The following is a response to SlaveOfAhlubait’s article: “Mola Ali asws, and Salooni”. The article can be found here.
In this article we shall refute a silly matter, the Shia say that `Ali said “Salooni”, this means “Ask me”, they wish to prove that `Ali was the most knowledgeable person on the face of the planet and thus better than everyone else.
First of all, we say this is silly because if a person says “Ask me”, it does not automatically mean he’s the most knowledgeable person, this conclusion makes no sense. Secondly, Ahlul-Sunnah do believe that `Ali was the most knowledgeable person in his own time, there is no issue with believing this about this great scholar.
Let’s refute the Shia argument, SlaveOfAhlul-Bayt (SoA), in typical SoA fashion, quote a narration without providing any commentary:
we find in fadail-us-sahaba, ahmad bin hanbal, second edition, page 802, hadeeth 1098
saeed said
“none in the companions of prophet asws said salooni except ali”
By this, `Ali is pushing people to come take knowledge from him, which was not a common occurrence since the companions of the Prophet (salalahu alaihi wa salam) would always prefer it that the people took their religion from other companions, out of fear of giving a wrong religious ruling.
This is not due to ignorance in matters of Shari`ah, Ayyub says in Bayhaqi’s Sunan al-Kubra:
قَالَ أَيُّوبُ: وَجَدْتُ أَعْلَمَ النَّاسِ بِالْقَضَاءِ أَشَدَّ النَّاسِ مِنْهُ فِرَارًا، وَأَشَدَّهُمْ مِنْهُ فَرَقًا
[Ayyub says: “I found that the most knowledgeable people in judgement (between people), are those who avoid it the most and fear it the most.”]
Some scholars have also commented that this was when `Ali was in Kufah during the end of his days, since many of the elders of the Sahabah have already passed away.
However, we find in Saheeh Al-Bukhari #4357:
عن سعيد بن جبير قال إنا لعند ابن عباس في بيته إذ قال سلوني
“…from Sa’eed bin Jubair, he said: We were with Ibn Abbas in his house when he said: Ask me!”
In Musanaf Abd Al-Razaq #9107, we find the following:
عن سعيد بن جبير قال : سلوني يا معشر الشباب ! فإني أوشكت أن أذهب من بين أظهركم
“From Sa’eed bin Jubair that he said: Ask me, O’ young people! I am about to leave from among you (implying that his death is near).”
We also find in Sahih al-Bukhari that ibn Mas`oud said:
وَاللَّهِ الَّذِي لَا إِلَهَ غَيْرُهُ مَا أُنْزِلَتْ سُورَةٌ مِنْ كِتَابِ اللَّهِ إِلَّا أَنَا أَعْلَمُ أَيْنَ أُنْزِلَتْ، وَلَا أُنْزِلَتْ آيَةٌ مِنْ كِتَابِ اللَّهِ إِلَّا أَنَا أَعْلَمُ فِيمَ أُنْزِلَتْ، وَلَوْ أَعْلَمُ أَحَدًا أَعْلَمَ مِنِّي بِكِتَابِ اللَّهِ تُبَلِّغُهُ الْإِبِلُ، لَرَكِبْتُ إِلَيْهِ
“By Allah the one and only, not one Surah descended from the book of Allah except that I know when it was revealed, nor was an Ayah from Allah’s book revealed except that I am the most knowledgeable about its cause of revelation, if I knew that anybody had more knowledge than I in Allah’s book in a location I can reach with my camel, I would have traveled to him.”
Even Imam al-Shafi`i would say as in Sunan al-Bayhaqi:
سَلُونِي مَا شِئْتُمْ أُجِبْكُمْ مِنْ كِتَابِ اللَّهِ وَمِنْ سُنَّةِ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ
“Ask me whatever you wish, I will answer with Allah’s book and the Sunnah of Rasul-Allah (saw).”
ِAnyway, the narrations are clear that there were others that called upon the people to take knowledge from them and not just `Ali alone.
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