Ali Ibn Abi Talib - Volume 2 of 2

404 'Ali's attitude towards the Khanj'ites and Shia
many Fi~ah
until after the battle of Badr, which was in 2 AH, al-
Hasan was born in 3 AH and al-Husayn in 4 AH. This verse was
revealed many years before the existence of d-Hasan and al-Husayn,
so how could the Prophet (@J interpret it as referring to the
obligation to honour relatives who were not yet known or born? 506
3.b.
The commentary on this verse that appears in a$-Saheeh is
contrary to that. Bukhari narrated, with his chain of narration going
back to Ihn 'AbbL (&), that he was asked about the verse (except
to be kind to me for my kinship with you) (Qur'an 42: 23). Sa'eed ibn
Juhayr said: "It refers to the relatives of Muhammad (e)." Ibn
'Abbis said: "You are being too hasty. There was no clan of Quraysh
to whom the Prophet (g) was not related through blood ties, so he
said: 'All I ask of you is to uphold the ties of kinship between you and
me.,,,507 Ibn Taymiyah said: "Here is Ibn 'Abb&, the interpreter of
the Qur'an and the most knowledgeable of Ah1 d-Bayt after 'Ali,
saying: 'This does not mean being kind to my relatives. Rather it
means: I do not ask you, 0 Arabs and 0 Quraysh, for any reward;
instead, I ask you to uphold the ties of kinship between me and you.'
So he asked the people to whom he was sent first of all to uphold
these ties of kinship with him and not to transgress against him, so
that he could convey the message of his ~ord."~'~
3.c.
The hadith that they regard as explaining the verse is false and
fabricated, according to the consensus of the scholars of hadith who
decide such issues; this was stated by Ibn ~ a~mi~ah.~'~ Ibn Katheer
also compiled all the hadiths that were narrated concerning the
interpretation of this verse and determined that the hadiths stating
that the kinship mentioned here refers to F&nah and her sons have
weak chains of narration. He narrated a report from bn Abi Hitim
that says: "A man whom he named told us, Husayn d-Ashqar told us,