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Marriage Quotes and Sayings
This a collection of Marriage Quotes, which are mostly funny. Please don’t take it too seriously.
Starting with my Favorite Marriage Quote which is by Mignon McLaughlin:
“A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person.”
A man in love is incomplete until he has married. Then he’s finished.
~Zsa Zsa Gabor
I love being married. It’s so great to find that one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life.
~Rita Rudner
Marriage is like a phone call in the night: first the ring, and then you wake up.
~Evelyn Hendrickson
A psychiatrist asks a lot of expensive questions your wife asks for nothing.
~Joey Adams
Do not pray to marry the one that you love, but to love the one that you marry.
~Spencer Kimball
Marriage is when a man and woman become as one; the trouble starts when they try to decide which one.
~Anonymous
Let men tremble to win the hand of woman, unless they win along with it the utmost passion of her heart.
~Nathaniel Hawthorne
A good marriage is the union of two good forgivers.
~Ruth Bell Graham
Man’s best possession is a sympathetic wife.
~Euripedes Antigone
Marriage is the only war where you sleep with the enemy.
~Gary Busey
Bachelors know more about women than married men; if they didn’t they’d be married too.
~H.L. Mencken
An archaeologist is the best husband a woman can have. The older she gets, the more interested he is in her.
~Agatha Christie
Men marry because they are tired; women because they are curious. Both are disappointed.
~Oscar Widle
Marry’d in haste, we oft repent at leisure.
~Benjamin Franklin
Marriage is a land mine. A really intimate land mine. Adultery to kitchen fires. Never a dull moment.
~Nora Roberts
Getting married is a lot like getting into a tub of hot water. After you get used to it, it ain’t so hot.
~Minnie Pearl
The institution of marriage itself strikes me as being in no trouble at all.
How many things do 95 Percent of people do? They should have a Defense of Voting Act.
~Robert Lang
Can you imagine a world without men? No crime and lots of happy, fat women.
~Marion Smith
Marriage is give and take. You’d better give it to her or she’ll take it anyway.
~Joey Adams
The best way to remember your wife’s birthday is to forget it once.
~H.V. Prochnow
Love is blind, marriage is the eye-opener.
~ Pauline Thomason
I haven’t spoken to my wife in years. I didn’t want to interrupt her.
~Rodney Dangerfield
All marriages are happy. It’s the living together afterward that causes all the trouble.
~Raymond Hull
Those marriages generally abound most with love and constancy that are preceded by a long courtship.
~Joseph Addison
A good marriage is a contest of generosity.
~Diane Sawyer
Why does a woman work ten years to change a man’s habits and then complain that he’s not the man she married?
~Barbra Streisand
The man who says his wife can’t take a joke, forgets that she took him.
~Oscar Wilde
Marriage is like life in this – that it is a field of battle, and not a bed of roses.
~R L Stevenson
When a man opens the car door for his wife, it’s either a new car or a new wife.
~Prince Philip
The Japanese have a word for it.
It’s Judo — the art of conquering by yielding.
The Western equivalent of judo is, ‘Yes, dear.’
J. P. McEvoy
In olden times, sacrifices were made at the altar, a practice that still continues.
~ Helen Rowland
The secret of a happy marriage remains a secret
~ Henny Youngman
We have the greatest pre-nuptial agreement in the world. It’s called love.
~Gene Perret
Marriage has many pains, but celibacy has no pleasures.
~Samuel Johnson
No man is regular in his attendance at the House of Commons until he is married
~ Benjamin Disraeli
I take my wife everywhere, but she keeps finding her way back.
~ Henny Youngman
One good husband is worth two good wives; for the scarcer things are, the more they are valued.
~Benjamin Franklin
In Hollywood a marriage is a success if it outlasts milk.
~ Rita Rudner
My wife and I were happy for twenty years. Then we met.
~ Rodney Dangerfield
Bachelors know more about women than married men; if they didn’t, they’d be married too.
~ H.L. Mencken
Husbands are like fires. They go out if unattended.
