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Are Ahle tashi muslims?

Q:

I want to know that ahl e tashi are muslims or not.
Thanks

A:

Salamun Alaykum

Thank you for your query.

Indeed according to our research, the Shias are the righteous believers and the best sect amongst the Muslims. We came across some eye-opening and thought-provoking findings that clearly shows this fact:

  1. Shias take the religion and their Fiqh from Prophet and hence from their 12 Imams who learnt directly from our beloved Prophet Muhammad(s.a.w.w) whereas, the Sunnis take the Fiqh from the four well known Imams(Abu Hanifa, Malik, al-Shafi i, and Ibn Hanbal)
  2. Those who pronounce the Shahadah are known as Muslim.

To become a Muslim and to convert to Islam, it is essential to utter the Shahada, one of the Five Pillars of Islam, a declaration of faith and trust that professes that there is only one God (Allah) and that Muhammad is God’s messenger. It is a set statement normally recited in Arabic: ašhadu ʾal-lā ʾilāha ʾillā-llāhu wa ʾašhadu ʾanna muħammadan rasūlu-llāh (أشهد أن لا إله إلا الله وأشهد أن محمداً رسول الله) “I testify that there is no god [worthy of worship] except Allah, and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslims

Since, the Shias testify and recite the Shahadah they are Muslims and no one has the right to call them non-Muslims rather whatever the people call each other, anyone who testifies and gives the above 2 Shahadah is a Muslim in Allah(swt)’s eye.

The Usool-e-Deen(roots of the religions) such as Tawheed, Nubuwwat and Ma’ad(Hereafter) are accepted by the Sunnis and Shias so both are Muslims and we do not have the right to call any of those non-Muslim!

  1. Prophet Muhammad(s.a.w.w) passed away in 632 A.D and all the four Imams of Sunnis were born atleast 50-100 years after the demise of the Prophet.

Let’s have a look at the Imam’s lifetime:

  • Abū Hanīfa al-Nuʿmān ibn Thābit b. Zūtā ibn Marzubān (c.699 – 767 CE), known as Abū Hanīfa for short, or reverently as Imam Abū Hanīfa by Sunni Muslims, was an 8th-century Sunni Muslim theologian and jurist of Persian origin, who became the eponymous founder of the Hanafi school of Sunni jurisprudence, which has remained the most widely practiced law school in the Sunni tradition

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Hanifa

  1. The Shafiʽi madhhab is one of the four major traditional schools of Islamic law in the branch of Sunni Islam. It was founded by the Arab scholar Muhammad ibn Idris Al-Shafiʽi, a pupil of Malik, in the early 9th century

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shafi%27i_school

  1. The Mālikī school is one of the four major schools of Islamic jurisprudence within Sunni Islam. It was founded by Malik ibn Anas in the 8th century.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maliki

  1. The Hanbali school is one of the four major traditional Sunni schools (madhahib) of Islamic jurisprudence. It is named after the Iraqi scholar Ahmad ibn Hanbal (d. 855), and was institutionalized by his students.

The Hanbali school experienced a reformation during the 18th-century Wahhabi movement. Historically the school was small; during the 18th to early-20th century Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab and Al Saud greatly aided its propagation around the world by way of their interpretation of the school’s teachings. As a result of this, the school’s name has become a controversial one in certain quarters of the Islamic world due to the influence he is believed by some to have had upon these teachings, which cites Ahmad Ibn Hanbal as a principal influence along with the thirteenth-century Hanbali reformer Ahmad Ibn Taymiyyah.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanbali

As soon as the Prophet passed away, the Shias believe the 12 Imams to be the successors of the Prophet and explainer of Islam which they learnt from the Prophet itself starting from Imam Ali(as) who, without any gap, learnt directly from our beloved Prophet unlike the 4 other Imams who never saw the Prophet in their lifetime.

How can we get Islam from those who came 50-100 years after the Prophet’s demise. Weren’t there other intellectual people before them to elaborate Islam?

Did the Prophet(s.a.w.w) leave Islam on its own so anyone can come and make sects in Islam according to their own understanding?

 

  1. Let’s have a look at the views of some of the great Sunni scholars about Shias:
  • Shaikh al-Akbar Mahmood Shaltoot, Head of the al-Azhar University:

Text of the Verdict (Fatwa) Issued by His Excellency Shaikh al-Akbar Mahmood Shaltoot, Head of the al-Azhar University, on Permissibility of Following “al-Shi’a al- Imamiyyah”School of Thought.

The Ja’fari school of thought, which is also known as “al-Shi’a al- Imamiyyah al-Ithna Ashariyyah”(i.e., The Twelver Imami Shi’ites) is a school of thought that is religiously correct to follow in worship as are other Sunni schools of thought.

The above Fatwa was announced on July 6, 1959 from the Head of al-Azhar University, and was subsequently published in many publications in the Middle East which include, but are not limited to:
1. al-Sha’ab newspaper (Egypt), issue of July 7, 1959.
2. al-Kifah newspaper (Lebanon), issue of July 8, 1959.

https://www.icit-digital.org/articles/shaykh-mahmud-shaltut-s-fatwa-about-shia-madhab-1959

 

  • Dr. Ahmad al-Tayyib

Let your children convert and to embrace Shia School, if someone leaves Maliki or Hanafi Sect, do we criticize him? These children are just leaving fourth school and join the fifth.

Fatwa of Al-Azhar’s Grand Imam on Shia:

Q: In your opinion, isn’t there any problem in Shia Beliefs?

A: Never, 50 years ago Sheikh Mahmoud Shaltoot, the then Chancellor of Al Azhar, had issued a fatwa that Shia School is the fifth Islamic School and as like as the other schools.

http://ijtihadnet.com/fatwa-al-azhars-grand-imam-shia/

And so many other which you can find on internet. As we know, Al Azhar University is the biggest Sunni university and holds a great place in the Muslim world.

 

  1. What we see in today’s world from some of the people like zanjir, & ghuluww is not the real shiism.. The mufti and Mujtahideen of the Shi’as do not believe in such things. Therefore, if we see them we can’t call those cultural things as Shiism, same as, ISIS who call themselves to be Muslims but in reality they have nothing to do with Islam and are the enemies of Islam and Muslims.

 

  1. I would recommend you to read the following books to know about the True Shiism:
  1.  “The Shi’ah are the real Ahul Sunnah” by Tijani Samawi, who himself was Sunni but after researching and finding the truth he left Sunnism and converted to Shiism. https://www.al-islam.org/shiah-are-real-ahlul-sunnah-muhammad-al-tijani-al-samawi
  2. Inquiries about Shia Islam: https://www.al-islam.org/inquiries-about-shia-islam-sayyid-moustafa-al-qazwini/who-are-shia

 

God forbid on the Day of Judgment we realize the best sect in Islam was Shiism who followed the Prophet(s.a.w.w) as told by him, then we won’t have time to return or rethink.

May Allah(swt) keep us on the right path and grant you success.

Wassalam,

Syed Haider