I recently found out that the Ummayads, the Meccan elites who opposed Prophet Muhammad and early Islam, eventually spread it through dynastic rule. It blew my mind and revealed how certain distortions of practice prevailed after the Prophet’s death. I was so surprised that I’ve felt compelled to share with others.
I’ve shared a number of videos on Tik Tok as part of a multi-part series on this subject. I’m also sharing the videos here, so that those who are unable to access on Tik Tok, or those who want to consume the whole series in one go can do so easily.
I recognize that the topic is sensitive, emotional, and generates a lot of debate and questions. My goal is for viewers and listeners to take my synopsis and do their own research, so that they come to their own conclusions. I want to motivate more people to educate themselves, and ensure that misinformation that is used to oppress others is questioned. In order to aid in that and for journalistic integrity, I’m sharing fact-checks, sources, corrections and resources for further research below:
In this video, I stated “We all know that Aisha, later in her life… this is both in Sunni and Shia historical accounts… Aisha, later on in her life, apologized for and acknowledged a lot of the times that she narrated things that were contradictory to the Quran, and things that caused a lot of division in early Islam.”
Correction to the above phrasing which will be in subsequent videos: Aisha regretted her role in the Battle of the Camel/Battle of Basra. She later acknowledged “I caused wrongdoing after the Prophet.” There is also a record of her correcting narrations with “I misspoke” or “I misremembered.” This is verified by both Sunni and Shia sources. Some of the hadith attributed to Aisha in Sahih Bukhari (5133 and 5134) have been disputed by Muslims and academic sources, which casts doubt on the chain of title, on her as a narrator (either because of age —she would have been between 9-18 during her marriage, tainting her memory and observations through a child’s lens), or on Bukhari’s method.
Here’s a fact-check that supports the above statement.
Aisha was Prophet Muhammad’s third wife, not second.
Fatima was Prophet Muhammad’s youngest daughter, and the only one who survived him.
Fadak, Fatima’s estate, was allegedly seized by Caliph Abubakar and given to Marwan by Caliph Uthman.
The Quran was reportedly compiled during Caliphs Abubakar and Omar’s governance, but was standardized during Uthman’s.
Talha and Zubayr were Abubakar’s sons in law, not his sons, and they were early companions of Prophet Muhammad.
No god but God by Reza Aslan
Revelation by Dr. Meraj Mohiuddin
Memories of Muhammad by Omid Safi
Succession to Muhammad by Wilferd Madelung
Origins and Early Development of Shia Islam by Syed Hossain Mohammad Jafri
After the Prophet by Lesley Hazleton
Some additional context on Lesley Hazelton, who has passed, below:
She lived in Israel for 13 years and never explicitly denounced or supported the Israeli government (from what I can find), nor did she ever explicitly support Palestinian equal rights. Instead she used language like “peace,” and “war,” which was more common before October 7, even for now known anti-zionist figures like Ta-Nehisi Coates. Hazleton does not use modern day terminology like “settler colonial project,” nor does she ever outright condemn the Nakba, apartheid or genocide.
Her interview with TED about reading the Quran and writing about Islam, and her views on Israel/Palestine (what she and the interviewer mostly refer to as the Middle East).
Her profile by the Jewish Journal (what I would consider a zionist source).
In 1980, she wrote a piece about Arab Bedouins where she used problematic language when referring to Arabs, Palestinians, and the Palestinian cause.
Mu’awiyah Ibn Abi Sufyan by Stephen Humphreys
The First Muslim by Lesley Hazleton
The Sealed Nectar by Saifur Rahman al-Mubarakpuri
Muhammad: A Prophet for Our Time by Karen Armstrong
Sunnis and Shi’a: A Political History by Laurence Louër
"Sunnism and Shi'ism: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow” by Seyyed Hossein Nasr
“Prophet’s Dilemma: The Sunni Shia Split Part 1,” The Conflicted Podcast
Quran Translations:
The Sublime Quran, Laleh Bakhtiar
The Message of the Quran, Hashim Amir Ali
The Message of the Quran, Muhammad Asad
The Qur'an (Oxford World's Classics), Abdel Haleem
Arabic Root Word Dictionaries:
Lughat Ul Quran Volume 1, Ghulam Ahmed Parwez
Note: Hans Wehr was a Nazi, so I try not to use his root word dictionary but it is still commonly used today. I looked at it to see how it differed from other dictionaries.
Hadith Collections:
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