Zsa Zsa Gabor
A parting Joke:
What’s the difference between in-laws and out-laws?
Out-laws are wanted!
Father’s Quotes
“It is a wise father that knows his own child.”
~ William Shakespeare
“A father is a banker provided by nature.”
~Latest Proverb
“A father is a fellow who has replaced the currency in his wallet with the snapshots of his kids.”
~Unknown
Here is one funny father’s day quote:
“Never raise your hand to your kids. It leaves your groin unprotected.”
~Unknown
“One father is more than a hundred schoolmasters. ”
~ George Herbert
“My father was often angry when I was most like him.”
~Lillian Hellman
“The older I get, the smarter my father seems to get.”
~Tim Russert
“I talk and talk and talk, and I haven’t taught people in 50 years what my father taught by example in one week.”
~Mario Cuomo
“By the time a man realizes that maybe his father was right, he usually has a son who thinks he’s wrong. ”
~Charles Wadsworth
“I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father’s protection.”
~Sigmund Freud
The father who does not teach his son his duties is equally guilty with the son who neglects them. ”
~Confucius
Here is a father’s day quote from the bible.
The proverbs of Solomon. A wise son maketh a glad father: but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother. ~Proverbs 10:1
“It is not flesh and blood but the heart, which makes us fathers and sons.”
~ Johann Schiller
“My father was very strong. I don’t agree with a lot of the ways he brought me up. I don’t agree with a lot of his values, but he did have a lot of integrity, and if he told us not to do something, he didn’t do it either.”
~ Madonna
“The joys of parents are secret, and so are their griefs and fears.”
~ Francis Bacon, Sr.
“The father who does not teach his son his duties is equally guilty with the son who neglects them.”
~ Confucius
Here are details of some men and women who mocked God……..
DID YOU KNOW THESE FACTS?
Tancredo Neves (President of Brazil ):
During the Presidential campaign, he said if he got 500,000 votes from his party, not even God would remove him from Presidency.
Sure he got the votes, but he got sick a day before being made President, then he died.
Cazuza (Bio-sexual Brazilian composer, singer and poet):
During A show in Canecio ( Rio de Janeiro ), while smoking his cigarette, he puffed out some smoke into the air and said:’God, that’s for you.’
He died at the age of 32 of LUNG CANCER in a horrible manner.
The man who built the Titanic
After the construction of Titanic, a reporter asked him how safe the Titanic would be.
With an ironic tone he said: ‘Not even God can sink it’
The result: I think you all know what happened to the Titanic
Bon Scott (Singer)
The ex-vocalist of the AC/DC.
On one of his 1979 songs he sang:
‘Don’t stop me; I’m going down all the way, down the highway to hell’.
On the 19th of February 1980, Bon Scott was found dead, he had been choked by his own vomit.
In Campinas , Brazil a group of friends, drunk, went to pick up a friend…..
The mother accompanied her to the car and was so worried about the drunkenness of her friends and she said to the daughter holding her hand, who was already seated in the car:
‘My Daughter, Go With God And May He Protect You.’
She responded: ‘Only If He (God) Travels In The Trunk, Cause Inside Here…..It’s Already Full ‘
Hours later, news came by that they had been involved in a fatal accident, everyone had died,
the car could not be recognized what type of car it had been, but surprisingly, the trunk was intact.
The police said there was no way the trunk could have remained intact. To their surprise, inside the trunk was a crate of eggs, none was broken
Hope that you don’t ignore and let Allah {God} bless you.
And remember seek Him whilst He may be found!!!
“Do not walk proudly on the earth; your feet cannot tear apart the earth nor are you as tall as the mountains
(Holy Qur’an, 17:37).”
“He {God} does not love the proud ones
(Holy Qur’an, 16:23).”
“Is not hell the dwelling of the arrogant ones?
