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Asma al-Matalib fi Sirat Amir al-Mu'minin Ali ibn Abi Talib

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By Ali Muhammad al-Sallabi

أسمى المطالب في سيرة أمير المؤمنين علي بن أبي طالب

A contemporary study by Ali Muhammad al-Sallabi of the person and times of Ali ibn Abi Talib (may God be pleased with him), volume four of his History of the Rightly Guided Caliphs; finished at noon on Saturday 17 Rabi' II 1424 / 7 June 2003, it treats Ali in Mecca and under the caliphs before him, his accession and qualities, his financial, judicial and provincial institutions, the battles of the Camel and Siffin and the arbitration, his stance towards the Kharijites and the Shi'a, and his martyrdom.

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The Contemporary Era
Region
Arab world

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1990200020102020

History-writing and social thoughtPolitics, governance and authority

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Summary

Asma al-Matalib fi Sirat Amir al-Mu'minin Ali ibn Abi Talib: Shakhsiyyatuhu wa-'Asruhu is a study by Dr Ali Muhammad Muhammad al-Sallabi of the life of Ali ibn Abi Talib, the fourth volume of his series History of the Rightly Guided Caliphs. 1 It was issued by Dar al-Tawzi' wa-l-Nashr al-Islamiyya in Cairo in a publisher's first printing that the copyright page dates 1424/2004, and opens with a short biography of the author. 2 3 The museum also records another edition in two parts from Maktabat al-Iman, al-Mansura. 4 5

Method and sources

The author holds that questions of revival are intertwined and can be grasped only by one who understands the Qur'an and Sunna, holds to the jurisprudence of the Rightly Guided Caliphs and learns from history, and he warns against what he sees as a campaign to distort the community's history. 6 7 He says he benefited from university theses on the Rashidun caliphate, among them Muhammad ibn Abdullah al-Ghabban's on the strife of Uthman's killing, Abd al-Hamid Ali Nasir's on Ali's caliphate, Muhammad Amhazun's on the Companions' positions in the strife in the reports of al-Tabari and the hadith scholars, and Sulayman al-Awda's on Abdullah ibn Saba and his role in the strife. 8

He then lists his sources by discipline: hadith, starting with the Six Books; creed, above all Ibn Taymiyya's Minhaj al-Sunna al-Nabawiyya, from which he says he drew "great benefit", along with Sharh al-Tahawiyya, al-Ibana, al-Bayhaqi's al-I'tiqad and al-Ajurri's al-Shari'a; law, such as al-Mughni, al-Majmu' and Bidayat al-Mujtahid; and literature, from which, since it has no chains of transmission, he chose what he judged consistent with the Qur'an and Sunna. 8 9 Among biographical works he names Siyar A'lam al-Nubala', Shadharat al-Dhahab and Usd al-Ghaba, and among works of narrator criticism Tahdhib al-Kamal, al-Jarh wa-l-Ta'dil, al-Thiqat and al-Kamil. 10 Of al-Tabari's History he says it transmits sound, weak and fabricated reports with their chains, so they must be tested by narrator criticism, and that for this he used studies of the reports of Sayf ibn Umar and Abu Mikhnaf and of the influence of Shi'ism on historical reports; he also relied on Ibn Kathir's al-Bidaya wa-l-Nihaya. 10

Structure

  • Chapter 1: Ali in Mecca — his name, lineage, kunya, description and family. 11
  • Chapter 2: Ali under the Rightly Guided Caliphs, opening with his oath to Abu Bakr and the reports of its delay. 12
  • Chapter 3: Ali's accession, his main qualities and his life in society, where the author states that his oath was given by free choice after Uthman's martyrdom. 13
  • Chapter 4: The financial and judicial institutions and some of his legal judgements; the author holds that the financial institution saw no notable change in his reign. 14
  • Chapter 5: The provincial administration and the provinces of the state, starting with Mecca. 15
  • Chapter 6: The battles of the Camel and Siffin and the question of the arbitration. 16
  • Chapter 7: Ali's stance towards the Kharijites and the Shi'a, opening with the origin of the Kharijites and the scholars' definitions of them, such as Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari's. 17 It ends with a section on Ali's martyrdom and its lessons. 18
  • Conclusion, closing with verses from the Nuniyya of Abu Muhammad al-Qahtani in praise of the four caliphs, the Prophet ﷺ's family and the Companions. 19 20

