1.
Urdu
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Urdu is a persianized standard register of the Hindustani language. It is the language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also one of the 22 official languages recognized in the Constitution of India, hyderabad, Rampur, Bhopal and Lucknow are noted Urdu-speaking cities of India. Urdu is historically associated with the Muslims of the northern Indian subcontinent, apart from specialized vocabulary, Urdu is mutually intelligible with Standard Hindi, another recognized register of Hindustani. Urdu, like Hindi, is a form of Hindustani, Urdu developed under the influence of the Persian and Arabic languages, both of which have contributed a significant amount of vocabulary to formal speech. Around 99% of Urdu verbs have their roots in Sanskrit and Prakrit, Urdu words originating from Chagatai and Arabic were borrowed through Persian and hence are Persianized versions of the original words. For instance, the Arabic ta marbuta changes to he or te, nevertheless, contrary to popular belief, Urdu did not borrow from the Turkish language, but from Chagatai. Urdu and Turkish borrowed from Arabic and Persian, hence the similarity in pronunciation of many Urdu, Arabic influence in the region began with the late first-millennium Arab invasion of India in the 7th century. The Persian language was introduced into the subcontinent a few centuries later by various Persianized Central Asian Turkic and Afghan dynasties including that of the Delhi Sultanate. With the advent of the British Raj, Persian was no longer the language of administration but Hindustani, still written in the Persian script, the name Urdu was first used by the poet Ghulam Hamadani Mushafi around 1780. From the 13th century until the end of the 18th century Urdu was commonly known as Hindi, the language was also known by various other names such as Hindavi and Dehlavi. The communal nature of the language lasted until it replaced Persian as the language in 1837 and was made co-official. Urdu was promoted in British India by British policies to counter the previous emphasis on Persian and this triggered a Brahman backlash in northwestern India, which argued that the language should be written in the native Devanagari script. At independence, Pakistan established a highly Persianized literary form of Urdu as its national language, English has exerted a heavy influence on both as a co-official language. Owing to interaction with other languages, Urdu has become localized wherever it is spoken, similarly, the Urdu spoken in India can also be distinguished into many dialects like Dakhni of South India, and Khariboli of the Punjab region since recent times. Because of Urdus similarity to Hindi, speakers of the two languages can understand one another if both sides refrain from using specialized vocabulary. The syntax, morphology, and the vocabulary are essentially identical. Thus linguists usually count them as one language and contend that they are considered as two different languages for socio-political reasons
2.
Ghalib
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Ghalib born Mirza Asadullah Beg Khan, on 27 December 1797 – died 15 February 1869), was the preeminent Urdu and Persian-language poet during the last years of the Mughal Empire. He used his pen-names of Ghalib and Asad, during his lifetime the Mughals were eclipsed and displaced by the British and finally deposed following the defeat of the Indian rebellion of 1857, events that he described. Most notably, he wrote several ghazals during his life, which have since been interpreted, Ghalib, the last great poet of the Mughal Era, is considered to be one of the most popular and influential poets of the Urdu language. Today Ghalib remains popular not only in India and Pakistan but also among the Hindustani diaspora around the world, Mirza Ghalib was born in Kala Mahal, Agra into a family descended from Aibak Turks who moved to Samarkand after the downfall of the Seljuk kings. His paternal grandfather, Mirza Qoqan Baig Khan, was a Saljuq Turk who had immigrated to India from Samarkand during the reign of Ahmad Shah and he worked at Lahore, Delhi and Jaipur, was awarded the subdistrict of Pahasu and finally settled in Agra, UP, India. He had four sons and three daughters, Mirza Abdullah Baig Khan and Mirza