If you Shias are right about

Muawiyah
QUESTION: If you Shias are right about Muawiyah being a
factory of hadith fabrication, show me some hadiths that
have praised Muawiyah and Yazid in Sunni sources. If you are
right, then cite one example.

ANSWER: We have dealt with the topic of the fabrication of

hadiths by Muawiyah in a separate article; as for the point
you had in your question: there is no doubt that there have
been ahadith forged in praise of Muawiyah, and this matter was
overdone to the extent that everyone, even those for it,
objected[1]. Because of this, these hadiths were rejected by
many Sunnis.

In this article, we will first speak about the endeavors of

some in the field of hadith fabrication and writing in praise
of the virtues of Muawiyah and Yazid, then we will see if
there are any authentic hadiths about Muawiyah at all or not.

First issue: Some of the followers of the Sunni school of

thought have fabricated hadiths about the virtues of Muawiyah
and Yazid; what follows is a brief report of this:

The devotion of some to Muawiyah caused some false merits and

virtues to be attributed to this man. Muhammad ibn Abd al-
Wahed Abu Umar has a book about the virtues of this person who
is stained with various vices. In Lisan al-Mizan (1:374),
under the name Ishaq ibn Muhammad bin Susiyy, Ibn Hajar
says: This man has brought up some ugly things[2] about the
virtues of Muawiyah that Ubaydullah Saqati has narrated (from
him), while he or his instructor have fabricated it all.[3]
Ibn Hajar Makki has written the book Tathir al-Jinan wa al-
Lisan on the virtues and merits of Muawiyah.[4] Hafed Abdul-
Mughith the Hanbali has compiled a book from fabricated
material about the virtues of Yazid and Muawiyah!![5] Abu Umar
al-Zahed has written a book using fabricated hadiths about the
virtues of Muawiyah ibn Abi Sufyan, and Bardani used to
fabricate hadiths about his virtues.[6]

Studying the book of al-Shariah li al-Ajori (vol. 5, the

chapter on the virtues of Muawiyah ibn Abi Sufyan) can also be
helpful and informative for the respected reader regarding
these ahadith.

On the one hand, in response to Allamah Hilli, who refers to

the hadith of Teyr, Ibn Teymiyyah says: None of the scholars
of hadith have narrated the hadith of Teyr and none of them
has verified it. Of course, this is a hadith that some have
narrated, the same way they have narrated hadiths in praise of
other than Ali and even many in praise of Muawiyah and have
written many books about; but hadith experts have neither
verified the hadiths about Ali, nor the ones about
Muawiyah.[7] On the other hand, he reprimands Hakem
Neyshabouri for not answering the call of those who had asked
him to narrate hadiths on the virtues of Muawiyah and
associates him with the Shia[8]; this is while as we
mentioned, he himself said that hadith experts dont verify
the hadiths there are on the virtues of Muawiyah.[9] How can
this clear self-contradiction be justified?![10] Of course,
such an encounter isnt peculiar only to Hakem Neyshabouri;
Nisai, the compiler of Sunan Nisai, has also been accused of
being Shia, as is pointed to in Wafayat al-Ayan[11]; the
reason being that he has written a book titled Khasaes Amir
al-Muminin, and has been quoted saying: I dont know of any
virtues of his (Muawiyah), other than Allah (swt) never
allowed his stomach to become full.[12]

Also, Allamah Sarakhsi, in the book of Mabsut, chapter of

Ikrah, says: :

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13].]

Allamah Amini, the author of Al-Ghadir, in rejection of the

fabricated false virtues of Muawiyah says: In this work we
paid no attention to what Ibn Kathir says, nor to the call
that some of those in the past heard from the mount of Shm
(Syria); a call that goes: Whosoever holds a grudge against
Muawiyah, the flare of the fire will pull him into the burning
hell and swallow him in its furnace!, nor to the illusion
that Ibn Kathir depends on in his argument that goes: Someone
has said: I saw the prophet [in my dreams] while Abu Bakr,
Umar, Uthman, Ali and Muawiyah were with him. All of a sudden
a man came. Umar said: O Rasulullah! This man belittles us.
It seemed as if the prophet scolded the man for such, and the
man replied: I dont look at them in a belittling way, but I
look at him [Muawiyah]. The prophet said: Woe to you! Isnt
he one of my Sahabah?!, repeating this phrase three times.
Then the prophet took a dagger and gave it to Muawiyah and
ordered him to stab the man with it and he did. I jumped from
my sleep and quickly went home and learned that the same man
had been killed that night and he was Rashed al-Kandi)., nor
did we pay attention to what Saeed bin Musayyab says that
whosoever dies while liking Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali,
and believes that the ten will go to heaven, and sends
blessings on Muawiyah () , it will be upon
Allah to take care of his reckoning.[14], nor to the dreams
that Umar ibn Abdil-Aziz has been said to have seen in which
Muawiyah has been heard to say: By the lord of the Kabah, I
was forgiven!, nor to what Ahmad Hanbal says: What is their
problem with Muawiyah?! We ask Allah for health and well-
being.[15]. Of course, for information on the hadiths that
can be found in Sunni sources about the virtues of Muawiyah
and the answers there are for them, studying Al-Ghadir fi al-
Kitab wal-Sunnah wal-Adab, vol. 11, pg. 92 and on suffices.
For example, one of the hadiths Firdows al-Akhbar has
fabricated in praise of Muawiyah reads:
16]] . Although Sakhawi and Ibn Hajar
Makki have clearly invalidated and rejected this hadith,
Manawi has turned the blind eye to all of this, and has
brought it in Kanz al-Haqaiq.

