Abdullah Ibn Saba and other myths

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Abdullah Ibn Saba (Part I)

Enemies of Islam whose goal were/are to split the Muslims, in their effort
to explain the emergence of Shia, claim that the Shia are a sect which was
originated by Abdullah Ibn Saba, a Jew who embraced Islam during the reign
of Uthman Ibn Affan, the third caliph. They further state that Abdullah Ibn
Saba traveled in Muslim cities and towns, from Damascus to Kufa to Egypt,
propagating among Muslims that Ali is the Prophet's successor. He provoked
Muslims to kill Uthman since he believed Uthman had occupied the seat of
Imam Ali. He also made mischief in the armies of Ali and his opponents in
the battle of Camel. He was also responsible for all the false ideas of the
Shia forward. These mercenary writers believe that Abdullah Ibn Saba is the
ORIGIN of Shia; and since he himself was a hypocrite and a falsifier of
tales, then all the knowledge and beliefs of the Shia are also false. In
fact, Abdullah Ibn Saba is the best scapegoat for all the claims of some
Sunnis.

While the existence of a person in the name of Abdullah Ibn Saba in the
early history of Islam is seriously under question, what is clear after
extensively researching this topic is that even if a poor man with such
name ever existed at that time, the stories propagated about this person
are legendary, false, fabricated, and fictitious, and there exists no proof
for the validity of these stories attached to him. This point will be
studied in this discussion, by the willing of Allah.

============
Introduction
============
The fabricated stories around the character of Abdullah Ibn Saba are the
malicious production of one of the disciples of the devil, namely Sayf Ibn
Umar al-Tamimi. He was a story teller, lived in the second century after
Hijrah, who shaped his stories by some primary facts he found in the
documented history of Islam available at that time. Sayf wrote a novel much
the same as what Salman Rushdi did in "Satanic Verses" with similar
motives, but with the difference that the role of Satan in this case was
given to poor Abdullah Ibn Saba.

Sayf Ibn Umar distorted the biographies of the companions of the Holy
Prophet (PBUH&HF) to please the government of his time, and to distort the
history of Shia and to ridicule Islam. Sayf was a staunch advocate of the
Umayads, who were known throughout history to be one of the worst enemies
of Ahlul-Bayt, and as such, it was in his best interest to invent such
stories to degrade the Shia. In his stories however he followed many other
goals one of which was to cleverly elevate the status of his tribe over
others by inventing some imaginary companions form his tribe. However many
Sunni scholars found numerous unjustifiable heresies in his reports which
was not limited to the issue of Abdullah Ibn Saba, and consequently they
abandoned his reports, and accuse him as a man of forgery and lies. Yet
Sayf's works enjoyed the support of a minority of Sunnis to this date.
Here, later on, I give the sayings of several leading Sunni scholars, who
all confirmed that Sayf Ibn Umar was an untrustworthy person and his
stories are void.

Ideological studies indicate that most of those who hate the Shi'ite school
of thought (a lot of whom being the enemies of Islam anyway) justify their
enmity on this obvious heresy which they would exploit to backup their
attack on Shia. The approach which resembles the one adopted by Sayf Ibn
Umar himself.


======================
The Origin of The Tale
======================
The tale of Abdullah Ibn Saba is over twelve centuries old. Historians
and writers, one after the other recorded it, adding more and more to it.

With a glance at the chain of transmitters of this story, you will find the
name of Sayf sitting in there. The following historians recorded directly
from Sayf:

(1) Tabari.
(2) Dhahabi. He has also cited from Tabari(1).
(3) Ibn Abi Bakir. He has also recorded from Ibn Athir(15), who has
recorded from Tabari(1).
(4) Ibn Asakir.


The following have recorded indirectly from Sayf:

(5) Nicholson from Tabari(1).
(6) Encyclopedia of Islam from Tabari(1).
(7) Van Floton from Tabari(1).
(8) Wellhauzen from Tabari(1).
(9) Mirkhand from Tabari(1).
(10) Ahmad Amin from Tabari(1), and from Wellhauzen(8).
(11) Farid Wajdi from Tabari(1).
(12) Hasan Ibrahim from Tabari(1).
(13) Saeed Afghani from Tabari(1), and from Ibn Abi Bakir(3), Ibn
Asakir(4), and Ibn Badran(21).
(14) Ibn Khaldoon from Tabari(1).
(15) Ibn Athir from Tabari(1).
(16) Ibn Kathir from Tabari(1).
(17) Donaldson from Nicholson(5), and from Encyclopedia(6).
(18) Ghiath al-Din from Mirkhand(9).
(19) Abul Fida from Ibn Athir(15).
(20) Rashid Ridha from Ibn Athir(15).
(21) Ibn Badran from Ibn Asakir(4).
(22) Bostani from Ibn Kathir(16).


The above list gives evidence to the fact that the fictitious stories
around the character of Abdullah Ibn Saba has been started by Sayf and
cited next by Tabari directly from Sayf's book as Tabari mentioned himself
(See the chain of narrators of traditions related to Abdullah Ibn Saba,
inside the History of Tabari. For instance, see the index of Vol. 15,
English version, under the name of Sayf Ibn Umar or Abdullah Ibn Saba).
Therefore, Sayf's character and his history should be studied and analyzed
with a great care.


============
Who Is Sayf?
============
Sayf Ibn Umar al-Dhabbi al-Usayyidi al-Tamimi lived in the second century
of the Muslim era (8th century AD) and died after the year 170 AH (750 AD).
al-Dhahabi said that Sayf died during the rule of Haroon al-Rashid in
Baghdad (Iraq). During his life, Sayf wrote the following two books which
were available even during the reign of Umayad:

1. "al-Fotooh wa al-Riddah" which is the history of the period before the
death of the Prophet (PBUH&HF) until the third Caliph Uthman resumed
office as the ruler of Muslim world.

2. "al-Jamal wa Maseeri Aisha wa Ali" which is the history from the
murder of Uthman to the battle of Jamal (the fight that happened
between Imam Ali and some companions).

These books are now lost but survived for a number of centuries after
Sayf's own lifetime. Based on what we found, the last person who had said
that he had possessed Sayf's books was Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani (d. 852 AH).

These two books of Sayf contained more action than truth, some forged
stories, and some true events which, intentionally, have been recorded in a
ridiculing manner.

Since Sayf spoke about some of the companions of the Prophet (PBUH&HF) and
also invented some companions with strange names, his stories have affected
the history of early Islam. Some biographers such as the authors of "Usdul
Ghabah", "Isti'ab" and "Isabah" and geographers such as the authors of
"Mu'jamul Boldan" and "al-Rawzul mi'tar" have written the life of some
companions of the Prophet, and named places which exist only in the books
written by Sayf. Because of this, the life and character of Sayf and his
credibility should be carefully investigated.


======================================
What Do Sunni Scholars Say About Sayf?
======================================
The following leading Sunni scholars confirm that Sayf Ibn Umar was a well-
known liar and untrustworthy:

(1) al-Hakim (d. 405 AH) wrote: "Sayf is accused of being a heretic. His
narrations are abandoned."

(2) al-Nisa'i (d. 303 AH) wrote: "Sayf's narrations are weak and they
should be disregarded because he was unreliable and untrustworthy."

(3) Yahya Ibn Mueen (d. 233 AH) wrote: "Sayf's narrations are weak and
useless."

(4) Abu Hatam (d. 277 AH) wrote: "Sayf's Hadith is rejected."

(5) Ibn Abi Hatam (d. 327 AH) wrote: "Scholars have abandoned Sayf's
narrations."

(6) Abu Dawud (d. 316 AH) wrote: "Sayf is nothing. He was a liar. Some of
his Hadiths were conveyed and the majority of them are denied."

(7) Ibn Habban (d. 354 AH) wrote: "Sayf attributed fabricated traditions
to the good reporters. He was accused of being a heretic and a liar."

(8) Ibn Abd al-Barr (d. 462 AH) mentined in his writing abut al-Qa'qa:
"Sayf reported that al-Qa'qa Said: I attended the death of the Prophet
Muhammad." Ibn Adb al-Barr continued: "Ibn Abu Hatam said: Sayf is
weak. Thus, what was conveyed of the presence of al-Qa'qa at the death
of the Prophet is rejected. We mentioned the Sayf's traditions for
knowledge only."

(9) al-Darqutini (d. 385 AH) wrote: "Sayf is weak".

(10) Firoozabadi (d. 817 AH) in "Towalif" mentioned Sayf and some others by
saying: "They are weak."

(11) Ibn al-Sakan (d. 353 AH) wrote: "Sayf is weak."

(12) Safi al-Din (d. 923 AH) wrote: "Sayf is considered weak."

(13) Ibn Udei (d. 365 AH) wrote about Sayf: "He is weak. Some of his
narrations are famous yet the majority of his narrations are
disgraceful and not followed."

(14) al-Suyuti (d. 900 AH) wrote: "Sayf's Hadith is weak."

(15) Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani (d. 852 AH) wrote after mentioning a tradition:
"Many reporters of this tradition are weak, and the weakest among them
is Sayf."


It is interesting to see that although al-Dhahabi (d. 748 AH) has quoted
from the book of Sayf in his History, he has mentioned in his other book
that Sayf as a weak narrator. In "al-Mughni fi al-Dhu'afa'" al-Dhahabi
wrote:

"Sayf has two books which have been unanimously abandoned by the
scholars." (al-Mughni fi al-Dhu'afa', by al-Dhahabi, p292)

The result of the investigation into Sayf's life shows that Sayf was an
agnostic and an unreliable story teller. Stories told by him are dubious
and are entirely or partly forged. In his stories, he has used names of
cities which never existed in the world. Abdullah Ibn Saba are the star of
those stories. He also introduced some 150 imaginary companions for the
Prophet to fill out the empty characters of his scenarios, by giving them
some strange names which are not found in any other documents. Also the
timing of the events given by Sayf's narrations contradict the authentic
Sunni documents. Sayf has also used imaginary chains of narrators, and
reported many miraculous events (like talking cows with human etc...).

