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The significance of the ḥadīth of the position of Aaron for the formulation of the Shīʿī doctrine of authority1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 March 2015

G. Miskinzoda
G. Miskinzoda*
Affiliation:
Institute of Ismaili Studies, London
*
[email protected]
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Abstract

From quite early on, the Shīʿa endeavoured to provide both historical and rational arguments for their central claim that ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (d. 40/661), the cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Muḥammad (d. 11/632), was not only his legitimate successor but also the person best qualified to lead the umma. In particular, there are several statements attributed to the Prophet Muḥammad which are used as evidence of the special position of ʿAlī and his family. One of these is a report known in the Muslim tradition as the ḥadīth manzilat Hārūn (ḥadīth of the position of Aaron). According to this report, cited by such eminent authorities on ḥadīth as Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj (d. 261/875), al-Tirmidhī (d. 279/892) and Ibn Ḥanbal (d. 241/855), Muḥammad said to ʿAlī: “Are you not content to be with respect to me as Aaron was to Moses, except that after me there shall be no other Prophet?” The ḥadīth alludes to the parallels and similarities between the status of Muḥammad and ʿAlī and their close relationship, and that of Moses and Aaron in the Jewish tradition. The article examines the significance of this report for the formulation of the doctrine of the special status of ʿAlī in Shīʿī Islam through its use and interpretation in the Muslim literary and historical tradition.

Keywords

ShīʿaMuḥammadʿAlī ibn Abī ṬālibḤadīthMosesAaron
Type
Articles
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 78 , Issue 1 , February 2015 , pp. 67 - 82
Copyright
Copyright © SOAS, University of London 2015 

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Footnotes

1

This is a revised version of a paper delivered at the Middle East Studies Association Annual Meeting, Boston, MA, USA, in November 2009 and at the American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, Atlanta, GA, in October 2010. I would like to thank Professor Roy Mottahedeh and Professor Maria Massi Dakake, discussants of the respective panels, for their useful comments on the paper. I am also grateful to the anonymous reader's enormously useful comments and suggestions for improvement.

References

2 For variants of the ḥadīth and references to some of the sources, see Friedmann, Yohanan, Prophecy Continuous: Aspects of Aḥmadī Religious Thought and Its Medieval Background (New Delhi and New York, 2003), 58–9Google Scholar. See also, Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Aḥmad ibn Shuʿayb al-Nasāʾī, Kitāb Khaṣāʾiṣ Amīr al-Muʾminīn ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (Beirut, 1407/1978), 76–87Google Scholar.

3 “Muʾākhāt” (lit. “brothering”) was a practice in early Islam by which two men became “brothers”. In the life of the Prophet Muḥammad at least two such occasions are recorded, the most famous of which is that when Muslim emigrants from Mecca arrived in Medina they were paired with the Muslims of Medina. See W. Montgomery Watt, “Muʾākhāt”, Encyclopaedia of Islam, second edition.

4 Al-Ḥalabī, al-Sīra al-ḥalabiyya: Insān al-ʿuyūn fῑ sῑrat al-Amῑn al-Maʾmūn (Beirut, 1400/1980)Google Scholar, III, 99; Ibn Kathīr, The Life of Muḥammad: al-Sῑra al-nabawiyya, tr. le Gassick, Trevor (Reading, 2000)Google Scholar, IV, 1.

