Open Question & Answer: Ask Hamza The Historian!

[@mansou20012]

May Allah reward you!

[@photon812]

What do you think of *Heresy and the Formation of Medieval Islamic Orthodoxy: The Making of Sunnism, from the Eighth to the Eleventh Century* by Ahmad Khan? If you've read it, that is.

[@isagoge]

Jazakallah for this opportunity Shaykh Hamza, a few questions 1. There is a Hadith in Musnad Ahmad that Muawiya (ra) would drink wine even after prohibited by Muhammad(ﷺ). Do you think that is true, and if yes, what do you think is his status? 2. There are plenty of claims made in the Quran by the disbelievers against Muhammad(ﷺ) such as magician, soothsayer, bewitched, etc. How then do we understand the Ahadith that magic was done on Muhammad(ﷺ) by Jews which impacted his decision making as well, despite the Quran calling it a false accusation? 3. Do you think that the solution at this point for Palestinians is to migrate to Muslim countries because Israel will not go away soon and does not seem to end its persecution? 4. I see disparity between the message of the Quran and many themes found in Ahadith, which Muslim today often prefer Hadith over the Quran. One such issue is salvation. The Quran gives such an inclusive message of preferring intention over labels, and grants many religions their respective rewards. Do you think salvific exclusivity in Islam could have been impacted by Christian ideas of redemption and others? I would greatly appreciate if you could answer my questions despite being a lot. I’m a great fan of yours for years and can’t wait for this new program! Assalamu alaikum

[@imaginationscene]

I have a specific question about an issue that took place in 10th century Abbasid, the two Razi's debate. This was between the physician philosopher Abu bakr al Razi and the Ismaili theologian Abu Hatim al Razi. Sarah Stroumsa wrote a book Freethinkers of Medieval Islam covering what Razi's believes may have been, there has been a debate on whether he was anti revealed revelation or not and others have talked about this too, for example, Prof. Marwan Rashed and Prof. Peter Adamson, my question is what do you think was going on there in terms of Abu Bakr Al Razi's actual beliefs?

[@Hopefully.24]

Thank you for the opportunity, Ustaz Hamza! Here are my questions. How big is the difference between western and Arab or eastern aproach of historiography? (I mostly learn the history from muslim perspective.) Is it true that some orientalists intentionally conclude things differently from the muslim scholars to destroy Islam and mislead the muslims? And can you explain how was their approach in studying Islam and muslims? How is Ilm al-Hadith's place in the modern historiography? Like can we take weak hadith or riwayah as a historical account? And what actually make any account a reliable historical account? Jazakallah khairan fid dunya wal akhirah.

[@tahmidislam5208]

What is your opinion on the books like ibn kathir and tabari who choose to narrate from Jewish and Christian sources ? For example the sons of Adam like Cain or Abel or Seth , these names are not found in the Quran or authentic hadeeths

[@IbrahimAhsanFarooqui]

Which books do you recommend for the history of the Arabs, English and Arabic books

[@sunniislamicchanneluk882]

Assalamalaykum, what do you recommend as a first text to study in Hanafi Fiqh? Do you also recommend a specific online institut to study Hanafi fiqh? Thank you!

[@d96ju16]

Might come off as a bit informal but I wanted to ask you regarding the supposed vacuum of muslim literature, more specifically novels. Writers like Dostoyevsky and/or Tolstoy, while their works may not be termed as 'christian literature', Christian thoughts/ideas were of central influence in their works, well I wanted to ask you about the Muslim counterparts, Im aware of the rich tradition of poetry but have never encountered novelists from our tradition. Are you aware of any?

[@Tannay786]

