhrij of Musnad Ahmad he has declared the narrator in the chain of this report, “Ali bin Zayd”, to be weak.
So you have seen how Mirza Sahib, quite neatly, in order to strengthen his fabricated story, made this report sahih, when it is severely weak. In its chain is a narrator, “Ali bin Zayd”, who is severely weak; the statements of the muhaddithin are presented below.