5 Two versions are usually given: mā tarḍā or mā yakfīka.

6 Ibn Isḥāq, The Life of Muhammad: A Translation of Ibn Ishaq's Sirat Rasul Allāh, tr. Guillaume, A. (Karachi, 2001)Google Scholar, 604 (=Ibn Hishām, ʿAbd al-Malik, al-Sῑra al-nabawiyya (Cairo, 1420/1999)Google Scholar, II, 106). Also see Ibn al-Nās, Sayyid, ʿUyūn al-athar fῑ funūn al-maghāzῑ wa'l-shamāʾil wa'l-siyar (Beirut, 1414/1993)Google Scholar, II, 268; Ibn Ḥanbal, Musnad (Beirut, 1978)Google Scholar, I, 177; Muslim, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, Kitāb faḍāʾil al-ṣaḥāba (Cairo, 1375/1955)Google Scholar, IV, 1871–2; al-Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, Kitāb al-maghāzī (Leiden, 1864)Google Scholar, III, 177; al-Tirmidhī, al-Jāmiʿ al-ṣaḥīḥ (Cairo, 1931–4)Google Scholar, XIII, 175; ʿAbd al-Razzāq ibn Hammām, al-Muṣannaf (Beirut, 1972)Google Scholar, V, 405–6, n. 9745; al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī, Muḥāḍarāt al-udabāʾ (Beirut. 1961Google Scholar) IV, 477; al-Muḥibb al-Ṭabarī, al-Riyāḍ al-naḍira fī manāqib al-ʿashar, (Cairo, 1953)Google Scholar, II, 214–15.

7 Muslim, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, IV, 1871; al-Nasāʾī, Khaṣāʾiṣ, 78.

8 ʿAbd al-Ḥusayn Sharaf al-Dīn al-Mūsawī, al-Murājaʿāt (n.l., 1979, 153).

9 Ibid.

10 It is not clear which Jaʿfar is meant here, but it cannot be Jaʿfar ibn Abī Ṭālib, because the Battle of Tabūk took place in 9/630 or 10/631, whereas that Jaʿfar died at least a year earlier in 8/629.

11 Al-Ḥalabī, al-Sīra al-ḥalabiyya, III, 102.

12 Mughulṭāʾī ibn Qilīj, Kitāb al-Ishāra ilā sῑrat al-Muṣṭafāʾ wa-taʾrῑkh man baʿdahu min al-khulafāʾ (Damascus, 1416/1996), 337Google Scholar.

13 Al-Ḥalabī, al-Sīra al-ḥalabiyya, III, 102.

14 Ibn Kathīr, The Life of Muḥammad, IV, 7.

15 Ibn Kathīr, The Life of Muḥammad, IV, 8.

16 See Ibn Hishām, al-Sīra al-nabawiyya, 104.

17 Both ʿusayra and fāḍiḥa can be translated as scandal in this case.

18 Al-Ḥalabī, al-Sīra al-ḥalabiyya, III, 99.

19 Mughulṭāʾī, Kitāb al-Ishāra, 334.

20 The incident of the “opposition” mosque is said to have occurred upon the return of the Prophet from the battle of Tabūk, when he ordered the destruction of a mosque known as the masjid al-ḍirār. The mosque was said to have been built in Qubāʾ by some prominent members of the Banū ʿAmd ibn ʿAwf and is usually associated with Quran 9:107. The incident is widely reported in many biographies of the Prophet and commentaries on the Quran. For further details, see Lecker, Michael, Muslims, Jews and Pagans: Studies on Early Islamic Medina (Leiden, 1995), 74–146Google Scholar.

21 Ibn Isḥāq, The Life of Muhammad, 609–10. For Ibn Sayyid al-Nās' version, see his ʿUyūn al-athar fῑ funūn al-maghāzῑ wa'l-shamāʾil wa'l-siyar (Beirut, 1414/1993)Google Scholar, II under Ghazwat Tabūk, II, 267–71.

22 Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb Al-Kulaynī, Uṣūl al-Kāfī, “Kitāb al-ḥujja” (Najaf, 1378/1958), II, 308Google Scholar.