As a historian, can I get your view on the cursing of ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib from the pulpits? I've heard many people deny this ever took place. But I found the books of the historians mention this ugly act, and even Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim has a narration regarding the Marwānid household ordering one of the Companions (who refused) to curse him, and of course, we have the narration of Muʿāwiya asking Saʿd b. Abī Waqqās why he won't curse ʿAlī (surely those two narrations alone prove the reality of the practice). Where did this order come from? In Ṭabarī we find Muʿāwiya reminding (or commanding) Mughīra, "do not refrain from abusing and critising ʿAlī". We find Marwān, as governor of Medina, cursing ʿAlī every Friday, and even changing the sequence of the ʿId sermon to vilify ʿAlī so that people would have to hear it before the prayer commenced. It seems almost second nature in Damascus as qiṣaṣ would conclude their storytelling with cursing ʿAlī. Busr was cursing him in Basra as the governor. Mughīra, as governor in Kūfa, appointed orators to curse him. Hishām b. Ismāʿīl, as governor, would curse him. Khālid b. ʿAbd Allāh al-Qasrī, as governor of Makkah, would curse ʿAlī, Ḥasan, and Ḥusayn every Friday. The list goes on and on. Supposedly, only Sijistan resisted the pressure, and it only took place in that region once, and it briefly stopped in the empire altogether under ʿUmar b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, but then continued after his short reign. What is your take on it? Where did it start? Who ordered it, and sustained it? How long did it last? ʿAbbāsid propaganda, or no smoke without fire? Did Umm Salama actually write to Muʿāwiya, "You are cursing Allah and His Messenger on your minbar...", asking him to stop this regular practice of the ruling empire of cursing ʿAlī (the letter is recorded in al-ʿIqd al-Farīd of Ibn ʿAbd Rabbih). And, this ties into this topic, was Abū Ṭurāb, initially used a derogatory term to refer to ʿAlī (his party, I believe, was also referred to as Ṭurābbis)? We know the Ḥanafis had an affinity for ʿAlī, after all, Kūfa was his base. ʿAlqama b. Qays al-Nakhaʿī was with ʿAlī at Ṣiffīn on his side, and lost his brother to the battle. The Kūfan scholars went so far as to fight the Umayyads at Jamājim. Supposedly Sufyān al-Thawrī (and al-Ḥakam b. ʿUtbaya) even preferred ʿAlī to the two Shaykhs (allegedly Sufyān recanted this view, and eventually even preferred ʿUthmān to ʿAlī according to Ibn Ṣalāḥ - not sure whether I believe that, as it sounds more like a muḥaddithīn rehabilition of Sufyān). Ibrāhīm al-Nakhaʿī says he prefers ʿAlī to ʿUthmān (Ibn Qutayba supposedly listed Ibrāhīm as a Shīʿa?) Ḥammād b. Abī Ḥanīfah says the same, that we love ʿAlī more than ʿUthmān, and ive read Abū Ḥanīfah didn't rank ʿUthmān before ʿAlī. According to Van Ess, Abū Ḥanīfah's death was due to his support of the Ahle Bayt (not for refusal of the position of judgeship), hence, Abū Ḥanīfah saying that the Shāmīs hate us, because if we were at Ṣiffīn, we would fight on the side of ʿAlī against them, and the Ahl al-Ḥadīth hate us because we love the Ahl al-Bayt and acknowledge their excellences. Alll of that, just to say, is Fiqh al-Akbar a forgery because it ranks ʿUthmān before ʿAlī (of course there are other reasons to date the text after Abū Ḥanīfah, but we know the majority of the Kūfans ranked ʿAlī above ʿUthmān, or at least on the same level). I mention this as it's flows in to the same topic of ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib. P.S. where did you get the t-shirt from?! Wu-Tang Forever 😂

[@theghazalianway]

What are your opinion of the zaidiyyah shia and their place in islamic history starting with the uprising of imam zayd ibn ali

[@theghazalianway]

I converted via wu tang i heard the rza say Allah and quran etc and thats when i looked up the quran and brought a copy lol Allah does whatever he pleased

[@WelcomeToTheRezvolution]

What do you think of Joseph Schacht take on Hadith? David Forte says "nearly all Western Islamic scholars agree that Schacht's evidence against the authenticity of the traditions is virtually unassailable." Many use his work to say that modern western scholarship have shown Hadith to be forgeries. What are your opinions of Ignác Goldziher's works?

[@HamzaTheHistorian]

I have already made videos on these specific topics, which I would ask you to confer.

[@WelcomeToTheRezvolution]

@@HamzaTheHistorian 👍🏽

[@sheikhsadi5745]

Are there different approaches to the field of Hadith criticism based on madhab? If so why do modern Hanafi institutions simply teach the standard Hajar/Salahi approach? Shuk’ran.

[@HamzaTheHistorian]

I have already addressed this in detail in my videos on the Hanafi madhhab.

[@camaflauge]

Wu Tang!!!!

[@HamzaTheHistorian]

للأطفال

[@kronos01ful]

Can i get all the prophecys MUHAMMAD made in the Quran that made him a prophet? ...

[@HamzaTheHistorian]

I am not sure what you mean by that question, can you clarify?