In the 90s, a conference was held in Saudi Arabia with the presence of scholars from different religions and with nobles of Wahhabism, and doubts were raised in this conference against the school of Ahl al-Bayt (peace be upon them), to which the scholars of this school responded to these doubts.
After gaining experience from this conference, the next conference in Turkey was held in a different way. In this conference, only one person from the followers of the school of Ahl al-Bayt (PBUH) had the right to participate, and Allamah Askari went to Turkey with 8 boxes of his works.
All those who intended to give a speech were supposed to prepare and send their desired article in advance so that it can be reviewed by other religious scholars. Allamah also sent his article, but no article reached him and he only knew the title of the conference: “The sunnah (Tradition) of the Messenger of God (PBUH)”. They managed the conference in such a way that after Allamah’s speech, each of the scholars spent a lot of time raising unrelated objections to his article and gave Allamah only 5 minutes to answer. To know the details of the conference, we invite you to read this article.
At the beginning, we present the report of the conference of Shia Studies in Turkey, which was presented by Mr. Hojjat al-Islam wa al-Muslimin Hajj, Mr. Waez zadeh, the Secretary General of the World Assembly of the Approximation between Islamic Religions, and Dr. Hojjati:
Mr. Waez zadeh:
In the name of Allah, the Merciful
About three years ago, the “Waqf al-dirasat al-Islamiyyah ” invited the Approximation of Islamic Religions to participate in a seminar on Shia and the knowledge of Shia, in the past and present. In consultation with some friends, we formed a delegation consisting of Ayatollah Sayyid Mehdi Rouhani, Ayatollah Janati, Dr. Hojjati, Ayatollah Sobhani, Dr. Azarshab, and myself, and we participated in that seminar.
Before leaving, they sent us the articles that the Turkish professors, who were Sunnis, and each of them had discussed in one area of the areas related to Shiism, and which had been translated into Arabic, and each of us criticized one of those articles; Among the articles they gave me, it was related to “Al-Hadith end Al-Shi’a Al-Amamiyyah”, in which the author wrote that: “Shi’a does not have a hadith except the Hadith of Ghadeer, which is not original and is a lie” and the other issues were all side discussions.
Each of us answered the essay that was sent to him. I also gave an answer and that answer has been published in the collection of articles, and the summary of my answer was that: “Shia have many hadiths, and Ghadir hadith is one of those hadiths.” It is also related to the aspect of the caliphate of the Imams of Ahl al-Bayt (peace be upon them), and another hadith that proves the aspect of the scientific evidence of Ahl al-Bayt (peace be upon them) is tge Hadith of the thaqalayn; And I answered the side discussions he made.
When we participated, there was one person from Saudi Arabia. The head of the theological faculty established by the Saudi government in Ahsa, and we gradually realized that he is basically the manager of this seminary, and I had many conversations with him in private meetings, and i made him notice that i know you came to control this place.
Among those who participated in that seminar, apart from us, were Dr. Ramzan Bouti from Syria, a professor of Sharia College, and Dr. Abdullah Khayat, a professor at the University of Jordan and the former minister of endowments, that i had a enteraction with him before. And one person was from India, but the majority of those who were present there were from Turkey and the professors of Turkish theological faculties, and the president of this seminar was Dr. Ali Ozak, who was previously the president of the theological faculty, and who is an influential and overall a good and informed person.
In any case, we felt that we were not free to speak. Halfway through the speeches, they said: Time is up, and they tried not to end it as we desired. But at the same time, in the discussions that occurred, everyone would stand up and speak, and we would stand up and speak on occasions in between, and it was in such a way that we were actually handling the meeting.
Mr. Sobhani was almost not allowed to read his article and they did not print his article either. In Dr. Hojjati’s collection, his article was about not distorting the Quran. The same Saudi man said: This is the first time I have heard that the Shia do not consider the Qur’an to be distorted, and this discussion had a good effect.
On the last day, they were supposed to write the resolution. On our behalf, Mr. Sobhani and Dr. Azarshab went, and in between, Dr. Azarshab came and told me: They want to include in the resolution that anyone who insults the Companions or distorts the Qur’an is an infidel. I got up and went and said that not only Shias, but also Sunnis consider some verses to be distorted.