Some of the defenders of Sayf hold the opinion that eventhough he was known
as a weak transmitter and many scholars of Hadith do not trust his reports,
it is only in the matter of the Shari'ah (the Law), but not in the matter
of historical report!

By that, they want to rely on the "historical" stories of someone who was
regarded a liar and "zindeeq"! If the problem of Sayf was just lack of
knowledge about Shari'ah (divine law), one could say he can be trusted on
other accounts. But the problem with Sayf was that he was a liar, and made
lots of forgery by constructing the events, attributed fabricated
traditions to good narrators. Then such person becomes questionable for
almost everything. As for his historical accounts we will witness in
Part V that even Christian historians have confirmed great inconsistencies
between his historical report and other sober transmitters. No need to
mention Sunni and Shia opinion on the heretical nature of Sayf.

================================================
The stories about Abdullah Ibn Saba which do
NOT have any source or any chain of transmitters
================================================
There are some reports from both Shia and Sunni scholars, historians, and
story tellers of ancient cultures who wrote few lines about Abdullah Ibn
Saba but did not supply any evidence for their claims, nor did they provide
any chain of supportive authorities (isnad) for their reports to be
examined.
For instance, their reports start with: "some people say so and so ..." or
"some scholars say so and so ..." without mentioning who that scholar was,
and where they got it from. It was based on rumor which was propagated by
Umayads (AFTER Sayf's work) which had reached them, and some based on the
authors' own creativity. This is inferred when we see these authors have
reported some legends which are clearly false and rejected by logic. These
reports are provided by those who wrote books about "al-Milal wa Nihal"
(stories about civilizations and cultures) or "al-Firaq" (divisions/sects).

Among the Sunnis who mentioned the name of Abdullah Ibn Saba in their
stories WITHOUT bringing any source for their claims, are:

(1) Ali Ibn Isma'il al-Ash'ari (d. 330) in his book "Maqalat al-
Islamiyin" (Essays about the People of Islam).

(2) Abdul-Qahir Ibn Tahir al-Baghdadi (d. 429) in his book "al-Farq Bain
al-Firaq" (Differences of the Sects).

(3) Muhammad Ibn Abdil-Karim al-Shahrastani (d. 548) in his book "al-Milal
wan Nihal" (Nations and Cultures).

The above mentioned Sunnis do not give any source or any chain of authority
for their story about Abdullah Ibn Saba. They have competed with each other
to increase the number of sects in Islam with strange names such as al-
Kawusiyyah, al-Tayyarah, al-Mamturah, al-Ghrabiyyah, al-Ma'lumiyyah !!,
al-Majhuliyyah !!! and so on WITHOUT giving any source or reference for
their claims. Living in medieval times, these authors presumed that writing
stranger stories and attributing unrealistic events to different Muslim
nations will make them more reputable than the other competitors in this
area. And by that, they caused a tragic damage to the history of Islam and
committed a great crime for what they have falsely attributed to the Muslim
nations.

Some of them have provided silly legends and fairy-tales whose falsehood
are easy to detect nowadays, though it would have been possible for them to
succeed in passing off such stories as history in those times. For
instance, al-Shahrastani in his book "al-Milal wan Nihal" has mentioned
that there was a group of semi-human creatures in the name of "al-Nas-Naas"
with only half face, one eye, one hand, and one leg. Muslims could talk to
these semi-human creatures and they even exchanged poetry!!! Some Muslims
even used to go hunting these semi-human creatures and they used to eat
them!!! These semi-humans could jump faster than a horse and were
ruminant/cud- chewers!!! al-Shahrastani further mentioned that al-
Mutawakkil, the Abbasid Caliph, ordered the scientists of his time to
investigate about these creatures!!! (See al-Milal wan Nihal, by al-
Sharastani)

People at that time did not have the modern tools that would enable them
to discover the falsehood these unrealistic stories and fairy-tales, and
perhaps they would have preferred more extensive and more strange
collections which may have seemed a guarantee of their accuracy, eventhough
they were provided with no reference.

Also by chronological study of the life time of these authors, we can
conclude that ALL of them were long after the era of Sayf Ibn Umar, and
even after al-Tabari. So it is quite possible that they all got the story
of Abdullah Ibn Saba from Sayf. This claim becomes more strong when one
observes that non of them mentioned the source of their reports which might
be due to the fact that Sayf Ibn Umar's scandal was known to every body by
that time and they did not want to discredit their books by mentioning its
source. Moreover there exists NO document available related to Abdullah Ibn
Saba BEFORE Sayf. The scholars or historians who lived before Sayf Ibn Umar
NEVER mentioned the name of Abdullah Ibn Saba in their books. This shows
that if Ibn Saba ever existed he was not anything important for the
historians before Sayf. This is also another reason to believe that what
was propagated around the personality of Abdullah Ibn Saba was initiated
by the mass propaganda of Sayf Ibn Umar al-Tamimi.

Among the Shia who mentioned the name of Abdullah Ibn Saba but without any
information regarding to their source, are the following two historians:

(1) Sa'ad Ibn Abdillah al-Ash'ari al-Qummi (d. 301) in his book "al-Maqalat
wal-Firaq" mentioned a report in which there exists the name of
Abdullah Ibn Saba. But he did not mention any chain of authorities nor
did he mention from whom (or which book) he got the story and what his
source was. Moreover al-Ash'ari al-Qummi has narrated many traditions
from Sunni authorities. al-Najjashi (d. 450) in his "al-Rijal" said
that al-Ash'ari al-Qummi traveled to many places and was well-known
for his relation with Sunni historians and heard many stories from
them. He wrote many weak reports from what he heard, one of which is
a short story about Abdullah Ibn Saba, with no reference.

(2) Hasan Ibn Musa al-Nawbakhti (d. 310) who was a Shia historian who
provided in his book "al-Firaq" a report in which is the name of
Abdullah Ibn Saba. However he never mentioned from whom he got the
report and what his source was.

The above two were the Shia who originally provided some information about
the existence of an accursed man in the name of Abdullah Ibn Saba at the
time of Imam Ali (AS). Notice that all of them reported these information
long after Sayf Ibn Umar and even after al-Tabari wrote his history. Thus
they might perhaps got the information from Sayf or those who quoted from
him such as al-Tabari. This becomes more probable when we see that they
wrote "Some people say so and so..." without giving any documented support
(isnad) or the name of those "some people"!

==========================================
Reports about Abdullah Ibn Saba which
were NOT transmitted through Sayf Ibn Umar
==========================================
We should point out however that there are less than 14 reports available
in the collections of Shia and Sunni which mentions the name of Abdullah
Ibn Saba, and are supplied with the chain of authorities, but in their
chain of authorities the name of Sayf does not exist.

As for the Shia, he was al-Kushshi (or al-Keshshi; also abbreviated as
Kash) (d. 369) who wrote his book "Rijal" in 340 AH. In that book he
mentioned few traditions in which there exists the name of Abdullah Ibn
Saba, from the Imams of Ahlul-Bayt which were quoted below. As we will see,
these traditions give a very different picture than those mentioned by
Sayf. However, it has been proven for Shia scholars that the book of al-Kashshi
has some errors, especially in the names and also few errors in quotations.
His book also contains some weak traditions, and as a result, it is not a
fully reliable source for the Shia. Not to mention that the reports of al-Kushshi
(Kash) are not found in any of the major 4-books of tradition for Shia. (For
a critical evaluation of his errors, please see al-Rijal by al-Tusteri as
well as al-Askari.)

Other Shia scholars who mentioned Abdullah Ibn Saba, have quoted al-Kushshi
or the two historians mentioned above (i.e., al-A'sh'ari al-Qummi and al-
Nawbakhti who did not provide any chain of transmitters or any source for
their report). Among those who quoted al-Kushshi (Kash) are: Shaikh al-Tusi
(d. 460), Ahmad Ibn Tawoos (d. 673), Allama al-Hilli (d. 726), etc.

As for the Sunnis, beside those who quoted from Sayf Ibn Umar whose names
were given earlier, there are few reports from Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani which
provide the very similar information of what al-Kushshi (Kash) provided
(see below).

For these very few Shi'i and Sunni reports, we would like to mention the
following points:

1. The story that these few Sunni and Shia traditions provide, are totally
different than the heavy narrations propagated by Sayf Ibn Umar. These
tradition say that there was a poor man in the name of Abdullah Ibn Saba
appeared AT THE TIME OF government of Imam Ali (AS). He claimed that he was
a Prophet and Ali was God, and as soon as Imam Ali heard the news, he
imprisoned him, and asked him to repent. He did not do so, and thus, Imam
Ali ordered to burn him. The traditions confirm that Imam Ali and his
descendants cursed this man and disassociated themselves from his claim of
deity for Imam Ali (AS). This is all there is about it, provided that
these few traditions are genuine in the first place.

2. These few (less than 14) traditions do NOT exist in any authentic book.
In fact, there is NO mention of Abdullah Ibn Saba in ANY of the six
authentic
Sunni collections (Sihah). Moreover, these few reports were NEVER rated
authentic
by Shia or Sunni scholars, and there is a great possibility that a person
in the name of Abdullah Ibn Saba never existed in the world, and was the
total invention of Sayf Ibn Umar, similar to his invention of 150 imaginary
companions for the Prophet (PBUH&HF) which do not exist in any other
independent report. Granted that Abdullah Ibn Saba ever existed, Sayf has
used his character and attributed many events to him for which there exists
NO SIMILAR REPORT by other Sunni narrators. Not only that, but also Sayf's
reports clearly contradict other reports by the Sunnis, as we will show in
this part and the next parts. Such malicious construction of the events
were easy to detect even by the Sunni scholars.