Nasrullah Baig Khan were two of his sons. Mirza Abdullah Baig Khan married Izzat-ut-Nisa Begum, an ethnic Kashmiri and he was employed first by the Nawab of Lucknow and then the Nizam of Hyderabad, Deccan. He died in a battle in 1803 in Alwar and was buried at Rajgarh, then Ghalib was a little over 5 years of age. He was raised first by his Uncle Mirza Nasrullah Baig Khan, at the age of thirteen, Ghalib married Umrao Begum, daughter of Nawab Ilahi Bakhsh. He soon moved to Delhi, along with his brother, Mirza Yousuf Khan. In accordance with upper class Muslim tradition, he had a marriage at the age of 13. After his marriage he settled in Delhi, in one of his letters he describes his marriage as the second imprisonment after the initial confinement that was life itself. The idea that life is one continuous painful struggle which can end only when life itself ends, is a theme in his poetry. Translation in English The prison of life and the bondage of grief are one and he has also later translated Faiz Ahmed Faizs most famous Ghazal - Gulon me rang bhare too. At the age of thirty he had seven children, none of whom survived, there are conflicting reports regarding his relationship with his wife. She was considered to be pious, conservative and God-fearing, Ghalib was proud of his reputation as a rake. He was once imprisoned for gambling and subsequently relished the affair with pride, in the Mughal court circles, he even acquired a reputation as a ladies man. Once, when someone praised the poetry of the pious Sheikh Sahbai in his presence, Ghalib immediately retorted, How can Sahbai be a poet
3.
Mir Babar Ali Anis
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Mir Baber Ali Anees was an Urdu poet, born in 1803 in Faizabad, Oudh now in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh who died in 1874 in Lucknow, North-Western Provinces. Anis used Persian, Hindi, Arabic, and Sanskrit words in his poetry, Anis wrote prolonged Marsias, which was a custom of his times, but nowadays only selected sections are narrated even in religious ceremonies. He died in 1291 Hijra, corresponding with 1874 A. D. Mir Babar Ali Anis was born in 1803 CE at Faizabad, a Musavi sayyed, descended from the 7th Imam, Musa al-Kadhim, he belonged to a family of poets. In his book Khandaan- e-Mir Anees ke Naamwar Sho’ara, Zameer Naqvi listed 22 poets from Mir Anis’ family, Mir Anis was a fifth-generation poet, a fact he mentioned in the first stanza of his famous Marsiya Namak-e-Khwaan-e-Takallum hai Fasaahat meri. He says, His mother appears to have been his main inspiration, but he was also intellectually curious and gifted. Anis gained a traditional Shia education, masood also notes that Anis was well versed in Persian as well as in Arabic. Anis also had training and gained a thorough knowledge of old. Mir Anis was invited to Lucknow where he reached the zenith of his reputation, Mir Anis did not like to move out of Lucknow apprehending that his art would not be appreciated elsewhere. Yet, after the annexation of Oudh by the British, he was persuaded to visit Azimabad, Dulhipur, Hyderabad and Allahabad. While returning from Hyderabad, he sojourned at Allahabad in 1871 and recited his marsia in the Imambara of late Lala Beni Prasad Srivastava, Vakil and he died in 1874 CE and is buried at his own residence in Lucknow. According to Muhammad Hussain Azad The late Mīr Sahib must certainly have composed at least ten thousand elegies and he composed as easily and casually as he spoke. Anis is also known as pioneer in Rubai, an Urdu poetry branch, besides being a master of the Marsia, Anis was also a specialist of the Rubai, the shortest complete poem in Urdu, containing only four lines. Mir Anees had a capability for the writing of Rubais. He immeasurably enriched the contents of the Rubai, making it much more colorful, Anis introduced the tragic events of Karbala and their moralistic effect to Rubai. Thus, he widened the scope of Rubai to unfathomable limits, the inclusion of Karbala resulted in the florescence of the Urdu Rubai. Thus, many internal and external aspects of our life found their echo in the Urdu Rubai. Anis. was a master of simple, natural utterance, with a command on the language. He is especially notable for presenting the scene or situation, over and over again, in different words or phrases
4.