(Holy Qur’an, 39:60)”
Leave alone those who take their religion to be mere play and amusement, and are deceived by the life of this world. But proclaim (to them) this (truth): that every soul delivers itself to ruin by its own acts: it will find for itself no protector or intercessor except Allah. If it offered every ransom, (or reparation), none will be accepted: such is (the end of) those who deliver themselves to ruin by their own acts: they will have for drink (only) boiling water, and for punishment, one most grievous: for they persisted in rejecting Allah. {Holy Qur’an, 6:70}
Stay Calm, Dad
Stay Calm, Dad
A 5-year-old talks on the phone with 911 while her dad is having difficultly breathing. Don’t leave too soon. This little girl is not only smart, but very funny.
No War for Israel in Iran – Keep Americans Safe – David Duke
Cricket World Cup Schedules in a Great Format
Bahrain Story
Basics about the Feb 14 2011 Revolution in Bahrain
Four Historical Events of this Day of 9th Rabi al-Awwal:
1]Narrators of history suggest four historic events which mark the day of 9th Rabi al-Awwal as significant. Firstly, some historians are of the opinion that the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was born on the 9th of Rabi al-Awwal. There are two other opinions: 12th Rabi al-Awwal and 17th Rabi al-Awwal respectively. For the Shia’s, the most popular narration is the one which states that the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was born on the 17th Rabi al-Awwal 570 AD.
Whatever the case, the date does not make a big difference. Because Ayatullah Ruhullah Musawi al-Khomeini (ra), the founder of the Islamic revolution had declared the week between 9th and 17th Rabi al-Awwal as “Usboo al-Wahda” meaning “the week of unity amongst Muslims.” Muslims all over the world are urged to get together and celebrate (Eid-E-Milad un Nabi) the birth of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) for the whole week
2.Secondly, in regards to the importance of this day, it is noted that the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) himself was seen smiling and ‘celebrating’ once in the gathering in the city of Madinah on this day while in the presence of Imams Ali, Imam Hassan and Imam Hussain (as) and said, “It is on this day that Allah (SWT) will destroy your enemies and the enemies of your grandfather and it is on this day when Allah (SWT) will accept the actions of your Shia and those who love you. This is the day when the words of Allah (SWT) came true where He said (in the Glorious Qur’an): ‘So those are the houses fallen down because they were unjust …’ (27:52). And this is the day when the Pharaoh (Firawn) of the time of the Ahlul Bayt was destroyed …”
3.Thirdly, the 9th of Rabi al-Awwal is also known as Eid-E-Zahra meaning the festival of Fatima al-Zahra (sa), because 3 to 4 years after the tragedy of Karbala, it was on this day that joy and happiness was restored in the family of Ahlul Bayt (as). From the tragedy of Karbala in 61 AH till this day, the family members of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) had continuously mourned and grieved the martyrdom of Imam Hussain (as).
Then Mukhtar ibn Ubaydullah al-Thaqafi, together with Ibrahim ibn Malik al-Ashtar and others rose to avenge the blood of Imam Hussain (as). They arrested every killer of karbala and executed them. Finally, Mukhtar arrested Umar ibn Saad ibn abi Waqqas (commander-in-chief of Yazeed’s army at Karbala) and Ubaydullah ibn Ziyad (governor of Yazeed in Kufa). He beheaded them and sent their heads to Imam Ali ibn al-Hussain al-Zainul Abideen (as) in Madina. These two heads reached the Imam Ali ibn al-Hussain al-Zainul Abideen (as) on the 9th Rabi al-Awwal and on seeing them, Imam (as) went into prostration (Sajda-E-Shukr) and said, “I thank Allah (SWT) who kept me alive to this day so that I could see the heads of the tyrants who killed my father.” Imam Ali ibn al-Hussain al-Zainul Abideen (as) then instructed the members of his family to remove the clothes of mourning, adorn themselves and celebrate the day with joy and happiness.
Umar ibn Saad ibn abi Waqqas (la), the killer of Imam Hussain (as) was the wretched criminal who was the first one to shoot an arrow towards Imam Hussain (as) on the 9th of Muharram al-Haram 61 AH, thus formally starting the war against Imam Hussain (as)! And he proclaimed, “O people of Kufa and Shaam, be witness hereto on the Day of Judgment, that I am the one who is the first to shoot an arrow at Hussain”! And saying this, he shot the arrow! Later, Imam Hussain (as) told them [the army of Yezeed whose commander-in-chief was this Umar ibn Saad ibn abi Waqqas (la)] after delivering an eye-opening Khutbah (sermon), that he needs to have a night for prayers!
