Abu Taleb, the Primordial Muslim

Condolences to you on a sad occasion. It is the day when Prophet Mohammad (Blessings of God upon him and his progeny) became an orphan anew in his middle age, with the death of his dearest uncle and guardian, Abu Taleb (AS).

Now we have a feature on the passing away of the father of the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali (AS).

“The Lord of mankind Who has no partner

“The Liberal Giver, the Initiator, the Resurrector.

“Whoever is under the sky and above it are rightfully His servants.”

These verses in eloquent Arabic were composed and recited by the primordial Muslim of the monotheist Bani Hashem clan, long before the universal message of Islam was formally entrusted by God Almighty to Prophet Mohammad (SAWA).

If this poem is evidence of the poet’s unshakeable faith in the indivisible unity of the One and Only Creator, as bequeathed to him through his ancestors from Prophet Abraham the Iconoclast, the following piece of poetry, is firm testimony to his unflinching belief in the mission of the Last and Greatest of God’s Messengers:  

“Don't they know that our son is not a liar in our view?

“(He is) A Protector of the orphans; a Supporter of the widows.

“A Luminary by whose face the rain is beseeched from the cloud.

 Don't they know that indeed Prophet Muhammad

“Is the Trustworthy Prophet whose name is written in the previous books?

The identity of this paragon of paradise ought to be clear to us, especially since today is the 7^th of the blessed month of Ramadhan, on which he left the mortal world, plunging not just his children, but his nephew in profound grief – to the extent that the year in which he died is known till this day in the annals of Islamic history as Aam al-Hozn (Year of Grief).

At his death, if the pagans of Mecca rejoiced on seeing an insurmountable obstacle removed from their path of persecution of the Prophet, his nephew burst into tears; recalled his childhood and youthful years with his kind uncle and guardian (of his message and mission as well); embraced his youngest cousin to weep bitterly together, and instructed him to arrange the funeral bath, shroud and burial, beside the grave of Abdul-Muttaleb and the Hashemite elders in the Jannat al-Mu’alla Cemetery – desecrated and destroyed by Wahhabi heretics in 1925.

No wonder, years later in Medina the Prophet remarked to his prominent companion Jaber ibn Abdullah al-Ansari, as recorded by both Shi’a and Sunni experts of Hadith:

“During my Me'raj (Ascension to the highest point in the heavens and back to Earth in the fraction of a night), I saw 4 lights. Allah said: “This is your grandfather Abdul-Muttaleb, this is your uncle Abu Taleb, this is your father Abdullah, and this is your mother Amena.”

Named Imran and Abd Manaf, and known as Shaikh al-Bat-ha (Senior Leader of Mecca), Abu Taleb was over 80 years when he bade adieu to the mortal world within a year of the passing away of the Mother of all True Believers (Omm al-Momineen), his nephew’s loyal wife of 25 long years, Hazrat Khadija (SA), whose nuptials he had solemnized as the blessed union of two monotheists. His dialogue on his deathbed with the disbelievers is worth noting.

“Abu Taleb, you are about to die; so end the enmity between your nephew and us. Tell him to stop hurting us. We will stop hurting him. Tell him to leave us with our religion. We will leave him with his religion.” Abu Taleb looked at Abu Jahl, Abu Sufyan, and others, and said: If you hear Muhammad's words and obey his orders, you will prosper. So, obey him and achieve prosperity here and in afterlife.”

Then Abu Taleb closed his eyes to die peacefully. The Prophet kissed his forehead and said in a choked voice: “Uncle, may Allah have mercy on you. You nurtured me when I was small, looked after me when I became an orphan, and supported me when I became a grown-up. May Allah reward you manifold.”

In view of these undeniable facts of his firm faith in Islam, why the doubts of the supposedly Muslim offspring of the pagan ‘Salafs’ (progenitors) of Arabia concerning Abu Taleb. The answers are obvious and betray the frustration of the Arabs in murdering the Prophet of Islam. Whenever they plotted against him, the son of Abu Taleb sprang to defeat their murderous plots – from the crucial Night of Migration (Hijra) to the battles imposed in and around Medina by the Arab-Israelite alliance.

Unable to undermine the faith and valour of Imam Ali (AS), whose right of political leadership the neo Muslims (former pagans) usurped after the passing away of the Prophet, they launched a smear campaign against his father. This prompted the Ahl al-Bayt to defend Abu Taleb on the basis of authentic Hadith from the Prophet as is evident by the following narrations.

Imam Mohammad al-Baqer (AS): “If the faith of the Abu Taleb is put in a scale of a balance and the faith of the peoples is put in the other scale, the faith of Abu Taleb will outweigh."

Imam Ali ar-Reza (AS) in reply to a letter from Abaan bin Mahmood whether Abu Taleb was a Muslim: “If you do not believe that Abu Taleb was a believer, your destination will be in the fire.”

Imam Hasan al-Askari (AS) narrating God’s command to the Prophet: “I have supported you with two types of followers; those who support you secretly and those who support you openly. The best your secret supporters is Abu Taleb, while the best of your open supporters is his son Ali.”

We salute him with the following salutations:

“Peace on you, O the Leader of Mecca and the son of its chief

“Peace on you, O the Inheritor of the Holy Ka’ba after its foundation,

“Peace on you, O the Guardian of the Prophet of Allah

“Peace on you, O the Protector of the religion decreed by Allah

“Peace on you, O the Uncle of al-Mustafa

“Peace on you, O the Father of al-Murtaza

“Peace on you, O the Ancestor of the Leaders of Guidance

“Felicitations to you, for your son who is the Distributor of Paradise and Hell, the Bounty of Allah for the righteous, and His Wrath for wrongdoers.”

AS/ME