British Raj
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The British Raj was the rule by the British Crown in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947. The rule is also called Crown rule in India, or direct rule in India, the resulting political union was also called the Indian Empire and after 1876 issued passports under that name. It lasted until 1947, when the British Indian Empire was partitioned into two sovereign states, the Dominion of India and the Dominion of Pakistan. The British Raj extended over almost all present-day India, Pakistan and this area is very diverse, containing the Himalayan mountains, fertile floodplains, the Indo-Gangetic Plain, a long coastline, tropical dry forests, arid uplands, and the Thar desert. In addition, at times, it included Aden, Lower Burma, Upper Burma, British Somaliland. Burma was separated from India and directly administered by the British Crown from 1937 until its independence in 1948, among other countries in the region, Ceylon was ceded to Britain in 1802 under the Treaty of Amiens. Ceylon was part of Madras Presidency between 1793 and 1798, the kingdoms of Nepal and Bhutan, having fought wars with the British, subsequently signed treaties with them and were recognised by the British as independent states. The Kingdom of Sikkim was established as a state after the Anglo-Sikkimese Treaty of 1861, however. The Maldive Islands were a British protectorate from 1887 to 1965, India during the British Raj was made up of two types of territory, British India and the Native States. In general, the term British India had been used to also to the regions under the rule of the British East India Company in India from 1600 to 1858. The term has also used to refer to the British in India. The terms Indian Empire and Empire of India were not used in legislation, the monarch was known as Empress or Emperor of India and the term was often used in Queen Victorias Queens Speeches and Prorogation Speeches. The passports issued by the British Indian government had the words Indian Empire on the cover, in addition, an order of knighthood, the Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire, was set up in 1878. At the turn of the 20th century, British India consisted of eight provinces that were administered either by a Governor or a Lieutenant-Governor, during the partition of Bengal the new provinces of Assam and East Bengal were created as a Lieutenant-Governorship. In 1911, East Bengal was reunited with Bengal, and the new provinces in the east became, Assam, Bengal, Bihar, there were 565 princely states when India and Pakistan became independent from Britain in August 1947. The princely states did not form a part of British India, the larger ones had treaties with Britain that specified which rights the princes had, in the smaller ones the princes had few rights. Within the princely states external affairs, defence and most communications were under British control, the British also exercised a general influence over the states internal politics, in part through the granting or withholding of recognition of individual rulers. Although there were nearly 600 princely states, the majority were very small
5.
Hindu
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Hindu refers to any person who regards themselves as culturally, ethnically, or religiously adhering to aspects of Hinduism. It has historically used as a geographical, cultural, or religious identifier for people indigenous to South Asia. The historical meaning of the term Hindu has evolved with time, by the 16th century, the term began to refer to residents of India who were not Turks or Muslims. The historical development of Hindu self-identity within the Indian population, in a religious or cultural sense, is unclear, competing theories state that Hindu identity developed in the British colonial era, or that it developed post-8th century CE after the Islamic invasion and medieval Hindu-Muslim wars. A sense of Hindu identity and the term Hindu appears in texts dated between the 13th and 18th century in Sanskrit and regional languages. The 14th- and 18th-century Indian poets such as Vidyapati, Kabir and Eknath used the phrase Hindu dharma, the Christian friar Sebastiao Manrique used the term Hindu in religious context in 1649. In the 18th century, the European merchants and colonists began to refer to the followers of Indian religions collectively as Hindus, in contrast to Mohamedans for Mughals, scholars state that the custom of distinguishing between Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs is a modern phenomenon. Hindoo is a spelling variant, whose use today may be considered derogatory. At more than 1.03 billion, Hindus are the third largest group after Christians. The vast majority of Hindus, approximately 966 million, live in India, according to Indias 2011 census. After India, the next 9 countries with the largest Hindu populations are, in decreasing order, Nepal, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, United States, Malaysia, United Kingdom and Myanmar. These together accounted for 99% of the worlds Hindu population, the word Hindu is derived from the Indo-Aryan and Sanskrit word Sindhu, which means a large body of water, covering river, ocean. It was used as the name of the Indus river and also referred to its tributaries, the Punjab region, called Sapta Sindhava in the Vedas, is called Hapta Hindu in Zend Avesta. The 6th-century BCE inscription of Darius I mentions the province of Hidush, the people of India were referred to as Hinduvān and hindavī was used as the adjective for Indian in the 8th century text Chachnama. The term Hindu in these ancient records is an ethno-geographical term, the Arabic equivalent Al-Hind likewise referred to the country of India. Among the earliest known records of Hindu with connotations of religion may be in the 7th-century CE Chinese text Record of the Western Regions by the Buddhist scholar Xuanzang, Xuanzang uses the transliterated term In-tu whose connotation overflows in the religious according to Arvind Sharma. The Hindu community occurs as the amorphous Other of the Muslim community in the court chronicles, wilfred Cantwell Smith notes that Hindu retained its geographical reference initially, Indian, indigenous, local, virtually native. Slowly, the Indian groups themselves started using the term, differentiating themselves, the poet Vidyapatis poem Kirtilata contrasts the cultures of Hindus and Turks in a city and concludes The Hindus and the Turks live close together, Each makes fun of the others religion
6.
