1. Ask A Question About Islam And Muslims
  2. Ask A Question About Islam And Muslims

Ask A Question About Islam And Muslims

21 Questions

Can you recommend two books, either in Urdu or English, that provide a detailed history, similar to the Tarikh-e-Tabari for Sunni Muslims, and similarly a detailed book on the Seerah of the Prophet (s)?
Sayyed Mohammad Al-Musawi

These are some of our Shia books of history:

• The Book of Sulaym ibn Qays كتاب سليم by Sulaym ibn Qays (1st Century) (622-30 AD - 709 AD)
• Waq'at Siffin (وقعة صفين book) by Nasr bin Muzahim.
• Al-Gharat (الغاراتbook) by Ibrahim b. ...
• Tarikh al-Yaqubi by Ya'qubi (تاريخ اليعقوبي 3rd century) (died 898 AD)
• Ithbat al-wasiyya (إثبات الوصية للمسعوديbook) by Al-Masudi (4th Century) (896 AD - 956 AD)
Many of these books have been translated in Urdu.

'Allama Sayyed Sa'eed Akhtar Rizwi has written in English a book named( A History of the Shia People).

'Wassalam.
I have heard that the flood of Hazrat Nuh (as) matches with flood incidents mentioned in history of the Sumerian civilization and in Hindu scripture. And they also talk about a creation story akin to Adam (as). How should we understand such similarities?
Amina Inloes

Frequently, religious stories, legends, myths, folktales, etc, preserve an older historical memory, even if some of the details change over time, or even if they are written down later. So the most obvious explanation is that, at some time in history, a big flood happened, and also that people share a common understanding of our origin. 

When religious stories are shared cross-culturally, it can also be understood to mean that there was a shared idea of the story that predated those civilizations, the story is somehow archetypal to the human being (like a fear of snakes), or there was shared access to higher spiritual truths. However in the case of the flood, the historical explanation seems most likely - a big flood probably happened and was integrated into communal memory in various ways. 
I have heard that Iranians were Sunni's who were forced by the sword to accept the Shia faith. Is this authentic history or propaganda?
Sayyed Mohammad Al-Musawi

This claim is baseless. Those who claim this false story say that Safawi ruler forced Sunni to follow Shia faith. Millions of Iranians are still Sunnis and no one forced any one to accept Shia faith. Safawis ruled over many countries including Iran, Afghanistan and parts of Indian subcontinent but history never recorded any force on any one in the matter of faith. Till today Sunnis of those areas are still Sunnis. This fact itself is a living evidence against that false claim.

Wassalam.
Can you please give names of books written on Islamic history and hadith by Sunni scholars during the 90 years of the Umayyad dynasty?
Sayyed Mohammad Al-Musawi

Writing Hadeeth was officially banned during the governments of Abu Bakr and Umar and Uthman and Bani Omayyah till the time of Umar ibn Abdul Zeez which was on years 99 till 102 after Hijra when he allowed writing Hadeeths and ordered one of Shaikhs working for the Umayyad government ( Ibn Shihab al-Zohri) to write Hadeeths which are accepted by the government that time.

Mussannaf Abdul Razzaq, Mawatta' Malik, al-Imamah wal-Siyasah are among the early books.

Wassalam.