The Impact of Deviation from the Path of the Prophet (pbuh)

The Harvest of Deviation: How Did the Nation Turn from the Gifted Mercy into a Theater of Blood and the Falsification of Religion?

The careful reading of Islamic history reveals a terrifying truth: that the blood that was spilled, and the doctrinal and jurisprudential fractures that battered the body of the nation, were not passing historical coincidences; they were the inevitable result and the logical sequel of the first foundational sin: the deviation from the testament of the Messenger of Allah () on the Day of Ghadir, and the sidelining of the infallible divine leadership represented by the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib ().

1. The First Spark of Chaos: The Calamity of Thursday and the Siege of the House of Prophethood

Deviation did not begin only after the departure of the Prophet (); its roots go back to the final hours of his noble life, in what is known as the Calamity of Thursday. When the Messenger of Allah (), on his deathbed, asked for a shoulder-blade and an inkwell to write for the nation a document that would forever protect it from going astray, he was met with the words of Umar ibn al-Khattab (40 BH–23 AH / 584–644 CE):

“The Prophet has been overcome by pain, and you have the Quran; the Book of Allah suffices us.”

Source: al-Bukhari (194–256 AH / 810–870 CE), Sahih al-Bukhari, Book of Knowledge, Chapter on writing down knowledge.

This slogan was the first maneuver to isolate the progeny from the Quran, and to open the door to human reasoning in the face of the legislative text.

Immediately upon the passing of the Prophet (), the people rushed to the portico of Banu Sa’ida in a feverish self-interested race to snatch power and establish the legitimacy of the fait accompli. This coup instantly produced a legitimacy crisis that called for resorting to force to impose the pledge of allegiance, and the harshness of politics translated into an unprecedented audacity against the sanctity of the part of the Chosen One (): there was the threat to burn the house, and the siege of the house of Lady Fatima al-Zahra (), so that this tragedy ended with the harrowing martyrdom of Lady Fatima (), who departed this world angry with those who wronged her.

To document this pivotal incident, Ibn Abi Shayba (159–235 AH / 776–849 CE) narrates in al-Musannaf with his chain from Aslam the freedman of Umar:

“Umar ibn al-Khattab came to the house of Fatima and said: O daughter of the Messenger of Allah, by Allah, there is no one dearer to us than your father, and no one dearer to us after your father than you. But by Allah, that will not prevent me, if these men gather at your house, from ordering that the house be burned upon them.”

Ibn Qutayba al-Dinawari (213–276 AH / 828–889 CE) also relates the details of the siege in al-Imama wa al-Siyasa, saying:

“Umar called for firewood and said: By Him in whose hand is Umar’s soul, you shall come out, or I will burn it down upon whoever is inside it.”

He was told: O Abu Hafs, Fatima () is inside it. He said:

“Even so.”

And it is added that they drove Imam Ali () out, unwilling, to the pledge of allegiance, whereupon Lady Fatima () cried out:

“O my father! O Messenger of Allah! What have we suffered after you at the hands of Ibn al-Khattab and Ibn Abi Quhafa!“

2. The Immunity of the Governors and the Liquidation of Opposition: The Incident of Malik ibn Nuwayra

The foundational deviation was embodied in giving precedence to political loyalty over the legal rulings and the divine prescribed penalties; this appeared openly in the case of the Companion Malik ibn Nuwayra (d. 11 AH / 632 CE), whom Khalid ibn al-Walid (30 BH–21 AH / 592–642 CE) killed in cold blood while he was a Muslim performing the prayer, and whose wife Khalid took the same night — merely because Malik refused to send the alms (zakat) monies to the fait-accompli authority.

When Umar ibn al-Khattab demanded the imposition of the prescribed penalty and retaliation against Khalid, the first Caliph, Abu Bakr (50 BH–13 AH / 573–634 CE), refused and spoke his words:

“He interpreted and erred; I will not sheathe a sword that Allah unsheathed against the unbelievers.”

The authority thereby established the concept of the immunity of loyal governors, and the shedding of the blood of opponents under the cover of reasoning and interpretation.