Bollywood
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Bollywood is the sobriquet for Indias Hindi language film industry, based in the city of Mumbai, Maharashtra. It is more formally referred to as Hindi cinema, Bollywood is also one of the largest centers of film production in the world. Furthermore, Bollywood is one of the biggest film industries in the world in terms of the number of people employed, according to Matusitz, J. & Payano, P. In 2011, over 3.5 billion tickets were sold across the globe which in comparison is 900,000 tickets more than Hollywood, Bollywood produced 252 films in 2014 out of a total of 1969 films produced in Indian cinema. The name Bollywood is a derived from Bombay, India, and Hollywood, California. Bollywood does not exist as a physical place, some deplore the name, arguing that it makes the industry look like a poor cousin to Hollywood. The naming scheme for Bollywood was inspired by Tollywood, the name that was used to refer to the cinema of West Bengal and it was this chance juxtaposition of two pairs of rhyming syllables, Holly and Tolly, that led to the portmanteau name Tollywood being coined. However, Tollywood is now used popularly to refer to the Telugu Film Industry in Telangana & Andhra Pradesh, the term Bollywood itself has origins in the 1970s, when India overtook America as the worlds largest film producer. Credit for the term has been claimed by different people, including the lyricist, filmmaker and scholar Amit Khanna. Raja Harishchandra, by Dadasaheb Phalke, is known as the first silent feature film made in India, by the 1930s, the industry was producing over 200 films per annum. The first Indian sound film, Ardeshir Iranis Alam Ara, was a commercial success. There was clearly a huge market for talkies and musicals, Bollywood, the 1930s and 1940s were tumultuous times, India was buffeted by the Great Depression, World War II, the Indian independence movement, and the violence of the Partition. Most Bollywood films were unabashedly escapist, but there were also a number of filmmakers who tackled tough social issues, in 1937, Ardeshir Irani, of Alam Ara fame, made the first colour film in Hindi, Kisan Kanya. The next year, he made another film, a version of Mother India. However, colour did not become a feature until the late 1950s. At this time, lavish romantic musicals and melodramas were the fare at the cinema. Following Indias independence, the period from the late 1940s to the 1960s is regarded by historians as the Golden Age of Hindi cinema. Some of the most critically acclaimed Hindi films of all time were produced during this period, examples include the Guru Dutt films Pyaasa and Kaagaz Ke Phool and the Raj Kapoor films Awaara, Shree 420 and Dilip Kumars Aan
7.
