Hadith al-Tayr al-Mashwi: Difference between revisions

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The word "al-tayr" (Arabic: {{iarabic|الطَّیر}}) means bird and the word "al-mashwi" (Arabic: {{iarabic|المَشویّ}}) means roasted or grilled. Here is the story: one day the Prophet (s) was offered a roasted chicken. He raised his hands to the sky and said: "O God! Send me your most loved creature to eat the meal with me!"

[['A'isha]] and [[Hafsa]] who heard the Prophet (s) saying these words told their fathers, [[Abu Bakr b. Abi Quhafa]] and [['Umar b. al-Khattab]], about the story. They went to the Prophet (s) one at a time in order to share the Prophet's (s) meal in the hope of counting as God’s most loved creature, but the Prophet (s) did not admit them to his house.

Anas b. Malik said that I preferred the person who would share the meal with the Prophet (s) to be [[Sa'd b. 'Ubada]] from my own tribe, but I saw that [['Ali b. Abi Talib (a)]] was coming. I did not let him in for three times. Finally, the Prophet (s) ordered me to let him in. Imam 'Ali (a) entered the house and shared the meal with the Prophet (s).

* [[Al-Shaykh al-Mufid]] argues for the implication of this hadith for the [[wilaya]] of Imam 'Ali (a) as follows: God’s love is grounded in truths, rather than whims and desires. Therefore, the most beloved person by God is the most virtuous person too. What is more, the most virtuous person for God is definitely prior and more preferable with respect to [[imamate]] and wilaya, since it is unreasonable to prefer a less virtuous person to a more virtuous one with respect to [[prophethood]] and the general [[khilafa]] (succession) of God.

* In his book, ''[[al-Fusul al-mukhtara]]'', [[al-Sayyid al-Murtada]] argues that the most loved person by God is rewarded by God more than any other creature, and a person who is regarded by God more than all others has more virtuous actions and worships than those of others. Therefore, Imam 'Ali (a) is superior to all creatures except the Prophet Muhammad (s).

* [[Al-'Allama al-Majlisi]] argues that the hadith implies Imam 'Ali's (a) superiority with respect to imamate as follows: a person can be loved by God only if he or she practices many worships and gains may virtuous attributes, since God is free from passions and moods, and He can love or hate others only if there are true grounds, and not out of mere passions. Therefore, God’s love of someone is a result of that person’s obedience of the Prophet (s), and if 'Ali (a) is the most loved creature by God, then he has obeyed the Prophet (s) more than any other creature, and so he is superior to all other creatures. It is not intelligible to prefer someone as a successor of the Prophet (s) over God’s most virtuous creature after the Prophet (s).

 

* According to [[Hafiz Ganji Shafi'i]], this hadith implies that 'Ali (a) was God’s most loved creature, since the Prophet's (s) pray to God was responded by his presence, and God does not reject his Prophet's (s) pray regarding his most loved creature.

Not only Shiite scholars take Hadith al-Tayr al-Mashwiy to be [[mutawatir]] and certainly true, but also some prominent Sunni scholars of hadith have confirmed its reliability and accuracy. They have cited the hadith from some [[Sahaba]] with approximately the same content.

According to [[Ibn Kathir]], 90 people have narrated the hadith from [[Anas b. Malik]]. Since he could not object to the chain of the narration of the hadith, he only said in response to it: "in one word, my heart finds something wrong with this hadith, even though it has many chains of narrations. God knows better!"

In reply to Ibn Kathir, [['Allama Amini]] wrote that his heart was sealed by God, since it does not make sense to deny this hadith in spite of so much evidence.

* Dhahabi, according to the introduction of ''Fath al-mulk al-'ula''.

* The material for this article has been mainly taken from {{ia|[http://fa.wikishia.net/view/%D8%AD%D8%AF%DB%8C%D8%AB_%D8%B7%DB%8C%D8%B1_%D9%85%D8%B4%D9%88%DB%8C حدیث طیر مشوی]}} in Farsi WikiShia.