Ali Ibn Abi Talib - Volume 2 of 2

'Ali ibn Abi Tiilib 161
They attributed to Amir al-Mu'mineen 'Ali (&) words that he
did not say and that were contrary to what is mentioned in the sound
reports. They attributed to him the words, "They never held it in high
esteem, and they will never act upon it; they have only raised it as a
trick and a plot to appease One of the obscene things that they
said about the lifting up of the mushafs was: "This is the idea of the
son of the promiscuous woman."574 They also widened the circle of
propaganda against 'Amr ibn al-'As (&), to the extent that you can
hardly find any book of history that does not contain words
undermining 'Amr ibn al-'A$ and claiming that he was a trickster and
plotter; this is because of the fabricated reports made up by the
enemies of the noble Companions and transmitted by at-Tabari, Ibn
al-Atheer and others. Many contemporary historians, such as Hasan
Ibraeem Hasan in Tareekh al-Islam, Muhammad al-Khudari Beg in
Tareekh ad-Dawlah al-Urnawiyyah, 'Abdul-Wahh2b an-Najj2r in
Tareekh al-Khulafa' ar-Rcishideen and others were fooled by them
and played a role in distorting the historical facts.
The report of Abu Makhnaf suggests that 'Ali (&) rejected
the idea of refening to the Qur'an for judgement when it was first
suggested by the people of Syria, then he accepted it due to pressure
from the worshippers who later became known as ~harijites.~~~ This
report suggests that 'Ali (&) slandered Mu'iwiyah and his
companions, which is beneath the people of that blessed generation,
so how about their leaders, foremost among whom was Amir al-
Mu'mineen 'Ali (&)?It is sufficient reason to reject the report that it
was narrated by the Radi fabricator Abu Makhnaf. It is a report that
cannot stand up to unbiased review, and it cannot stand before other
reports whose narrators cannot be accused of bias, such as that which
was narrated by Imam A b d ibn Hanbal via Habeeb ibn Abi Thibit,
who said: "I came to Abu Wi'il, one of the men of 'ALi ibn Abi Tilib,
and he said: 'We were in Siffeen, and when many of the people of