Sweet Basil Blossoms in Refutation of Tahqiq al-Bayan: A Critical Response to What Qasim Ibn Nu‘aym al-Ta’i Wrote Concerning Abi Sufyan

Sweet Basil Blossoms in Refutation of Tahqiq al-Bayan is Shaykh Hasan al-Saqqaf's direct rebuttal of Qasim ibn Nu'aym al-Ta'i's defence of Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan.The work challenges the widespread claim that Ahl al-Sunna unanimously regarded Mu'awiya as a righteous Companion beyond serious criticism. Drawing on hadith, Qur'anic interpretation, history, legal theory, and the statements of major Sunni authorities, Shaykh Hasan argues that this inherited apologetic position is neither the only Sunni position nor the strongest one.The book examines claims of absolute uprightness for every Companion, alleged virtues attributed to Mu'awiya, the misuse of reports concerning the Companions, the claim of excused ijtihad, the Umayyad practice of cursing Sayyiduna 'Ali, and the broader question of how political power shaped later religious memory.Appended to the main refutation is a collection of Prophetic reports and scholarly statements concerning Mu'awiya, serving as an evidentiary continuation of the work.This is a book about evidence, memory, power, and moral clarity. It calls the reader to return to the Qur'an, the authentic Sunnah, and the full range of the Sunni scholarly inheritance rather than inherited fear, political theology, and later defensive convention.