Osama Abdallah, Arrogance, Ignorance, Obstinacy

(Originally posted to IslamLife.com; slightly edited. Note: the article has since been taken down from IslamLife.com by brother Jalal Abualrub due to the fact that brother Osama has made amends with Jalal; he posted an apology to Jalal on his site, which you can read here; may Allah reward and bless him for doing the right thing. I have decided to keep this article up, however, due to whatever benefit it may contain with regards to Islamic knowledge and beliefs. Thus, it should not be used to further attack or criticise brother Osama.)

The praise is for Allah, Lord of the worlds, and may Allah’s salutations and peace be upon our beloved prophet, Muhammad, upon his family, his companions and whoever traverses their path until the establishment of the Final Hour.

May Allah reward the brother Jalal Abualrub of IslamLife.com with good for what he has written concerning this misguided individual, Osama Abdallah of Answering-Christianity.com—may Allah guide him. It is about time that someone systematically replied to some of this person’s deviance and heretic beliefs publicly.

I have had past encounters with this person back in 2004 when I, along with a friend of mine, used to post on his site’s discussion board (I under the name “aboo aasiyah” and my friend under the name “al-turkee”). We (brother al-Turkee and I) found Osama to be truly devoid of any real knowledge or understanding of Allah’s religion—Islam, His book—the Qur’an, or His prophet’s sunnah. He interprets Allah’s book according to his whims and vain desires, relying mostly upon translations of the Qur’an, rather than the original Arabic text (since his knowledge of classical Arabic language is, admittedly, quite lacking). He rejects authentic prophetic hadîths on the basis of their contradiction with his own (flawed) reasoning and logic, claiming fervour for Allah’s religion, declaring that he’s “sick and tired of wrong and false Hadiths [wrong and false according to Osama’s baseless standards] making Islam look like garbage!” (Taken from a post he wrote February 2, 2004). He even had the audacity to state that “many of the interpretations that you see about the Noble Quran are WRONG, even by our Prophet peace be upon him himself” and even that the “Prophet’s interpretation of Noble Verse 36:38 was UTTER NONSENSE AND WRONG!” (Both taken from the same post referenced above, emphasis is his in both instances!!). Refuge is sought in Allah from such ignorant and heretic statements!

Sadly, the shame and disgrace does not end there, however. Along with these insults and defamations levied against the noble Prophet of Islam, may Allah send salutations and peace upon him, Osama then has the nerve to accuse the Salafîs—the true carriers of Prophet Muhammad’s sunnah in our times—of being a cult that is a “great insult not only to Islam, but also to Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him.” (Taken from a post written by Osama on April 1, 2004; emphasis again, is his). And all this is after Osama himself accused the Prophet, may Allah send salutations and peace upon him, of misinterpreting the Qur’an and calling his explanation of a verse in the Qur’an utter nonsense and wrong—Allah is glorified from such foolish ramblings!! (And the error of Osama’s claim here has nicely been dealt with by our brother Jalal on his site.)

When he was cornered with irrefutable evidences and proofs from the Qur’an and Sunnah, and his flawed logic and reasoning was exposed for what it was, Osama resorted to abusive behaviour, name calling, and insults; calling me a “stupid salafi moron” in one instance, and insulting not only me, but my newborn daughter as well, calling me “aboo ass” in another. His justification for this insult to both me and my then three month old daughter was that I “can’t even spell [my] own daughter’s name properly.” He asserts, “Aasiyah in Arabic (which is how you spell her name) means defiance Asyah as in Asia with an S and not SH pronounciation is the proper name for the name’s spelling. You’re such as stupid salafi that you can’t even spell you’re daughter’s name right. How hellarious indeed, Aboo defiance.” After I explained his errors in assumptions concerning my daughter’s name, he continued in a subsequent post trying to prove that I indeed misspelled my own daughter’s name saying:

The only ignorant one in Arabic here is you. “Aasiyah”, which is how you spelled your daughter’s name is not the right spelling for the following reasons:

1. The “aa” in the name usually represent the “ain” letter in Arabic, which is NOT the letter your daughter’s name starts with.

2. The “i” in “si” means that the “s” is followed by the “kasra” punctuation! Your daughter’s name in Arabic has NO kasra punctuation in it.