3. The Curse of Power: The Blood of the Rulers on the Altar of Politics

When the infallible leadership was pushed aside, rule turned from a divine trust into a worldly spoil coveted by the greedy, so the nation entered the tunnel of assassinations and political liquidations, which reached even the founders of the course of the Saqifa themselves:

Abu Bakr: some historical sources mention that he died from poison slipped into his food.
Umar ibn al-Khattab: was assassinated, stabbed with a dagger in the prayer niche of the mosque, as a result of the mounting resentment.
Uthman ibn Affan (47 BH–35 AH / 576–656 CE): the Companions and the Muslims rose against him as a result of his bringing close the freed ones (al-tulaqa’), the Banu Umayya, and Marwan ibn al-Hakam (2–65 AH / 623–685 CE), and lavishing upon them the monies of the nation; so they besieged him and killed him in his house, and the nation entered the furnace of comprehensive chaos.

4. Imam Ali (AS) and the Nation’s Wars Against Its Own Legatee

When the outward caliphate returned to Imam Ali () after the killing of Uthman, he wished to return the nation to the course of pure justice, so the nation waged against him three devastating civil wars that consumed everything, green and dry:

The Battle of the Camel: led by notables among the Companions.
The Battle of Siffin: led by Mu’awiya ibn Abi Sufyan (20 BH–60 AH / 602–680 CE) to establish the Umayyad kingship.
The Battle of Nahrawan: against the Khawarij.

This arduous march ended with the martyrdom of the Commander of the Faithful (), treacherously, by the sword of Abd al-Rahman ibn Muljam (d. 40 AH / 661 CE) in the prayer niche of the mosque of Kufa.

5. The Toll of Being Chosen: The Series of Martyrdoms of the Infallible Imams (AS)

The exclusion of the infallible line made the Imams of guidance () a divine opposition that disturbed the sleep of the tyrants, so killing and poisoning became the adopted policy for being rid of them:

Imam al-Hasan ibn Ali () (3–50 AH / 625–670 CE): was let down by his army, which Mu’awiya bought with money, and was assassinated by poison slipped to him through his wife Ja’da bint al-Ash’ath (d. c. 50 AH / 670 CE).
Imam al-Husayn ibn Ali () (4–61 AH / 626–680 CE): refused the pledge of allegiance to Yazid ibn Mu’awiya (26–64 AH / 647–683 CE), so he faced the Umayyad killing machine in the great massacre of Karbala.
Imam Ali ibn al-Husayn al-Sajjad () (38–95 AH / 659–713 CE): lived through the ordeal of captivity after Karbala, and was assassinated by poison in the reign of al-Walid ibn Abd al-Malik (50–96 AH / 668–715 CE).
Imam Muhammad ibn Ali al-Baqir () (57–114 AH / 676–733 CE): the splitter-open of the sciences of the prophets, poisoned by order of the Umayyad Caliph Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik (72–125 AH / 691–743 CE).
Imam Ja’far ibn Muhammad al-Sadiq () (83–148 AH / 702–765 CE): spread the original Shia jurisprudence, and was assassinated by the Abbasid Caliph al-Mansur (95–158 AH / 714–775 CE) with poison.
Imam Musa ibn Ja’far al-Kazim () (128–183 AH / 745–799 CE): spent the years of his imamate in the darkness of prisons, until poison was slipped to him in the prison of al-Sindi ibn Shahik by order of Harun al-Rashid (149–193 AH / 766–809 CE).
Imam Ali ibn Musa al-Rida () (148–203 AH / 765–818 CE): the Abbasid al-Ma’mun (170–218 AH / 786–833 CE) compelled him to accept the crown-princeship, and when the star of the Imam shone, he assassinated him with poison.
Imam Muhammad ibn Ali al-Jawad () (195–220 AH / 811–835 CE): silenced the scholars with his divine wisdom, and was assassinated while young with poison at the direction of the Abbasid al-Mu’tasim (179–227 AH / 796–842 CE).
Imam Ali ibn Muhammad al-Hadi () (212–254 AH / 827–868 CE): the Abbasid al-Mutawakkil (207–247 AH / 822–861 CE) brought him forcibly to Samarra to place him under military surveillance, and he was killed by poison.
Imam al-Hasan ibn Ali al-Askari () (232–260 AH / 846–874 CE): lived under house arrest inside the garrison of Samarra to prevent the extension of the line of imamate, and his life ended by poison at the hand of the Abbasid al-Mu’tamid (229–279 AH / 844–892 CE).