Mukhtar ibn Ubaydullah al-Thaqafi announced the aims of his revolution in Masjid-E-Kufa, “I will conform to Allah’s Book and to His Prophet’s Sunnah. I will take the revenge on Imam Hussain’s killers. I will fight against those who have broken Allah’s laws. I will defend the weak against the strong.” It is only the lucky ones who have the opportunity to celebrate this Eid! This was the day; when for the first time after the massacre of his father Imam Hussain (as) and his companions that our 4th Imam, Imam Ali ibn al-Hussain al-Zainul Abideen (as) smiled! Is this not enough an excuse to celebrate? For, our joys are with the joys of Masoomeen (infallible) and our grief and sorrows are for them alone!
Hence, 9th of Rabi al-Awwal is the day of glory, honour, dignity and blessings. It is a great Eid day also named as “Eid-E-Shuja.”
4.Fourth or finally, 9th Rabi al-Awwal is the first day of the Imamate of our living Imam, al-Hujjat ibn Hassan al-Askari [may Allah (SWT) hasten his return] – a day of rejoicing and celebration.
It is true that an Imam is an Imam from birth but every Imam assumed the official role of his Imamate after the death of the previous Imam. The reason why we celebrate, in particular, the Imamate of our living Imam, al-Hujjat ibn Hassan al-Askari [may Allah (SWT) hasten his return] is to perhaps remind ourselves of his presence and about our responsibilities towards him. His father and our 11th Imam, Imam Hassan Askari (as) passed away on the 8th of Rabi al-Awwal 260 AH and our 12th Imam Muhammad al-Mahdi [may Allah (SWT) hasten his return] assumed his Imamate formally at a young age of 5 years on the 9th Rabi al-Awwal 260 AH.
We pray to Allah (SWT) to keep us firm on His path, and to always protect us from negligence in discharging our duties towards Him and our living Imam Muhammad al-Mahdi [may Allah (SWT) hasten his return], and to also include us among the Imam Muhammad al-Mahdi [may Allah (SWT) hasten his return] helpers and companions – Elahi Ameen.
One of the ways which we can strive to be amongst the companions of our living Imam Muhammad al-Mahdi [may Allah (SWT) hasten his return] is to follow the responsibilities which rest upon us, including the recitation of Dua al-Ahd (the Pledge) every morning in which we proclaim: “O’ Allah, truly I renew on the dawn of this day and all the days of the remainder of my life my pledge, covenant and allegiance to him, as my obligation, which I shall neither contravene, nor neglect … O’ Allah include me among his helpers, defenders, those fulfilling his wishes and commands, his defenders, the fore-runners to carry out his intentions and those to be martyred in his presence … O’ Allah: make him the refuge for Your oppressed servants; a helper for him who has no other helper besides You; the reviver of the commandments of Your book which have been neglected; the strengthener of the sciences in Your religion, and the traditions of Your Prophet. May Allah’s
blessing be upon him and his progeny.”
Hadith about Imam Muhammad al-Mahdi [may Allah (SWT) hasten his return]:”The world will not come to an end,” said the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), “until a man from my family (Ahlul Bayt) and of my name shall be master of the world, When you see a green ensign coming from the direction of Khorasan, then join them, for the Imam of God will be with the standards who will be called Al-Mahdi.”
Last but not least: Ahmad ibn Ishaq al-Qummi was a great companion of our 11th Imam, Imam Hassan Askari (as). On the 9th Rabi al-Awwal, Muhammad Hamadani and Yahya Baghdadi came to visit him and were informed that Ahmad ibn Ishaq al-Qummi was busy performing Ghusl (Ablution) for that day. When they inquired what the Ghusl was about, they were told that Ahmad ibn Ishaq al-Qummi had heard from 10th Imam, Imam Hadi (as), who said: “9th of Rabi al-Awwal is the day of Eid. It is our greatest Eid and the Eid of our followers.”