3. The proper name for your daughter’s name’s spelling is “Asyah”, because it EXACTLY MEANS “asia” (the contenent) in English, but with the “S” and not “Sh” pronounciation. In other words, it is pronounced as “Asya” and not “Asia” or “Ashia”.

You’re daughter’s name has no “ain” character in it, and no kasra puntuation. Yet, you insist on mispelling it.

The way you’re spelling it clearly represents the word “defiance”, since the “aa” make up the “ain”, and defiance does start with the “ain” character, and it does also have the kasra punctuation in it.

So, I suggest you drop your stupid stuborness, and change the spelling of your daughter’s name, because it looks stupid to an Arabic-speaking person. (Emphasis his.)

Seemingly unaware of his inability to spell English words such as “hilarious”, “pronunciation”, “continent”, or even “misspelling” (!!) correctly, Osama also does not seem to realise—or at the very least, acknowledge—that there are other methods of transliteration employed by translators of Arabic to English (one in which a double-a represents the â sound made by an alif with a madd, and the letters ‘ain and hamza represented by apostrophes) when he criticised me on the transliterated spelling of an Arabic word. He also seemed to think that I had named my daughter after a continent (just why anyone would name their Muslim child after a continent is beyond me), Asia, despite the fact that I had told him (in a post just previous to the Osama post quoted above) that I had named my daughter after one of the most pious women to ever walk the face of this earth—the wife of Pharaoh, whose name is spelled slightly different than the Arabic spelling of Asia and is pronounced â-sĭ-yah.

Then, after being proven wrong and having a number of his misguided heretic beliefs refuted, in the end, Osama resorted to deleting posts by brother al-Turkee and myself, and finally to banning us from posting to his discussion board (by way of IP address bans).

His inability to put up any real challenge in answering the texts used to refute his deviance most likely stemmed not only from his lack of erudition and lack of proficiency in classical Arabic, but also from his self-admitted lack of proper Islamic schooling and learning. He himself stated that “I don’t need to study Islam with a scholar, even though I did and still do watch Islamic teachings on TV through my Arabic Satalite. Islam is a very simple religion. You need not to complicate it.” To Osama, learning Islam from Satellite TV programs is a sufficient way to learning his religion!! He thinks highly enough of himself and his ability to understand translations of the Qur’an that he doesn’t need to learn from a true scholar of the religion despite the age old adage, “Whoever’s shaikh is his book, his wrong is more than his right.” And oh how true are those words, but in Osama’s case, his shaikh is his TV! True knowledge and understanding of this religion comes from taking it from its carriers—the scholars—by way of attending their lessons, reading their books, listening to recorded lectures, asking them questions. Allah has given them ample praise in His book (the Qur’an) to show us that they are those who we are supposed to be taking our Islamic knowledge and understanding from. Allah, mighty and sublime is He, says, «Certainly, the scholars from His servants fear Allah. Surely, Allah is Mighty [and] Forgiving» (35:28). He, mighty and sublime is He, also commands, «Then ask the people of remembrance if you do not know» (16:43 & 21:7)—a verse of which the scholars of Islam have explained is evidence for the obligation of referring back to the scholars of Islam in religious affairs that we lack knowledge in. The late shaikh and exegete, ‘Abdur-Rahmân bin Nâsir as-Sa’dî, may Allah have mercy on him, stated in Taisîr al-Karîm ar-Rahmân:

And this verse, even if its reason was specific to questioning the people of remembrance—and they are the people of knowledge—about the status of the previous Messengers, then it is generally for every issue from the issues of the religion; its foundations and its branches. When the person did not have knowledge of them, that he asks whoever knows of them. Thus it contains the command for learning and questioning to the people of knowledge and it does not command questioning them except because teaching and answering of what they know is obligatory upon them.