It is good to know that Allamah Amini (ra), in this same book

of Al-Ghadir[17], under the title of A Research on Hadith and
Characteristics of Fabricated Hadiths, has stood up against
those who accuse the Shia of hadith fabrication in an
interesting and thorough manner, and has listed seven hundred
Sunni hadith narrators who were liars and hadith fabricators,
43 of which alone, have fabricated around half a million
hadiths.[18] On top of that, he narrates about a hundred
fabricated hadiths from Sunni narrators in which not only are
the virtues and caliphate of the first three khalifas
emphasized, but Muawiyah, Yazid, Mansur Dawaneqi and other
khalifas of the Umayyid and Abbasid dynasties have also been
praised!!![19]

Second issue: Are there any authentic hadiths on the virtues

of Muawiyah?

Abdullah ibn Ahmad ibn Hanbal has said: I asked my father

about Ali and Muawiyah. He said: Know that Ali has many
enemies, and no matter how much they tried to find any fault
or flaws in him, they couldnt. That is why they gathered
around one who had battled against him and provoked him to
deceive and plot against Ali.[20] Hakem says: I heard Abu
al-Abbas Muhammad bin Yaqub bin Yusuf saying: I heard my
father saying: I heard Ishaq bin Ibrahim Handhali saying:
There is no authentic hadith on the virtue of Muawiyah.[21]
Seeing that there are no hadiths in praise of Muawiyah,
Bukhari saw no other option other than to add a chapter where
mentioning the virtues of the first khalifahs, with the title
of A Remembrance of Muawiyah[22]; in Fath al-Bari (7:83),
Ibn Hajar Asqalani writes: This itself shows that the
disputed virtues narrated about Muawiyah arent authentic and
have no basis. Many hadiths have been narrated about the
virtues of Muawiyah, none of which bear a decent and
acceptable chain of narrators.[23] Ishaq ibn Rahwiyyah and
Nisai and others share the same view. Muslim and Ibn Majah
who also werent able to find an acceptable hadith about
Muawiyah, have added a page to their books in praise of the
Sahabah. As for Teyrmidi, he hasnt narrated more than one
hadith (O Allah, make him a guider and a guided one and in a
way that others are guided by him) saying that the hadith is
hasan sahih (authentic).[24] This is while the hadith is
narrated like this: O Allah guide him. Ibn Teymiyyah in his
book of Minhaj (2:207) writes: Some have attributed certain
virtues to Muawiyah and have narrated hadiths from the prophet
(pbuh) about him, which are all lies. Firuz Abadi, in the end
of his book of Safar al-Saadah, and Ajaluni in his book of
Kashf al-Khafa, pg. 420, in the chapters of Muawiyahs
virtues, say: There is no authentic hadith in this regard. In
Umdah al-Qari, Eyni writes: If you say that there are many
hadiths on the virtues of Muawiyah, I will say yes there are,
but none of them have authentic chains of narrators and are
unreliable. Shawkani writes in Fawaid al-Majmuah: Those
preserving the ahadith all agree that there is no authentic
hadith on the virtues of Muawiyah.[25]

The conclusion being that, in order to free Muawiyah and Yazid

from vices and impurities, some engaged in the act of
fabricating hadiths but failed, and although some reject these
hadiths, they still speak good of Muawiyah and attribute
qualities to him, as was seen in the words of Ibn Teymiyyah
and Sarakhsi.

[1] There is a saying in Farsi that goes:

( meaning that the soup was
made so salty that even the head chef himself complained).

[2] False and fabricated hadiths.

[3] Farsi translation of Al-Ghadir fil-Kitab wal-Sunnah, vol.

21, pg. 127.

