The Saqifa

The Saqifa

The book is in Arabic written by late al-Mudhaffer, a scholar and a man of renown in literary circles. He had several students in Najaf (Iraq). The name SAQIFA means a roof-let. The word can well be interpreted as a shade, i.e. any covering that provides a shade, a shelter and a veranda. It is a triangular saloon or a hall without also of the palm tree to support the roof which also of the trunk patches, leaves, sticks obtained out of palm trees. Such shelters or verandas were for sometimes like town halls (of our days) and occasionally served as go downs where they kept their grains or grass. There were four of such shelters (i.e. SAQIFAS). The known one among them is that of Bani Sa’ada Bin Ka’ab Bin al-Khazraj --a man from ANSAAR (helpers). Sa’ad Bin Ebada was their spokesman and chieftain of al-Khazraj tribe. This shade or shelter, that is SAQIFA, which is the theme of this book, has gone down in history as SAQIFAT BANI SA’ADA because of the secret meeting there immediately after the demise of the Prophet with the intention to install Sa’ad Bin Ebada as the caliph...!