To Osama, refusal to accept his demented notion that “the Hadiths are all scrambled and many of them even contain weak links of chain of narrations is BY ITSELF AN UTTER DEFIANCE AND DISRESPECT TO ALLAH ALMIGHTY’S NOBLE QURAN!” This is despite not only Osama’s compound ignorance of the Islamic academic sciences of Hadîth (by which the scholar is able to differentiate the weak from the authentic), but also his belittlement and defamation of Allah’s prophet, may Allah send salutations and peace upon him, and His prophet’s noble companions, may Allah be pleased with them, as clearly shown both here and by brother Jalal in his articles on this deranged and misguided individual. To Osama, the authentic hadîth from the Prophet, may Allah send salutations and peace upon him, in which he states, «The best of people are my generation, then those who follow them, then those who follow them,» contains “junk” and is “absurd” despite the Qur’anic statements praising them, making their way the criterion by which others are judged. Allah, mighty and sublime is He, says, «And whoever opposes the Messenger after the guidance has been made clear to him, and follows a way other than the way of the believers [meaning the Companions and those upon their methodology], We will turn him to whatever he has turned to and cast him in Hell—what an evil destination» (4:115). Osama states, “You can’t put the Hadiths, narrated by men on the tongue of the Prophet, on the same level as the Noble Quran’s Holy, PURE AND PERFECT DIVINE Words. That’s ridiculous!” This is despite the fact that the very same individuals who preserved and conveyed the Prophet’s traditions to us (the Companions) also preserved and conveyed the Qur’an’s text to us; and despite the abundant Qur’anic proof that the Prophet’s sunnah (as conveyed to us through authentic hadîths) itself is revelation. Allah, mighty and sublime is He, says, «He is the One who sent a Messenger among the unlettered ones from themselves, reciting to them His verses, purifying them (i.e., the people) and teaching them the Book and the Wisdom while surely, they had been in manifest error» (62:2), and, «And Allah sent down upon you the Book and the Wisdom and taught you what you had not known» (4:113), and, «Just as We sent among you a messenger from yourselves, reciting Our verses and purifying you, teaching you the Book and the Wisdom and teaching you that which you had not known» (2:151), and, «Your companion [Muhammad] has not gone astray, nor has he erred, nor does he speak from desire. Certainly, it is only a Revelation revealed» (53:2-4). Regarding this last passage, Shaikh as-Sa’dî said, “He does not follow except what is revealed to him from the guidance and piety. And this indicates that the Sunnah is revelation from Allah for His messenger, may Allah send salutations and peace upon him, just as He, exalted is He, said, «And Allah sent down upon you the Book and the Wisdom»; and that he is infallible in what he informs of from Allah, exalted is He, and about His legislation because his speech does not originate from desire, but it originates from a revelation revealed.”

So with his blatant insults of the Prophet, may Allah send salutations and peace upon him; his belittlement of the Companions, may Allah be pleased with them; his virtual opposition to referring to nearly a millennium and a half of Islamic scholarship; his lack of proper schooling and tutelage in the Islamic academic sciences; his admitted lack of proficiency in classical Arabic; as well as the resultant lack of real knowledge and understanding of the Qur’anic texts and prophetic hadîths, Osama somehow still holds the deluded notion that he has “studied from the BEST SOURCES,” that he follows “all of the Hadiths that agree with the Noble Quran,” otherwise, he treats them “like the Bible; a bunch of gibirish nonsense that must be discarded”; and that he has the ability to “determine which Sunnah to follow … and which to ignore … .” And refuge is sought in Allah from such delusions of grandeur.

He fails to realise that the true source of his knowledge is his own desire and self. And this is clear and evident from his many posts and articles, which flaunt his misguided heretic beliefs. To think that people can go through the Qur’an themselves and understand it according to their own understanding without the explanations given by the Prophet, may Allah send salutations and peace upon him, and his companions, may Allah be pleased with them, is what is actually ridiculous. Osama has chosen to reject a lot of the authentic narrations coming from them which explain many of the verses he attempts to use as support for his beliefs, narrations which prove him wrong; narrations coming from those who are more knowledgeable about the Revelation than he.

Concerning Arabic Language and Grammar:

“Unfortunately, I am not an expert in Arabic, nor can I explain in deep details about proper Arabic,” states Osama Abdallah (emphasis mine). This is a gross understatement. Not only is he not an expert, in the very article he composed in which this statement of his is found, he makes some amusing howlers that indicate not only a lack of expertise, but also an almost amusing ignorance of basic rules of the language the Book that he claims such ardent zeal and fervour for—the Qur’an—was revealed in. Osama states:

Take “Osama” for example. First of all, Osama in Arabic is written as “Osamat” with the “t” silent. The “t” however is not always silent, and it can be used to give meanings and intentions to the name “Osama”. Osama can be written as “Osamatun”, “Osamatan”, “Osamatin”, “Osamata”, “Osamati”, “Osamato”. The punctuations added to the “t” cause for any of these names to be pronounced.