Now, let me give you some of these few traditions which have NOT been
reported by Sayf, and compare what Sayf attributed to Abdullah Ibn Saba.
As for Shia:

It is attributed to Abu Ja'far (AS) saying:

Abdullah Ibn Saba used to claim being a prophet and claimed that The
Commander of Believers, Ali (AS) is God. Allah is Higher than such
(claim). This news reached to The Commander of Believers (AS), so he
called him and questioned him. But he repeated his claims and said:
"You are Him (i.e., God), and it has been revealed to me that you are
God and I am a prophet." So The Commander of Believers (AS) said: "How
dare you! Satan has made a mockery of you. Repent for what you
said. May your mother weep at your death! Quit (your claim)." But he
refused, so (Imam Ali) imprisoned him and asked him three times to
repent, but he didn't. Thus he burnt him with fire and said: "Satan
had taken him into his whim, he used to come to him and to induce
these (thoughts) in him." (Rijal, by al-Kushshi)


Moreover it is reported that Imam Ali Ibn Husain (AS) said:

"May the curse of Allah be upon those who tell lies about us. I
mentioned Abdullah Ibn Saba and each hair in my body stood up, Allah
cursed him. Ali (AS) was, by Allah, a proper servant of Allah, the
brother of the Messenger of Allah (PBUH&HF). He did not earn the
graciousness/honor from Allah except with the obedience to Allah and
His Messenger. And (similarly) the Messenger of Allah (PBUH&HF) did
not earn the honor from Allah except with his obedience to Allah."
(Rijal, by al-KuShshi)


It is reported that Abu Abdillah (AS) said:

"We are a family of truthfulness. But we are not safe from a liar
telling lies about us to undermine our truth with his lies in front of
people. The Messenger of Allah (PBUH&HF) was the most truthful among
people in what he said (Lahjatan) and the most truthful among all
humanity; and Musaylima used to lie on him. The Commander of Believers
(AS) was the most truthful one among the creation of Allah after the
Messenger of Allah; and the one who used to lie on him, and tried to
undermine his truthfulness and claimed lies about Allah, was Abdullah
Ibn Saba." (Rijal, by al-Kushshi)

Also:

"As he (Aba Abdillah - Ja'far al-Sadiq) was telling his companions in
the subject of Abdullah Ibn Saba and that he claimed in Godness of The
Commander of Believers, Ali Ibn Abi Talib. He said: When he claimed
that in Ali, he asked him to repent and he refused, so he burnt him
with fire." (Rijal, by al-Kushshi)


As for the Sunnis, few reports from Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani which provide the
very similar information of what al-Kushshi (Kash) provided. Ibn Hajar
mentioned:

"Abdullah Ibn Saba was one of the extremist (al-Ghulat),
dualist/seducee/manichaeist (Zindeeq), and misguided, which is
conveyed that Ali burnt him with fire." (Lisan al-Mizan, by Ibn Hajar
al-Asqalani, v3, p289)

Then Ibn Hajar continues:

"Ibn Asakir mentioned in his History that `his origin (Abdullah
Ibn Saba) was from Yemen and that he was a Jew who adopted Islam and
traveled in the cities of Muslims and preached them to disobey their
rulers, to induce evil amongst them, then he entered Damascus for that
purpose.' Then Ibn Asakir mentioned a LONG STORY from the book of
al-Futooh of Sayf Ibn Umar, which does not have correct support/
authorities (isnad)." (Lisan al-Mizan, by Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani,
v3, p289)

Then Ibn Hajar gives a tradition among whose chain of authorities two
individuals are missing. In footnote he says that its has been dropped.
This is the tradition:

"Ali ascended the pulpit and said: What is wrong with him? people
said: He is denying (or lying upon) Allah and His Messenger." (Lisan
al-Mizan, by Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, v3, p289)

In another tradition, Ibn Hajar reported:

"Ali said to Abdullah Ibn Saba: I have been told that there shall be
thirty liars/imposters (who claim prophethood) and your are one of
them" (Lisan al-Mizan, by Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, v3, p290)

He also wrote:

"Ibn Saba and his followers believed in the deity of Ali Ibn Abi
Talib, and certainly Ali burnt them by fire during his rule."
(Lisan al-Mizan, by Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, v3, p290)


These Sunni traditions were not rated authentic either. The total of these
tradition by both Shia and Sunni (reported by other than Sayf), do not
exceed fourteen at most. They will be even less if you remove repetitions.
These few Sunnite and Shi'ite traditions convey that:

1. Abdullah Ibn Saba appeared during the Caliphate of Imam Ali (AS), and
not during the rule of Uthman as Sayf alleged.

2. Abdullah Ibn Saba did not say that Ali is the successor of Prophet
(PBUH&HF) as Sayf claimed. Rather he said Ali (AS) is God.

3. Imam Ali (AS) burnt him along with all other extremists (al-Ghulat).
This is while Sayf does not state such a thing.

4. There is no mention of his existence or his playing a role at the time
of Uthman. There is no mention of his agitation against Uthman which
ended up with assassination of Uthman as Sayf attributed to Abdullah Ibn
Saba.

5. There is no mention of the role of Abdullah Ibn Saba in the battle of
Camel as Sayf attributed to him.

6. These traditions do not indicate that any righteous companions of
Prophet followed Abdullah Ibn Saba. This is while Sayf maliciously
alleged that some of the most faithful pioneers of Islam such as Abu
Darr (RA) and Ammar Yasir (RA) were the students of Abdullah Ibn Saba
during the reign of Uthman.

====================================================
al-Saba'iya and the Multiple personality of Ibn Saba
====================================================
Since pre-Islamic times, the term "Saba'iya" used to indicate those related
to Saba son of Yashjub, son of Ya'rub, son of Qahtan; synonymous to
"Qahtaniya", also used to be known as "Yamaniya" referencing their place of
origin, Yemen.

This group of people (i.e., Saba'iya/Qahtaniya/Yamaniya) in contrast to the
"Adnaniya", "Nazariya" and "Mudhariya", which used to refer to relation to
Mudhar son of Nazar, son of Adnan, from the sons of Ishmael (AS) the son of
Abraham (AS). There were some allies for each tribe who were under
protection of that tribe, and at times they were referred by the name of
that tribe.

In general, Arabs trace their roots to one of these two major tribes. When
the two tribes joined in Medina to create what became the first Islamic
society led by the Prophet(PBUH&HF) (year 0 AH), those related to Qahtan
were named al-Ansar (Helpers) who were the residents of Medina at that
time; and those from Adnan and their allies who traveled to Medina and were
called al-Muhajireen (Immigrants).

The personality Abdullah bin Wahab al-Saba'i, the first leader of al-
Khawarij (the group which opposed Ali (AS) during his rule), was from the
first tribe, the Saba'iya or Qhatan above. As the friction increased
between the two tribes of Adnan and Qahtan in Medina and Kufa, the Adhanies
reportedly used to nickname the Qhantanies by the term Saba'iya. However,
this name-calling was purely tribal and ethnical until the appearance of
the work of Sayf Ibn Umar (of Adnan) in the beginning of the second century
(AH) during the Umayad rule, in Kufa. Sayf took the advantage of this
purely tribal friction and created the mythical Saba'iya religious entity,
with Abdullah Ibn Saba as its leader, altering the meaning of the tribal
reference to Qahtan to that of the ill inference attributed to Abdullah Ibn
Saba's deviant sect.

To come up with the alleged name of the creator of the sect (Abdullah Ibn
Saba), Sayf Ibn Umar either transposed the name Abdullah (bin Wahab) al-
Saba'i, described above, to Abdullah Ibn Saba as appears from reports by al-
Ash'ari, al-Sama'ani and al-Maqrizi; or he created the story and invented
the name on his own altogether. Either way, there was no strong proof for
the existence to Abdullah Ibn Saba during the time of Uthman and Ali,
except as Abdullah bin Wahab al-Saba'i who was the leader of Khawarij, as
mentioned earlier.

One also finds that "Saba'i" tag in persons' names, who belong to the
tribes of Qahtan, ceased especially in Iraq, the origin of the fairy tale,
after that date. This naming convention then continued throughout the
second and third century (AH) in the areas of Yemen, Egypt and Spain, where
a number of Sunni Hadith narrators (including some of the narrators of the
traditions in six Sunni collections) were labeled Saba'i due to their
relation to Saba Ibn Yashjub and not Abdullah Ibn Saba the Jew who created
disturbance per Sayf's allegations.

Later as the books of the Tabari and others spread the fairy tale across
the land, the naming convention of Saba'i was dropped every where. Whence
this mention in the books is used to indicate a following to Abdullah Ibn
Saba alone, even though they never enjoyed existence outside the covers of
those books. The tale evolved over the years to include a multiple of its
creator's persona and beliefs. At the same time, while Abdullah Ibn Saba
was Ibn al-Sawda' to the inventor of the tale (Sayf), you find them
becoming two separate persons around the 5th century, along with the
variation in their news (see "al-Farq" by Abdul-Qahir Ibn Tahir al-
Baghdadi). We can delimit these variations in the fifth century onwards,
in three personalites:

1. Abdullah bin Wahab al-Saba'i, head of the Khawarij, who opposed Imam
Ali (AS).

2. Abdullah Ibn Saba who established the Saba'iya clan/group which
believes in the deity of Ali. He and his followers were burnt with fire
shortly after.

3. Abdullah Ibn Saba, also known as Ibn al-Sawda' to those who reported
from Sayf. He was the creator of the Saba'iya clan/group who believed
in successorship to Ali, who agitated against Uthman and then they
started the war of Jamal (Camel).