Al-Hasan ibn Ali

The author says he devoted a separate study to al-Hasan ibn Ali as "the fifth of the Rightly Guided Caliphs", because of the importance of his judgements in political law and of his abdication in favour of Mu'awiya, and holds that with it ended the caliphate of prophethood, which lasted thirty years, citing the hadith "The caliphate of prophethood is thirty years". 21

Date of writing

The author finished it on Saturday at five minutes to one in the afternoon, 17 Rabi' al-Akhir 1424, corresponding to 7 June 2003. 22

Connections

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Authored by
Ali Muhammad al-Sallabi
About
Ali ibn Abi Talib

People and things also explored

al-Inshirah wa-Raf' al-Diq fi Sirat Abi Bakr al-Siddiq· Fasl al-Khitab fi Sirat Amir al-Mu'minin Umar ibn al-Khattab· Taysir al-Karim al-Mannan fi Sirat Uthman ibn Affan· Ali appoints the sons of al-Abbas and Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr as governors· Ali's oversight of his governors: inspectors, complaints and discipline· Ali's inquiry into a missing traveller and his wealth· Death of Malik al-Ashtar on the way to Egypt· Reported advice to Ali by Ibn Abbas and al-Mughira on keeping or removing Uthman's governors

Sources

  1. Asma al-Matalib fi Sirat Amir al-Mu'minin Ali ibn Abi Talib — Ali Muhammad al-Sallabi (History of the Rightly Guided Caliphs 4, Dar al-Tawzi' wa-l-Nashr al-Islamiyya, Cairo, 1st printing 1424/2004) , p.5
  2. Asma al-Matalib fi Sirat Amir al-Mu'minin Ali ibn Abi Talib — Ali Muhammad al-Sallabi (History of the Rightly Guided Caliphs 4, Dar al-Tawzi' wa-l-Nashr al-Islamiyya, Cairo, 1st printing 1424/2004) , p.6
  3. Asma al-Matalib fi Sirat Amir al-Mu'minin Ali ibn Abi Talib — Ali Muhammad al-Sallabi (History of the Rightly Guided Caliphs 4, Dar al-Tawzi' wa-l-Nashr al-Islamiyya, Cairo, 1st printing 1424/2004) , p.8
  4. Asma al-Matalib fi Sirat Ali ibn Abi Talib, vol. 1 — Ali Muhammad al-Sallabi
  5. Asma al-Matalib fi Sirat Amir al-Mu'minin Ali ibn Abi Talib, vol. 2
  6. Asma al-Matalib fi Sirat Amir al-Mu'minin Ali ibn Abi Talib — Ali Muhammad al-Sallabi (History of the Rightly Guided Caliphs 4, Dar al-Tawzi' wa-l-Nashr al-Islamiyya, Cairo, 1st printing 1424/2004) , p.20
  7. Asma al-Matalib fi Sirat Amir al-Mu'minin Ali ibn Abi Talib — Ali Muhammad al-Sallabi (History of the Rightly Guided Caliphs 4, Dar al-Tawzi' wa-l-Nashr al-Islamiyya, Cairo, 1st printing 1424/2004) , p.21
  8. Asma al-Matalib fi Sirat Amir al-Mu'minin Ali ibn Abi Talib — Ali Muhammad al-Sallabi (History of the Rightly Guided Caliphs 4, Dar al-Tawzi' wa-l-Nashr al-Islamiyya, Cairo, 1st printing 1424/2004) , p.22
  9. Asma al-Matalib fi Sirat Amir al-Mu'minin Ali ibn Abi Talib — Ali Muhammad al-Sallabi (History of the Rightly Guided Caliphs 4, Dar al-Tawzi' wa-l-Nashr al-Islamiyya, Cairo, 1st printing 1424/2004) , p.23
  10. Asma al-Matalib fi Sirat Amir al-Mu'minin Ali ibn Abi Talib — Ali Muhammad al-Sallabi (History of the Rightly Guided Caliphs 4, Dar al-Tawzi' wa-l-Nashr al-Islamiyya, Cairo, 1st printing 1424/2004) , p.24
  11. Asma al-Matalib fi Sirat Amir al-Mu'minin Ali ibn Abi Talib — Ali Muhammad al-Sallabi (History of the Rightly Guided Caliphs 4, Dar al-Tawzi' wa-l-Nashr al-Islamiyya, Cairo, 1st printing 1424/2004) , p.27