Allah
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Allah is the Arabic word for God in Abrahamic religions. In the English language, the word refers to God in Islam. The word is thought to be derived by contraction from al-ilāh, which means the god, and is related to El and Elohim, the word Allah has been used by Arabic people of different religions since pre-Islamic times. More specifically, it has used as a term for God by Muslims. It is now used by Muslims and Arab Christians to refer to God. It is also often, albeit not exclusively, used in this way by Bábists, Baháís, Indonesian and Maltese Christians, similar usage by Christians and Sikhs in West Malaysia has recently led to political and legal controversies. The etymology of the word Allāh has been discussed extensively by classical Arab philologists, grammarians of the Basra school regarded is as either formed spontaneously or as the definite form of lāh. The majority of modern scholars subscribe to the theory. Cognates of the name Allāh exist in other Semitic languages, including Hebrew, the corresponding Aramaic form is Elah, but its emphatic state is Elaha. It is written as ܐܠܗܐ in Biblical Aramaic and ܐܲܠܵܗܵܐ in Syriac as used by the Assyrian Church, Biblical Hebrew mostly uses the plural form Elohim, but more rarely it also uses the singular form Eloah. Regional variants of the word Allah occur in both pagan and Christian pre-Islamic inscriptions, different theories have been proposed regarding the role of Allah in pre-Islamic polytheistic cults. Some authors have suggested that polytheistic Arabs used the name as a reference to a god or a supreme deity of their pantheon. The term may have been vague in the Meccan religion, according to one hypothesis, which goes back to Julius Wellhausen, Allah was a designation that consecrated the superiority of Hubal over the other gods. However, there is evidence that Allah and Hubal were two distinct deities. Some inscriptions seem to indicate the use of Allah as a name of a polytheist deity centuries earlier, some scholars have suggested that Allah may have represented a remote creator god who was gradually eclipsed by more particularized local deities. There is disagreement on whether Allah played a role in the Meccan religious cult. No iconic representation of Allah is known to have existed, muhammads fathers name was ʿAbd-Allāh meaning the slave of Allāh. The Aramaic word for God in the language of Assyrian Christians is ʼĔlāhā, arabic-speakers of all Abrahamic faiths, including Christians and Jews, use the word Allah to mean God
8.
Quran
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The Quran is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims believe to be a revelation from God. It is widely regarded as the finest work in classical Arabic literature, the Quran is divided into chapters, which are then divided into verses. The word Quran occurs some 70 times in the text of the Quran, although different names, according to the traditional narrative, several companions of Muhammad served as scribes and were responsible for writing down the revelations. Shortly after Muhammads death, the Quran was compiled by his companions who wrote down and these codices had differences that motivated the Caliph Uthman to establish a standard version now known as Uthmans codex, which is generally considered the archetype of the Quran known today. There are, however, variant readings, with minor differences in meaning. The Quran assumes familiarity with major narratives recounted in the Biblical scriptures and it summarizes some, dwells at length on others and, in some cases, presents alternative accounts and interpretations of events. The Quran describes itself as a book of guidance and it sometimes offers detailed accounts of specific historical events, and it often emphasizes the moral significance of an event over its narrative sequence. The Quran is used along with the hadith to interpret sharia law, during prayers, the Quran is recited only in Arabic. Someone who has memorized the entire Quran is called a hafiz, some Muslims read Quranic ayah with elocution, which is often called tajwid. During the month of Ramadan, Muslims typically complete the recitation of the whole Quran during tarawih prayers, in order to extrapolate the meaning of a particular Quranic verse, most Muslims rely on the tafsir. The word qurʼān appears about 70 times in the Quran itself and it is a verbal noun of the Arabic verb qaraʼa, meaning he read or he recited. The Syriac equivalent is qeryānā, which refers to reading or lesson. While some Western scholars consider the word to be derived from the Syriac, regardless, it had become an Arabic term by Muhammads lifetime. An important meaning of the word is the act of reciting, as reflected in an early Quranic passage, It is for Us to collect it, in other verses, the word refers to an individual passage recited. Its liturgical context is seen in a number of passages, for example, So when al-qurʼān is recited, listen to it, the word may also assume the meaning of a codified scripture when mentioned with other scriptures such as the Torah and Gospel. The term also has closely related synonyms that are employed throughout the Quran, each synonym possesses its own distinct meaning, but its use may converge with that of qurʼān in certain contexts. Such terms include kitāb, āyah, and sūrah, the latter two terms also denote units of revelation. In the large majority of contexts, usually with an article, the word is referred to as the revelation
9.