The first one existed in reality, and some of the traditions related to
Abdullah Ibn Saba actually refers to this man who was the leader of al-
Khawarij. For the second person, there are few traditions which was
mentioned earlier, yet they were not authenticated by either schools.
The third personage, however, was the imagination of Sayf who perhaps
invented it based on the original story he heard about the first and the
second persons, and then attaching his own story to them.

=================
Ibn Saba and Shia
=================
One should distinguish between those Sunnis scholars who reported the story
of Abdullah Ibn Saba (either from Sayf's mass production (such as al-
Tabari)
or otherwise (such as Ibn Hajar)), and those pseudo-Sunnis who not only
reported it, but also declared that Shia are the followers of this
fictitious character. It has been proven that those pseudo-scholars (i.e.,
the second group) who attributed the foundation of Shia to Abdullah Ibn
Saba were never Sunnis. They were rather the followers of Sunnah of the
House of Abu Sufyan and Marwan. This is clear when one observes their
tendencies to these two families when they discuss their history.

When these pseudo-scholars want to talk about Imami Shia, they use the word
of al-Saba'iyyah to undermine the devotion of the followers of the Members
of the House of Prophet (PBUH&HF) to Islam, in the same way that they
undermine the devotion of a group of Muslims who were killed in the reign
of Abu Bakr since they followed what the Messenger of Allah ordered them in
distributing the Zakat (alms) among their own poor people and thus did not
give it to Abu Bakr. Yet these mercenary scholars, when talking about those
people, they mix them with the issue of Musaylamah who claimed Prophethood,
and attribute these martyrs to him, in order to justify shedding their
bloods, plundering their wealth and taking their women. But Allah will soon
judge between us and them, for He is the best judge.

Such blending of falsehood and truth is not anything new for us when we see
in today's world of technology those who see Islam a barrier for their
illegitimate interest in the world, accuse Muslims of terrorism, in order
to justify shedding their bloods and taking their wealth. To prepare their
agenda, they take advantage of some foolish individual(s) who happened to
be Muslim in ID, and who did a violation out of his/their anger. They call
devoted Muslims terrorists because a pseudo-Sunni-Muslim blew up the World
Trade Center. By that, they follow exactly the footsteps of Sayf Ibn Umar
who in turn learnt this great idea from the devil. Moreover, if they could
not find any foolish act from Muslims to cover the media at any period,
they pay money to emulate it artificially, and attribute it to the Muslims,
much the same way that Sayf Ibn Umar shaped the character of Abdullah Ibn
Saba (and most probably invented him by picking up his name at the middle
of the night). They do this to provide an excuse for their malicious
accusations and their attacks to the whole Muslim world, much the same as
what Sayf and his disciples did to the House of Prophet (PBUH&HF).

According to both Shia and Sunni scholars, Sayf Ibn Umar was one of those
who manipulated the truth and made some fake traditions based on some
partial truth. Believing in the existence of Ibn Saba does not mean
believing in the stories of Sayf who tried to relate him to Shia. The fact
is that people like Abdullah Ibn Saba are useless without a story attached
to their names. Fake stories around such characters are different than
their
actual existence. Such a person might be existent while the stories around
him might not be.


================================
Sayf's Achievements: An Overview
================================
What follows in this article and the next parts of this series is a
comparison between Sayf's stories and others. First I give a general view
of achievements of Sayf Ibn Umar:

Sayf was paid to write some stories as a relief for the contradictions and
disputes happened in the early history of Islam. Those critical disputes
were from year 11 AH (demise of Prophet) till 40 AH. Sayf only focused on
that period (11-40 AH) and left the rest.

The first dispute he has talked about is the dispute related the dispatch
of the army of Usamah and the death of prophet. The Prophet (PBUH&HF),
about four days before his death, ordered all Helpers and all Immigrants
except Ali to leave Medina, and to go Syria in order to fight with the
Romans. But companions disobeyed and complained about the leadership of
Usamah (See Sahih al-Bukhari, Arabic-English version, Traditions
numbers 5.552, 5.744 and 5.745) and delayed in joining the camp, and
finally
returned to Medina, in order to prepare themselves for discussion about
successorship as soon as the Messenger of Allah dies. Sayf tried to forge
the story to show that there was no delay. Sayf said that after the death
of Prophet, when Abu Bakr dispatched the army of Usamah, he said to them:

"March on! May God destroy you by murder and plague!"

Sunni references: History of al-Tabari and History of Ibn Asakir, reported
from Sayf, Events of Year 11 AH

This is while other narrators never mentioned such a stupid thing from Abu
Bakr. Sayf being a heretic, wanted to make a mockery of Islam as a
religion, as well as to please the Caliph of his time.

The next thing he has talked, is about the pavilion of Saqifa. Sayf
reported that:

"Ali was in his house when he was told that Abu Bakr had sat to
receive the oath of allegiance. So He went out immediately wearing his
night shirt only, out of dislike that he might be late. Then He gave
the oath of allegiance and sat with Abu Bakr, and then sent for his
clothes. When (the clothes) were brought to him, he put them and
stayed in (Abu Bakr's) assembly."

Sunni reference: History of al-Tabari, English version, v9, pp 195-196
reported from Sayf Ibn Umar.


This ridiculous report is in clear contradiction with Sahih al-Bukhari
where it has been mentioned that Imam Ali did NOT give the oath to Abu Bakr
for the first six month of his reign (Sahih al- Bukhari, Arabic-English
version, Tradition 5.546).

Sayf has told seven stories about Saqifa, and has used three imaginary
characters as the companions of prophet who played his scenarios in Saqifa,
whose names are not mentioned anywhere else except in the work of those who
reported from Sayf himself. He named them: Qa'qa, Mubashshir, and Sakhr.

His main legend is the malicious stories attributed to Abdullah Ibn Saba,
by which he had tried to solved the following puzzles:

-Creation of Shia
-Problem of exile of Abu Dhar
-Murder of Uthman
-The War of Jamal (Camel)

Sayf has also maliciously tried to link the forged stories of Abdullah Ibn
Saba to the Shia Imam Ali (AS) which shows he did not know too much about
Shia, otherwise he would not had attributed some of the beliefs which are
not held by the followers of the members of the house of Prophet.

Insha Allah, in the next parts, I will analyze the fictitious story of
Abdullah Ibn Saba in comparison with the other Sunni reports.

I should mention that al-Askari had a very distinguished achievement. He
proved beyond any doubt, in his book named "Abdullah Ibn Saba and Other
Myths", that Ibn Saba _with_ such achievements never existed, and that he
was invented by Sayf Ibn Umar. If there was any Abdullah Ibn Saba at that
time, his story was much different than what Sayf manipulated.

Holy Quran Discuss Universe

Quran has revealed absolute facts about Universe in its true perspective some 1400 years ago. This can be a fruit of thought for us.

Surrah Al-Mulk - THE SOVEREIGNTY - No. 67- Verse:3-4

(If you want to see how wonderfully this programme functions and how His sovereignty and protection work in absolute harmony, then take a look at the gigantic machinery of the universe.) He has made the various heavenly bodies in outer space in a way that they can maintain complete conformity (and not collide) with each other.Have a good look all around. You will not find any defect or disproportions in the creation of 'Ar-Rahman'. Not once. But look again and again and reflect deeply over it. You will not see any flaws or fissures anywhere. Nothing will be out of sequence or incomplete. verse 3


Turn your vision again towards the vastness of the universe. Do so yet again; and everytime your gaze will fall back upon you, dazzled and tired. (This is the scenario of Our universe which is working according to Our Laws. If the Divine System is introduced in your own society, you too will find such harmony, instead of chaos and disorder.) verse 4


Surrah An-Naml - THE ANT - No. 27- Verse:93

And tell them, "(You can go on opposing it to any extent, but the Divine System will be established.) This will be a living example for praise and appreciation of God. It will bring its clear signs before you in such a way that you will yourself recognize (that this is the same society, about which you were being told). (On the other hand the destruction that will befall you will be the result of your own doing, because) The Divine Law of Mukafat, knows very well all your deeds."
verse 93


Surrah Nûh - NUH - No. 71- Verse:15 &16 - 19 & 20

(You should observe the balance and harmony that is created when the Divine Laws are followed!) Do you not see how Allah Almighty the Almighty has created various celestial bodies in outer space and how they move in harmony and discipline. They remain firm in their orbits inspite of the tremendous speed with which they move. This is because they do not exist individually. The pull of one becomes a source of stability for the other and in this way the entire celestial system can continue functioning without a clash. On the contrary, visualize your own life and see how your individual interests clash with each other. verse 15


And then how (among these bodies) He has positioned the moon amongst them, as a (reflected) light and the sun as a (radiant) lamp. (But look how dark your life is. Should you also choose to follow the Divine Law, then not only would it brighten your path but you will also become a beacon for others.) verse 16


(He created you on this earth and at the same time, produced a variety of subsistence for you. Firstly) Just think of the earth which, inspite of it being spherical, He made it into a wide expanse so that you may go out wherever you like on its open and spacious paths. verse 19-20



Surrah An-Naba'-THE ANNOUNCEMENT-Verse:12-13 &17

And over your head, in the vast open space, We have distributed celestial bodies which are firm and stable. verse 12


Amongst these look at the brightly burning lamp (the Sun) and see how We have made it a simultaneous source of light and heat. verse 13


(When you see how wonderfully Our Laws operate in the outer universe, you should understand that Our Law of Mukafat is similarly functioning in your world. Therefore) It is absolutely certain that the Revolution that will sift falsehood from truth, is bound to happen. Consider it to be the day for harvesting the crop which your deeds had sown. Just like how the time for the ripening of a crop is certain and determined, the time of this Revolution is also fixed. It will occur when its predestined time comes. verse 17



Surrah Al-Furqân -THE STANDARD - No. 25- Verse:61-62

(Now who should tell them that) The God who in order to provide you natural light has in some parts in the sky placed constellations of heavenly bodies which look like chandeliers of shining stars; and at another place put a candle in the shape of sun; and the light-reflecting moon at yet another; is the same God who has provided Wahi for the guidance of human intellect and wisdom. verse 61