6. The Rational Trial: Can Coincidence Recur Eleven Times?

Here the researcher poses a decisive question that strikes the roots of the justification wrapped in titles such as “sedition” (fitna), which some invent to obscure the facts and flee from naming the wrongdoer:

Why were the Imams of the Household () killed one after another? And can random coincidence recur and target, specifically, those whom the Messenger of Allah () enjoined the nation to follow and cling to?

It is not coincidence; it is an organized policy of the successive authorities. This persecution was not confined to the eleven Imams alone; it extended to include their children, their grandchildren, the righteous, the scholars, and everyone who opposed the authority or openly proclaimed the love for them that Allah imposed in the noble Quran:

“Say: I ask of you no reward for it except affection for kin.” (Al-Shura: 23)

So the massacres of Fakhkh and Dayr al-Jamajim, the pursuit of the masters of the Banu Hashim, and their being walled up alive inside pillars, were proof that the foundational deviation deemed lawful the blood of this blessed tree and everyone connected to it.

7. Karbala in the Year 61 AH: The Great Scandal and the Indicator of the Death of the Nation’s Conscience

The tragedy of Karbala is the greatest indicator that exposed to all the depth of the deviation and the death of the conscience of the Muslim nation; for had the sanctity of the House of Prophethood not been made cheap on the first day at the Saqifa, this nation would not, after only fifty years, have dared to slaughter the grandson of the Prophet () and his fragrant flower, Imam al-Husayn ().

The doctrinal deformation reached its peak such that thousands of fighters, who bear witness to the two testimonies and pray, sought nearness to Allah by loosing arrows, slaughtering al-Husayn (), and crushing the bones of his chest. The tyrants did not hide their pre-Islamic motives; Yazid, in Damascus, recited verses of vengeance for his polytheist forebears, among them:

“I am not of Khindif if I do not take vengeance upon the sons of Ahmad for what he did.”

Then the noblewoman of the Talibids, Lady Zaynab () (5–62 AH / 627–682 CE), and the daughters of the revelation were driven as captives, paraded through the lands, under the gaze of a nation in which the zeal for religion did not stir.

8. The Event of al-Harra in the Year 63 AH: The Violation of Medina and the Desecration of the Sanctities of the Companions

Two years after Karbala, the nation reaped the fruits of its silence over the slaughter of al-Husayn (). The people of Medina rose against Yazid, saying:

“We have risen against a man who has no religion, who drinks wine and plays with monkeys.”

So Yazid sent an army under the command of Muslim ibn Uqba al-Murri (d. 63 AH / 683 CE), and ordered him to make Medina the Illuminated lawful plunder for three days.

The result was the killing of large numbers of Muslims, among them Companions and bearers of the Quran, the violation of sanctities, the entry of horses into the noble Garden (Rawda), and the suspension of prayer in the Prophet’s Mosque. The tragedy ended with the survivors being forced to pledge allegiance to Yazid as bondsmen — that is, as chattel over whose blood and honor he ruled as he wished — and whoever refused had his neck struck.

9. The Doctrinal and Jurisprudential Deviation: The Manufacture of Alternative Schools and the Religion of the Sultan

The impact of the deviation did not stop at the shedding of blood; it was reflected in the doctrinal and jurisprudential structure. When the Household (), the infallible treasurers of the knowledge of prophethood, were sidelined, a comprehensive epistemic blackout was imposed in which the prophetic hadiths were burned and the recording of the Sunnah was forbidden for a long time in order to bury the texts of the imamate and the virtues of the progeny; so schools and currents arose that filled the epistemic void with human reasoning set against the jurisprudence of the Messenger of Allah ().

The Ja’fari School Is Not an Invention

The school of the Household () is called the Ja’fari school, in attribution to Imam Ja’far al-Sadiq (). Yet this school is not of the Imam’s invention; it is the pure jurisprudence and creed of the Messenger of Allah (). It was attributed to him only because the Imam exploited a period of weakness of the two states, the Umayyad and the Abbasid, to establish his scholarly academy and to expound and record the rulings.

The Discipleship of the Founders of the Schools and the Manufacture of Rivalry

The founders of the four Sunni schools studied, by direct or indirect routes, under Imam al-Sadiq (). Abu Hanifa al-Nu’man (80–150 AH / 699–767 CE) is the one who said:

“Were it not for the two years, al-Nu’man would have perished.”

But these men, instead of proclaiming complete following of the Imam of their age, established — with political encouragement and employment — independent schools that were made rivals to the jurisprudence of the Messenger of Allah ().