Osama, unknowingly, exposes his ignorance of proper Arabic language and grammar. Here are some of the errors he makes in this short passage:

Firstly, the so-called “punctuations” that Osama speaks of are actually “vowels” (harakât) or “formations” (tashkîl); they are: damma (which is the ŭ sound), kasra (which is the ĭ sound), fat-ha (which is the ă sound), sukūn (which indicates the lack of a vowel for the letter it is put over), madd (which elongates the ă sound made by the fat-ha), and the shadda (which stresses or “doubles” the consonant it is put over). Arabic words are derived from root verbs comprised of three (and sometimes four) letters, sometimes referred to as radicals. Foreign words from other languages that have been assimilated into the Arabic language do not have root verbs, nor are they considered to be “roots” themselves (contrary to what Osama seems to think). These vowel markings are not usually found written in standard Arabic writing, but can be added to help the reader in pronouncing words correctly and in distinguishing certain words from others that are spelled the same way (e.g., the word hukm (حُكْم), meaning ruling or judgment, and the word hikam (حِكَم), which is the plural for the word hikmah (حِكْمَة), meaning wisdom).

Secondly, the last letter of Osama’s name is a “tâ’ marbūtah” (ة, meaning “tied tâ’”). Just as Osama mentions, it is silent when the word is said on its own or at the end of a sentence, and pronounced if there are words following it. However, with regards to the vowels added to it, there are a couple of things Osama is clearly ignorant of. Firstly, masculine proper nouns ending with a tâ’ marbūtah (such as his name Osama) do not take what is called “tanwîn”; the doubling of the above mentioned vowels at the end of a word to give it an n sound: ŭn, ĭn, and ăn. Secondly, they also take only two of the three possible grammatical case endings, further explained below.

Next, Osama claims:

When writing positively about “Osama”, such as “Osama bin Zaid”, the leader who defeated the Romans in one of the battles, these punctuations are added to his name for praising. Unfortunately, I am not an expert in Arabic, nor can I explain in deep details about proper Arabic, but I know that use of punctuations IMPROPERLY can result in insulting the individual. I can write negatively about a name using punctuations in their proper places.

What Osama describes here is something specific to colloquial speech and not something that applies to proper Arabic. The insult Osama alludes to is calling a man by what seems to be a woman’s name, and it is something that can only be done if the person’s name is a masculine proper noun that does not end with tâ’ marbūtah (which almost always indicates a feminine word with few exceptions—masculine proper nouns such as Usâmah, Qatâdah and Mu’âwiyah being one of them); thus Osama’s name is not a good example. A good example of this would be the name ‘Azîz. To insult a person with that name in the manner Osama describes above would be to pronounce his name with a fat-ha on the last letter (the zây) to give the impression that you are calling him by the feminine form of the name, which is ‘Azîzah (spelled with a tâ’ marbūtah at the end after the zây; the letter before a tâ’ marbūtah always takes a fat-ha).

In the actual language however, what vowel the last letter of a person’s name takes does not depend on whether you want to praise or insult him. Like all Arabic nouns, it is dependant on the manner in which the name is mentioned in a sentence which determines what vowel the last letter of the name will take. Normally there are three grammatical case endings which Arabic nouns will take: 1. the nominative case, in which the last letter of a word will take on a damma making it ŭ for a definite noun or ŭn (with tanwîn) for an indefinite noun, 2. the genitive case, in which it will take on a kasra, making it ĭ/ĭn, and finally 3. the accusative case, in which it will take on a fat-ha, making it ă/ăn (with an alif added to the end along with the tanwîn for indefinite nouns not ending with tâ’ marbūtah). In the case of Osama’s name however, the rules change somewhat and the only grammatical cases his name will take are the nominative (usâmatu) and accusative (usâmata) cases (the genitive case for these proper nouns is the accusative case). So while it could be said that in colloquial speech improper use of vowels on the last letters of names could be used to praise or insult an individual, in the actual proper use of the language, the only things improper use of vowels really indicates—especially in writing—are grammatical errors.

Concerning Hadîth, Its History, and the Academic Sciences Pertaining to It:

Definitions:

First, let us mention some definitions since Osama doesn’t seem to know exactly what a “hadîth” is and how to distinguish one from other types of narrations:

• Hadîth: A narration that is directly linked to the Prophet, containing a statement, action, affirmation, or description of his.

