6. Ka’ab ul Ahbaar

With the purpose of destroying Islam and depriving the Ahle Bait (a.s.) of the Caliphate of the Holy Prophet (p.b.u.h.), the Jews introduced Mu’awiyah as the Caliph, not only during the reign of Mu’awiyah, but also after the death of Othman with the help of Muawiah himself.

          These backings which were a strong factor causing Mu’awiyah to attain power, began at a time when neither the people nor Muawiah himself thought of acquiring caliphate and power.

          If people used to discuss about the one who should become the Caliph after Othman, they were in absolute favor of the rule and the Caliphate of Ali bin Abi Talib (a.s.). Therefore, after the death of Othman, they voted for him to be the Caliph.

          But the workers and agents of Mu’awiyah propagated his rule from that same time with the purpose of inclining the minds of the mob towards the governance of Mu’awiyah who was from the Umayyad dynasty, which was the age old enemy of Islam. This was done for the purpose of separating the rule from the family of the Prophet and granting it to those who had a long term enmity with Islam.

          One of those people who exerted enormous effort in the propagation of this thought was Ka’ab ul Ahbaar.

          In the book ‘Israeliyaat wa Tatheer e Aan….’, the author states:

“Mahmood Abu Riyya writes about Ka’ab and his conspiracies that: ‘When the fire of conspiracies lit up at the time of Othman and the flames of this fire caught Othman himself and he got killed in his own house, this wicked person took absolute advantage of this opportunity and increased this flame even more and to the best of his capabilities, he devised all the plots that were possible. One of the plots that he devised in this case, which exposed his Jewish nature evidently, was that he claimed that the Caliphate belonged to Mu’awiyah after Othman”![1]

          Wakee’ narrates from Aa’mash, who narrates from Abu Salih that[2]: In the presence of a gathering, the issue raised as to who will be the caliph after Othman. A person named ‘Al Haadi’ stated his opinion within the context of a couplet:

انَّ الأمیر بعدہ علّی           و فی الزّبیر خلق رضّی

 ‘Indeed, the leader after him is Ali, and Zubair is also a person of good character.’ 

Ka’ab ul Ahbaar was also present in this gathering and he said: ‘Bal huwa Sahibul Baghlatish Shahbaa’’, which means the next Caliph would be someone who owns a grey camel (i.e. Mu’awiyah), as he had seen Mu’awiyah riding a camel of such color at several occasions.

          Mu’awiyah became aware of this news. He invited him and said: O Aba Ishaq! What are these words that you utter while Ali and Zubair and other companions of Prophet (p.b.u.h.) are alive?

Ka’ab said: You are the one who deserves to be the Caliph!

He might have also added that he had seen this in the First Book (Torah).[3]

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