The Authority of the Sword and the Creeds of Anesthesia

There were dozens of jurisprudential schools, but the ruling authority — especially the Abbasid, and later the Mamluk — is the one that intervened to support four schools, entrench them, and impose them by the force of law and the sword upon the Muslims, especially in the new provinces, while it let the other schools fade away.

This was accompanied by the authority’s patronage of creeds that served the tyrants, such as the creed of postponement (irja’) and compulsion (jabr), to justify the injustice of the rulers and to anesthetize the nation.

10. The Besieged School of the Opposition: Constriction and Killing Across the Ages

In contrast, the school of the Household () was subjected to severe and systematic constriction, because it represented the permanent front of rejection of the legitimacy of the corrupt rulers. For this reason we find today that the overwhelming majority of the Islamic world professes schools different from the school of the progeny; because people across the centuries professed the school of the ruling authority, protected by money and weapons, while the school of the Household () was the school of the opposition and the hunted.

Merely speaking of the virtues of Imam Ali (), or worshipping according to the jurisprudence of Imam al-Sadiq (), was enough for one’s neck to be struck, one’s house demolished, and oneself displaced across the ages.

And so that these facts may accord with the divine norms, we find the instance of deviation recorded in the noble Quran, which warned preemptively against the apostasy of the nations after their prophets:

“So if he dies or is killed, will you turn back on your heels?” (Al Imran: 144)

And documented in the hadith of the Pool, where the Messenger of Allah () says:

“Men from among you will be raised with me, then they will be snatched away from me, and I will say: O Lord, my companions! It will be said: Indeed, you do not know what they innovated after you; they never ceased turning back on their heels since you parted from them.”

Source: al-Bukhari, Sahih al-Bukhari; and Muslim, Sahih Muslim, with closely similar wordings in the hadiths of the Pool.

Some words of the Companions bear witness to this alteration, such as the saying of Anas ibn Malik (10 BH–93 AH / 612–712 CE), weeping, in al-Bukhari:

“I do not recognize anything of what existed in the time of the Prophet ()!”

He was asked: The prayer? He said:

“Have you not squandered in it what you have squandered?”

Conclusion

The scrutinizing and objective reading of all these bloody and tragic events that battered the nation the moment the Prophet () passed away — from the horrific killing of his pure Household, to the bitter internal fighting among Muslims, at times over power and at other times over creed — cannot be interpreted as random events or a mere passing sedition. This crisis-ridden historical reality is the decisive indicator and the conclusive proof of the occurrence of a radical and structural deviation from the original line of the message.

Here we find that irreligious currents, or parties bearing prior negative stances toward Islam, exploit these dark and bloody pages of Muslim history to direct their criticism at Islam itself, or at the foundation of religion and its creed, claiming that religion produced nothing but the sword and blood. But the truth that eludes these people is that Islam is innocent of these acts, and that what happened does not represent the essence of religion; it represents the inevitable result of deviation and apostasy from its teachings and the seizing of legitimate leadership from its rightful holders.

In contrast, we find that many Muslims prefer to flee forward and obscure the documented historical facts so as not to see the reality of the deviation; rather they hasten to accuse everyone who raises these deep historical and doctrinal problems of being against religion or seeking to stir up sedition. This intellectual flight is what has kept the nation in the whirlpool of epistemic bewilderment.

What happened to the Muslims in history, and what happens to them today of dispersion and division, is the fruit of that foundational deviation. Consequently, realizing this deviation and acknowledging it is the first step toward reform. This reform is not realized by stopping at slogans, or by the dry historical statement that Imam Ali () alone was the more entitled to the caliphate; rather the solution and the way out lie in following him practically, clinging to his jurisprudence and creed, and returning comprehensively to the original Muhammadan Islam that the Household () preserved in its complete purity, far from the whims of the governors and sultans.

From here, this historical tragedy and this continuing deviation are linked to the issue of Imam Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Mahdi (aj); for divine wisdom required his concealment to preserve him from the fate of his pure forefathers, whom the machine of tyranny assassinated, and to make him the enduring divine treasure and the coming promise who will emerge to correct this long historical deviation, demolish the features of the religion of authority, and return the nation to the fountain of the original Muhammadan Islam, filling the earth with equity and justice after it had been filled with oppression, tyranny, and deviation from the first day of the departure of the Chosen One ().

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