سورة النحل

The Prophet (peace be upon him and his family): In the book Sharaf al-Mustafa, in the account of the Shi'b Abi Talib (peace be upon him), it is reported: Allah set a termite upon the writing of the polytheists until it ate it and destroyed it. Jibrail (peace be upon him) descended upon the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) and informed him of the matter of the writing. The Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) then shared the matter with his uncle Abu Talib (peace be upon him). Abu Talib (may Allah have mercy on him) went to the gathering of the Quraysh in the Masjid al-Haram; they honored and revered him and said: 'Do you intend to return to our gathering and hand over your nephew to us?' Abu Talib (may Allah have mercy on him) said: 'By Allah! I have not come for what you have said. My nephew has informed me of a matter, and I know that he does not lie to me; Allah has informed him of the state of your writing. Bring your writing to me — if it is true, then fear Allah and desist from this oppression and injustice and severing of kinship, and if this statement is false, I will hand him (the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family)) over to you.' They brought the writing and opened the seals, and there was nothing in it except the words 'Bismika Allahumma [In Your name, O Allah]' and the name of 'Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family).' Abu Talib (peace be upon him) said: 'O people! Fear Allah and desist from this oppression and injustice.' After this incident, that group fell silent and dispersed. Then this verse was revealed: ادْعُ إِلی سَبیلِ رَبِّک [Call to the way of your Lord]. The Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) said: 'How shall I call them, when in the pact and reconciliation they have made they have stipulated that every kind of call be abandoned?' So this verse was revealed: یَمْحُوا اللهُ ما یَشاءُ وَ یُثْبِتُ [Allah erases what He wills and confirms].

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): Mufaddal said: I asked my master Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): '... [when Mahdi (may Allah hasten his noble reappearance) appears] what will he do with the people of Makkah?' He said: 'He will call them with wisdom and goodly exhortation, and they will obey him. [Then] the Qa'im (may Allah hasten his noble reappearance), having appointed a man from his own household there as his deputy, will leave Makkah heading for Madinah.'

Lady Zahra (peace be upon her): Peace be upon you, O Fatima (peace be upon her), daughter of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) ... O my mistress! I have certainty in you, your father, your husband, and the Imams from your children (peace be upon them), and I am a believer in their wilayah (guardianship) and committed to their obedience. I bear witness that the religion is their religion and the ruling is their ruling, and they have conveyed [the message] from Allah the Mighty and Majestic, and have called to the way of their Lord with wisdom and goodly exhortation; in the way of Allah no blame of any blamer overtakes them.

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): In a letter which the Imam (peace be upon him) sent to Muhammad ibn al-Ash'ath, in which there was a supplication and salawat upon the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family), the following came: ... O Allah! I begin by bearing witness to his (prophethood), then I send blessings and salawat upon him ... The Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) commanded all people to obey You, and he himself, in secret and openly, obeyed Your command; he continually forbade disobedience to You, and he himself, in secret and openly, kept away from disobedience to You; he guided people to noble character and himself acted upon it; he forbade all people from base moral traits and himself was averse to them. He loved Your friends, in the way that You approve, in word and in deed, and he called people to Your way with wisdom and goodly exhortations.

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): Abu 'Amr al-Zubayri says: I asked Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): "Say something regarding calling to Allah and jihad in the way of Allah"! ... The Imam (peace be upon him) said: "Allah, in the Quran, informed His Prophet about calling to Himself and described [the manner and method of] calling to Him; [for the methods of calling to Allah] He set degrees, each degree being known by the other, and each rank being a guide to the next rank. Allah [in the Quran] informs that at first [and in the first degree], Allah is the first One who called people to Himself, to His obedience, and to following His commands; so He began with Himself and says: وَ اللهُ یَدْعُوا إِلی دارِ السَّلامِ وَ یَهْدِی مَنْ یَشاءُ إِلی صِراطٍ مُسْتَقِیمٍ [And Allah calls to the abode of peace, and guides whom He wills to a straight path] (Yunus/125). Then He mentioned His Prophet in praise and said: ادْعُ إِلی سَبِیلِ رَبِّکَ بِالْحِکْمَةِ وَ الْمَوْعِظَةِ الْحَسَنَةِ وَ جادِلْهُمْ بِالَّتِی هِیَ أَحْسَنُ [Call to the way of your Lord with wisdom and goodly exhortation, and have disputations with them in the best manner] — meaning [dispute] on the basis of the Quran. And whoever opposes the command of Allah and calls to Allah by other than what Allah has commanded in His Book is not counted as a caller. The intent is the very thing that Allah has commanded, that one should be called only by means of it."

Imam Rida (peace be upon him): The Imam considers Allah's lawful as lawful and His unlawful as unlawful [and determines its bounds], establishes the hudud (prescribed penalties), defends the religion, and guides people to the way of Allah with wisdom, excellent exhortation, and sufficient proof.

The Prophet (peace be upon him and his family): The Quran is a guiding leader that has a guide and leader who, with wisdom and goodly exhortation, guides and invites [people] toward the Quran. [That leader is me, and] after me the next wali al-amr (Ali (peace be upon him)) is the leader and guardian of this affair; he is the inheritor of my knowledge and wisdom.