  12. Asma al-Matalib fi Sirat Amir al-Mu'minin Ali ibn Abi Talib — Ali Muhammad al-Sallabi (History of the Rightly Guided Caliphs 4, Dar al-Tawzi' wa-l-Nashr al-Islamiyya, Cairo, 1st printing 1424/2004) , p.145
  13. Asma al-Matalib fi Sirat Amir al-Mu'minin Ali ibn Abi Talib — Ali Muhammad al-Sallabi (History of the Rightly Guided Caliphs 4, Dar al-Tawzi' wa-l-Nashr al-Islamiyya, Cairo, 1st printing 1424/2004) , p.211
  14. Asma al-Matalib fi Sirat Amir al-Mu'minin Ali ibn Abi Talib — Ali Muhammad al-Sallabi (History of the Rightly Guided Caliphs 4, Dar al-Tawzi' wa-l-Nashr al-Islamiyya, Cairo, 1st printing 1424/2004) , p.329
  15. Asma al-Matalib fi Sirat Amir al-Mu'minin Ali ibn Abi Talib — Ali Muhammad al-Sallabi (History of the Rightly Guided Caliphs 4, Dar al-Tawzi' wa-l-Nashr al-Islamiyya, Cairo, 1st printing 1424/2004) , p.389
  16. Asma al-Matalib fi Sirat Amir al-Mu'minin Ali ibn Abi Talib — Ali Muhammad al-Sallabi (History of the Rightly Guided Caliphs 4, Dar al-Tawzi' wa-l-Nashr al-Islamiyya, Cairo, 1st printing 1424/2004) , p.453
  17. Asma al-Matalib fi Sirat Amir al-Mu'minin Ali ibn Abi Talib — Ali Muhammad al-Sallabi (History of the Rightly Guided Caliphs 4, Dar al-Tawzi' wa-l-Nashr al-Islamiyya, Cairo, 1st printing 1424/2004) , p.625
  18. Asma al-Matalib fi Sirat Amir al-Mu'minin Ali ibn Abi Talib — Ali Muhammad al-Sallabi (History of the Rightly Guided Caliphs 4, Dar al-Tawzi' wa-l-Nashr al-Islamiyya, Cairo, 1st printing 1424/2004) , p.877
  19. Asma al-Matalib fi Sirat Amir al-Mu'minin Ali ibn Abi Talib — Ali Muhammad al-Sallabi (History of the Rightly Guided Caliphs 4, Dar al-Tawzi' wa-l-Nashr al-Islamiyya, Cairo, 1st printing 1424/2004) , p.896
  20. Asma al-Matalib fi Sirat Amir al-Mu'minin Ali ibn Abi Talib — Ali Muhammad al-Sallabi (History of the Rightly Guided Caliphs 4, Dar al-Tawzi' wa-l-Nashr al-Islamiyya, Cairo, 1st printing 1424/2004) , p.897
  21. Asma al-Matalib fi Sirat Amir al-Mu'minin Ali ibn Abi Talib — Ali Muhammad al-Sallabi (History of the Rightly Guided Caliphs 4, Dar al-Tawzi' wa-l-Nashr al-Islamiyya, Cairo, 1st printing 1424/2004) , p.25
  22. Asma al-Matalib fi Sirat Amir al-Mu'minin Ali ibn Abi Talib — Ali Muhammad al-Sallabi (History of the Rightly Guided Caliphs 4, Dar al-Tawzi' wa-l-Nashr al-Islamiyya, Cairo, 1st printing 1424/2004) , p.26
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islam.museum contributors. “Asma al-Matalib fi Sirat Amir al-Mu'minin Ali ibn Abi Talib”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/work/asma-al-matalib-sirat-ali-sallabi/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-11-04.

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al-Inshirah wa-Raf' al-Diq fi Sirat Abi Bakr al-Siddiq

A contemporary study by Ali Muhammad al-Sallabi of the person and times of Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, the first volume of his series History of the Rightly Guided Caliphs; finished on 5 Muharram 1422 / 30 March 2001 and divided into an introduction, four chapters and a summary: Abu Bakr in Mecca; the Prophet's death and the Saqifa; Usama's army and the Ridda wars; the conquests in Iraq and Syria, the nomination of Umar and Abu Bakr's death.