Are Shia, Shiism and Alawites of Ahl as-Sunnah and jama’ah?

Dear Brother / Sister,

Some information about the emergence of Shia, which is not a right madhhab and which is not regarded as Ahl as-Sunnah, and its thoughts are as follows:

When the Quran, which is the greatest torch of guidance, was sent down, a new era started in the whole realm of humanity. People were happy due to reaching “the true religion”, which is a natural need for the hearts and spirits of people. They reached oneness from polytheism, the light from darkness, the truth from superstitions, and knowledge from ignorance. The live principles of the Quran led them to material and spiritual loftiness all the time. The Bedouins of the past reached the level to teach civilization to humanity. Muslims were spreading the light of belief and wisdom to the whole humanity with a dazzling effort and devotion. Despite all the oppression and torture, deceit and betrayal, and tricks, people who came under that light of guidance were increasing and getting stronger day by day. The true religion was shining with a great light, progressing and rising. Islam was spreading by conquering hearts; signs indicating that belief would defeat unbelief, the truth would defeat the falsehood, oneness would defeat polytheism and justice would defeat oppression started to be seen.

Indeed, it turned out to be so. During the time of the Messenger of Allah (pbuh), Islam became dominant in Makkah, Madinah, Hejaz and the surrounding areas. The age of ignorance and darkness was replaced by the age of happiness and light.

Syria, Egypt, Iraq and Iran were captured thanks to the unique conquests made in a short time during the caliphate of Hz. Abu Bakr and Hz. Umar. That magnificent development increased the envy and hatred of the enemies of Islam, especially the Jews (1).

Throughout history, Jews have been a tricky nation skilled in causing discord and separation, and dividing the people of the truth. They opposed the divine will in every period and did not hesitate to kill their prophets. They are a harmful nation that plots all kinds of revolutions and directs and manages all committees of mischief, and whose main purpose is to break the peace, ethics and creed of humanity. No nation could keep up with them in terms of mischief and hypocrisy. It would be appropriate to call them “evil-commanding soul of humanity”. As the Quran remarks with the statement, “Duribat alayhimuz-zillatu wal maskanatu (shame and destitution were pitched on them)”, Jews were marked with a brand of shame and destitution that they could not be able to erase until Doomsday.

The Jews were appalled by the great development of Islam in a short time and their brains seemed to be cracked. Moreover, that many Jewish communities became Muslims drove them completely crazy. That fast and bright spread of Islam had to be stopped. At that rate, Islam would spread to the whole world and Judaism would disappear. Jewish existence of a few thousand years would come to an end. Jews faced such a “danger of extinction” with the advent of Christianity, six and a half centuries before Islam. At first, they made great efforts to eliminate Christianity, and later, when they realized that they could not defeat the members of that new religion by using force, they resorted to tricks and intrigue:

They used Saul, who was a scholar and philosopher of Jews, to demolish the basic foundations of Christianity and replace it with their own made-up superstitions. That clever Jewish gentleman, pretended to be converted to Christianity, and changed his name to Paul; he retired to a church and led an ascetic life for a long time. He strictly followed the rules of the Christian religion and gradually gained the trust of people. In the end, he gained the love and tolerance of Christians to such an extent that they began to respect him like an apostle. Paul knew well how to use that love in a very tricky way to corrupt Christianity. He succeeded in convincing people that he had met Christ (pbuh) and received instructions from Him. As a result of his intense and planned efforts, he managed both to make Christians deviate from their creed and worship and to bring about some false sects and groups. (2)

“Unity (oneness)” was replaced by “trinity”, that is, Christians started to attribute deity to the Jesus (pbuh) and to Mary, instead of one deity.

However, the danger the Jews encountered in the face of the rapid spread of Islam was much greater than before. It was impossible for Jews to resist this new religion because the development ability of Islam was extraordinary. The religion of Islam affected the hearts because it is compatible with reason and logic. It seemed certain that not only the Jews of Yemen but all Israelites would melt in the face of this rising Islamic sun. In that case, it needed to be prevented at any cost.