And that God has made arrangements in the outer universe that night and day succeed each other, and that light continues to follow darkness. (Similarly, in the human world, He has made arrangements that no nation would remain in darkness forever and that the light of Wahi should reach everyone.) Whoever wants to follow the right path in the light of Wahi should be able to do so and thus receive full reward for his efforts and deeds. verse 62


Surrah Yâ­Sîn - YA-SEEN - No. 36- Verse:38-40 & 45

Also ponder how the sun is moving unhampered in its course. All this is happening according to measures determined and set by the One Who is Almighty and all-knowing. All His Laws are based on knowledge. verse 38


And see the moon for which We have determined various stages. (It appears like a beautiful crescent and then gradually becomes the full moon, after which it starts waning till it becomes like an old date stalk, dried up and curved.) verse 39


All these huge heavenly bodies are not static in space, but are in continuous motion. However, all their movements are according to a discipline based on set measures and calculations. It can never happen that the sun, by speeding up, can overtake the moon; or that the night lingers on beyond the point where the day had to start (meaning that the sun rises little after the appointed time). No, this never happens. Each and every one of them keeps moving through space, in its own orbit, according to the speed and course set for it (21:33). verse 40


(Just as there are unchangeable Laws for things in the universe, laws are also fixed for mankind. But contrary to other things in the universe, man has been given the freedom of choice. He could, out of his free will, either obey or go against them.)Keeping this discretion in mind, they are advised to lead their lives according to the Divine Laws, so that their present life would become better; and also to adopt the same attitude for the future. In this way both your physical life as well as your own ‘self’would develop nicely. This is what is meant by the pleasantries of the present and the future.
verse 45


Surrah Ibrahîm - ABRAHAM - No. 14 - Verse:32-34

(32-34) In this way that Niz’am-e-Rabubiyyat shall be established in the human world the means for which have already been provided by Allah Almighty in the outer universe. He has created the heavens and the earth and poured rain from the skies whereby grow fruits for your subsistence. He has subjected to you the ships which sail in the seas according to His Laws and also the rivers. Also subjected to you are the sun and the moon which move in their constant courses as well as the day and the night. He has provided you with all that was necessary for your development. In short, Allah’s bounties are so numerous that it is not possible to count them.
But those who do not follow Allah’s Laws hide these bounties from others and also seize what others have. verse 32-34



Surrah Yûnus - JONAH - No. 10 - Verse: 5 & 7-10

He has designed the sun as shining glow and the moon which reflects light and appointed stages for the moon so that you may reckon time and mark the number of years. Allah Almighty has not created this otherwise than in accordance with truth (to fulfil a definite purpose according to His plans). He explains His laws clearly to a people of understanding.
verse 5


(7-10) Human beings may be divided into three categories. (1) The first two are those who have no knowledge of the universality of the laws of Allah, and (2) those who acquire this knowledge and conquer the forces of nature but believe that life is only of this world and are content with this life. The ultimate destination of those who belong to these two categories is Jahannam. The third category comprises people who believe in Allah Almighty and the life hereafter, conquer the forces of nature and utilize them for the benefit of mankind in accordance with eternal values prescribed by Allah. These people will lead the blissful life of Jannat wherein streams flow. Their lives will be a living testimony that Allah Almighty has not created the universe in vain or for destructive purposes (3/189-191). In their society each person will desire the welfare of all others. This is how they will proclaim the Hamd of Allah Almighty - the Nourisher of all humanity (1/1). verse 7-10


Surrah Ash-Shams - THE SUN - No. 91 - Verse:1-2 & 9

Consider the sun and its radiant brilliance. verse 1


The moon and its pursuit of the sun to receive its light. verse 2


(The total programme functioning in the cosmic world and human self stand testimony to the fact that) Whosoever nurtured and developed his self, did indeed attain success. verse 9


Surrah Al-Baqarah - THE COW - No.2 - Verse:116 - 117

116-117 Ask the Christians: “How can you justify your belief in Allah Almighty when you conceive Him as having a son. You have brought Allah Almighty to the level of human beings who stand in need of progeny as helpers. Nay, He is far above this concept. His is, all that is in the heavens and the earth and everything therein devoutly follows His Laws. Allah Almighty is Omnipotent and has brought such a colossal universe into existence from nothingness. His manner of creation is that when He decides to create a particular thing, the process of its coming into existence begins at once.” The possessor of such powers has no requirement for a son.
verse 116-117



Surrah Al-An'âm - THE CATTLE - No.6 - Verse:14 - 15

14-15) Ask them: “Do you want that I should take as protector and helper anyone other than Allah Almighty - Allah Almighty who has brought the entire universe into being from nothingness; who provides nourishment to all but Himself needs none.” Say: “I have been commanded to be the first of those who surrender before Allah’s laws and not to be one of the Mushrikeen. Tell them: “If I revolted against Allah’s laws, I too would be fearful of chastisement on the Day of Reckoning” (10/15, 39/13).
verse 14-15


Surrah Fussilat - EXPLAINED IN DETAIL - No.41 - Verse:11-12

In this way the Almighty turned towards the celestial bodies. At that stage they were all in the form of gas (nebula). We told them, "You must obey Our Laws willingly or perforce." They replied, "Why perforce? We shall obey these Laws most willingly.1" (3:82; 13:15)
verse 11


(As has been said above ~ in 41:9 ~ that in two stages the Almighty created celestial bodies in the form they were designed to be; and He imparted to them the physical law which they were bound to follow through Wahi (i.e. the Laws they had to follow were integrated within them). The visible space (the sky) has been adorned with scattered bodies that appear to you like shining lamps. He has made them safe and secure so that they neither clash with each other nor fall down on you. All this has been decided with measures set by that God, Who is all-powerful, all-knowing. verse 12


Surrah Al-Anbiyâ -THE PROPHETS-No.21-Verse:30 -31 & 33

(Out of their sheer ignorance some people take natural phenomena as deities or divinities. This is despite the fact the entire continuum of the universe has been created by Allah Almighty and remains fervently in action according to His given programme. At present various phenomena in the universe appear to them as functioning separately from one another, but) Do they not seriously understand that in the initial stages of creation all of them were one mass which We then parted, so that the various celestial bodies started floating in their own orbits (21:33; 36:40). (Take for example the planet earth. In its initial stages it separated from the original mass, just like a stone thrown out from a catapult ~ 79:30.) Later (when the earth became ready to bear or produce living things) We started life from water. (All living things are created from a mixture of water ~ 24:45. And over this fountain of life Allah Almighty has kept His own control ~ 11:7.)It is strange that even after all this explanation, they do not believe that only Allah Almighty wields absolute sovereignty over everything in the universe. verse 30


And We have made earth such that as it continuously revolves, people live on it undisturbed (16:15). Furthermore on it we made firm mountains (which function like water reservoirs and hold minerals for your use); and valleys and ravines which are used as passageways.
verse 31


It is Allah Almighty Who has made night and day follow each other (due to the revolution of the earth) and created the sun and the moon, each one floating through space in its own orbit. verse 33



Surrah Al-A'râf - THE HEIGHTS - No.7 - Verse:54

O Messenger! tell them that your Rabb is the One who has created the universe in six aeons and kept His control over it (10/3). In accordance with His laws, the planets revolve in such a way that day and night succeed each other in quick succession. The sun, moon and other stars also obey His orders. Take note! The domains of Khalq and Amr both belong to Allah, Who is the source of all blessings and Rabb of all the worlds. verse 54


Surrah Ash-Shûra - COUNCIL- No.42 - Verse:29

(His Laws of nature are not confined to earth. They encompass the whole universe. That is why) Among His signs are the very creation of earth and other celestial bodies, as well as other living creatures which He has spread over them. At present these habitations are separated from one another but when He so wishes, Allah Almighty The Almighty has the power to bring them together. (It is possible that creatures living on different planets can establish contact and meet with each other ~ 116:49.) verse 29

Surrah Al-Anbiyâ - THE PROPHETS - No.21 - Verse:16

(They thought that) We have created this heaven and earth and all that is in between (the universe) just for fun; an idle play. No, not at all! We have created all this for a great purpose. And the purpose is that no work would be done without producing a result, whether it involves a person or a nation. All actions will continue producing very accurate results (11:71; 45:22 ; 53:31). verse 16


Surrah Al-Jâthiya - CROUCHING - No.45 - Verse:22

They do not know that Allah Almighty has created the universe for a purpose (and not as a useless and destructive thing. The purpose is that) Every human being is fully recompensed for what he has done; and no harm is done to anyone. verse 22


Surrah Yâ­Sîn - YA-SEEN - No.36 - Verse:38-40

Also ponder how the sun is moving unhampered in its course. All this is happening according to measures determined and set by the One Who is Almighty and all-knowing. All His Laws are based on knowledge. verse 38


And see the moon for which We have determined various stages. (It appears like a beautiful crescent and then gradually becomes the full moon, after which it starts waning till it becomes like an old date stalk, dried up and curved.) verse 39


All these huge heavenly bodies are not static in space, but are in continuous motion. However, all their movements are according to a discipline based on set measures and calculations. It can never happen that the sun, by speeding up, can overtake the moon; or that the night lingers on beyond the point where the day had to start (meaning that the sun rises little after the appointed time). No, this never happens. Each and every one of them keeps moving through space, in its own orbit, according to the speed and course set for it (21:33). verse 40

Surrah Al-Anbiyâ - THE PROPHETS - No.21 - Verse:32-33

And over the earth We created an atmosphere which is safe in itself and which keeps the inhabitants protected[2] (from the destruction caused by meteors falling from above). These are all open visible signs (pointing to the reality that all physical things are working under the Divine Laws; and that no one else has any power or authority over them). Inspite of this, people insist on turning away from these facts.
verse 32


