The
religion of the Shiah was founded by a Jew from Yemen called Abdullah bin
Saba'. This religion has started with the assassination of the rightly guided
Khalifa Uthman and branched into many sections.
Uthman
ruled for twelve years. The first six years were marked by internal peace and
tranquility, but during the second half of his caliphate a rebellion arose. The
Jews and the Magians, taking advantage of dissatisfaction among the people,
began conspiring against Uthman, and by publicly airing their complaints and
grievances, gained so much sympathy that it became difficult to distinguish
friend from foe.
It
may seem surprising that a ruler of such vast territories, whose armies were
matchless, was unable to deal with these rebels. If Uthman had wished, the
rebellion could have been crushed at the very moment it began. But he was
reluctant to be the first to shed the blood of Muslims (especially Sahaba),
however rebellious they might be. No one would ever expected what happend
later. He preferred to reason with them, to persuade them with kindness and
generosity. He well remembered hearing the Prophet say,
"Once the sword is unsheathed among my followers, it will not be sheathed
until the Last Day."
The
rebels demanded that he abdicate and some of the Companions advised him to do
so. He would gladly have followed this course of action, but again he was bound
by a solemn pledge he had given to the Prophet. "Perhaps God will clothe
you with a shirt, Uthman" the Prophet had told him once, "and if the
people want you to take it off, do not take it off for them." Uthman said
to a well-wisher on a day when his house was surrounded by the rebels, "God's
Messenger made a covenant with me and I shall show endurance in adhering to it."
After
a long siege, the rebels broke into Uthman's house and murdered him. When the
first assassin's sword struck Uthman, he was reciting the verse: "Verily,
God sufficeth thee; He is the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing" [2:137]
Ali
accepted the caliphate very reluctantly. Uthman's murder and the events
surrounding it were a symptom, and also became a cause, of civil strife on a
large scale. All governors gave the pledge to Ali except Muawiya, the governor
of Sham (Great
Syria).
Muawiya declined to obey until Uthman's blood was avenged. His decision
was based on the fact that he is not required to obey the Caliph until he (Ali)
is able to enforce the rule of Allah. Muawiya was the cuisine of 'Uthman, so he
was the responsible of asking Ali to bring the murderers to trial. The
Prophet's widow Aisha also took the position that Ali should first bring the
murderers to trial. Due to the chaotic conditions during the last days of Uthman
it was very difficult to establish the identity of the murderers, and Ali
refused to punish anyone whose guilt was not lawfully proved.
The
pretext for the meeting of the armies on the day of the Camel and the day of
Siffin was the demand for `Uthman's killers on the part of `A'isha and
Mu`awiya, but the winds of war were fanned by the followers of Abdullah bin
Saba' the Jew, from inside all three camps until events escaped the control of
the Companions. It is related that `Ali, `A'isha , and Mu`awiya often expressed
astonishment at the dissension and opposition that surrounded them.
After
that some Shia declared Ali as a god. He then burned them alive with fire.
After the killing of Abdullah bin Saba', Shia were divided into many new sects.
Each one has its own Imam.
The
Seveners or Isma'ilis, like all Shiites, believe that the descendants of
Muhammad, through his daughter Fatima and her husband Ali the fourth Caliph,
are the rightful rulers of the Muslim world. Thus the descendants of Ali
are considered infallible and as divinely guided as Muhammad himself. This sect
derives its name from Isma'il, the eldest son of the sixth Imam, Jafar
as-Sadiq. In 762 CE, Isma'il died before his father, which resulted in bitter
disputes of succession. The minority of Shiites regarded the old line of Imams
extinct and chose Isma'il's eldest son as the new Imam. Thus they proclaimed a
cycle of seven Imams, Ali being the first and Isma'il the seventh, and thus the
seventh Imam after his line of Imams would be the Mahdi, or Messiah, or the
seventh after him, etc..
The
Isma'ilis have usually been small in numbers, but well organised and
disciplined. Soon they developed into a cult, borrowing various ideas
from Jewish mysticism, Greek philosophy, Babylonian astrology, Christian Gnosticism,
etc.., When secular sciences were being employed in the Abbasid Empire, the
Isma'ilis were thriving, and managed to recruit a large number of followers,
who formed a well organised guerrilla army. By combining their scholarly skills
and extraordinary underground network of spies, the Isma'ilis established their
anti-Caliph in Egypt during the 10th century. They named his dynasty after
Muhammad's daughter, and thus the name Fatimids emerged. In reality they are
the dynasty of a Jew called Abdullah bin Qaddah, and that was they were called
Abidi too. The Abidi State in Egypt quickly expanded and soon the Isma'ilis
controlled western Syria and a large part of North Africa, killing thousands of
Muslims. They also built a new capital, Fustat, near the ancient Pyramids,
which in a few centuries grew to be the largest city in the Muslim world, under
the name of Cairo.
