the East—specifically Iraq, as you have seen in some explicit narrations. Thus, this hadith is one of the signs of his prophethood, peace and blessings be upon him, for the earliest tribulations came from the East, and this became a cause of division among the Muslims. Likewise, innovations arose from that direction, such as the innovation of Shiism, rebellion, and the like.

Al-Bukhari (7/77) and Ahmad (2/85, 153) narrated from Ibn Abi Nuʿaym, who said: “I witnessed Ibn ʿUmar when a man from Iraq asked him about a person in a state of consecration who had killed a fly. He said: ‘O people of Iraq! You ask me about a person in a state of consecration who killed a fly, while you killed the grandson of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him! Yet the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said: “They are my two fragrant flowers in this world.”’”

Among those tribulations is the Shiites’ disparagement of the leading Companions, may Allah be pleased with them, such as Lady ʿA’ishah the Truthful, daughter of the Truthful One, whose innocence was declared from heaven. The fanatical Shiite ʿAbd al-Husayn devoted several chapters of his book al-Murājaʿāt (pp. 237) to disparaging her, declaring her reports false, and accusing her of every conceivable offence—with utter audacity and shamelessness. In this, he relied on weak and fabricated hadiths. I have discussed some of them in al-Ḍaʿīfah (4963–4970), along with his distortion of authentic hadiths and his forcing upon them meanings they cannot bear, such as this authentic hadith. May his mouth be crushed and his hands withered! He construed it as referring to Lady ʿA’ishah, may Allah be pleased with her, claiming that she was the tribulation mentioned in the hadith: “Grave is the word that comes out of their mouths; they utter nothing but a lie.” (1) He based this on the two preceding narrations:

The first: al-Bukhari’s narration: “He pointed towards ʿA’ishah’s dwelling …”

The other: Muslim’s narration: “The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, came out of ʿA’ishah’s house and said: ‘The head of disbelief is from here.’”

Thus, the vile man misled the noble readers into thinking that the noble gesture was directed at ʿA’ishah’s dwelling itself,