Bøker av Abdullah Al-Rabbat

A chronicle of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb's martyrdom primarily rooted in the authentic traditions from historical sources. This chronicle serves to not only illustrate the significance of his sorrowful martyrdom, but also to provide insight into ʿUmar's leadership, character and merits. It can serve as the precursor to other chronicles that will cover ensuing events that altered the course of Islamic history.

Eschatology is a topic that continuously grabs the attention of many Muslims due to significance in Islamic theology. Its stories and prophecies embody many supernatural elements that are bound to be witnessed by many, and this further amplifies the fascination of many with this genre of scripture in the Islamic tradition. A major category of Islamic eschatology revolves around the signs of the Hour: the signs and events that manifest prior to the Day of Judgement, indicating its dire imminence. These signs, which were foretold the Prophet, serve as reminders to the Muslim community so that they may prepare themselves and be attentive to the Hour and Day of Judgement. Despite this topic's grave importance, many weak and unreliable traditions are carelessly circulated in many Muslim circles today. What makes the matter even more challenging is the fact that some public Muslim figures continue to disseminate such weak traditions, further facilitating the spread of inauthentic narratives. This book serves as an attempt to prove the Muslim community with an accessible and comprehensive collection of authentic hadiths on the signs of the Hour, and perhaps it can be the stepping stone for a more mature discourse on Islamic eschatology.

In contemporary settings, the term, Shīʿism, is primarily used to refer to three extant Shīʿite sects, Zaydism, Ismāʿīlism and Twelverism. However, a careful review of earlier historical, biographical and heresiographical sources will reveal the existence of a diverse mosaic of early Shīʿite sects and schools that once flourished and later became extinct due to various socio-political reasons. Later Twelver and, to a lesser extent, Zaydī and Ismāʿīlī hegemony in the Shīʿite realm has undermined and overshadowed the legacy of many earlier Shīʿite schools and movements that often disagreed with the extant Shīʿite schools on a variety of subjects. Furthermore, some of the extinct schools should not necessarily be regarded as independent sects; rather, they may prove to be multifactedly related to the extant Shīʿite sects. This concise book seeks to provide a brief visualized overview of the divergence of Shīʿite sects with respect to the imamate, one of the core subjects of Shīʿism as a whole. It includes a set of diagrams that outline the divergence (and occasional convergence) of early Shīʿite schools with respect to the imamate. Attempting to thoroughly summarize and visualize multifaceted and intricate theological disputes in flow diagrams is a difficult (and perhaps impossible) task, and this work accordingly is bound by various limitations. The diagrams in this book are not meant to be the be-all-and-end-all of research on this topic. To the contrary, they are intended to be mere gateways into further research and inquiry on the history, development and relationships of early Shīʿite schools.

Kitāb al-Saqīfa of Sulaym ibn Qays al-Hilālī, which is purportedly the oldest surviving Shīʿite (and Islamic) ḥadīth collection, is a Twelver Shīʿite text that is drenched in controversy today. Its controversy, for the most part, stems from its embodiment of an alternative Rāfiḍite rendition of the historical events following the Prophet's death, most notably, the purported assault on his daughter, Fāṭima. The controversy surrounding Kitāb Sulaym ibn Qays and its origins is not confined to the realms of Sunnī-Shīʿite polemical disputes. Rather, the book was initially criticized by some medieval Twelver authorities, who casted doubts on its integrity and/or authenticity. Despite the past criticism it had received, the book today is championed in many Twelver Shīʿite institutions and circles as an authoritative document that can be verifiably traced to the first century of Islam, hence granting it great significance and importance in many circles.This book provides an exposition of this Twelver Shīʿite document with a detailed analysis of its transmission and historicity in an attempt to discern its origins. Though Kitāb Sulaym is not the be-all and end-all of Shīʿite historiography surrounding the purported tragedy of Fāṭima, it is, more or less, an important pillar of the narrative, and discerning the book's origins will prove to be a milestone in untangling this historical narrative.