Ali Ibn Abi Talib - Volume 1 of 2

298 'Ali ibn Abi Tilib at the time of the Rightly Guided Caliphs
repented, gave most of his wealth in charity, freed his slaves, set right
a great deal of his earlier wrongdoing, and worked until he fell
unconscious287 because he realised the enormity of his previous
crimes, in which he had attacked the honour of these pure ones as a
result of being deceived by the false arguments of the ~Zfidis.~"
The leaders of the Rsfidi Shia tried to undermine the
significance of this proof by fabricating reports that were falsely
attributed to the Imams, claiming that she "was a woman who
belonged to us and was taken by force."z89 Thus they made matters
worse, to such an extent that they depicted Amir al-Mu'mineen 'Ali
(&) as one who could not defend his honour and who approved of
immorality in his family. Is this something that could be imagined
with regard to Arnir al-Mu'mineen 'Ali (&), the hero of Islam?
Even the lowest of the Arabs would offer himself as a sacrifice to
defend his honour and would expose himself to death in order to
defend his womenfolk, so how about Banu Hiishim, who were the
leaders of the Arabs and the noblest of them in lineage and the
highest in terms of chivalry and gallantry? How could they attribute
such abhorrent shortcomings to 'Ali (&) and his daughter, the
granddaughter of the Messenger of Allah (g), when 'Ali (&) was
so courageous and brave, the lion of Banu GhZb, Asadullah (the
lion of Allah) in the east and west?290
It seems that some of them did not like the implications of this
marriage, so they tried to find a way out of this problem by means of
stranger and weirder logic. They claimed that U rn Kulthoom was
not the daughter of 'Ali (&); rather she was a jinn who took her
shape!291 Thus they came up with a notion that is an insult to the
intelligence of men and women of sound reason. Anyone can claim
that the one whom he hates is a male or female jinn; thus people live
with myths and lose sight of the trnth.