When
the Abidi dynasty was destroyed by the Abbasids, the Isma'ilis split into two
sub-sects, Tayibiya and Niziriya, named after two Abidi princes. The former
sect was soon transformed into a esoteric cult, which moved its activities
underground and became invisible. The Niziriya sect transformed itself back
into the pre-Abidi Isma'ilism, developing a network of agents and spies all
over the Muslim world. The best known organization within the Niziriya was
probably the drug-abusing Assassin sect, notorious for assassinations all over
the Muslim world. Today, however, the Niziriya sect has turned pacifist and
increasingly Westernized.
Out
of the Assassin stronghold in Syria, two heterodox sub-sects have survived, the
Alawite and the Druze. The Alawite sect is militant and combines radical
theories from both Isma'il and Ithna Shia. The Druzes, on the other hand, have
until more recently been more pacifistic, waiting for the return of their
Mahdi, the psychotic Abidi Caliph al-Hakim, who 'disappeared' when he burned
down his capital around 1000 CE. In the 13th century the Druzes closed
their sect, and became a distinct tribe or nation. They serve today in the
Israeli army against Palestinian Muslims.
The
largest sect within Shia is the Ithna or Twelver, which follows the original
line of Imams. When the Seveners chose the son of Isma'il to become the Imam,
the majority of Shiites chose Isma'ils younger brother, Muza al-Kazim, as the
seventh Imam. The Ithna adopt their 'Twelver' name from their belief in the
twelfth Imam, Muhammad ibn al-Askari, who 'disappeared' one day and thus became
the hidden Mahdi who would return to earth at the end of days. The 'Twelvers'
worship their Imams, sometimes as the incarnation of Ali or Hussain. They form
the vast majority of Shiites, including most Iranians and almost 50% of the
Iraqi nation.
The
third largest body in Shia is the Zaydi sect or the Fivers, prevailing in Yemen
and among some Bedouin tribes in Saudi-Arabia. The Zaydi sect is more or less
the deification of the 7th century Arabian culture, and it fiercely denounces
the semi-divinity of Imams, contrary to the Twelver. Their founder was the
fifth Imam, Zayd ibn Abidin, who was a rationalist and thus denounced his
alleged divinity. The Zaydi Imams are more like Bedouin sheikhs than divine
authorities, and thus reject hereditary leadership, and are only visible during
warfare.
There
are said to be more than 70 small Shia sects all around the world. Probably the
best example of these was the Bahai sect, which has been persecuted and refuted
as anti-Islamic, but grows fast as a separate religion, basing its doctrines on
'world peace and harmony' and the unity of all religions. The center of the
Bahai sect is in Israel!
Eight people were killed when gunmen
opened fire on a Shia Muslim religious procession in Pakistan, hospital
officials said, in what appeared to be the latest incident of spiralling sectarian
violence.
More than 30 others were wounded in
the attack on Friday, which began when the procession passed a Sunni seminary.
Rock throwing quickly degenerated
into gunfire, said staff at the district headquarters hospital in the city of
Rawalpindi.
The clashes began when mourners
dragged several people out of a seminary after hearing them shout insults at
the procession as it passed by, police officer Afzal Hussain told the AFP news
agency. They then killed them, he said.
They also set dozens of shops outside
the seminary on fire, he said.
Police tried to stop the clash, but
officers were wounded as the two sides threw stones at each other, Hussain
said.
An army unit based in
Rawalpindi eventually reached the scene and took control. A curfew has now
been imposed in the city, provincial officials said.
The Shia Muslims were marking
Ashura, an annual Shia day of mourning to mark the death of Imam Hussein, a
grandson of the Prophet Mohammad.
Many join long processions where
they flagellate, beat or cut themselves to show their grief.
Rawalpindi is a few minutes' drive
from the capital, Islamabad, and home to the headquarters of Pakistan's army.
Further details of the attack were
difficult to ascertain since the government suspended mobile phone services in
much of Pakistan during Ashura, in a bid to try and foil suicide bombers, who
have attacked such gatherings in the past and regularly threaten Pakistan's
Shia population.
Attacks on Pakistan's Shia, who make
up about a fifth of the 180 million population, have worsened in recent years.
Most of the attacks are the work of
Sunni Muslim fighters, many of whom are affiliated with banned groups such as
the Taliban or Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, which wants to drive all Shia Muslims
out of Pakistan.
Hundreds of Shia Muslims were killed
in bombings and other attacks last year, including children gunned down on
their way to school and doctors heading for work.
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