The trick, which was once planned against Christians, needed to be played against Muslims. They held long negotiations and finally put Ibn Saba on the stage in Madinah (3).

Ibn Saba established his destruction program on two main principles. First of all, he was to prevent the development of Islam by causing divisions among Muslims. In the second phase, he was to include superstitions in the Islamic belief and creed, and to create a difference of opinion among Muslims that would last until Doomsday. He was to establish secret committees to achieve those two goals and work intensely to eliminate the spirit of unity among Muslims by weakening the spiritual ties such as love and fraternity. After each stage of mischief, the situation was to be evaluated immediately, the results achieved with the planned targets were to be checked, new plans were to be made and put into effect in order to achieve new targets under changing and developing conditions.

Ibn Saba and his friends decided to disguise as sincere Muslims and virtuous believers in order to influence the people. In that phase, Ibn Saba managed to play his role in a unique way. He went to the mosque before anyone else in the morning prayers and left the mosque after everyone else at night. He prayed a lot, fasted most days and was always busy with dhikr. He made attractive speeches wherever he went and displayed himself as the most sincere and loyal worrier of Islam. He chatted a lot with the Companions, especially with Hz. Ali (ra) and made them trust in him. On the one hand, he showed his virtue and taqwa to people; on the other hand, he found outsiders who could not adapt to the environment and talked to them secretly. He influenced some of those people by benefitting from their ambition for office and position, some from their personal anger, and some from racial superiority, making them problematic individuals.

Afterwards, he decided to expand his activities outside Madinah and to provoke people against the caliphate by contacting the men he had previously sent there. Unfortunately, the social structure of that period was well suited to the spread of those destructive ideas. There were issues that could be exploited against the state. One of them was the Hashemite-Umayyad rivalry. The fact that the majority of the statesmen were from the Umayyads was a source of uneasiness and hence an important factor of provocation for the Hashemites. Another issue that can be used was that Muhajirs were given more duties than Ansar in state affairs.

Ibn Saba went on a trip to benefit from all those and similar opportunities. He went to Basra first. He established contacts with people who were not satisfied with the state there through his secret committee he had previously sent there. When his activities attracted the attention of the Governor Abdullah bin Amr, he went to Kufa. The fact that some people there were against the administration made things easier for Ibn Saba; he organized his secret committee in a short time and set off for Damascus. He could not find what he wanted in Damascus because the state affairs were regular and there were not many issues he could provoke. Then, he went to Egypt. Unfortunately, he found more than what he wanted there because there were various groups that were against the state administrators there. Ibn Saba gathered those scattered groups under one roof at the end of his great efforts and made them ready for action against Hz. Uthman.

After that stage, he became engaged in a new and intense activity to initiate an uprising against Hz. Uthman, the Caliph, by sending a list of slanders he prepared to his men in other Islamic provinces and gave them the following instruction: “Start by denigrating all the officials of the state. Enable people to see that you are engaged in ‘enjoining what is good and forbidding what is evil’. Earn the respect and love of the people.”

He constantly sent letters to various provinces and especially to Basra and Kufa. In those letters, he exaggerated administrative and political issues with lies and slanders. He tried to give the impression in those letters that Hz. Uthman and his governors oppressed and persecuted people and that all provinces were in a terrible disorder. His aim was to inculcate people with the idea that the regions except Madinah gradually moved away from the Islamic line, that anarchy became widespread in all Islamic regions, and that the caliph was indifferent to and incapable of solving those issues.

When news of sedition and mischief reached Medina, Hz. Uthman sent reliable and respected delegations to various provinces with the help of Hz. Ali to examine the situation. Those delegations stated in their reports that the situation was not as propagated, and that, on the contrary, peace and tranquility prevailed in the whole country. Hz. Uthman did not find the reports of the delegations enough and called all governors to Madinah for consultation. He exchanged ideas with them. There was really no major problem., However, as a precaution, he warned the governors to treat people well. Nevertheless, mischief did not stop because the enemy was secret and insidious, working based on a plan. There was no clear enemy to struggle. People were pushed into mischief more and more every day.