Sufism
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Sufism or Taṣawwuf, which is often defined as Islamic mysticism, the inward dimension of Islam, or the phenomenon of mysticism within Islam, is a mystical trend in Islam characterized. These orders meet for sessions in meeting places known as zawiyas, khanqahs. They strive for ihsan as detailed in a hadith, Ihsan is to worship Allah as if you see Him, if you cant see Him, Rumi stated, The Sufi is hanging on to Muhammad, like Abu Bakr. Sufis regard Muhammad as al-Insān al-Kāmil, the perfect man who exemplifies the morality of God. The orders largely follow one of the four madhhabs of Sunni Islam, classical Sufis were characterized by their asceticism, especially by their attachment to dhikr, the practice of repeating the names of God, often performed after prayers. According to William Chittick, In a broad sense, Sufism can be described as the interiorization, historically, Muslims have used the Arabic word taṣawwuf to identify the practice of Sufis. In this view, it is necessary to be a Muslim to be a true Sufi. However, Islamic scholars themselves are not by any means in agreement about the meaning of the word sufi, Sufis themselves claim that Tasawwuf is an aspect of Islam similar to Sharia, inseparable from Islam and an integral part of Islamic belief and practice. Classical Sufi scholars have defined Tasawwuf as a science whose objective is the reparation of the heart and turning it away from all else, two origins of the word sufi have been suggested. Commonly, the root of the word is traced to ṣafā. Another origin is ṣūf, wool in Arabic, referring to the simple cloaks the early Muslim ascetics wore, the two were combined by the Sufi al-Rudhabari, who said, The Sufi is the one who wears wool on top of purity. Scholars generally agree that ṣūf or wool is probably the word of Sufi. This term was given to them because they wore woollen garments, the term labisal-suf meant he clad himself in wool and applied to a person who renounced the world and became an ascetic. Others have suggested that the word comes from the term ahl aṣ-ṣuffah and these men and women who sat at al-Masjid an-Nabawi are considered by some to be the first Sufis. Al-Qushayri and Ibn Khaldun both rejected all other than ṣūf on linguistic grounds. Sufi orders are based on the bayah that was given to the Prophet Muhammad by his Sahaba, by pledging allegiance to the Prophet Muhammad, the Sahaba had committed themselves to the service of God. According to Islamic belief, by pledging allegiance to Prophet Muhammad and it is through the Prophet Muhammad that Sufis aim to learn about, understand and connect with God. Such a concept may be understood by the hadith, which Sufis regard to be authentic, in which Prophet Muhammad said, I am the city of knowledge, eminent Sufis such as Ali Hujwiri refer to Ali as having a very high ranking in Tasawwuf
10.