[4] Abaqat al-Anwar fi Imamat al-Aimmah al-Athar, vol. 13,

second section, pg. 35 and vol. 13, first section, pg. 126.
For the answer to and rejection of the hadiths Ibn Hajar has
listed, see: Al-Ghadir fil-Kitab wal-Sunnah, vol. 10, pg. 514
and on; Farsi translation of Al-Ghadir fil-Kitab wal-Sunnah,
vol. 20, pp. 267-268.

[5] Farsi translation of Al-Ghadir fil-Kitab wal-Sunnah, vol.

10, pg. 120.

[6] Ibid, vol. 5, pg. 449.

[7]




; Minhaj al-Sunnah, vol. 2, pg. 207. The answer to this
claim has been given in Abaqat al-Anwar fi Imamat al-Aimmah
al-Athar, vol. 13, second section, pg. 33.

[8] [8]


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[9] Abaqat al-Anwar fi Imamat al-Aimmah al-Athar, vol. 13,

second section, pg. 38.

[10] Of course in Minhaj, he has said:

. See: Abaqat al-Anwar fi
Imamat al-Aimmah al-Athar, vol. 15, pg. 415.

[11] Al-Nisai:
) (


303) : ) Wafayat
al-Ayan, vol. 1, pg. 21; As Safadi in Wafi bil-Wafayat, and
Yafei in Mirat al-Jinan, and Sabki in Tabaqat Shafeiyyah,
and Ibn Hajar Asqalani in Tahzib al-Tahzib, and Abdul-Haqq in
Asma al-Rijal and Abul-Hajjaj Yusuf ibn al-Zakiyy al-Maziyy
in Tahzib al-Kamal fi Asma al-Rijal have said in their
biographies of Nisai.

[12] See: Abaqat al-Anwar fi Imamat al-Aimmah al-Athar, vol.

15, pp. 411 and 415; Translation of Dalail al-Sidq, vol. 1,
pg. 7.

[13] Several points emerge from this passage, namely: 1-

Masruq has said about Muawiyah: I dont know whether he is a
man whose evil deeds appear to him as decorous, or a man who
has lost all hope in the hereafter thus taking pleasure in
this world. 2-Sarakhshi admits that Masruq (which is of the
Tabein) counts Muawiyahs sale of idols a great sin. 3-
Although Sarakhshi looks at Masruq the Tabei highly, he gives
precedence to Muawiyahs viewpoint regarding the
permissibility of the sale of idols over that of Masruqs. 4-
Sarakhshi has become so upset by what Masruq has said about
Muawiyah that he pointlessly begins to praise Muawiyah with
false qualities. 5- Sarakhshi maintains that it is permissible
to practice taqiyyah (dissimulation) and that it becomes
lawful for one to put aside some of what is obligatory on him.
See: Abaqat al-Anwar fi Imamat al-Aimmah al-Athar, vol. 22,
pp. 718-722.

[14] Tarikh ibn Kathir, vol. 8, pp. 139 and 140.

[15] Translation of Al-Ghadir fil-Kitab wal-Sunnah wal-Adab,

vol. 19, pg. 217 and 218.

[16] To learn about these hadiths being fabricated ones, see:

Abaqat al-Anwar fi Imamat al-Aimmah al-Athar, vol. 15, pg.
415; Nafahat al-Azhr fi Kholasat Abaqat al-Anwar, vol. 12,
pp. 165-171

[17] Al-Ghadir fil-Kitab wal-Sunnah wal-Adab, vol. 5, pg. 301.

[18] Of course, this isnt unusual, because in the

introduction of Fath al-Bari, pg. 4, Ibn Hajar says: Aba Ali
Ghasani quotes Bukhari saying: I have selected this
collection of hadiths from 600 hundred thousand hadiths,
while we know that not counting repetitions, Sahih Bukhari
contains no more than 2761 hadiths.

[19] Ibid, vol. 10, pg. 8.

[20] Tarikh Khulafa Suyuti, pg. 133; Fath al-Bari, vol. 7,

pg. 83; Al-Sawaiq, pg. 76.

[21] Al-Laali al-Masnuah, vol. 1, pg. 220 [1/424].

[22] Sahih Bukhari, vol. 3, pg. 1373, chapter 28.

[23] Fath al-Bari, vol. 7, pg. 83 [7/104]

[24] The 10th part of Al-Ghadir has proved the inauthenticity

of this hadith.

[25] Translation of Al-Ghadir fil-Kitabi wal-Sunnah wal-Adab,

vol. 21, pp. 126 and 127, using the Nur al-Wilayah and Al-
Maktabah al-Shamilah softwares.

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