Subtleties and Allusions

1. The Indisputable Nature of the Mubāhala Event

The Mubāhala incident is considered definitive and indisputable among the People of the Household (a.s.), the companions, and Imami scholars, to the extent that it has been repeatedly cited in the arguments and proofs of the Imams (a.s.). Imam Ali (a.s.) would also cite the Mubāhala verse when explaining his own virtues.(744) Sunni scholars, both Mu’tazili and Ash’ari, recognize this verse as strong evidence for the excellence of the People of the Cloak (aṣḥāb al-kisāʾ) and all are humbled before it. Al-Zamakhsharī, who is a Mu’tazili thinker, says after relating the incident of the Cloak under the Mubāhala verse: “And in it is evidence, than which there is nothing stronger, for the excellence of the People of the Cloak (a.s.).”(745) Fakhr al-Rāzī, who is one of the leading Ash’ari theologians, as mentioned before, says after relating the story of the Cloak: “Know that this narration is like something agreed upon as authentic among the scholars of exegesis and hadith.”(746) Al-Ṭabarī says: Some hadith scholars have not included the name of Ali (a.s.) in the Mubāhala incident and among the People of the Cloak. Was he not present in the Mubāhala event, as al-Mughīra has narrated?!(747)

In any case, in addition to the People of the Household of infallibility and purity (a.s.), whose words are completely authentic based on the hadith of “Two Weighty Things” (thaqalayn),(748) many companions, a group of successors (tābiʿūn), and some who are not counted among the companions or successors have narrated the story of Mubāhala and the hadith of the Cloak. However, commentators like the author of al-Manār and his followers, following some Sunni exegetes whose prejudice prevents their free thinking, say: These matters have been narrated by the Shi’is and their purpose is promoting Shi’ism.(749)

In response, it must be said that firstly, the narrations of the Mubāhala incident are reliable and have been narrated by both Shi’i and Sunni sources, and they appear in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim and Ṣaḥīḥ Bukhārī.(750) If you consider Muslim and Bukhārī to be Shi’i, then Sunnism should cease to exist, and if you say that the Shi’is fabricated the narrations in these two books, then no evidence remains for you, because your most important sources, which are these two books, would become invalid. Secondly, the Shi’i purpose and motivation in narrating the Mubāhala story is to act upon the Thaqalayn.

Some have resorted to fabricating hadith regarding the Mubāhala; for example, Ibn ʿAsākir has narrated from Imam al-Ṣādiq (a.s.) and his forefathers (a.s.) that when the Mubāhala verse was revealed, the Messenger of God (s.a.w.) called Abū Bakr with his son, ʿUmar with his son, ʿUthmān with his son, and Ali (a.s.) with his son to participate in the Mubāhala.(751) They are unaware that the Mubāhala verse was the official motto of the People of the Household (a.s.) in their arguments, debates, and enumerations of virtues. What makes this hadith clearly false and pure fabrication is its attribution to Imam al-Ṣādiq (a.s.).

Furthermore, as the learned scholar ʿAllāma Ṭabāṭabāʾī has stated, some of them did not even have sons at the time of the Mubāhala incident.(752) Also, more than sixty Sunni exegetes, both Mu’tazili and Ash’ari, even the most prejudiced among the Sunnis, have accepted that the Mubāhala verse is about the special virtue of the People of the Household (a.s.).(753)

In the narrations that use the Mubāhala verse as evidence for the virtue of the People of the Household (a.s.), emphasis is placed on the fact that only these five individuals were present at the Mubāhala.(754)

2. Observance of Fairness and Propriety

In the Mubāhala incident, complete fairness and propriety were observed, as the Messenger of God (s.a.w.) had complete faith and certainty and was well-versed in divine etiquette.

The source of the Prophet’s confidence was “revelation” (waḥy) and “proof” (burhān). Revelation brings certainty, because “who is truer in speech than God?”(755) Reasoning (comparing the creation of Jesus (a.s.) to the creation of Adam (a.s.)) also brings certainty. However, the Christians who were ready for the Mubāhala did not benefit from either of these two paths, nor did they have any share in spiritual unveiling and witnessing. They were neither prophets to benefit from revelation, nor philosophers to make use of the presented proof, nor were they pure mystics to gain from correct spiritual unveiling and witnessing. In truth, they were examples of this verse: “Among the people are those who dispute concerning God without any knowledge or guidance, or an enlightening Book.”(756)

Indeed, to understand and receive truths, one must either traverse the path of the heart and witnessing (like Ḥāritha ibn Mālik(757)), or the path of thought and intellect, or one must seek help from divine revelation, which is the sovereign of knowledge and has no equal. The prophets (a.s.) traversed all these three paths.