• Khabar (report/news/information): A narration that is linked to the Prophet and to others. It is a term that is more general than hadîth.

• Athar (narration/report): A narration that is linked to a Companion or a Tâbi’î. It could be used occasionally to refer to hadîths, but generally is not.

• Riwâyah (narration/report/story): Like the term khabar, it generally refers to all types of narrations and reports, whether they be from the Prophet, a Companion or others. It also can be used to refer specifically to different narrations or versions of the same hadîth.

• Isrâ’îliyyât (Israelite traditions—not hadîths): Narrations reported largely by the Tâbi’îs and their students originating from the stories of the Jews and Christians. These are narrated primarily in the books of Qur’anic exegesis concerning the stories of past Prophets and their peoples. See Ahmad bin Taimiyyah’s Muqaddimah fî Usūl at-Tafsîr, as well as Ahmad Von Denffer’s Tafsir: Its Kinds and Principles.

For more information on hadîth terminology and an introduction to the academic sciences of hadîth one can refer to the brief treatise written by Dr. Suhaib Hasan found on the USC MSA’s website. Also of benefit is Reem Azzam’s Modern Historical Methodology vs. Hadeeth Methodology also found on the USC MSA’s website (same link mentioned previously).

Deception and Misinformation:

At the start of his section comparing prophetic hadîths to the Bible, Osama titles a link to an off-site article with, “Problems with many of Al-Tabari’s narrations (the first collection of Hadiths) according to Al-Tabari himself!” It is clear that by doing this, Osama is attempting to lay the groundwork for his criticism on prophetic hadîths and his basis for rejecting narrations that are not in accordance with his (flawed) reasoning and intellect. This is his deception.

It should be noted from the start, that the book written by Imam at-Tabarî (d. 310H) discussed in the article Osama linked to is not a hadîth book at all, but rather a history book titled Târîkh (literally meaning history). In this book, Imam at-Tabaree aimed at recording all the narrations he could concerning historical events beginning with creation, up until events that occurred during his time, just as our brother Jalal mentioned in the 2nd part of his rebuttal to Craig Winn. He did not employ the same stringent criteria that many of the scholars of hadîth applied when compiling their books, thus using what at-Tabarî states concerning his own book as a basis for rejecting and criticising hadeeths is invalid.

Later on Osama states, “The Hadiths (Sayings of Prophet Muhammad) were documented 100s of years after his death. The ‘Sahih Bukhari’ or ‘Authentic Bukhari’ in English was the first volume to be compiled.” (Emphasis mine). Not only does Osama continue to show clear indications of his above mentioned ignorance of the Arabic language and its grammar (this time in relation to the name of al-Bukhârî’s book, which is actually a book on Islamic jurisprudence and not intended to be a mere collection of hadîths), but he also displays his ignorance of Islamic history, in particular the history of hadîth literature and its development.

Firstly, the actual name of al-Bukhârî’s book is al-Jâmi’ as-Sahîh al-Mukhtasar, but we’ll focus on the title of the book that is commonly used, Sahîh al-Bukhârî. This title does not translate to “Authentic Bukhari” as Osama thinks, but rather “al-Bukhârî’s Authentic” meaning, al-Bukhârî’s compilation of authentic hadîths.

Secondly, what can be said of Imam al-Bukhârî’s book is that it was the first book to be compiled with the intent of providing purely authentic narrations. Hâfidh Ibn Kathîr writes in his summary of Ibn as-Salâh’s ‘Ulūm al-Hadîth:

The first of those who devoted their attention to collection of the authentic [narrations] was Abū ‘Abdillah Muhammad bin Ismâ’îl al-Bukhârî, and he was followed by his companion and student, Abul-Husain Muslim bin al-Hajjâj an-Nîsâbūrî. So both are the most authentic of the books of hadîth; and al-Bukhârî is superior [in authenticity] because for his publication of the hadîth in this book of his he stipulated that the narrator had been a contemporary of his shaikh’s and that his hearing from him [i.e., the narrator’s hearing from his shaikh] was established with him [i.e., al-Bukhârî] while Muslim did not stipulate the second [criterion].