After performing his Ghusl Ahmad ibn Ishaq al-Qummi said to the two visiting men: “I have performed Ghusl because today is the Eid of 9th Rabi al-Awwal. I visited Imam Hassan Askari (as) on this day and noticed that his ring was shinning. The people of his household wore new clothes and had applied perfume. When I asked the reason, Imam Hassan Askari (as) said, ‘Today is 9th Rabi al-Awwal. It is the day of Eid for us and for our followers'”. (Chauda Sitaare)
ILTEMAS E DUA
Shiah Islam in Sunni Traditions
PESHAWAR NIGHTS
Click on the picture to view the Table of Contents.
by
Sultanu’l-Wa’izin Shirazi
Translated from the Persian by Hamid Quinlan and Charles Ali Campbell
Published 1996 by Pak Books, P.O. Box EE, Palisades, NY 10964
Reproduced with permission by the Ahlul Bayt Digital Islamic Library Project team
Who Wrote the History of Islam and How?
http://www.al-islam.org/restatement/75.htm
HISTORY, IT HAS BEEN SAID, IS THE PROPAGANDA OF THE VICTORIOUS PARTY.
What this means is that in any conflict, the victor can manipulate history just as it pleases him, and there is nothing that the vanquished can do about it. The victorious party can cook up a story and broadcast it as the absolute truth without any fear of being challenged by anyone. It has not only the power to cook up its own story; it also has the power to spike the story of an opposing party.
M. Shibli, the dean of India’s Sunni historians of Islam, writes in his famous biography of Prophet Muhammad, Sira-tun-Nabi, volume I, 4th printing, published by the Maarif Printing Press, Azamgarh, U.P., India, in 1976:
“Among all those extraneous forces which affect and influence the writing of history, none is more powerful than the government. But it will always be a source of pride for the Muslims that their pen was never subdued by the sword. Work on the compilation and collation of Hadith was begun in the times of the Banu Umayya. For full 90 years, from Sind in India (Indo-Pakistan) to Asia Minor and Andalusia in Spain, Ali and the children of Fatima were cursed from every pulpit in every mosque after every Friday sermon. Thousands and thousands of hadith (traditions; statements of the Prophet) glorifying Muawiya, were manufactured, and were put into circulation. In the times of the Abbasis, hadith were invented foretelling the birth and the excellence of each (Abbasi) khalifa by name. But what was the result of all this stupendous effort? The traditionalists (the collectors of the statements of the Prophet) declared publicly at the same time (during the caliphates of the Umayyads and the Abbasis) that all these hadith were spurious, and they rejected them. Today, we are proud to say that the science of hadith is free from all that filth and garbage.”
Almost but not quite!
In the case of innumerable hadith, the attempt to excise a false report from hadith literature, or to correct it, never caught up with the original untruths.
Even after expurgation, if there was one, that part of the hadith literature which relates to the personal life of Muhammad, the blessed Prophet of Islam, is full of the quaint, the curious, the fanciful and the false. There are many hadith which make him appear as lustful and licentious; vindictive and cruel; opportunistic and unprincipled; and treacherous and unethical. Then there are some other traditions which can only be called smutty.
But the evidence of history runs counter to such characterization of Muhammad. He could have been all these things but he was not. It is important, therefore, for Muslims and non-Muslims alike, to separate bunk and junk from fact and truth in studying the history of Islam.
How did such “traditions” which defy commonsense and logic, insinuate their way into the hadith literature, and how were the deeds and statements which can only be called shocking, attributed to the man whose real life was the epitome of all purity, truthfulness, sincerity and simplicity?