23 Ibn Bābawayh, Maʿānī al-akhbār (Qum, 1971), 73–8Google Scholar.

24 Al-Sharīf al-Murtaḍā, al-Shāfī fī al-imāma (Tehran, 1497/1987), III, 5–6Google Scholar.

25 Al-Sharīf al-Murtaḍā, al-Shāfī fī al-imāma, III, 9.

26 Al-Sharīf al-Murtaḍā, al-Shāfī fī al-imāma, III, 7.

27 For studies on Moses and Aaron in Islam, see B. Heller and D.B. Macdonald, “Mūsā”, Encyclopaedia of Islam, second edition VII, 638–9; G. Eisenberg and G. Vajda, “Hārūn b. ʿImrān”, Encyclopaedia of Islam, second ed., III, 231–2; Andrew Rippin, “Aaron”, Encyclopaedia of Islam, third ed.; Wheeler, Brannon M., Moses in the Quran and Islamic Exegesis (London and New York, 2002)Google Scholar; Wheeler, Brannon M., Prophets in the Quran: An Introduction to the Quran and Muslim Exegesis (London and New York, 2002)Google Scholar.

28 Madelung, Wilferd, The Succession to Muḥammad (Cambridge, 1997), 11–12Google Scholar.

29 I would like to thank Professor Catherine Hezser of SOAS, University of London for advice on the Jewish sources consulted for this paper and for sharing her knowledge of the tradition.

30 All references are to Tanakh: A New Translation of The Holy Scriptures According to the Traditional Hebrew Text (Philadelphia, New York and Jerusalem, 1985)Google Scholar.

31 Pirḳê de Rabbi Eliezer (New York, 1971)Google Scholar, 59.

32 The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English, tr. Vermes, Géza (London, 2004)Google Scholar, 110, 121.

33 Sifra: The Rabbinic Commentary on Leviticus. An American Translation, 1. The Leper, Leviticus 13:1–14:57, tr. Jacob Neusner; 2. Support for the Poor, Leviticus 19:5–10 tr. Roger Brooks (Atlanta, 1985), 120. See also II Chronicles 26:16–28.

34 Although no particular name is mentioned in Malachi 2.

35 The Midrash on Psalms, tr. Braude, William G. (New Haven, 1959), II, 235Google Scholar.

36 Midrash Sifre on Numbers: Selections from Early Rabbinic Scriptural Interpretations, tr. Levertoff, Paul P. (London, 1926), 125–7Google Scholar. See also Neusner, Jacob, Texts without Boundaries: Sifra and Sifre to Numbers (Lanham, MD, 2002)Google Scholar.

37 Propp, William H., “The rod of Aaron and the sin of Moses”, Journal of Biblical Literature 107/1, 1988, 26CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

38 The Midrash on Psalms, 319.

39 Also see Sifre: A Tannaitic Commentary on the Book of Deuteronomy, tr. Hammer, Reuven (New Haven and London, 1986), 248Google Scholar.

40 The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls, 86.

41 al-Mufīd, Al-Shaykh, Kitāb al-Irshād: The Book of Guidance into the Lives of the Twelve Imams, tr. Howard, I.K.A. (London, 1981)Google Scholar, 107 (=al-Irshād fī maʿrifat ḥujaj Allāh ʿalā al-ʿibād, Qum 1428/2007, 118).

42 Al-Shaykh al-Mufīd, Kitāb al-Irshād, 108 (=al-Irshād, 118).

43 Al-Shaykh al-Mufīd, Kitāb al-Irshād, 108 (=al-Irshād, 119).

44 Abū Muḥammad al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī al-ʿAskarī, Tafsīr, ed. al-Sayyid ʿAlī ʿĀshūr (Beirut, 1421/2001), 380.

45 Al-ʿAskarī, Tafsīr, 380.

46 Ibn Kathīr, The Life of Muḥammad, IV, 327 (=al-Sīra al-nabawiyya, IV, 451–2).

47 For a detailed analysis of this story see Miskinzoda, Gurdofarid, “The story of ‘pen and paper’ and its interpretation in Muslim literary and historical tradition”, in Daftary, F. and Miskinzoda, G. (eds), The Study of Shiʿi Islam: History, Theology and Law (London, 2014), 231–49Google Scholar.