So while al-Bukhârî’s book was the first of the Sahîhs to be compiled, it surely wasn’t the first compilation (or “volume” as Osama says) of hadîth ever authored. Imam al-Bukhârî died in the year 256H. Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal, one of al-Bukhârî’s shaikhs who died in the year 241H, has his own collection of hadâths, al-Musnad, which is much larger than al-Bukhârî’s and although the two were contemporaries of each other, it is safe to assume that Imam Ahmad compiled his book before al-Bukhârî compiled his. You also have one of Ahmad’s shaikhs, Imam ‘Abdur-Razzâq as-San’ânî who died in 211H and also has his own collection, al-Musannaf. Again, this book was surely compiled before al-Bukhârî’s. Yet another collection that was authored before al-Bukhârî’s is al-Muwatta’ by Imam Mâlik bin Anas who died in 179H. And there are more examples like this. Thus, this is just one example of Osama’s misinformation.

Clear and Manifest Ignorance:

“For anyone who knows the Islamic history,” confidently states Osama, “this means that the Muslims spread Islam to the pagan Arabs, established the Islamic State in Arabia, then fought the Persians (Iranians) and the Romans; invaded the Persians and crushed the Romans, then fought the Hindus in Hindustan, invaded much of their lands such as ‘Pakistan’, ‘Afghanistan’, and much of the Indian territories, convert people there to Islam, and then Brother Bukhari appeared from his home town, Bukhara and decided to compile the Hadiths of ‘Sahih Bukhari’.” Osama was doing just fine up until he mentioned Imam al-Bukhârî (in the disrespectful manner in which he did) and his undertaking of compiling his book, the Sahîh, at which point just how ignorant Osama is about Islamic history becomes painfully obvious. Osama continues:

Are these narrations all 100% perfect and reliable? Any person with the least atom of a brain would say no. I am not saying that all of the Hadiths must be rejected. But for us to day to have close to 2,000,000 of them is quite ridiculous, because they can’t all have been written down during our Prophet’s times in Arabia. Most of the Hadiths’ chains of narrations today have 10s of narrators in them. In the Hadith books, you would see something like the following:

“About such and such, that he heard his father say that such and such said, that he heard such and such say, that he heard such and such say, etc….” Most of the narrations’ links have tons of narrators in them, many times more than 10, and these people would be generations after each others! In other words, they’re not people at the same age or the same group. And the worst dilemma of all, is that many of these chain of narrations have broken links in them, meaning, that two or three generations are missing in the chain!

Now, “anyone who knows Islamic history,” or “with the least atom of a brain” will see immediately that Osama has no clue about the subject he is speaking on.

Firstly, it is a given fact that there is no book after Allah’s that will be 100% correct and perfect, as Allah says «And do they not contemplate the Qur’an, and if it was from other than Allah they would certainly find in it much differing» (4:82).

Secondly, as was shown previously, Imam al-Bukhârî’s book was not the first collection or “volume” of hadîths ever compiled. There are many other collections that were compiled and recorded in writing prior to the authoring of al-Bukhârî’s Sahîh, some of these have been mentioned above, others—including pages written by a number of individuals from the first two generations (i.e., the Companions and the Tâbi’îs)—are mentioned in the short treatise, The Compilation of Hadîth, which can be found on www.theclearpath.com. This also proves Osama’s earlier insinuation that prophetic hadeeths were not documented until 100s of years after the Prophet’s death is nothing but some conjured up notion of his.

Thirdly, writing was not the primary method of preserving hadîths during the early years of Islam, so even if Osama’s assertion that all the hadîths could not have been written down during the Prophet’s lifetime in Arabia was accurate and true, it does not mean much. Being that the Arabs during that time period were largely an illiterate nation (as is testified to by both Qur’anic verses and authentic prophetic hadîths), many of the traditions, histories, and lineages of the people were preserved through memorisation and oral transmission. The Prophet’s companions took great pains at memorising what he taught them, whether it be the actual text of the Qur’an or the lessons and benefits to be derived from them. Prophet Muhammad, may Allah send salutations and peace upon him, was sent to mankind to deliver the Qur’an to the people and to explain it to them, to make sure they understood it. Just as Allah, mighty and sublime is He, said, «and We revealed the Reminder to you for you to clarify to the people what is revealed to them, and in hopes that they contemplate» (16:44). There are many books that one can refer to for verification of this; among them: The Compilation of Hadeeth referenced above, An Introduction to the Hadith by John Burton, and Studies in Early Hadith Literature by Muhammad M. A’zami.