Ali
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‘Ali ibn Abi Talib was the cousin and son-in-law of the Islamic Nabi Muhammad, ruling over the Caliphate from 656 to 661 ACE, and was Imam of Shi‘ite from 632 to 661 ACE. ‘Ali was the first young male who accepted Islam, after migrating to Medina, he married Muhammads daughter Fatimah. Ali took part in the early caravan raids from Mecca and later in almost all the battles fought by the nascent Muslim community and he was appointed caliph by Muhammads Companions in 656, after Caliph Uthman ibn Affan was assassinated. ‘Alis reign saw wars and in 661, he was attacked and assassinated by a Kharijite while praying in the Great Mosque of Kufa. ‘Ali is important to various Sunni and Shi‘ite denominations politically, legislatively and spiritually, while Sunnis consider Ali the fourth and final of the Rashidun caliphs, Shi‘ites regard ‘Ali as the first Imam after Muhammad due to their interpretation of the events at Ghadir Khumm. Shias also believe that ‘Ali and the other Shi‘ite Imams are the successors to Muhammad. This disagreement split the Ummah into the Sunni and Shia branches, ‘Alis father, Abu Talib, was the custodian of the Kabah and a sheikh of the Banu Hashim, an important branch of the powerful Quraysh tribe. He was also an uncle of Muhammad, Alis mother, Fatima bint Asad, also belonged to Banu Hashim, making Ali a descendant of Ismail, the son of Ibrahim. Many sources, especially Shii ones, attest that Ali was born inside the Kaaba in the city of Mecca, according to a tradition, Muhammad was the first person whom Ali saw as he took the newborn in his hands. Muhammad named him Ali, meaning the exalted one, Muhammad had a close relationship with Alis parents. When Muhammad was orphaned and later lost his grandfather Abdul Muttalib, Ali was born two or three years after Muhammad married Khadijah bint Khuwaylid. When Ali was five or six years old, a famine occurred in and around Mecca, affecting the economic conditions of Alis father, Muhammad took Ali into his home to raise him. The second period of life began in 610 when he declared Islam at the age of 10. When Muhammad reported that he had received a revelation, Ali, then only about ten years old, believed him. According to Ibn Ishaq and some authorities, Ali was the first male to embrace Islam. Tabari adds other traditions making the claim of being the first Muslim in relation to Zayd ibn Harithah or Abu Bakr. Some historians and scholars believe Alis conversion is not worthy enough to him the first male Muslim because he was a child at the time. Hence the Shia say of Ali that his face is honoured, the Sunnis also use the honorific Karam Allahu Wajhahu, which means Gods Favour upon his Face
11.
Hasan ibn Ali
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Al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, commonly called Hasan, was the second Shi‘ite Imam, succeeding his father Ali, and preceding his younger brother Al-Husayn. He was the son of ‘Ali and Muhammads daughter, Fatimah. Sunni Muslims respect him as a grandson of the Islamic Nabi Muhammad, and he abdicated after six or seven months, and Mu‘awiyah succeeded him to become the first Umayyad Caliph. For the rest of his life, al-Hasan lived in al-Medinah, in seclusion, until he died at the age of 45 or 46 and his wife, Jada bint al-Ashat, is commonly accused of having poisoned him. Al-Hasan was known for donating to the poor, and being kind to them and bondmen, when Al-Hasan was born in the year 624 CE, Muhammad slaughtered a ram for the poor on the occasion of his birth, and chose the name Al-Ḥasan for him. Fatimah shaved his head and gave the weight of his hair in silver as alms, according to Shiite belief, theirs was the only house that archangel Gabriel allowed to have a door to the courtyard of al-Masjid an-Nabawi. Both Shi‘ite and Sunni Muslims consider Al-Hasan to belong to the Bayt of Muhammad, Ahl al-Kisa’ and he also reportedly predicted that Al-Hasan would make peace between two factions of Muslims. In the year 10 AH a Christian envoy from Najran came to Muhammad to argue which of the two parties erred in its doctrine concerning ‘Isa. Accordingly, in the Shiite perspective, in the verse of Mubahalah, the phrase our sons would refer to Al-Hasan and Al-Husayn, our women refers to Fatimah, and ourselves refers to ‘Ali. In response al-Kadhim recited the verses Quran,6,84 and Quran,6,85 and then asked Who is Jesus father, Jesus had no father, said Harun. It is related that Harun asked Musa to give him more evidence, so in the verse, Our sons refers to Al-Hasan and Al-Husayn. Al-Hasan was one of the guards defending ‘Uthman ibn ‘Affan when the attackers went round the latter, during the reign of ‘Ali, he was a participant in the Battles of Siffin and Nahrawan. According to Donaldson there was not a significant difference between the idea of Imamate, or divine right, expressed by each Imam designating his successor and other ideas of succession at first. This is why Muhammad did not nominate a successor, as he wanted to leave the succession to be resolved by the Muslim Community on the basis of the Qur’anic principle of consultation. The question Madelung proposes here is why the family members of Muhammad should not inherit other aspects of Muhammads character such as Hukm, Hikmah, after ‘Ali was assassinated, Al-Hasan became the Caliph of the Ummah, in a manner which followed the custom established by Abu Bakr. Performing a good act is love for us, the family of the Prophet, Qays ibn Sad was the first to give allegiance to him. Qays then stipulated the condition that the Bayah should be based on, on the Qur’an, the Sunnah of Muhammad, and on the condition of a Jihad against those who declared Halal that which was Haram. As soon as the news of Al-Hasans selection reached Mu‘awiyah, who had been fighting ‘Ali for the caliphate, he condemned the selection, letters exchanged between Al-Hasan and Mu‘awiyah before their troops faced each other were to no avail
12.