It is Allah Almighty Who has made night and day follow each other (due to the revolution of the earth) and created the sun and the moon, each one floating through space in its own orbit. verse 33


Surrah Az-Zumar - THE TROOPS - No.39 - Verse:5

He created the heavens and the earth in true and perfect proportions, to bring out positive and constrictive results. He made the earth revolve in such a manner that the night blankets the day and the day covers the night. He has made the sun and the moon subservient to His Laws. Each heavenly body follows a set course, up to a limited time. All this is happening according to the Laws of Allah, Who has absolute control and supremacy and has the provisions for protecting everything. (So why should He have a son?) verse 5


Surrah Luqmân - LUQMAN - No.31 - Verse:29

Just as your limited vision sees individuals separately and not humanity at large, you see every event on its own and not as a single, indivisible whole. For instance, you see night as one unit and day as another; but you do not reflect on how Allah's Law (of rotation) merges the night into day and the day into night. (Thus day and night become one indivisible unit.) Like the rotation of day and night, He has also subjected the sun and the moon to His Laws, each running its course for a set term (13:2). verse 29


Surrah ’Ale-Imran-THE FAMILY OF IMRAN-Verse:189-190

In the creation of the earth and the heavens and the alternation of night and day, there are signs for those gifted with understanding. These people keep Allah’s Laws in mind whilst standing, sitting or reclining. After reflecting upon the creation of the heavens and the earth, they cry out, “O our Sustainer! You have not created this Universe in vain or for destructive purposes. Your Schemes of things are much above flaw. Grant us the insight to understand the functioning of these things, so that we benefit from them and remain safe from suffering.”
verse 189-190


Surrah Ar-Rahmân - THE BENEFICENT - No.55 - Verse: 5 - 7

And for human guidance there are unchangeable laws in the Quran; just as there are laws in force in outer universe according to which (for example) the sun and the moon follow their determined orbits. verse 5


And on earth, whether they are large trees or small bushes or shrubs, everything is subjected to His Laws. verse 6


Moreover the Divine Law according to which He maintains such precise balance, mutual discipline and order amongst all heavenly bodies placed in the huge outer space was set in way that it never changes. verse 7


Surrah Az-Zâriyât -THE WINNOWING WINDS -No.51-Verse:4 7

(This is Our Law of Mukafat, under which earlier communities came to such an end. Everything in this universe is busy making the Divine Law effective. That is why) With Our power and strength We have built the universe that is spread out in the cosmos. The expanse of Our power has no boundaries. verse 47

SYMMETRY: The Thread of Reality

Symmetry may seem to be just an unimportant repetition of structure, but its influence on the scientific vision of the universe is profound. Albert Einstein based all of his revolutionary theories of physics on the principle that the universe is symmetrical-that the laws of physics are the same at each point of space and each instant of time. Because the laws of physics describe how events occurring at one place and time influence events at other places and times, this simple requirement binds the universe together into a coherent whole. Paradoxically, as Einstein discovered, it implies that we cannot sensibly talk of absolute space and time. What is observed depends upon who observes it-in ways that are governed by those same underlying symmetry principles.


It is easy to describe particular kinds of symmetry-for example, an object has reflectional symmetry if it looks the same when viewed in a mirror, and it has rotational symmetry if it looks the same when rotated. Respective examples are the external shape of the human body, and the ripples that form on a pond when you throw a stone into it. But what is symmetry itself? The best answer that we yet have is a mathematical one: Symmetry is "invariance under transformations." A transformation is a method of changing something, a rule for moving it or otherwise altering its structure. Invariance is a simpler concept; it just means that the end result looks the same as the starting point.


Rotation through some chosen angle is a transformation, and so is reflection in some chosen mirror, so these special examples of symmetry fit neatly into the general formulation. A pattern of square tiles has yet another type of symmetry. If the pattern is moved sideways (a transformation) through a distance that is a whole-number multiple of the width of a tile, then the result looks the same (is invariant). In general, the range of possible symmetry transformations is enormous, and therefore, so is the range of possible symmetrical patterns.


Over the last one hundred and fifty years, mathematicians and physicists have invented a deep and powerful "calculus of symmetry." It is known as group theory, because it deals not just with single transformations, but with whole collections of them-"groups." By applying this theory, they have been able to prove striking general facts-for example, that there are precisely seventeen different symmetry types of wallpaper pattern [Ref : Video: BB17 OU Just17] (that is, repeating patterns that fill a plane), and precisely two hundred and thirty different types of crystal symmetry. And they have also begun to use group theory to understand how the symmetries of the universe affect how nature behaves.


Throughout the natural world, we see intriguing symmetrical patterns: the spiral sweep of a snail's shell; the neatly arranged petals of a flower; the gleaming crescent of a new moon. The same patterns occur in many different settings. The spiral form of a shell recurs in the whirlpool of a hurricane and the stately rotation of a galaxy; raindrops and stars are spherical; and hamsters, herons, horses, and humans are bilaterally symmetrical.
Symmetries arise on every conceivable scale, from the innermost components of the atom to the entire universe. The four fundamental forces of nature (gravity, electromagnetism, and the strong and weak nuclear forces) are now thought to be different aspects of a single unified force in a more symmetrical, high-energy universe. The "ripples at the edge of time"-irregularities in the cosmic background radiation -recently observed by the COBE (Cosmic Background Explorer) satellite help to explain how an initially symmetrical big bang can create the structured universe in which we now find ourselves.

Symmetrical structures on the microscopic level are implicated in living processes. Deep within each living cell there is a structure known as the centrosome, which plays an important role in organising cell division. Inside the centrosome are two centrioles, positioned at right angles to each other. Each centriole is cylindrical, made from twenty-seven tiny tubes (microtubules) fused together along their lengths in threes, and arranged with perfect ninefold symmetry. The microtubules themselves also have an astonishing degree of symmetry; they are hollow tubes made from a perfect regular checkerboard pattern of units that contain two distinct proteins. So even at the heart of organic life we find the perfect mathematical regularities of symmetry.


There is another important aspect of symmetry.Symmetrical objects are made of innumerable copies of identical pieces, so symmetry is intimately bound up with replication. Symmetries occur in the organic world because life is a self- replicating phenomenon. The symmetries of the inorganic world have a similarly "mass produced" origin. In particular, the laws of physics are the same in all places and at all times. Moreover, if you could instantly permute all the electrons in the universe-swapping all the electrons in your brain with randomly chosen electrons in a distant star, say-it would make no difference at all. All electrons are identical, so physics is symmetrical under the interchange of electrons. The same goes for all the other fundamental particles. It is not at all clear why we live in a mass-produced universe, but it is clear that we do, and that this produces an enormous number of potential symmetries. Perhaps, as Richard Feynman once suggested, all electrons are alike because all electrons are the self-same particle, whizzing backward and forward through time. (This strange idea came to him through his invention of "Feynman diagrams"-pictures of the motions of particles in space and time. Complex interactions of many electrons and their antiparticles often form a single zigzag curve in space-time, so they can be explained in terms of a single particle moving alternately forward and backward in time. When an electron moves backward in time, it turns into its antiparticle.) Or perhaps a version of the anthropic principle is in operation: Replicating creatures (especially creatures whose own internal organisation requires stable patterns of behaviour and structure) can arise only in mass- produced universes.


How do nature's symmetrical patterns arise? They can be explained as imperfect or incomplete traces of the symmetries of the laws of physics. Potentially, the universe has an enormous amount of symmetry-its laws are invariant under all motions of space and time and all interchanges of identical particles-but in practice, an effect known as "symmetry breaking" prevents the full range of symmetries from being realised simultaneously. For example, think of a crystal, made from a huge number of identical atoms. The laws of physics look the same if you swap the atoms around or move them through space and time. The most symmetrical configuration would be one for which all of the atoms are in the same place, but this is not physically realisable, because atoms cannot overlap. So some of the symmetry is "broken," or removed, by changing the configuration into one in which the atoms are displaced just enough to allow them to stay separate. The mathematical point is that the physically unrealisable state has a huge amount of symmetry, not all of which need be broken to separate out the atoms. So it is not surprising that some of that symmetry is still present in the state that actually occurs. This is where the symmetry of a crystal lattice comes from: the huge but unseen symmetries of the potential, broken by the requirements of the actual.


This insight has far-reaching consequences. It implies that when studying a scientific problem, we must consider not only what does happen, but what might have happened instead. It may seem perverse to increase the range of problems by thinking about things that don't happen, but situating the actual event inside a cloud of potential events has two advantages. First, we can then ask the question "Why does this particular behaviour occur?"-because implicitly, this question also asks why the remaining possibilities did not, and that means we have to think about all the possibilities that don't occur as well as the ones that do. For instance, we can't explain why pigs don't have wings without implicitly thinking about what would happen if they did. Second, the set of potential events may possess extra structure-such as symmetry-that is not visible in the lone state that is actually observed. For example, we might ask why the surface of a pond is flat (in the absence of wind or currents). We will not find the answer by studying flat ponds alone. Instead, we must disturb the surface of the pond, exploring the space of all potential ponds, to see what drives the surface back to flatness. In that way, we will discover that nonflat surfaces have more energy, and that frictional forces slowly dissipate the excess, driving the pond back to its minimal energy configuration, which is flat. As it happens, a flat surface has a lot of symmetry, and this, too, can best be explained by thinking about the "space" of all possible surfaces.



This, to me, is the deepest message of symmetry. Symmetry, by its very definition, is about what would happen to the universe if it were changed-transformed. Suppose every electron in your head were to be swapped with one in the burning core of the star Sirius. Suppose pigs had wings. Suppose the surfaces of ponds were shaped like Henry Moore sculptures. Nobody intends to perform actual experiments, but just thinking about the possibilities reveals fundamental aspects of the natural world. So the prosaic observation that there are patterns in the universe forces us to view reality as just one possible state of the universe from among an infinite range of potential states-a slender thread of the actual winding through the space of the potential.
BY-:Ian S.