Either the reading is different, or the narrations are different. We cannot rule on their infidelity, on their error. We can judge, these are wrong and we do not accept it, and this is the case of Muslims, Shias and Sunnis [believe] in not distorting the Qur’an. And about the Companions, there is a discussion of their justice; Yes, Shia does not consider all of them righteous; But in general, they keep the respect and dignity of the Companions. And we don’t have anyone, as you say, who either considers everyone to be infidels or unrighteous to say that they are infidels. That cannot be said either; The
Companions used to insult and curse each other. If you say that someone disbelieves the Companions by taunting, it includes them first.
After the discussion, they saw that this was not the resolution they wanted. That was the goal. Then one of them, after seeing that their purpose would not be achieved, said: So we cannot issue a resolution. Dr. Ali Ozak himself, who is the president of this conference, was supposed say his impressions as a statement. He said that I am not that fluent in Arabic. Abdullah Khayat said:
I am writing. Abdullah’s inclinations were with us. Especially towards Ahl al-Bayt. He had come to Iran after the revolution and said that: my heart is with the Shias. He also took a statement which included that none of the Muslims consider the Qur’an to be distorted And all Shias and Sunnis agree about it. And if someone is suspicious about it and has such an idea, (he is wrong according to everyone’s agreement). But as for the Companions, in the eyes of the Muslims, their righteous or their dignity and respect is reserved, and the Muslims all respect them and there is consensus in this direction and that was the summary.
Anyway, the conference was very good. it was useful. At the end, Dr. Ali Ozak read the same statement from his own words and the meeting ended.
And our perception and those who were there, especially the Shias, said that you performed stronly, they said: you handled it well, and they did not reach the result. And they themselves felt it. And after some time they had printed the articles and sent them. They took an article from Dr. Musa Mousavi, the grandson of the late Ayatollah Esfahani, but he was not present there, and His article was not mentioned at the end of that collection, which contained the same words he has against Shia. And they pretended that he was also in the meeting, when he was not. Another thing they did was that someone who knew the Turkish language and Latin letters said that: they did not translate your articles into Turkish, while their own articles are also translated into Turkish in this collection.
Allamah Askari: All in all, you felt that the Wahhabis wanted to attack Shia with this seminar.
Waez zadeh: Yes, as a result, it was that: we felt that the conference was organized by the hands of Wahhabism and that Saudi man was also in control of the affairs; And they wanted to hit the Shia, especially in the resolution that they were building, to excommunicate the Shia indirectly. Thank God they did not succeed.
Allameh Askari: God bless you
Dear Mr. Dr. Hojjati, you participated in the conference on the recognition of Shiism that was held in Turkey. Please express your opinion on the organization of this conference and the results obtained.
Dr. Hojjati: In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful.
I felt that the motivation of this conference was to question Shiism in all its dimensions according to the very diverse articles they wrote. And fortunately, they sent the articles to Iran before the conference started, so that the Iranian guests could have thoughtful answers to these problems and doubts. The summary of the problem is that they did not have a good opinion about this matter.
For example, they didn’t have an innocent goal in mind, to know Shia or introduce Shia as it is. This was not their goal, it was the weak points they were looking for.tgey looked in the corners of our own books, and organized these articles by referring to many narrations that we do not consider valuable and valid; And as a result, it looked good; If the answer was not given.
It’s appearance was interesting and documented. One of the points that was interesting to me in this conference was that fanaticism was not seen among Turkish professors, that is, when we wrote articles in response to these articles or made speeches, they were admired by them.
Even “Ramadan Bouti” went behind the tribune after my speech and said that: Sayyid has done the job and we no longer have the right to slander Shia; And one of the Saudi scholars also said: If I had come from Makkah to Istanbul to listen to such a speech, “there is no loss in it”. And with this speech, we almost felt that the writers were not too bigoted.
But the axis that had forced these authors to write such articles, which sought to find weak points, was not simply to introduce Shia; And in this conference, in my opinion, they spent a lot of money. More than usual, they had held the conference in the best hotels.
There were many guests. And they incurred a lot of money. It seemed that they were helped from another place. In this regard, maybe they got a clue from somewhere else, which I will not clarify, and fortunately, thanks to the blessings of Ahl al-Bayt, (peace be upon them), this conference ended in favor of Shia. They got to know Shia better and were happy that this happened And they said: We did not know as much as we should and maybe we did not know about the details of the matter, we heard generalities. We saw it in your books, but with the discussions you had, even during the daily conversations we had together, we realized that Shias are not as they wrote. Wa al-Salam
Mr. Moez al-din’s interview about the conference:
Master Allamah Askari, we are very grateful that you accepted our request and that we can benefit from your presence.
