There is a hadith – a well-attested saying of Muhammad - that throws light on the religious underpinnings of the growing political unrest in Syria and Yemen.
Muhammad – peace be upon him – is said to have once prayed, ‘O Allah, bless us in our Syria (Shams), bless us in our Yemen.’ The authenticity of this hadith is established for Sunni Muslims by the great collectors of the Prophet’s sayings, Al-Bukhari and Muslim Ibn al-Hajjaj, both living in the ninth century CE, the third century of the Islamic era.