During those disorders, Ibn Saba founded the Sabaiyya madhhab, the first seed of Shia (4). Thus, he took a big step in realizing his treacherous plan. That madhhab would constitute the basis of the groups that would break up Islam in the future.

Ibn Saba found enough supporters in Egypt for the madhhab that he established and conditioned them against Hz. Uthman fully. Then, it was time to determine a new candidate for the caliphate and to kill Hz. Uthman. At that point, he started with the following plan: “Hz. Uthman was a flawed and faulty person. If anyone who would replace him was a flawed person, the problems would not be solved and oppression and injustice would not be prevented. In that case, the most important point was that the person to replace him had to be an innocent and infallible person. That infallible person was Hz. Ali, who grew up under the control of the Prophet (pbuh) since his childhood, became mature with his discipline and education, and inherited his knowledge and perfection. Every prophet had a vizier and Ali was the vizier of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). Hz. Abu Bakr, Hz. Umar and Hz. Uthman usurped his right of succession.”

In order to strengthen his cause, Ibn Saba portrayed Hz. Ali as one the heroes of old fairy tales, suggesting that he was a superhuman with some superstitions and stories; thus, he gradually made the people around him an admirer of Hz. Ali.

Ibn Saba implemented his plans stage by stage. It was to time to reclaim Hz. Ali’s right. He used the following method of inculcation to do it:  

“Every prophet has an heir. The Prophet (pbuh) appointed Hz. Ali (ra) as his heir. There can be no crime bigger than not fulfilling the will of the Prophet. Besides, the Prophet (pbuh) will come back to the earth like Jesus (pbuh) and ask, ‘Why did you not fulfill my will?’’ Then we will all be embarrassed and disappointed ... “(5)

When he influenced the feelings and excitement of the people well enough with such suggestions, he decided to raid Madinah and kill Hz. Uthman. Ibn Saba gathered his men, whom he mobilized by pretending to go to hajj, in Maywa near Madinah. They planned to enter Madinah at the earliest opportunity and try to kill Hz. Uthman.

In order to give the impression that the murder was committed by the Hashemites, the Egyptians were to gather around Hz. Ali and seemingly defend Ali’s right so that the Umayyads and the Hashemites would confront each other and hence a civil war would begin.

Ibn Saba had sent false letters with the signatures of Hz. Aisha, Hz. Ali, Hz. Talha and Hz. Zubayr to his men in centers such as Basra, Egypt and Kufa beforehand and wanted them to remove Hz. Uthman from the caliphate. The secret committees of Ibn Saba deceived many people with those letters. Thus, they got stronger and set out; they joined Ibn Saba’s group near Madinah. With those new forces, the number of Ibn Saba’s bandits reached around three thousand.

Egyptians applied to Hz. Ali, the people of Basra to Hz. Talha and the people of Kufa’a to Hz. Zubayr and said,

“We read your letters; we want to kill Osman, to restore the ummah back to peace and to make you to the head of the state.”

They said that such a letter had not been written by them, that there was a fraud about it and advised them return to their hometown immediately. This time, the rebels went to Hz. Uthman.

Thereupon, Hz. Uthman gathered the rebels and all people of Madinah in the mosque with the help of Ali. He listened to everyone’s complaints. He said to them:

“We will take your complaints into consideration; we will try to correct the issues that you think are wrong. Feel comfortable ...”

Meanwhile, the rebels demanded the removal of the Egyptian governor. Hz. Uthman asked them whom they wanted as the governor. They said,

“We want Abu Bakr’s son Muhammad.” Hz. Uthman accepted their request and appointed Muhammad at once.

Consequently, all parties began to return, having been satisfied. Ibn Saba was very disturbed by that situation. He prepared a devilish plan to make the returning Egyptian caravans come back to Madinah and to make them aggressors.

He wrote a letter addressing the governor of Egypt on behalf of Hz. Uthman.