Fourthly, concerning Osama’s fanciful claim that most “narrations’ links have tons of narrators in them, many times more than 10,” then what does he define as “tons”? And on what basis does he substantiate his claim that many times, these chains contain more than 10 narrators? With Osama’s ignorance of the Arabic language and his lack of Islamic tutelage, I highly doubt that Osama has the resources to verify this claim of his by sifting through the hundreds and thousands of hadîths recorded in the books of Sunnah and checking the chains himself. Add the fact that many of the available online English translations of hadîths do not even include the chains mentioned in the books they were translated from, and I think it’s fairly safe to say that Osama is making things up! Looking solely at Sahîh al-Bukhârî, picking up any volume and sifting through its pages at random, I personally have found that al-Bukhârî’s chains, on average, contain five narrators between him and the Prophet, may Allah send salutations and peace upon him. Undoubtedly books authored before al-Bukhârî’s will have shorter chains. Add to this the fact that all the chains for the hadîths found in his book are continuous, without any breaks—hidden or otherwise (it is an established fact that in each of the chains al-Bukhârî utilised in his book, each narrator is known to have heard from the one he was narrating from)—and you have one very authentic and reliable collection of hadîths, just as is attested to by over a millennium of Islamic scholarship.

Giving further indication of his complete ignorance concerning hadeeth and the various matters connected with it, Osama sputters,

The Hadith references mostly used on the internet today come from Sahih Bukhari, Sahih Muslim and Sunan Abu Dawud and some other volumes. The word ‘Sahih’ means ‘authentic’ in Arabic, which is quite misleading in this case. In general, the Hadiths that come from Sahih Bukhari and Muslim are more authentic and Truthful than the ones from Sunan Abu Dawud. If however, a Hadith from Sunan Abu Dawud matches Hadith(s) from the Sahih ones or the Noble Quran, then it becomes valid. Otherwise, you are highly advised to not trust it.

It should be blatantly obvious that Osama only mentions these three collections (al-Bukhârî’s, Muslim’s, and Imam Abū Dâwud as-Sajistânî’s) because these are the three collections readily available to him via the USC MSA’s hadîth database online.

With respect to these three books in specific, the Sahîhs by al-Bukhârî and Muslim, and the Sunan by Abū Dâwud, each author had his reason for compiling the book and each employed his own methodology for what hadîths to include and the purpose he wanted to achieve in doing so. al-Bukhârî’s aim in compiling his book was to author a book that contained solely authentic hadîths. He did so utilising the strictest criteria for choosing which hadîths he would include in his book, arranging them in topics of Islamic jurisprudence. Everything he did in his book had a reason behind it, from which chains he used for the hadîths he included, to which parts or versions of certain hadîths he would quote in a particular chapter but not in another. Muslim’s aim was to compile a book of authentic hadîths—also arranged in topics of Islamic jurisprudence—but with as little repetition as possible. He would repeat hadîths if he felt the need to, either due to of some weakness in the hadîth he quoted, or due to some benefit that could be found in the wordings of other versions of the hadîth. Abū Dâwud on the other hand wanted to compile a book of hadîth, also arranged chapters of Islamic jurisprudence, but which included the most authentic narrations concerning each chapter found in his book. “Most authentic” here is a relative term and does not necessarily mean that a particular hadîth in a particular chapter is authentic in and of itself, however. Abū Dâwud intentionally included weak hadîths in his collection simply because although they were weak, they were the most authentic narrations to be found regarding the topic he used it for in relation to the others. Abū Dâwud would also comment on these weak hadîths and usually mention something that indicated their weakness. So contrary to Osama’s concocted notion that “a Hadith from Sunan Abu Dawud matches Hadith(s) from the Sahih ones or the Noble Quran, then it becomes valid.  Otherwise, you are highly advised to not trust it,” Imam Aboo Daawud’s Sunan is one of the more trusted collection of hadîths out there, which is why it is considered to be among the “Six Books” of authentic hadîths; the other five being the two Sahîhs by al-Bukhârî and Muslim, and the three other Sunans by at-Tirmidhî, an-Nasâ’î, and Ibn Mâjah. The hadîths in Sunan Abî Dâwud are to be considered authentic according to Abū Dâwud’s criteria unless he states some problem with it, and Allah is more knowledgeable.