Shibli has made a rather perfunctory attempt to answer this question in the passage quoted above. He says that the most powerful extraneous “agent” influencing the writing of history in the times of the Umayyads and the Abbasis (661-1258) was the government. The government in those days had the power to get history written to its own “specifications.” Both dynasties felt they were free to distort history or to suppress history, and whenever they believed it was in their interest to do so – to invent ‘history.’ Whereas many hadith were invented for political reasons, there were also those hadith which were invented for sensual reasons. The sybarites of the courts of Damascus and Baghdad sought “sanction” for their own pleasures in these hadith.
A hadith means a statement. If a man saw the Prophet doing something or he heard him saying something, and then he reported it to others, it would be called a hadith or a tradition. The companions considered it their duty to preserve all the traditions of the Prophet for the benefit of the Muslim umma for all time.
A hadith could also be a comment of the Prophet on some person. If he paid a compliment to any of his companions, or if he criticized someone, his remarks gained wide publicity among the Muslims. During the khilafat of Muawiya, many of these hadith were in circulation. He was quick to grasp their importance, and he decided to make them a political weapon in his campaign against Ali ibn Abi Talib and the Banu Hashim.
Muawiya who was the founder of the Umayyad dynasty, won for himself another “distinction.” He founded the “cottage industry” for the production of hadith. His successors, and after them, the Abbasi khalifas, patronized the “industry” which for a long time was busy churning out hadith. Though Shibli claims that hadith was expurgated by highly critical, perceptive and analytic censors, there was much that escaped detection by them, and is accepted today as genuine by a vast majority of Muslims.
Muawiya appointed a team of men to make up statements favorable to himself and to the other enemies of Ali, and to attribute them to the Apostle of God as his own hadith. At the same time, he suppressed or tried to suppress the genuine hadith which were complimentary to Ali, and ordered his team to manufacture hadith derogatory to him. The members of this team concocted hadith of both varieties, and he put them into circulation.
After the death of Muawiya, this campaign was carried on by his successors. Their “ghost-writers,” “public relations personnel,” and “image-makers” skillfully blended fake hadith with genuine hadith, and synthetic history with factual history, hoping that the “mix” would “jell,” as part of the sacred lore of the Muslims.
Muawiya had one more reason for going into the business of “hadith-production.” He knew that the generations of the future would judge every Muslim ruler against the ideal ruler – Muhammad. He knew too that if they did, they would find him poles apart from Muhammad. He was also aware that no matter what he did, he could never rise as high as Muhammad; he knew in fact that he could not reach the heights attained even by the slaves of Muhammad. But it occurred to him that though it was not possible for him to reach the sublime plane on which Muhammad stood, it was possible for him to bring him (Muhammad) down to the plane on which he (Muawiya) stood by the simple process of tarnishing his (Muhammad’s) reputation, so that he too would look like other mortals.
Muawiya hoped that the indictment of the historians against him would be less severe if it was shown to them that even the most perfect man – Muhammad, God’s Own Messenger – was not altogether free from blemishes of character. Clearly, much of the content of hadith literature was a conspiracy for the character assassination of Muhammad, the Messenger of God.
Muawiya and the other entrepreneurs of his “cottage industry” were “successful” in their attempt at the character assassination of Muhammad. They interspersed hadith literature with countless stories, anecdotes and “incidents” the intent of all of which was to make Muhammad look, in the eyes of posterity, less than prophetic.
Following is a sample of one of the “printable” traditions which has come down to us. It is quoted by Hakim Muhammad Saeed in an article published by the Hamdard Academy, Karachi, Pakistan, in 1972, in a book called Tazkar-i-Muhammad:
“Shortly after their marriage, Muhammad, the Apostle of God, suggested to his new bride, Ayesha, that both of them run in a race. Ayesha was thin and lean, and she easily outran her husband. Some years later, the Apostle challenged Ayesha to run against him once again. (She had put on weight during the years since the first race). Both of them ran, and this time the Apostle outran her. His comment: ‘Last time you were the winner, O Humayra (Ayesha’s nickname) but this time I have won, and now the score between us is even.'” (Perhaps the defeat in the first race had rankled in the mind of the Apostle all these years.)