In the Mubāhala incident, the Messenger of God (s.a.w.) invited the Christians of Najrān to the Mubāhala, so that God would destroy the liar: “then let us pray earnestly and call down God’s curse upon the liars.” He did not say let us perform Mubāhala so that God will destroy you.

Fairness and propriety prevent the enemy’s emotions from being hurt, and if they are not convinced, the least effect is that they will not become emboldened.

The manifestations of fairness are abundant in the verses of the Qur’an. For example, it addresses the polytheists of Hijaz: “Say, ‘Who provides for you from the heavens and the earth?’ Say, ’God! Indeed either we or you are rightly guided or in manifest error’.”(758) Of course, elsewhere it definitively states: “He said, ’O my people! Tell me, should I stand on a manifest proof from my Lord’”,(759) or after argumentation, it says to the deniers of truth: “So where are you going?.”(760)

3. Answering Two Questions

Question: In the Qur’an, God has made the blessed presence of the Messenger (s.a.w.) a protection from punishment, saying that God will never punish the community while he is among them, just as He will not punish them while they seek forgiveness: “But God will not punish them while you are in their midst, nor will God punish them while they plead for forgiveness.”(761) Is the Mubāhala incident compatible with this principle? Because Mubāhala is a request for punishment, and from it, it appears that the descent of punishment was possible even before the departure of the Messenger (s.a.w.).

Answer: Firstly, the verse “God will not punish them…” apparently refers to the punishment of eradication of the entire community and general punishment, like the general punishments of the people of Noah, ʿĀd, and Thamūd; not specific punishment that affects a particular group. Evidence for this is that during the blessed presence of the Messenger of God (s.a.w.), some were afflicted with punishment. The Mubāhala, on one hand, is outside the sphere of the Islamic community, and on the other hand, concerns a specific group, not all Christians. On this basis, even if the Mubāhala had been carried out, it would not have contradicted this general principle.

Secondly, if “God would not punish them…” is absolute and includes individual and group punishment, then the verse of Mubāhala specifies it. And if we consider the language of the verse to be general and not subject to specification, then the meaning of the verse refers to situations where the Prophet (s.a.w.) himself, who is the axis of security, has not requested punishment. However, in the story of Mubāhala, the Christians pushed matters to the point where the Messenger of God (s.a.w.), who is the axis of people’s security, was commanded to request punishment. In summary, the meaning of Mubāhala is that rejecting the true word of the Messenger of God (s.a.w.) would bring punishment, and this is the wish of the Prophet himself. Therefore, the verse of Mubāhala is compatible with the verse “God would not punish them….” Of course, this latter possibility returns to specification.

Question: In the Mubāhala, non-accountable and minor individuals also participated. Can an underage child be subject to God’s wrath?

Answer: The punishment of eradication is not a penal or retributive punishment that, like the punishment of the hereafter and hell, only affects sinners. Rather, it encompasses everyone, both young and old, sinner and innocent, and uproots them all:

“And beware of a punishment which shall not visit the wrongdoers among you exclusively, and know that God is severe in retribution”(762)

4. Faithful Insight

The Christian leader forbade his companions from the Mubāhala and said: “I see faces that if they were to ask God to move a mountain from its place, He would do so because of them; so do not engage in Mubāhala or you will perish.”(763)

These words show that the Christian leader had faithful insight (faith in its general sense): “Beware of the insight of the believer, for he sees with the light of God.”(764) This kind of physiognomy is a lofty and prominent station.

God granted this lofty and luminous station to the Christian leader, and he saw this truth that just as the Qur’an is a reality that can cause a mountain to explode: “Had We sent down this Qur’an upon a mountain, you would have surely seen it humbled [and] go to pieces with the fear of God”,(765) the People of the Prophet’s Household (a.s.), who are equals to the Qur’an, are also a reality that can shatter a mountain. However, although this Christian recognized this truth through insight (baṣīra), love of position and status prevented him from inclining toward the truth, like Balʿam Bāʿūrā and Sāmirī. The Qur’an says about Balʿam and Sāmirī: “Relate to them an account of him to whom We gave Our signs, but he cast them off. Thereupon Satan pursued him, and he became one of the perverse”,(766) “…I saw what they did not see. I took a handful [of dust] from the messenger’s trail.”(767) Thus, Balʿam and Sāmirī were not ordinary people; rather, they had a divine station, for spiritual stations and inner vision have levels, the most prominent of which belongs to the prophets and Imams (a.s.). However, some intermediate levels are given to non-infallibles (a.s.) as a test, but Balʿam and Sāmirī used it for worldly desires or calf-worship.