He stamped a fake seal on behalf of Hz. Uthman and gave it to one of his militants and made him set off after the Egyptian caravan. He caught up with the caravan on his camel and drew attention to himself by doing some suspicious acts based on the plan. Eventually, the people in the caravan suspected that man and caught him; they found the letter. That was what the man wanted.

In the letter, the governor of Egypt was ordered as follows: “When these rebels come, kill their leaders and imprison the rest.” The rebels who found out what was written in that letter were suddenly shocked and agitated again; they raided Madinah again. Despite the efforts of Hz. Ali, Zubayr and Talha to calm them, they raided the house of Hz. Uthman and martyred him while he was reading the Quran.

The murderer of Hz. Uthman was al-Ghafiqi, a Yemenite Jew. With the martyrdom of Hz. Uthman, Ibn Saba covered a great distance on the way of his cause. The seeds of discord started to yield fruit. That deplorable incident prevented Muslims from spreading Islam to other countries. The period of conquest and conveying the message of Islam ended; a period of stagnation and conflict started.

After that stage, Ibn Saba prepared a new plan to make the Hashemites and the Umayyads fight each other. He provoked the Umayyads by spreading a rumor that Hz. Ali got Hz. Uthman killed and that he wanted to replace Hz. Uthman since Hz. Uthman was from the Umayyads and Hz. Ali was from the Hashemites. While the followers of Ibn Saba were slandering Ali like that, they were also trying openly to make Hz. Ali the Caliph; thus, they wanted to make people believe their slander

To this end, Ibn Saba chose a group of delegates led by Ibn Maymun, a Jew, from the caravan coming from Egypt and sent them to Hz. Ali. The delegates said to Hz. Ali, “As you know, the ummah has been left leaderless. You deserve to be the Caliph the most. We would like you to undertake this duty.” Hz. Ali refused their offer and sent them away.

When Hz. Ali responded to them like that, Ibn Saba sent a group of delegates from the people of Kufa to Hz. Zubayr and a group of delegates from the people of Basra to Hz. Talha. Both of them rejected their offer of being the Caliph just like Hz. Ali did.

When Ibn Saba could not get what he wanted from them, he said to Ghafiqi, who led the group of aggressors, “Gather all of the people of Madinah in the mosque and tell them to choose a Caliph at once. Otherwise, threaten all of them with your swords...”

The rebels led by Ghafiqi gathered the people of Madinah in the mosque as Ibn Saba ordered and said to them, “Choose a leader for yourselves immediately. If you do not do it today, we will kill you all with our swords including Ali, Zubayr and Talha.” Having heard that threat, the people of Madinah went to Hz. Ali and asked him to accept to be the Caliph. Considering the disorder and chaos, Hz. Ali had to accept their offer although he did not want to.

After a while, Hz. Talha and Hz. Zubayr went to Hz. Ali and asked him to act in accordance with the decrees of the Quran and punish the murderers of Hz. Uthman. Hz. Ali addressed them as follows:

“You are right but the state has not suppressed the rebels fully yet. It is necessary to wait until the state dominates fully...”

Hz. Ali (wanted to determine the criminals one by one, question them and then punish them. Hz. Aisha, Hz. Zubayr and Hz. Talha held this view:

“The mischief has increased and targeted the state; the Caliph was martyred. The issue is not the issue of finding the murderers of Hz. Uthman only. Most of those who joined this movement of mischief must be killed. Therefore, the rebels must be punished at once.”

Acting upon the verse in the Quran: “Wa la taziru waziratun wizra ukhra” (Nor can a bearer of burdens bear another’s burden)”, Hz. Ali said, “no one could be held responsible for the mistake of others”, and did not agree with them(4).

After finding out about the view of Hz. Ali, Hz. Zubayr and Hz. Talha went to Makkah and had a meeting with Hz. Aisha there. They decided to go to Basra in order to gather armed people to attack the rebels.   

