How Abdullah bin Saba misguided the Ummah

   

It is mentioned in Tareekh Al Kaamil, Vol. 3, Pg. No. 59 that ‘Abdullah bin Saba was a Jew.  He gave the impression of embracing Islam in the caliphate of Hadhrat ‘Uthman (May Allah be well pleased with him).  He traveled to Hijaz, Basra, Kufa and Syria to mislead people but he couldn’t do so.  At last, he went to Egypt and curried some influence with the people there.  One day, he said:  What is this that people readily accept the second coming of Hadhrat ‘Isa (May peace be upon him), but if someone says that Hadhrat Muhammad (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) will come again, they don’t accept it and in fact refute the person saying so although the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) is much superior to Hadhrat ‘Isa (May peace be upon him).  Those ignoramuses didn’t know what the Hadith say about this.  They readily accepted that the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) is going to come again. 

 

        When Ibn Saba saw that the ignorant folk are in his power, he said:  Every Prophet has an heir and Hadhrat ‘Ali (May Allah be well pleased with him) is the heir of the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam).  Just think!  Can there be a greater oppressor than the person who stops the will of the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) from being carried out and dominates the heir.  Don’t you see that Hadhrat ‘Uthman (May Allah be well pleased with him) is ruling and Hadhrat ‘Ali (May Allah be well pleased with him) can’t do a thing.  Now, Ibn Saba was a very good orator and through his oratory, he led everyone to believe and accept that Hadhrat ‘Uthman (May Allah be well pleased with him) had seized the caliphate and that it rightly belonged to Hadhrat ‘Ali (May Allah be well pleased with him).

 

When people accepted this as well, Ibn Saba said that striving to give the heir his share is to support the religion and a means of gaining the pleasure of Allah and His Prophet.  People were bewildered that how can this revolution be instigated as it was nothing but to take on the might of the whole caliphate.  Ibn Saba said that people should be sent to every city.  Their first task would be to criticize the officials who were appointed on behalf of Hadhrat ‘Uthman (May Allah be well pleased with him) and to insist of enjoining the good and forbidding evil, which will draw people to our group.  Then people should complain about the officials of one city to the people of other cities and should spread these complaints a lot.  Thus, one group of people was appointed for this task and people were sent to the great cities and activities were started.

 

        It can be understood that when Ibn Saba had toured the great cities, an important objective was to make a committee of those who supported him.  As Jews were present in every city, whose real aim was to hurt pristine Islam, they agreed with Ibn Saba and joined the Muslims and happily made committees, which were then joined with the central committee in Egypt.  It was because of this that any group which went to a city enjoyed easy success.

 

[Excerpted from Maqasid Ul Islam, Vol. 6]