Allamah Askari: The evaluation of the Prophet’s (PBUH) Sunnah conference in Turkey requires a detailed discussion, which is expressed in this opportunity:
Last year, another conference was held with the presence of scientists from Iran, with the evaluation of last year’s conference, this seminar will also be reviewed. Before evaluating both seminars, I need to make an introduction:
The enemies of Islam, both the West and Zionism (global arrogance), thought that Islam had lost its power and would not rule anywhere. After they had suppressed several Islamic movements in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan and other countries, they did not think that another movement would emerge, but the uprising of the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Imam Khomeini, and the establishment of the Islamic government in Iran and the effect In the awakening of Muslims, especially in Egypt, Algeria and other countries, it caused them to design a conspiracy and a suitable plan to suppress this correct and awakening uprising.
I say it’s right, because at the head of this uprising was a Marja Taqlid, a Shia Marja who was an expert in Islamic sciences. And since the colonialist West has been and still is afraid of two things throughout history, first of Shia scholars; Because throughout history, there were Shia scholars who confronted them, everyone knows the story of tobacco.
The uprising of the noble Mirza Muhammad Taqi Shirazi, (Shaikh al-Sharia) in Iraq against British colonialism, as well as other uprisings such as the uprising of the late Shaikh Fazlullah Nouri, Martyr Modares, and Haj Mullah Ali Kani, and others, were well effected. And the second is the Shia belief that has always been, is, and will be uncomfortable for them, because they want to attribute to Islam issues that are not in the books of the Shia and are in the books of the school of caliphs. and with that means, attack the religion of Islam, for example, in the books of commentary and biography of Sunni scholars, they attribute it to the Prophet of Islam (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him).
When they were reciting Surah “An-Najm”, when they reached these verses, “So have you considered al-Lāt and al-ʿUzzā?[1]” satan prompted them to say: “They are high-ranking gharaniq. The hope of intercession is lost from them.” like these false attributes that the likes of Salman Rushdie resort to, are not in Shia books. In the Shia books, the infallibility of prophets and imams has been proven in all directions, that infallibility in words and actions, and most importantly in the matter of preaching the Qur’an; And this is against the wishes of the enemies of Islam.
What is this effort of the enemies of Islam for? So that the real Islam that is in Iran does not spread to the world, so that the number of Shias does not increase, in order to suppress the Iranian revolution and prevent the penetration of real Shiism, the Christian West and some governments of Islamic countries have united! And unfortunately, they also suppressed the fledgling Shia movement in Iraq, which gained strength from Iran, to become a lesson for other Muslims, just as they equipped the Taliban group in Afghanistan to attack Muslims.
For global arrogance, Turkey is more dangerous than these two neighbors of Iranian Shia (Iraq and Afghanistan). It is very important for them, Turkey is the bridge between Iran and Europe, and in fact, Turkey can spread Islam to the West; Türkiye has been a long-standing enemy of Europe; The Westerners and the enemies of Islam have not succeeded in Iran since they changed the Arabic alphabet to Latin and Friday to Sunday at the hands of Atatürk in Turkey, and due to the struggles of the Shiite scholars. They understood the power of Shiism and its efficiency more.
And now that the oppressed nations of the world see the fulfillment of their ideals and dreams in the Islamic Republic of Iran, they changed their methods and devised measures to make the world pessimistic about Shia. Especially in Türkiye with the characteristic that was expressed.
The first step to distance the Turkish Muslims from Iran was in these two conferences, which were organized by the “Waqf Al-dirasat al-Islamiyyah” Institute of the Islamic Research Center headed by Mr. Ali Ozak. In the first conference, the opening speech of the meeting was given by Dr. Abdullah al-Mosleh from the Saudi Wahabite community, whose opinion about Shia is the same as the opinion of Orientalists about Islam. Abdullah al-Mosleh even goes so far to state: “The Shia religion did not exist during the time of the Prophet (PBUH) and Imam Ali (AS)!”
He adds: (Shi’ism emerged after the death of Imam Hussain).
Ali Ozak also adds: Shia Imamyya has changed significantly due to the support of some sultans and governments that ruled in Iran[2]. And he continues: “Boyhiyon” (Alboyeh) were the cause of great development and transformation in Shia theology and jurisprudence.
In the same meeting, Hojjatullah Joudki answered that: “Shi’ism is not from Iran, nor was it created and practiced in Iran.”