48 Muslim, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, tr. ʿAbdul Ḥamīd Ṣiddīqī (Lahore, 1976)Google ScholarPubMed, IV, 1284 (=Muslim, Ṣaḥīḥ, IV, 1870).

49 Lit. “mutual curse” or “mutual imprecation”. A kind of competition instigated between disputing parties or individuals with the aim of asserting the truth. See W. Schmucker, “Mubāhala”, Encyclopaedia of Islam, second ed.

50 Muslim, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, IV, 1284–5 (=Muslim, Ṣaḥīḥ, IV, 1871–2).

51 Muḥyī al-Dīn Abū Zakariyā Yaḥyāʾ ibn Sharaf al-Nawawī, Sharḥ Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim (Beirut, 1407/1987), 183–4Google Scholar.

52 Ibid.

53 Al-Ḥalabī, al-Sīra al-ḥalabiyya, III, 104–5.

54 Note that in the first instance he refers to Aaron as the cousin of Moses but in the second instance as the brother of Moses.

55 Muslim, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, IV, 1284.

56 For a detailed discussion of ḥadīth manzilat Hārūn in relation to this theme, see Friedmann, Prophecy Continuous, 58–60. See also Bar-Asher, Meir M., Scripture and Exegesis in Early Imāmī Shiism (Leiden, 1999), 156–7Google Scholar; Lalani, Arzina, Early Shiʿi Thought: The Teachings of Muḥammad al-Bāqir (London, 2000), 73–4Google Scholar; Rubin, Uri, “The seal of the prophets and the finality of prophecy: on the interpretation of the Qurʾānic Sūrat al-Aḥzāb (33)”, Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, 164/1, 2014, 65–96Google Scholar.

57 For most useful accounts of these incidents relating to the Battle of Tabūk, see, for example, Ibn Isḥāq, The Life of Muhammad, 602–9; Ibn Kathīr, The Life of Muḥammad, IV, 1–12.

58 Al-Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ, Faḍāʾil aṣḥāb al-nabī, 9, II, 426; Muslim, Ṣaḥīḥ, Faḍāʾil al-ṣaḥāba, 32, IV, 1871; Ibn Māja, Sunan, Muqaddima, 115 (Cairo, 1952)Google Scholar, I, 42–3; al-Muḥibb al-Ṭabarī, Al-Riyād al-naḍira, II, 207, 214–15; Ibn Ḥanbal, Musnad, I, 179.

59 Friedmann, Prophecy Continuous, 59.

60 Al-Shahrastānī, Keys to the Arcana: Shahrastānī's Esoteric Commentary on the Qurʾan, tr. and ed. Mayer, Toby (Oxford, 2009), 75Google Scholar. Arabic text on p. 14 in the same volume.

61 i.e. ʿAlī.

62 Samiri here refers to the one who fashioned the golden calf while Moses was away.

63 In Hunsberger, Alice C., Nasir Khusraw. The Ruby of Badakhshan: A Portrait of the Persian Poet, Traveller and Philosopher (London, 2003), 170–1Google Scholar.

64 See Rubin, Uri, “Prophets and progenitors in the early Shīʿa tradition”, Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 1, 1979, especially 51–64Google Scholar; Ali Amir-Moezzi, Mohammad, The Divine Guide in Early Shiʿism: The Sources of Esotericism in Islam, tr. Streight, David (Albany, NY, 1994), 29–59Google Scholar, 125–6, 137–9 (the original was published as Le Guide Divin Dans Le Shīʿisme Originel (Paris, 1992)Google Scholar; Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi, “Reflections on the expression dīn ʿAlī: the origins of the Shiʿi faith”, in Daftary and Miskinzoda (eds), The Study of Shiʿi Islam, 17–46.

65 See also Wheeler, Prophets in the Quran, 202–4.