Large Hadron Collider

Large Hadron Collider
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"LHC" redirects here. For other uses, see LHC (disambiguation).
This article documents a current event. Information may change rapidly as the event progresses.

Coordinates: 46°14′N 06°03′E / 46.233, 6.05
Large Hadron Collider
(LHC)
The accelerator chain of the Large Hadron Collider
LHC experiments
ATLAS A Toroidal LHC ApparatuS
CMS Compact Muon Solenoid
LHCb LHC-beauty
ALICE A Large Ion Collider Experiment
TOTEM Total Cross Section, Elastic Scattering and Diffraction Dissociation
LHCf LHC-forward
LHC preaccelerators
p and Pb Linear accelerators for protons (Linac 2) and Lead (Linac 3)
(not marked) Proton Synchrotron Booster
PS Proton Synchrotron
SPS Super Proton Synchrotron
Hadron Colliders
Intersecting Storage Rings CERN, 1971–1984
Super Proton Synchrotron CERN, 1981–1984
ISABELLE BNL, cancelled in 1983
Tevatron Fermilab, 1987–2009
Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider BNL, operational since 2000
Superconducting Super Collider Cancelled in 1993
Large Hadron Collider CERN, 2008–
Very Large Hadron Collider Theoretical

Map of the Large Hadron Collider at CERNThe Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator complex, intended to collide opposing beams of protons with very high kinetic energy. Its main purpose is to explore the validity and limitations of the Standard Model, the current theoretical picture for particle physics. It is theorized that the collider will confirm the existence of the Higgs boson, the observation of which could confirm the predictions and missing links in the Standard Model, and could explain how other elementary particles acquire properties such as mass.

The LHC was built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), and lies underneath the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva, Switzerland. It is funded by and built in collaboration with over eight thousand physicists from over eighty-five countries as well as hundreds of universities and laboratories. The LHC is already operational and is presently in the process of being prepared for collisions. The first beams were circulated through the collider on 10 September 2008, and the first high-energy collisions are planned to take place after the LHC is officially unveiled on 21 October.

Although a few individuals have questioned the safety of the planned experiments in the media and through the courts, the consensus in the scientific community is that there is no conceivable threat from the LHC particle collisions.

Contents [hide]
1 Design
1.1 Detectors
2 Purpose
2.1 Research
2.2 As an ion collider
3 Test timeline
3.1 September 2008
3.2 October 2008
4 Proposed upgrade
5 Cost
6 Computing resources
7 Safety issues
7.1 Safety of particle collisions
7.2 Operational safety
7.3 Construction accidents and delays
8 In popular culture
9 References
10 External links



Design
The LHC is the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator.[1] The collider is contained in a circular tunnel, with a circumference of 27 kilometres (17 mi), at a depth ranging from 50 to 175 metres underground.[2] The 3.8-metre (150 in.) diameter, concrete-lined tunnel, constructed between 1983 and 1988, was formerly used to house the Large Electron-Positron Collider.[3] It crosses the border between Switzerland and France at four points, but most of it is in France. Surface buildings hold ancillary equipment such as compressors, ventilation equipment, control electronics and refrigeration plants.

The collider tunnel contains two adjacent parallel beam pipes that intersect at four points, each containing a proton beam, which travel in opposite directions around the ring. Some 1,232 dipole magnets keep the beams on their circular path, while an additional 392 quadrupole magnets are used to keep the beams focused, in order to maximize the chances of interaction between the particles in the four intersection points, where the two beams will cross. In total, over 1,600 superconducting magnets are installed, with most weighing over 27 tonnes. Approximately 96 tonnes of liquid helium is needed to keep the magnets at their operating temperature of 1.9 K, making the LHC the largest cryogenic facility in the world at liquid helium temperature.[4]


Superconducting quadrupole electromagnets are used to direct the beams to four intersection points, where interactions between protons will take place.Once or twice a day, as the protons are accelerated from 450 GeV to 7 TeV, the field of the superconducting dipole magnets will be increased from 0.54 to 8.3 T. The protons will each have an energy of 7 TeV, giving a total collision energy of 14 TeV (2.2 μJ). At this energy the protons have a Lorentz factor of about 7,500 and move at about 99.999999% of light speed. It will take less than 90 microseconds for a proton to travel once around the main ring – a speed of about 11,000 revolutions per second. Rather than continuous beams, the protons will be bunched together, into 2,808 bunches, so that interactions between the two beams will take place at discrete intervals never shorter than 25 ns apart. When the collider is first commissioned, it will be operated with fewer bunches, to give a bunch crossing interval of 75 ns. The number of bunches will later be increased to give a final bunch crossing interval of 25 ns.[5]

Prior to being injected into the main accelerator, the particles are prepared by a series of systems that successively increase their energy. The first system is the linear particle accelerator Linac 2 generating 50 MeV protons, which feeds the Proton Synchrotron Booster. There the protons are accelerated to 1.4 GeV and injected into the Proton Synchrotron (PS), where they are accelerated to 26 GeV. Finally the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) is used to further increase their energy to 450 GeV before they are at last injected (over a period of 20 minutes) into the main ring. Here the proton bunches are accumulated, accelerated (over a period of 20 minutes) to their peak 7 TeV energy, and finally stored for 10 to 24 hours while collisions occur at the four intersection points.[6]

The LHC will also be used to collide lead (Pb) heavy ions with a collision energy of 1,150 TeV. The Pb ions will be first accelerated by the linear accelerator Linac 3, and the Low-Energy Injector Ring will be used as an ion storage and cooler unit. The ions then will be further accelerated by the PS and SPS before being injected into LHC ring, where they will reach an energy of 2.76 TeV per nucleon.


Detectors

The Large Hadron Collider's (LHC) CMS detectors being installed.Six detectors are being constructed at the LHC, located underground in large caverns excavated at the LHC's intersection points. Two of them, the ATLAS experiment and the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS), are large, general purpose particle detectors.[1] "A Large Ion Collider Experiment" (ALICE) is designed to study the properties of quark-gluon plasma from the debris of heavy-ion collisions. The other three, LHCb, TOTEM, and LHCf, are smaller and more specialized. The BBC's summary of the detectors is:[7]

ATLAS – one of two so-called general purpose detectors. Atlas will be used to look for signs of new physics, including the origins of mass and extra dimensions.

CMS – the other general purpose detector will, like ATLAS, hunt for the Higgs boson and look for clues to the nature of dark matter.

ALICE – will study a "liquid" form of matter called quark-gluon plasma that existed shortly after the Big Bang.

LHCb – equal amounts of matter and antimatter were created in the Big Bang. LHCb will try to investigate what happened to the "missing" anti-matter.


Purpose

A Feynman diagram of one way the Higgs boson may be produced at the LHC. Here, two quarks each emit a W or Z boson, which combine to make a neutral Higgs.
A simulated event in the CMS detector, featuring the appearance of the Higgs boson.When activated, it is theorized that the collider will produce the elusive Higgs boson. The verification of the existence of the Higgs boson would be a significant step in the search for a Grand Unified Theory, which seeks to unify three of the four known fundamental forces: electromagnetism, the strong nuclear force and the weak nuclear force, leaving out only gravity. The Higgs boson may also help to explain why gravitation is so weak compared with the other three forces. In addition to the Higgs boson, other theorized particles, models and states might be produced, and for some searches are planned, including supersymmetric particles,[8] compositeness (technicolor),[9] extra dimensions,[10] strangelets,[11] micro black holes and magnetic monopoles.[12][13]


Research
When in operation, about seven thousand scientists from eighty countries will have access to the LHC. Physicists hope to use the collider to test various grand unified theories and enhance their ability to answer the following questions:

Is the popular Higgs mechanism for generating elementary particle masses in the Standard Model realised in nature? If so, how many Higgs bosons are there, and what are their masses?[14]
Will the more precise measurements of the masses of the quarks continue to be mutually consistent within the Standard Model?
Do particles have supersymmetric ("SUSY") partners?[1]
Why are there apparent violations of the symmetry between matter and antimatter?[1] See also CP-violation.
Are there extra dimensions, as predicted by various models inspired by string theory, and can we "see" them?
What is the nature of dark matter and dark energy?[1]
Why is gravity so many orders of magnitude weaker than the other three fundamental forces?
Renowned British astrophysicist Stephen Hawking has bet against the mega-experiment finding the elusive Higgs particle. "I think it will be much more exciting if we don't find the Higgs. That will show something is wrong, and we need to think again. I have a bet of $100 that we won't find the Higgs," Hawking speculated, but the experiment could discover superpartners, particles that would be supersymmetric partners to particles already known. "Their existence would be a key confirmation of string theory, and they could make up the mysterious dark matter that holds galaxies together. Whatever the LHC finds, or fails to find, the results will tell us a lot about the structure of the universe," he said.[15]


As an ion collider
The LHC physics program is mainly based on proton–proton collisions. However, shorter running periods, typically one month per year, with heavy-ion collisions are included in the programme. While lighter ions are considered as well, the baseline scheme deals with lead ions.[16] This will allow an advancement in the experimental programme currently in progress at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC).


Test timeline

September 2008
The first beam was circulated through the collider on the morning of 10 September 2008.[17] CERN successfully fired the protons around the tunnel in stages, three kilometres at a time. The particles were fired in a clockwise direction into the accelerator and successfully steered around it at 10:28 am local time.[18] The LHC successfully completed its first major test: after a series of trial runs, two white dots flashed on a computer screen showing the protons traveled the full length of the collider. It took less than one hour to guide the stream of particles around its inaugural circuit.[19] CERN next successfully sent a beam of protons in a counterclockwise direction at 14:59.