Muhammad, the Apostle of God, was 54 years old when he ran in a race against a girl of 9 or 10, and he lost; and he was 60 years old when he ran against her a second time, and won!
Muslims are very jealous of the dignity of their Prophet. Is this “tradition” which most of them believe to be true, a portrait of that dignity?
It appears that the “foremen” and the “production managers” whom Muawiya had appointed in his “hadith factories,” had only one love, and that was quantity. They had geared the “industry” only to mass produce “traditions.” It is obvious that they had no interest in the “quality control” of their products. They planted lies in their books, and each lie left in its wake, as it invariably does, “a drop of poison,” that polluted the minds of generations of Muslims. Some of their products are extremely crude. They are, in fact, unprintable. The critics and the enemies of the Prophet, inevitably, have shown great eagerness in accepting them as authentic, and they have quoted them in their books.
These critics and enemies of the Prophet have not, however, taken into account those facts the authenticity of which is beyond any question. For example, they overlooked the fact that in Makkah, the Quraysh had offered to him the most beautiful woman or women as a quid pro quo if he would give up preaching Islam. They also forgot the fact that Muhammad was the sovereign of Medina, and that he could have married any girl. The Arab chiefs would have been proud to give him their daughters.
The Prophet married many women in Medina but most of them were widows, and they were not very young either. With the exception of Khadija, all the other women entered his household when he was in his mid-fifties or late fifties. They entered his life at a time when the spring and the bounce and the sheen and the vigor of his youth had long since departed, and their place was taken by the ever-growing burdens of an ever-growing State, and other problems of superlative complexity and magnitude, leaving him little time or inclination for such dalliance as is reported in many of the “traditions.”
For the compilation of hadith, Muawiya had given the following orders:
1. All the traditions of the Prophet in praise of Ali or upholding his superiority in any way, should be suppressed.
2. Any man narrating the virtues of Ali or quoting the hadith of the Prophet in this regard, would do so at his own risk. His subsidies and stipends would be withheld from him. His house and other property would be confiscated. His testimony as a witness would not be accepted in the courts, and he would be ostracized by other Muslims.
3. On the other hand, every conceivable virtue should be attributed to Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, and of course, to Muawiya himself. People should be encouraged to make up “hadith” of the Prophet in praise of these four men and their friends. Whoever invents such hadith, would become a favorite at the royal court, and would receive rich rewards in rank or cash or estates etc.
Concurrently with the founding of his “cottage industry” for manufacturing “hadith” of the Prophet, Muawiya also set up a “brain laundry” for the Muslims. He instituted the practice of anathematizing the memory of Ali and his children from the pulpit in every mosque in his empire so that the Muslim children were born, they grew up, and they died hearing curses upon Ali, and not knowing who he was. Whole generations lived and died in ignorance. Falsehoods were put into circulation by the government on a scale so vast that they became the staple of their lives. Muawiya and his successors kept their “brain laundries” just as busy as their “cottage industry.”
Muawiya mobilized every means for waging propaganda war against Ali and the Banu Hashim. The momentum of the blitz he launched against them, has lasted down to our own times. He waged his war from the mosques. The prayer-leaders in them were paid to put weird and fantastic interpretations upon the verses of Qur’an in an attempt to show Ali at a disadvantage. They tried to convince the rank-and-file Muslims that it would be in their interest “in both worlds” if they supported Muawiya against Ali and the Banu Hashim.
Michael C. Hudson
Incumbents have the advantage of the media and educational arms of the state, and they control through subsidies the religious establishment itself. (Islam and Development, p. 16, 1980)
It must now be clear to the reader that the history of Islam was written under the direction of the party which held all the instruments of power in its hands. It must also be obvious to him that much of the historical material was “laundered” at the “brain laundries” established by Muawiya before it got into his hands. Muawiya was a most consummate master of the art of propaganda.