Another speaker says: Shiism is a theory, not a science. Because everything is first a theory and then it becomes a science, he says: The theory of the Shia school of twelve Imams (Shia) found its final form in the beginning of the third century of Hijri[3].
And he concludes: Today’s Shia belief is more habits and traditions than religion, and it cannot be said that they have taken it from God’s book. Criticism and examination of Shia in the light of the Qur’an is very important and serious for the future. We have a debate with them regarding the Qur’an. Then he says: We cannot agree with some of their opinions. They say: The collection of the Qur’an was completed during the time of the Messenger of God (PBUH)!
The followers of the school of caliphs believe that the Quran was collected during the time of Uthman. But we Shias believe that it was collected in the Prophet’s time. After that, Dr. Ali Ozak criticized the views of Shia Twelve Imams in Tafsir and (etc) …
In rejecting his theory, a Pakistani scientist says: “It is better that we accept a consensus of correct opinions and discard the incorrect ones without going to the trial of the companions of the Prophet.[4]” They will be accounted and each one will be paid their due; And he says: Because everything that appears in the universe is not against God’s will and wisdom[5] We do not know its origin because God Almighty is the creator of good and evil, that is: God does good and evil!
Then Professor Dr. Muhammad Jamal Shouf Oghly, professor of the “Theological Faculty of September 9 University” in his article: The place of Hadith in the view of Twelver Imami Shiites, says: It is clear that the companions of the Prophet (PBUH), who are called Companions, provided important services and efforts in establishing and spreading Islam and They have protected the Qur’an and hadiths of the Prophet, that is, the Companions are those who have conveyed the Qur’an and hadiths to the Muslims, and after that they narrate a hadith from the words of the Prophet (PBUH).
And he says: Muḥammad is the Messenger of Allāh; and those with him are forceful against the disbelievers, (Al-Fat’h/29); Then he says about the Shia: the words of the imams who believe in the infallibility of those established by Muawiya are considered as hadith by the Shia. Then he says: In Shia hadith books, thousands of fake hadiths have been attributed to Shia imams and despite the fact that Shia scholars have rejected the distortion of the Qur’an after Koleini, there are some narrations related to the distortion of the Qur’an in the Kafi book, and also, such books contain Shia slanders against the Companions; Slanders that are neither original nor proper to the Companions, and this is a big obstacle in establishing unity and harmony among Muslims!
Mr. Waez zadeh spoke about this and gave his answer. Ayatollah Janati also answered that: Shia jurists consider the Sunnah of the Imams of the Ahl al-Bayt in all eras based on infallibility, the continuation of the Sunnah of the Messenger of God (PBUH), and the Sunni jurists, the Sunnah of the Companions. are considered to be revealing of the Sunnah of the Messenger of God in his sayings, actions, and speeches, there have been many discussions like these.
Then, as a Shia sect, it discusses “the foundations of faith and the types of worship in the eyes of the Ismailis, and in another discussion, there is a critique and review of the Imami view on the principles of religion and its evaluation. They say: Imamiyyah has established religious views related to divinity to the extent of extremes and Negligence.
By attacking the Ismaili sect, they wanted to attack Shiism. He has many articles on beliefs, monotheism, prophethood, justice, imamate and resurrection, which Dr. “Azar Shab” answered.
As a result, due to the fact that seven Shia scholars participated in that conference and gave speeches and had the right to disagree and respond to any incorrect speech. The result of that conference was not beneficial to the organizers and The Wahhabis, so they held the second conference.
These subjects are discussed in the second part of the article.
1- Allamah Askari’s arrival in Turkey with a warm and sincere welcome by the vice president of the conference
2- The opening of the conference with the speech of Allamah Askari about the distortion of the Qur’an by the Shia religion
3- Allamah Askari’s meeting with an apparently Shiite person who denied the existence of Imam Mahdi (AS).
4- A student who invalidated his master’s thesis due to Allamah’s lecture
[1] And despite the fact that his call is true and his prophecy is true, do you still believe that Lot, Uzza and Sumi, that is, Manat, are the daughters of God in your opinion (verses 19 and 20 of An-Najm)
[2] Under the support of some presidents and governments that ruled Iran, Imamiyya Shia has made significant progress.
[3] The theory of the Twelver Imamia received its final form from the beginning of the third century of Hijri.
[4] This statement of him shows that they have made a false claim about the Companions and Ahl al-Bayt.
[5] That is, if Yazid became the ruler in the Islamic society, it was God’s will! This is an opinion.