When Hz. Ali found out that Hz. Aisha, Hz. Talha and Hz. Zubayr went to Basra, he left for Basra with his army because he did not want a break-up or separation in the state and encamped in a place called Ziqar. Hz. Ali sent an envoy called Qa’qa to Hz. Aisha, Hz. Talha and Hz. Zubayr to settle the issue peacefully; he told his envoy to tell them about the evil of dissension and separation, the importance of unity and accord, and the fact that it would be better to settle everything peacefully. Qa’qa went to Hz. Aisha, Hz. Talha and Hz. Zubayr and told them the views of Hz. Ali, explaining that the remedy for that disorder was calmness, and that after the calmness all kinds of measures could be taken and that otherwise there would be discord, mischief and disorder, which would cause great trouble among Muslims. They said, “If Ali holds those views, there is no disagreement between him and us.”

Both parties were pleased about the result. Thus, stability and calmness prevailed. Everybody went back to their tents.

Ibn Saba, the hypocrite, was very disturbed by this peace; he gathered his followers and said, “We must do something to start a fight and make Muslims kill each other. If we cannot do it, our efforts will be fruitless; we will not be able to reach our target.” They made a new plan to start a war. In accordance with the plan to be carried out very early in the morning, Ibn Saba positioned his men around the tents of Hz. Ali, and Hz. Zubayr and Hz. Talha. Later, they attacked the tents of both parties. Hz. Zubayr and Hz. Talha woke up to the noise and asked, “What is the matter? What is happening?” The men of Ibn Saba said, “Hz. Ali’s men (people of Kufa) attacked us at night.”

Thereupon, Hz. Talha and Hz. Zubayr said, “We see it now. Hz. Ali was not sincere when he wanted to prevent the war.” On the other hand, Hz. Ali, who heard the noise asked, “What is happening?”  The men of Ibn Saba said, “The other party attacked us at night and we drove them back.”  Hz. Ali said, “I see. Talha and Zubayr did not agree with us about peace.” Then, the Battle of Jamal, which claimed the lives of ten thousand people, took place. Hz. Talha and Hz. Zubayr were martyred. Thus, Ibn Saba covered a great distance toward his aim after the murder of Hz. Uthman.  

Hz. Ali stayed in Basra for a while after the Incident of Camel. Then, he went to Kufa from there. Most of the Muslims, from Morocco to the Chinese border paid allegiance to Hz. Ali (ra). Only Syrian Muslims did not pay allegiance.

Hz. Ali preferred the method of peace to ensure the allegiance of Muawiya, the Governor of Damascus, and hence Syria; he sent Muawiya a man named Jarir as an envoy.

Upon Hz. Ali’s attempt to settle the matter through peace, Ibn Saba, took action again as usual to block the way of peace because if peace was made, Hz. Ali would deal with the supporters of Ibn Saba as the first thing, and when the criminals were identified, their end would be very bad. Thus, if both sides were to made peace on a basis, the rebels would definitely be defeated. Therefore, they had to prevent peace and make the parties fight. Ibn Saba and his friends were waiting for something that would make things favorable for them. As a matter of fact, the course of events turned out to be favorable for them because Muawiya did not accept Hz. Ali’s offer. As a result, both sides completed their war preparations and confronted each other in Siffin in the month of Muharram.

However, Hz. Ali and Muawiya made a one-month ceasefire so as not to fight in that month. Hz. Ali sent delegations again to Muawiya for peace, taking advantage of the ceasefire.

Ibn Saba included his men such as the son of Adiyy b. Hatim and Sabt among the delegations that were sent in order to prevent war. Those men threatened Muawiya with an aggressive language and prevented a possible peace by uttering provocative words against him such as “You will be worse than those who were defeated in the Incident of Camel ...”.

On the other hand, Ibn Saba and his men were encouraging Hz. Ali’s army to start war as soon as possible and telling them, “The people of Damascus will be defeated like the ones in the Incident of Camel”. Consequently, the parties confronted each other again and the Battle of Siffin took place.

Ibn Saba was getting closer to his main purpose with those civil wars because his main purpose was to distort the creed of Islam by including superstitions in it.