October 2008
The first high-energy collisions are planned to take place after the LHC is officially unveiled on 21 October 2008.[20]


Proposed upgrade

CMS detector for LHCMain article: Super Large Hadron Collider
After some years of running, any particle physics experiment typically begins to suffer from diminishing returns; each additional year of operation discovers less than the year before. The way around the diminishing returns is to upgrade the experiment, either in energy or in luminosity. A luminosity upgrade of the LHC, called the Super LHC, has been proposed,[21] to be made after ten years of LHC operation. The optimal path for the LHC luminosity upgrade includes an increase in the beam current (i.e., the number of protons in the beams) and the modification of the two high-luminosity interaction regions, ATLAS and CMS. To achieve these increases, the energy of the beams at the point that they are injected into the (Super) LHC should also be increased to 1 TeV. This will require an upgrade of the full pre-injector system, the needed changes in the Super Proton Synchrotron being the most expensive.


Cost
The total cost of the project is anticipated to be €3.2–6.4 billion.[1] The construction of LHC was approved in 1995 with a budget of 2.6 billion Swiss francs (€1.6 billion), with another 210 million francs (€140 million) towards the cost of the experiments. However, cost over-runs, estimated in a major review in 2001 at around 480 million francs (€300 million) for the accelerator, and 50 million francs (€30 million) for the experiments, along with a reduction in CERN's budget, pushed the completion date from 2005 to April 2007.[22] The superconducting magnets were responsible for 180 million francs (€120 million) of the cost increase. There were also engineering difficulties encountered while building the underground cavern for the Compact Muon Solenoid, in part due to faulty parts loaned to CERN by fellow laboratories Argonne National Laboratory and Fermilab.[23]

David King, the former Chief Scientific Officer for the United Kingdom, has criticised the LHC for taking a higher priority for funds than solving the Earth's major challenges; principally climate change, but also population growth and poverty in Africa.[24]


Computing resources
The LHC Computing Grid is being constructed to handle the massive amounts of data produced by the Large Hadron Collider. It incorporates both private fiber optic cable links and existing high-speed portions of the public Internet, enabling data transfer from CERN to academic institutions around the world.

The distributed computing project LHC@home was started to support the construction and calibration of the LHC. The project uses the BOINC platform to simulate how particles will travel in the tunnel. With this information, the scientists will be able to determine how the magnets should be calibrated to gain the most stable "orbit" of the beams in the ring.


Safety issues

Safety of particle collisions
Main article: Safety of the Large Hadron Collider
Although some individuals, including scientists, have questioned the safety of the planned experiments in the media and through the courts, the consensus in the scientific community is that there is no basis for any conceivable threat from the LHC particle collisions.[25][26][27]


Operational safety
The size of the LHC constitutes an exceptional engineering challenge with unique operational issues on account of the huge energy stored in the magnets and the beams.[6][28] While operating, the total energy stored in the magnets is 10 GJ (equivalent to 2.4 tons of TNT) and the total energy carried by the two beams reaches 724 MJ.[29]

Loss of only one ten-millionth part (10−7) of the beam is sufficient to quench a superconducting magnet, while the beam dump must absorb an energy equivalent to that of a typical air-dropped bomb. These immense energies are even more impressive considering how little matter is carrying it: under nominal operating conditions (2,808 bunches per beam, 1.15×1011 protons per bunch), the beam pipes contain 1.0×10-9 gram of hydrogen, which, in standard conditions for temperature and pressure, would fill the volume of one grain of fine sand.


Construction accidents and delays
On 25 October 2005, a technician was killed in the LHC tunnel when a crane load was accidentally dropped.[30] On 27 March 2007 a cryogenic magnet support broke during a pressure test involving one of the LHC's inner triplet (focusing quadrupole) magnet assemblies, provided by Fermilab and KEK. No one was injured. Fermilab director Pier Oddone stated "In this case we are dumbfounded that we missed some very simple balance of forces". This fault had been present in the original design, and remained during four engineering reviews over the following years.[31] Analysis revealed that its design, made as thin as possible for better insulation, was not strong enough to withstand the forces generated during pressure testing. Details are available in a statement from Fermilab, with which CERN is in agreement.[32][33] Repairing the broken magnet and reinforcing the eight identical assemblies used by LHC delayed the startup date,[34] then planned for November 2007, by several weeks.

WHAT IS THEORITICAL PHYSICS??

Theoretical physicists use mathematics to describe certain aspects of Nature. Sir Isaac Newton was the first theoretical physicist, although in his own time his profession was called "natural philosophy".
By Newton's era people had already used algebra and geometry to build marvelous works of architecture, including the great cathedrals of Europe, but algebra and geometry only describe things that are sitting still. In order to describe things that are moving or changing in some way, Newton invented calculus.
The most puzzling and intriguing moving things visible to humans have always been been the sun, the moon, the planets and the stars we can see in the night sky. Newton's new calculus, combined with his "Laws of Motion", made a mathematical model for the force of gravity that not only described the observed motions of planets and stars in the night sky, but also of swinging weights and flying cannonballs in England.
Today's theoretical physicists are often working on the boundaries of known mathematics, sometimes inventing new mathematics as they need it, like Newton did with calculus.
Newton was both a theorist and an experimentalist. He spent many many long hours, to the point of neglecting his health, observing the way Nature behaved so that he might describe it better. The so-called "Newton's Laws of Motion" are not abstract laws that Nature is somehow forced to obey, but the observed behavior of Nature that is described in the language of mathematics. In Newton's time, theory and experiment went together.
Today the functions of theory and observation are divided into two distinct communities in physics. Both experiments and theories are much more complex than back in Newton's time. Theorists are exploring areas of Nature in mathematics that technology so far does not allow us to observe in experiments. Many of the theoretical physicists who are alive today may not live to see how the real Nature compares with her mathematical description in their work. Today's theorists have to learn to live with ambiguity and uncertainty in their mission to describe Nature using math.

why did string enter the theory??

this image is showing string theory ...this image can be enlarged by just clicking on itRelativistic quantum field theory has worked very well to describe the observed behaviors and properties of elementary particles. But the theory itself only works well when gravity is so weak that it can be neglected. Particle theory only works when we pretend gravity doesn't exist.
General relativity has yielded a wealth of insight into the Universe, the orbits of planets, the evolution of stars and galaxies, the Big Bang and recently observed black holes and gravitational lenses. However, the theory itself only works when we pretend that the Universe is purely classical and that quantum mechanics is not needed in our description of Nature.
String theory is believed to close this gap.
Originally, string theory was proposed as an explanation for the observed relationship between mass and spin for certain particles called hadrons, which include the proton and neutron. Things didn't work out, though, and Quantum Chromodynamics eventually proved a better theory for hadrons.
But particles in string theory arise as excitations of the string, and included in the excitations of a string in string theory is a particle with zero mass and two units of spin.
If there were a good quantum theory of gravity, then the particle that would carry the gravitational force would have zero mass and two units of spin. This has been known by theoretical physicists for a long time. This theorized particle is called the graviton.
This led early string theorists to propose that string theory be applied not as a theory of hadronic particles, but as a theory of quantum gravity, the unfulfilled fantasy of theoretical physics in the particle and gravity communities for decades.
But it wasn't enough that there be a graviton predicted by string theory. One can add a graviton to quantum field theory by hand, but the calculations that are supposed to describe Nature become useless. This is because, as illustrated in the diagram above, particle interactions occur at a single point of spacetime, at zero distance between the interacting particles. For gravitons, the mathematics behaves so badly at zero distance that the answers just don't make sense. In string theory, the strings collide over a small but finite distance, and the answers do make sense.
This doesn't mean that string theory is not without its deficiencies. But the zero distance behavior is such that we can combine quantum mechanics and gravity, and we can talk sensibly about a string excitation that carries the gravitational force.
This was a very great hurdle that was overcome for late 20th century physics, which is why so many young people are willing to learn the grueling complex and abstract mathematics that is necessary to study a quantum theory of interacting strings.

AIR PLANT

Common name: Air Plant, Donkey Ears, Life Plant, Leaf of Life, Resurrection Plant, Canterbury Bells, Cathedral Bells, Mexican Love Plant, Floppers • Hindi: Amar poi अमर पोई • Malayalam: Elamarunna • Tamil: ), Runakkalli • Bengali: Kop pata • Urdu: Zakhmhaiyat ज़ख़्महयात • Manipuri: , মনাহিদাক Manahidak
Botanical name: Kalanchoe pinnata/ Bryophyllum pinnatum Family: Crassulaceae (sedum family)

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Native Hawaiian plant. Easy to grow just from one leaf set on top of moist soil. Very fast growing, drought tolerant small shrub. Tolerates almost any conditions. Spectacular bloomer. Air Plant grows to about 3-6 feet tall. The erect, thick, succulent stems bear large, fleshy leaves, each with 3 or 5 oval leaflets with round-toothed edges. Young plantlets develop along the margins of the mature leaves. The attractive, drooping blooms are borne on large panicles. The flowers have purple or yellowish-white tinged calyxes and reddish corollas. Kalanchoe is a genus of about 125 species of tropical, succulent flowering plants in the Family Crassulaceae, mainly native to the Old World but with a few species in the New World. These plants are cultivated as ornamental houseplants and rock or "cactus" garden plants. They are popular because of their ease of propagation, low water requirements, and wide variety of flower colors typically borne in clusters well above the vegetative growth. The "Air plant" Kalanchoe pinnata is a curiosity because new individuals develop vegetatively at indents along the leaf, usually after the leaf has broken off the plant and is laying on the ground, where the new plant can take root.
Medicinal uses: Bahamians call it Life Leaf or Ploppers. In the Bahamas it is mostly used for Asthma or shortness in breath.
Photographed in New Delhi