Ask A Question About Islam And Muslims

23 Questions

All Muslims must be grateful to Allah, The Glorious, Who guided them to The True Religion, Islam, and to the Prophet Muhammad (SAWA) who conveyed the message of Allah despite all the hardships and difficulties and torture, and to Ahlul Bayt (AS) who preserved the message and kept it intact by their great sacrifices including their lives to defend Islam.

Islam was never spread by sword of governments or armies but by the true evidence.

The governments of the opponents of Ahlul Bayt did everything to prevent Muslims from knowing or following Ahlul Bayt and forced them to follow other sects. That is why you see spread of non Shia sects under the governmental propagation and orders while followers of Ahlul Bayt under pressure and torture. Yes, millions of Muslims who came to know about the true Islam, left those sects and became followers of Ahlul Bayt (AS). Most of Iran was following those sects of those governments away from Ahlul Bayt but after centuries, and by efforts of sincere scholars, they found the real teachings of Ahlul Bayt and followed them. They are grateful to Allah who guided them to the true Islam.

'They are till today many Iranians who follow those sects spread by anti Ahlul Bayt governments. After all, all Muslims following any sect are Muslims.

Wassalam.

It is Not true. No marriage took place between Umar and daughter of Imam Ali (AS). Fabricated narrations in this regard have been refuted by authentic evidence. Allama Nassir Husain son of Allama Haamid Husain has written a full book ( إفحام الأعداء والخصوم) in which he has mentioned authentic evidence that the whole story of the claimed marriage was fabricated by the enemies of Ahlul Bayt then mentioned by Ibn Sa'd in his book al-Tabaqaat. Ibn Sa'd was pro Umayyad rulers.

'Wassalam.

Umar ibn al-Khattab changed during his rule many things in Islam.
1. Athaan: He removed (Hayya Al Khairul 'Amal) from the Athaan of the Prophet (SAWA) and added in the Athaan of morning prayer (Assalatu Khairun Minannawm) which was never in the Athaan of the Prophet. (Al-Muwatta'; 42 and Mussannaf ibn Abi Shaibah; 1/189, Sunan Al-Tirmithi 1/381)

2. Salah: He ordered his people to fold hands during prayers which was never done by the Prophet (SAWA). Shaikh Sayyed Saabiq from Al-Azhar admitted  in his book ( Fiqh al-Sunnah) that there no single authentic Hadeeth that the Prophet ever folded his hands during prayers.

3. Fadak: He denied the rights of Fatimah (AS) in Fadak which was gifted to her by the Prophet (SAWA) during his life.

4. Taraweeh: He started a congregational prayer (Taraweeh) which was never done during the time of the Prophet (SAWA). Umar himself admitted that it is Bid'ah ( Saheeh al-Bukhari and Saheeh Muslim). He called it a good Bid'ah.

5. Mut'ah: He banned an Islamic marriage called Mut'ah which was allowed in Quran (4:24) and was practiced during the time of the Prophet and even during the government of Abu Bakr. Umar said: I am banning the Mut'ah which was allowed during the time of the Prophet. (Musnad Ahmad bin Manbal; V.3, P. 304).

These are just few examples and you can find more in the very valuable book (Al-Nass Wal Ejtuhad) by Sayyed Sharafuddin al-Musawi and Peshawar Nights which are available online on many sites e.g. www.aqaed.com. And www.al-Islam.org

Wassalam.

First, in this day and age, it is good for us to be thoughtful about how we phrase things. "Liberating" people from Zoroastrianism is rude. Zoroastrianism, like most world religions, has good things and bad things. In any case, it is good to respect people's faith and heritage, especially since Zoroastrianism continues to be practiced today.

Second, describing the conquest of lands by the Muslim Empire as "liberation" can come across the wrong way.

It is true that 'Umar ibn al-Khattab ordered an invasion of the Sassanian Empire which led to the conquest of what is present-day Iran. So, it is more correct to say that he annexed Iran to the Arab-Muslim Empire, and this was one of the factors that led Iran to become a Muslim region.

That being said, military annexation of a region is not the same thing as converting a people to Islam, or even introducing them to Islam. Actual conversion to Islam in conquered lands happened over a span of time. Conversely, Islam spread in many areas, such as Indonesia, where the initial Muslim Empire had no power. There were good and bad points about the conquests of the early Muslim Empire.

Sometimes - in my experience - some of our Sunni brothers and sisters glorify those conquests, perhaps out of respect for the first 3 caliphs, without taking into consideration that they were in fact military conquests which were not dissimilar to the expansion of other empires. Like other military expansions they brought some good and and some difficulty, some people in these areas were (according to what we can glean from historical records) fine with being under Muslim rule or even welcomed it, and some resisted it. Basically it's good to take a more intermediate position, neither to say "Islam spread by the sword and those Muslims are violent!" nor to say "Muslims liberated all the other regions from their former faiths." (In fact, that comes across as quite violent.) 

As for who introduced Iran to Islam, why not begin with Salman al-Farsi? And, second, what about the letter that the Prophet (S) sent to the Persian king, inviting him to Islam?