The Believers who fought today could make peace tomorrow and re-establish Islamic unity by coming together again. It was necessary to cause a separation among Muslims that could continue until Doomsday, and to separate them in terms of belief and to divide them into factions. The most important thing to do then was to introduce superstitions into the religion in order to divert beliefs from its original form. Ibn Saba started it by exploiting the issue of “Ahl al-Bayt”. He took to the stage as the most ardent supporter of the Ahl al-Bayt. He spread the idea that the caliphate was the right of Hz. Ali and that it was unjustly usurped from him. He tried to show Hz. Ali and his children as a “Dynasty of Gods” and make the religion of Islam deviate from the principle of oneness, just like Christianity. Finally, a group led by Ibn Saba, entered into the presence of Hz. Ali and said to him: “You are our Lord; you are our God.” Hz. Ali had some of those polytheists burned.(6) He gave up the idea of making Ibn Saba burned fearing that it would cause mischief and weakness due to the large number of his followers in the army. He exiled Ibn Saba to Madayin, Iran’s former center of administration.

Unfortunately, Madayin was a very suitable place for the production of the heretic ideas of Ibn Saba. Ibn Saba met with Kharijites who had once escaped from Hz. Ali there, and found their leader, Ibn Abi Awfa. When he realized that Ibn Abi Awfa wanted to act against Ali, he said to him: “You cannot defeat Ali with such an action; you will be defeated.” When Ibn Abi Awfa asked Ibn Saba for his opinion, he said, “We will do it with three assassins.”

After that talk, they agreed on the assassination of Hz. Ali, Muawiya and Amr Ibn al-As. They sent three assassins to kill them. They planned to kill three Companions on the 17th day of Ramadan when they would lead the morning prayer. As a twist of fate, Muawiya and Amr Ibn al-As survived the assassination attempt. However, the assassin named Ibn Muljam managed to wound Hz. Ali with a poisonous sword, which caused his martyrdom.

After sending Ibn Muljam to assassinate Hz. Ali, Ibn Saba sent Ibn Maymun to Kufa with a few of his men. The duty of Ibn Maymun there was to spread superstitions such as “Ali did not die; he was raised to the sky. Now, he is above the clouds. He will return soon and distribute justice in the world with his sword ...”

Together with his close friends, Ibn Saba prepared the plans of treacherous activities in Iran and started to work. The social situation of that day was very convenient for them to implement those plans:

Islam had spread to a wide area in a very short time. It was an extraordinarily difficult task for the newly established Islamic State to convey all the meanings and subtleties, wisdom and truths of Islam to the nations that had just accepted Islam, and to absorb different tribes with different temperaments in the melting pot of Islam. There was mass participation in Islam in the places where Islam reached. That situation made Muslims happy but the spiritual improvement was inadequate; ideal Muslims could not be brought up. Therefore, the Muslims could not unite in the desired way in the ideal sense and in terms of way of life. Layers of people were like uncultivated land. It was evident particularly in Iran.

The newly converted Muslims were not fully free of their old false beliefs. It was quite difficult for those people whose souls, minds, and hearts were shaped by being under the influence of centuries-old wrong and superstitious beliefs, to accept the clear and pure truths of Islam, which was far from delusions, falsehood and superstitions. Islam could not be properly absorbed by those bigoted people; the true religion could not settle in their hearts and feelings fully. Psychologically, they wanted to continue their old beliefs, customs and traditions along with Islam.

On the other hand, the caliphate could not provide the service of warning and guidance all over the Islamic land at the required level. The service of establishing Islam with all its institutions in those towns and to remove the doubts and hesitations of people was insufficient. For, Islam spread over a wide area; most of the Companions died in internal strife; some of them preferred to live in reclusion; others were too old to interfere with social life.

As a result of the neglect of that important task, those new towns were left unattended for a long time. The people there could not fully understand the truths of the Quran and faith with the first enlightenment and knowledge they received at the time of conquest. Therefore, they were not yet in a position to distinguish between the right and the wrong, superstitions and realities.

Tricky Jews managed to take advantage of that social situation.