Sir John Glubb
The full effects of propaganda have not yet become plain, yet it is already obvious that whole nations can be indoctrinated with wrong opinions and evil moral standards. Few, if any, minds are strong enough to resist the ideas constantly projected at them. (The Course of Empire – The Arabs and Their Successors, 1965)
If any hadith of the Prophet of Islam was complimentary to Ali, its narration was placed under proscription by Muawiya. This proscription was not lifted when he died in 680. It was not lifted even when his dynasty, the Umayyads, perished in 750, and it was not lifted even through the long centuries of the caliphate of the Abbasis.
The Abbasis exterminated the Umayyads but they shared with them their animosity to Ali and to the children of Muhammad. In this matter, the aims and interests of the governments of Saqifa, the Umayyads, and the Abbasis converged; there was ideological compatibility among them all.
The Umayyads and the Abbasis did their utmost to suppress the facts of history. Many of their khalifas had forbidden their subjects to say or to write anything about Ali except falsehoods. Truth was under a siege and falsehood was rampant in their dominions. And yet, Truth asserted itself.
Truth has (now) arrived, and falsehood perished: For falsehood is (by its nature) bound to perish. (Qur’an. Chapter 17; verse 81)
True statements were volunteered by sources which, in most cases, were inimical to Ali. Even his most rabid enemies like the Umayyads and the Kharjis, conceded the sublimity of his character. As noted before, M. Shibli, the Indian historian, pointed out that the Shia Muslims did not write any history. Whatever history we have, has, therefore, come down to us from the non-Shia or the anti-Shia sources. It has come down to us from the archives of the governments of Saqifa, the Umayyads and the Abbasis. The story of the glorious deeds of Ali ibn Abi Talib, like the radiance of Truth itself, has filtered out of those archives.
But the modern historians are not threatened by any government for writing factual history nor are they being seduced by promises of rich rewards for writing false history. They should, therefore, curb the temptation to stifle or to distort truth. If they yield even now to this temptation, as many of their forerunners did in the past, then it can mean only that they give their loyalty, not to principles but to persons; not to truth but to the organizations and the governments; and not to their integrity but to their emotional commitments.
Loyalty is a noble quality as long as it is not blind, and does not exclude the higher loyalty to truth and to decency.
If the loyalty of the modern historians is not blind, and if it does not exclude the higher loyalty to truth and to decency, then they should scrape away the excrescences and barnacles of history, and they should also resist the temptation to invoke the “Meyers’ Law” in their works. The “Meyers’ Law” stipulates that:
“If the facts do not fit the theory, discard the facts.”
A historian will inevitably run into truths which may be unpleasant to him but he must not suppress them. He must state all the facts as he uncovers them if he wishes to vindicate truth.
But the historian, if he is a Muslim, has no choice in this matter. He is not free to write “inspired” or “synthetic” history. All he can do, if he is writing history, is to cling tenaciously to truth. If he writes false “history” for any reason, he will only merit the displeasure of God. Here, as elsewhere, al-Qur’an al-Majid, the Book of God, is explicit, emphatic, and unequivocal in its judgment which reads as follows:
And cover not truth with falsehood, nor conceal the truth when ye know (what it is). (Qur’an. Chapter 2; verse 42)
Those who conceal the clear (signs) We have sent down, and the guidance, after We have made it clear for the people in the Book – on them shall be God’s curse, and the curse of those entitled to curse. (Qur’an. Chapter 2; verse 159)
If the Muslim historians make these two verses of Qur’an their “guiding stars,” they will be protected from error, and they will also be protected from becoming either the agents or the victims of propaganda, consciously or unconsciously.
In trying to smirch the name of Ali ibn Abi Talib; in trying to play down his services to Islam; and in desperately trying to conceal his glorious deeds, behind a screen of propaganda, from the eyes of posterity, his enemies were casting dust into the bright face of the sun. They raised clouds of dust in the form of most virulent and sustained propaganda against him, and yet, the sun only shone brighter and brighter.
And God blots out vanity, and proves the truth by His words. (Qur’an. Chapter 42; verse 24)
God blessed Ali’s name to all eternity. His name is the symbol of love of God, and the symbol of Justice and Truth. His name will endure as long as Love of God, and Justice and Truth, will endure in this world.
Provoking Thoughts 