Husayn ibn Ali
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Al-Ḥusayn ibn ‘Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib, was the grandson of the Islamic Nabi Muhammad, and the son of ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib and Fatimah the daughter of Muhammad. He is an important figure in Islam, as he was a member of the Ahl al-Bayt of Muhammad and Ahl al-Kisa’, Al-Husayn became the Imam of Shi‘ites after the death of his older brother, Al-Hasan, in 670 ACE. His fathers supporters in Al-Kufah gave their allegiance to him, however, he told them he was still bound to the peace treaty between Al-Hasan and Muawiyah I and they should wait until Mu‘awiyahs death. Later, Al-Husain did not accept the request of Mu‘awiyah for the succession of his son, Yazid I and he insisted on his legitimacy based on his own special position as a direct descendant of Muhammad and his legitimate legatees. As a consequence, he left Medina, his home town, there, the people of Al-Kufah sent letters to him, asking his help and pledging their allegiance to him. So he travelled towards Al-Kufah, but, at a place near it known as Karbala’ and he was killed and beheaded in the Battle of Karbala’ on 10 October 680 by Shimr Ibn Thil-Jawshan, along with most of his family and companions. Anger at Al-Husayns death was turned into a rallying cry that helped undermine the Umayyad caliphates legitimacy, Al-Husayn is highly regarded by Shi‘ite Muslims for refusing to pledge allegiance to Yazid, the Umayyad caliph, because he considered the rule of the Umayyads unjust. His action at Karbala fuelled the later Shia movements, Al-Husayn was the son of ‘Ali ibn Abi Ṭalib, and his wife Fatimah. His maternal grandparents were Muhammad and Khadijah bint Khuwaylid, and his grandparents were Abu Talib. Husayn and his brother Hasan were the last descendants of Muhammad living during his lifetime, there are many accounts of his love for them which refer to them together. Allah loves those who love Hussain, Hussain is a grandson among grandsons. A narration declares them the Masters of the Youth of Paradise, the Shia maintain that the infallibility of the Imam is a basic rule in the Imamate. According to Wilferd Madelung, Muhammad loved them and declared them as people of his Bayt very frequently and he has also said, Every mothers children are associated with their father except for the children of Fatima for I am their father and lineage. Thus, the descendants of Fatimah were descendants of Muhammad, according to popular Sunni belief, it refers to the household of Muhammad. Shia popular view is the members of Muhammads family that were present at the incident of Mubahalah, according to Muhammad Baqir Majlisi who compiled Bihar al-Anwar, a collection of ahadith, Chapter 46 Verse 15 and Chapter 89 Verses 27-30 of the Qur’an are regarding Al-Husayn. In the year AH10 a Christian envoy from Najran came to Muhammad to argue which of the two parties erred in its doctrine concerning ‘Isa. Accordingly, in the verse of Mubahalah, in the Shi‘ite perspective, the phrase our sons would refer to Al-Hasan and Al-Husayn, our women would refer to Fatimah, and ourselves would refer ‘Ali. Mu‘awiyah, who was the governor of Al-Sham under ‘Uthman ibn ‘Affan, had refused ‘Alis demands for allegiance, after ‘Ali was assassinated and people gave allegiance to Al-Hasan, Mu‘awiyah prepared to fight with him