An important factor in Ibn Saba’s establishing of negative ideas in Iran was the psychological nature of the people. Feeling rather than mind dominated their inner world. Their hearts were more open to legends and superstitions than the truth. They could not analyze events in compliance with logic and reasoning, and could not meditate on them properly.

On the other hand, they could not accept the elimination of their centuries-long reign and national pride by Arabs, whom they once regarded as slaves; they accepted Islam in their minds but they could not accept it fully in terms of their feelings.  

Ibn Saba knew how to evaluate all those factors. He gathered his friends and addressed them as follows:

“We have just started the real war. Be aware that it is a war that will continue among Muslims until Doomsday. Now, we will sanctify Ali and make others sanctify him. We will sometimes ascribe him ‘divinity’ and we will sometimes say he is a ‘prophet’. We will tell people that ‘the caliphate was the right of Ali, but that Abu Bakr, Umar and Uthman usurped his right’.”

After making that decision, Ibn Saba and his friends assigned their man the duty of spreading those ideas. They started to tell people the following: “The caliphate was the right of Ali. Ali and his children are worthy of the caliphate. That right was usurped from them. The three caliphs, especially Umar, opposed the will of Allah by usurping that right. It is necessary to support Ali in order to obey Allah’s will.” When those ideas were accepted by people, they went further and made an effort to include the “Creed of Incarnation”, which attributes divinity to humans, in Islam. They started to spread a belief that was totally opposite to the creed of tawhid (oneness) by diverting the belief of Islam from its original form. The “Creed of Incarnation” was also present in the old religions of Iranians. Therefore, that wrong belief found supporters easily among them.

First, they attributed divinity to Hz. Ali. Then, they claimed that this divinity also passed on to his descendants, and as a result, a dynasty of gods emerged in Iran.

When Hz Ali died, Ibn Saba said, “It is not Ali who died, but a devil disguised as Ali. Ali has now ascended to the heavens and established a throne on the clouds.” Thus, he made an interpretation of his death in parallel with the creed of incarnation.

Thus, Shiism, whose seed was grown with the establishment of the “Sabaiyya Madhhab” in Egypt, started to grow and develop in Iran. More than twenty branches emerged from it.

Footnotes:

1. After the Romans expelled the Jews from Palestine in the 70s AD, the tribes of the Jews settled in Arabia, Hejaz and Yemen; they considered those places the Second “Promised Land”. In a short time, they seized the wealth and property of those regions; on the one hand, they were trying to spread Judaism and on the other hand, they exploited the people as much as they could. When the ruler of Yemen accepted Judaism, the Jews started to make their presence felt in Yemen. However, the emergence and rapid spread of Islam worried them. As a matter of fact, with the spread of Islam in and around Hejaz, they were expelled from there as defeated and overwhelmed. That defeat of the Jews in Makkah and Madinah by the Muslims offended the Jews of Yemen deeply.

2. Abdullah Ibn Saba was a chief rabbi and a great secret militant. He came to Madinah from Yemen during the caliphate of Hz. Uthman and became a Muslim in appearance. He started to sow the first seeds of mischief and conflict there. He made great efforts to destroy Islam from within. The purpose of that Jewish convert was to deviate the religion of Islam by spoiling the Islamic creed, just as Paul did to Christianity, and to make Muslims superstitious people and dreamers. We should immediately state that the hostility of Jews to the religion of Islam started with the birth of the Prophet (pbuh). They were waiting for the advent of the Prophet of the End Times, inspired by the Torah, but they thought that he would come from their own nation. Contrary to their thoughts, when the Prophet of the End Times came from Quraysh, it provoked their grudge and envy. Despite all their efforts, both when the Messenger of Allah was alive and during the caliphate of Hz. Abu Bakr and Hz. Umar, they did not succeed in causing even the slightest mischief among the Muslims. They found some opportunities toward the end of the caliphate of Hz. Uthman. Ibn Saba also managed to make the best use of those opportunities.

Note: It was prepared from Mehmet KIRKINCI’s book titled “Alevilik Nedir?”.

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