Lady Zahra (peace be upon her): When Abu Bakr gathered [the people] to seize Fadak from Fatima Zahra (peace be upon her), Lady Fatima (peace be upon her) began her speech with the praise of Allah and said: ... If you examine and recognize the lineage of the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family), you will know that he is my father and not the father of any of your women, and he is the brother of my cousin (Ali (peace be upon him)) and not of any of your men — and what an excellent lineage this is! The Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) fulfilled his mission properly and delivered the message of Allah to the worlds in the best possible manner, and at the same time warned people of the reckoning, turning away from the degenerate path of the last of the polytheists, striking crushing blows upon the body of polytheism, silencing their mouths [from their nonsense]; while with wisdom and goodly exhortation he was calling people to the path of his Lord.

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): Imam Askari (peace be upon him) has recorded in his tafsir: In the presence of Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him) it was said that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) and the infallible Imams (peace be upon them) have forbidden disputation and argument in matters of religion. Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him) said: "No! They have not forbidden disputation absolutely; rather, they have forbidden disputation by means other than that which is best. Have you not heard that Allah says: 'Do not dispute with the People of the Book except in the best manner' (Al-Ankabut/46)? And He also says: ادْعُ إلِی سَبِیلِ رَبِّکَ بِالْحِکْمَةِ وَ الْمَوْعِظَةِ الْحَسَنَةِ وَ جَادِلْهُم بِالَّتِی هِیَ أَحْسَنُ [Call to the way of your Lord with wisdom and goodly exhortation, and dispute with them in the best manner]. The scholars regard this kind of argument and disputation as close to religion, and they regard disputation in any other form as forbidden; Allah has made it forbidden upon our Shia. How could Allah forbid every kind of disputation, while He Himself adds: 'They said: None shall enter Paradise except one who is a Jew or a Christian' (Al-Baqarah/111). Then He said: 'These are their vain desires. Say: Bring your proof, if you are truthful' (Al-Baqarah/111). So Allah has joined true knowledge, reality, and faith with the bringing of a proof and evidence — and is it not the case that in disputation by the best way that correct proof and evidence are brought forward?" It was asked: "O son of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family)! What is disputation by the best way, and disputation by a way which is not the best?" He said: "Disputation by a way that is not the best means that you enter into debate with a purveyor of nonsense who forces you to resort to falsehood and untruth, and instead of answering him with the proofs which Allah has appointed, you either deny his words, or you deny a truth which that liar wishes to use to establish his falsehood, out of fear that the liar may use that truth against you — you deny it because you do not know [if you were to concede that truth] how you could extricate yourself from it. It is forbidden upon our Shia to become a source of complication and confusion for their brothers who are weak [in grasping proofs] and [an occasion of victory] for the purveyors of nonsense. [This behaviour causes] the purveyors of nonsense to make your weakness and the weakness of your proof into evidence that your belief is false and a proof of their own falsehood; and the weak ones, when they see your weakness — while you are upon the truth — before the purveyor of nonsense, their hearts become grieved. As for disputation by the best way, it is what Allah commanded His Prophet, that with that proof he should dispute with those who deny the resurrection and the raising up. Allah the Blessed and Exalted narrated the story of that denier of the resurrection, saying: 'And he sets forth a comparison for Us while forgetting his own creation, saying: Who will give life to these bones when they are decayed?' (Yasin/78). And in reply He said: 'O Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family)! Say: He will give them life Who brought them into existence the first time, and He is Knower of every creation * He Who has produced fire for you out of the green tree, so that with it you kindle' (Yasin/79-80). That is, Allah wanted His Prophet to dispute with that purveyor of nonsense who said: How is it possible that Allah give life to this decayed bone?" ... Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him) said: "This is disputation by the superior proof; for by this means the pretext and support of the disbelievers is severed and rendered baseless, and their doubt is removed. But the outcome of disputation by other than the superior proof is that you deny the truth, because you cannot distinguish between the truth and the falsehood of your opponent, so you deny the truth, and the only way to refute the falsehood of the purveyor of nonsense is to deny the truth — and this act is forbidden, because you become like him: he rejects one truth and you deny another truth and reality." Imam Askari (peace be upon him) said: A man rose and asked: "O son of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him)! Did the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) also dispute?" He said: "Concerning the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family), think whatever you wish; but never suppose that he would oppose the command of Allah! Has Allah the Exalted not said: وَ جَادِلْهُم بِالَّتِی هِیَ أَحْسَنُ [And dispute with them in the best manner], and has He not said: قُلْ یُحْیِیهَا الَّذِی أَنشَأَهَا أَوَّلَ مَرَّةٍ [Say: He will give them life Who brought them into existence the first time], addressing him who set forth a comparison for Allah? Do you suppose that the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) opposed Allah's command, and did not dispute in the manner Allah commanded him, and did not convey from Allah what He commanded him to convey?!"

Ali ibn Ibrahim (may Allah have mercy on him): وَجَادِلْهُم بِالَّتِی هِیَ أَحْسَنُ [and dispute with them in the best manner], meaning: with the Quran.

The Prophet (peace be upon him and his family): We are the disputants in propagating the religion of Allah with the tongue of seventy prophets.

Imam al-Askari (peace be upon him): إِنَّ اللهَ عَلی کُلِّ شَیْءٍ قَدِیرٌ [Indeed Allah is Powerful over all things]; because He has power over everything, He has chosen what is in your best interest — that you deal with them gently and meet them with jidal ahsan (the best form of disputation) and sound reasoning.

Imam Ali (peace be upon him): The Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him) said: The meaning of jidal (disputation) in the Quran is such that ... in one place of the Quran He says: Allah heard the words of the woman who came to you concerning her husband and complained to Allah (Mujadala/1), and in another place He says: وَ جادِلْهُمْ بِالَّتِی هِیَ أَحْسَنُ [and dispute with them in the best manner], and the like of these verses in the Quran are many.