About the Podcast:
- Is Imam Ali a polarising figure in Islamic history, or the one personality that could bring Muslims closer to each other?
- Was Saqifa a power grab, and what does a policy maker and conflict resolution expert see when he looks at what happened inside that room?
- If Ali’s sense of justice was so uncompromising, why was it so difficult for people around him to live up to it?
In this episode of Thinking Islam, we explore Dr Hassan Abbas‘s acclaimed book “The Prophet’s Heir: The Life of Ali ibn Abi Talib” through the lens of a policymaker and conflict-resolution scholar. Drawing from both Shi’a and Sunni sources, Dr Abbas tells the story of Imam Ali not as a sectarian narrative but as a bridge between traditions. What began as a family project during the COVID lockdown, with his daughters critiquing early drafts and challenging him to tell the story rather than defend the figure, became a book that Reza Aslan called “the best biography of Ali I have ever read.” We also explore the bias in Western scholarship of Islam, which has historically relied on Sunni sources, and why Dr Abbas believes that both Shi’a and Sunni traditions have boxed themselves into narratives that damage a shared understanding of their own history.
We examine the political dynamics of Saqifa, where Dr Abbas offers a reading that challenges both mainstream Shi’a and Sunni accounts. The conversation moves through Ali’s caliphate and his radical economic justice, where he began confiscating land and returning public wealth from the very first day, and into Ali as a diplomat, a figure who sought dialogue before every battle, whether Jamal, Siffin, or Nahrawan, and even after defeating the Kharijites insisted on reciting funeral prayers and giving them proper burial. What emerges most powerfully is the paradox of a warrior whose defining qualities were selflessness and forgiveness. In his final moments, struck by a poisoned sword, Ali asked that his killer’s ropes be loosened, because that was the measure of his justice. Ali’s legacy, Dr Abbas tells us, once freed from sectarian agendas, holds the possibility of renewal and unity.
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Learn More About Our Guest:
Dr Hassan Abbas is a Distinguished Professor of International Relations based in Washington, DC and serves as a Senior Advisor at the Project on Shi’ism and Global Affairs at Harvard University. His research centres on countering political and religious extremism and advancing the rule of law reform in developing states. He has held fellowships at Harvard Law School, the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School, the Asia Society, and the New America Foundation. Dr Abbas is the author of several widely cited works, including “The Prophet’s Heir: The Life of Ali ibn Abi Talib” (Yale University Press), The Return of the Taliban: Afghanistan after the Americans Left, and Pakistan’s Nuclear Story: Defiance, Deterrence and Deviance. He is currently developing a new book proposal for Yale University Press titled “The Daughter of the Prophet: The Life of Fatima Zahra.” He is a regular contributor to international media and leading academic publications.
Read More of His Insights:
- Abbas, H. (2023) The Return of the Taliban: Afghanistan after the Americans Left. New Haven: Yale University Press
- Abbas, H. (2021) The Prophet’s Heir: The Life of Ali ibn Abi Talib. New Haven: Yale University Press.
- Abbas, H. (2005) Pakistan’s Drift into Extremism: Allah, the Army, and America’s War on Terror. New York: M.E. Sharpe.