Concerning Honesty, Knowledge, and Humility:

Although there is much more that can be said concerning the heretic statements and beliefs expressed by Osama throughout his site, what has been mentioned by both brother Jalal as well as myself should suffice for now. I would like to mention just a few more things before finishing off this paper, with Allah’s permission.

Firstly, concerning honesty: Osama accuses our brother Jalal of lying upon him, “taking everything out of context in both content and time.” He continues declaring, “You may be able to bring an old quote from me, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the quote is a proof to your lies, especially when the quote is not embraced by me any more, and was said in times that had special conditions to them (my beliefs back then, my knowledge, the influences that I had, etc…).” Osama maintains, “I do not embrace them any more. Believe me dajjal [notice how he calls Jalal a charlatan here, yet another instance of Osama’s abusive behaviour and name calling], if I still embrace them, then they would still be there! Do you honestly believe that I am afraid of a weasel like you? You’re too funny.” The question is, how is brother Jalal lying on Osama when he has quoted Osama’s words as they were found on his site before being taken down, words and statements he has not recanted from? How is Jalal lying on Osama when Osama himself admits to have held those beliefs and made those statements? How is Jalal lying on Osama when Osama still makes the same types of statements flaunting the same beliefs he claims to have left (as will be shown next)?

Secondly, Osama claims that these statements (which were quoted by Jalal verbatim in proper context) were made when he was contemplating on embracing the heretic doctrines held by the Qur’anî sect. The Qur’anî sect rejects the Sunnah outright and does not accept any hadîth, whether they think it agrees with the Qur’an or not. Back in 2004, during this period of his alleged contemplation of becoming a Qur’anî, Osama stated,

I also follow all of the Hadiths that agree with the Noble Quran. Otherwise, I treat them like the Bible; a bunch of gibirish nonsense that must be discarded. THE NOBLE QURAN IS MY ONE AND ONLY ONE SOURCE OF GUIDANCE. From it I determine which Sunnah to follow (since it is the Truthful one) and which to ignore since it would be a false/doubtful one. (Emphasis mine).

Does not sound very “Qur’anî” at all. Compare this to a more recent statement he made, found in his article comparing hadeeths to the Bible:

For those “reliable or strong” hadiths, their sources are doubtful. I have no doubt that the companions of the Prophet may Allah Almighty bless their souls did not intentionally commit forgery or lies. But for one such as Abu Huraira to narrate thousands upon thousands of hadiths is preposterous! Given the complexity and sensitivity of the Arabic language, it is extremely vital that every word be included in the narration. I find it impossible to believe that Abu Huraira and many others like him were able to narrate everything perfectly in its original text.

That is why I accept the hadiths that are linked to the Noble Quran as the Truth and reject the others (emphasis his).

There is an old saying from back in my Jâhiliyyah (pre-Islamic) days that I’m reminded of here, “Same crap, different smell.” There is not much of a difference between the “old” Osama and the “new” Osama. He maintains he no longer holds the beliefs he used to have back in 2004, but his recent statements indicate otherwise. Who then is the liar, the falsifier, the charlatan?

And finally, I advise Osama to fear Allah and to humble himself to accepting the truth as it comes to him, to “beware of becoming Abū Shibr [meaning father of the hand span],” as Shaikh Bakr Abū Zaid stated in his book, Hilyah Tâlib al-’Ilm, “for it is said: knowledge is three hand spans; whoever entered the first hand span was haughty, whoever entered the second hand span humbled himself, and whoever entered the third hand span knew that he does not know.” Enter knowledge through its proper doors and do not try to sneak in through the back entrance. May Allah guide Osama to the truth, show him the errors, deviance and heresy of his statements and beliefs, and may Allah guide him to sincere repentance and allow him to recant them. And may Allah reward our brother Jalal for his exposé of this individual’s deviance and heretic beliefs, and may Allah aid him in continuing to expose those like him.

And the last of our claim is that the praise is for Allah, Lord of the worlds; and may Allah send His salutations, prayers, and blessings upon our beloved Prophet Muhammad, upon his family, his companions, and those who follow them upon charitable conduct until the establishment of the Final Hour.

Rasheed Gonzales, Aboo Ishaaq
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Sunday, February 27, 2006CE/Muharram 28, 1427H