Can a Believer Love Yazid? A Fabricated Quote Attributed to Imam Ahmad
Can a Believer Love Yazid? A Fabricated Quote Attributed to Imam Ahmad (May Allah have mercy on him)
It is attributed to Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal (May Allah have mercy on him) that he said: “Can a believer love Yazid?”.
It is submitted that this statement is an absolute lie. Such a quote from Imam Ahmad (May Allah have mercy on him) is not proven in any authentic narration.
An analysis of the narration presented in this regard is as follows:
Imam Abu Ya’la bin Al-Farraa (Died 458 AH) said:
«رأيت بخط أبى حفص العكبرى على ظهر جزء فيه ’’فصل‘‘ کتب إلى أبو القاسم فرج بن السوادي قال: حدثنا أبو على الحسين ابن الجندى قال: حدثنا أبو طالب العكبرى قال: سمعت أبا بكر محمد بن العباس قال: سمعت صالح بن أحمد بن حنبل يقول: قلت لأبى: إن قوما ينسبونا إلى توالى يزيد. فقال: يا بنى وهل يتولى يزيد أحد يؤمن باللّه. فقلت: فلم لا تلعنه. فقال: ومتى رأيتنى ألعن شيئا . لم لا تلعن من لعنه اللّه فى كتابه.فقلت: وأين لعن اللّه يزيد فى كتابه فقرأ: فَهَلْ عَسَيْتُمْ إِنْ تَوَلَّيْتُمْ أَنْ تُفْسِدُوا فِي الْأَرْضِ وتُقَطِّعُوا أَرْحامَكُمْ أُولئِكَ الَّذِينَ لَعَنَهُمُ اللَّهُ فَأَصَمَّهُمْ وأَعْمى أَبْصارَهُمْ» [ المسائل العقدية من كتاب الروايتين والوجهين لابی یعلی :ص 94 واخرجہ ایضا ابن الجوزی فی الرد على المتعصب العنيد ص: 28 ]۔
English Translation:
“Imam Salih says, I asked my father, Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal (May Allah have mercy on him), that people attribute to us that we love Yazid. So he said: ‘O son! Can any person who believes in Allah love Yazid?’ So I said: ‘Then why don’t you curse him?’ He replied: ‘When have you seen me cursing anyone? And why don’t you curse the one whom Allah has cursed in His book?’ So I asked: ‘Where has Allah cursed Yazid in His book?’ Then he recited this verse: ‘So is it not expected of you, if you were to take charge, that you would cause corruption in the land and sever your ties of kinship? Those are the ones whom Allah has cursed, so He made them deaf and blinded their vision.'” [Al-Masa’il al-‘Aqdiyah min Kitab al-Riwayatayn wa al-Wajhayn by Abu Ya’la: p. 94, and also recorded by Ibn al-Jawzi in Al-Radd ‘ala al-Muta’assib al-‘Anid, p. 28].
It is submitted that this narration is severely weak, because it contains four consecutive unknown (Majhul) narrators one after the other, and they are:
① Abu Al-Qasim Faraj bin Al-Sawadi.
② Abu Talib Al-Ukbari.
③ Abu Bakr Muhammad bin Al-Abbas.
④ Abu Ali Al-Hussein Ibn Al-Jundi.
The researcher (Muhaqqiq) of “Kitab Al-Riwayatayn” also could not find the biographies of these narrators. However, the researcher expressed an assumption regarding “Abu Al-Qasim Faraj bin Al-Sawadi” that he might be “Ubaidullah bin Uthman Al-Faraj Abu Al-Qasim”, but did not mention any evidence for this.
Thus, it is known that its chain of transmission (Sanad) is severely weak and rejected, because four consecutive narrators are unknown and unidentified, as if half of the chain is virtually non-existent. For this reason, Shaykh ul-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (May Allah have mercy on him), alongside calling this narration unproven, also declared it disconnected (Munqati’). Consequently, Shaykh ul-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (May Allah have mercy on him) states:
«ونقلت عنه رواية في لعنة يزيد وأنه قال ألا ألعن من لعنه الله واستدل بالاية لكنها رواية منقطعة ليست ثابته عنه والاية لا تدل على لعن المعين »
“A narration regarding the cursing of Yazid has been transmitted from Imam Ahmad (May Allah have mercy on him) that Imam Ahmad said: ‘Should I not curse the one whom Allah has cursed?’ and he deduced this from the aforementioned verse. However, this narration is disconnected and unproven from him, moreover, there is no evidence in the verse for cursing a specific individual.” [Minhaj as-Sunnah an-Nabawiyyah 4/573].
Consider the fact that Shaykh ul-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (May Allah have mercy on him) has called this narration disconnected, whereas the chain of transmission we have quoted above is continuous through explicit transmission (Musalsal bit-Tahdith), and Ibn Al-Jawzi has also quoted this chain in the same manner.
In reality, Ibn Taymiyyah (May Allah have mercy on him) called this chain disconnected in a linguistic sense because there are four consecutive unknown narrators in it, as if half of the chain is non-existent, meaning it is disconnected.
Even before Ibn Taymiyyah (May Allah have mercy on him), such an example is found among the early scholars (Mutaqaddimin) where they declared a narration disconnected based on its linguistic meaning. For instance, Imam Ali Ibn Al-Madini (May Allah have mercy on him) states regarding a narration:
«فَرَوَاهُ مَنْصُورٌ عَنْ خَيْثَمَةَ عَنْ رَجُلٍ عَنْ عَبْدِ اللَّهِ وَفِي إِسْنَاده انقطاع مِنْ قِبَلِ هَذَا الرَّجُلِ الَّذِي لَمْ يُسَمِّهِ خَيْثَمَةُ »
“It was narrated by Mansour from Khaythamah from a man from Abdullah, and there is a disconnection (Inqita’) in its chain from the side of this man whom Khaythamah did not name.” [Al-‘Ilal by Ibn Al-Madini: p. 101].
The point is that there are four consecutive unknown narrators in the chain of the aforementioned quote. Therefore, this statement is entirely unproven from Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal (May Allah have mercy on him), and Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal (May Allah have mercy on him) is absolved of this statement.
(Kifayatullah Sanabli)
