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THE
BLESSED COMPANIONS OF THE PROPHET
Like
Mawlana Jami, I say,
O
Messenger of God! If only like the dog of the
Companions of the Cave,
I
could be in Paradise in the company of your
Companions.
Is
it right that their dog is in Paradise while I am in
hell?
It
was the dog of the Companions of the Cave, I am the
dog of Your Companions.
In
His Name, be He glorified. There is nothing but
glorifies Him with praise.
In
the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.
Muhammad
is the Messenger of God, and those who are with Him
are hard against the unbelievers and merciful among
themselves. You see them bowing and falling prostrate
(in worship), seeking grace from God and (His) good
pleasure. The mark of them is on their foreheads from
the traces of prostration. Such is their likeness in
the Torah and their likeness in the Gospel--like as
sown grain that sends forth its shoots and strengthens
it and rises firm upon its stalk, delighting the
sowers with amazement -that He may enrage the
unbelievers with (the sight of) them. God has promised
unto such of them as believe and do good works,
forgiveness and immense reward. (Al-Fath, 48.29)
The
Companions of God’s Messenger constitute the first pure
and blessed channel through which the Quran and the Sunna
were transmitted to later generations. God is the
All-Trustworthy and Inspirer of Trust; the Archangel
Gabriel is also trustworthy. The Quran describes the
Archangel as trustworthy and as one, obeyed and having
power (al-Takwir, 20.21). As everybody knows, the Prophet
Muhammad was renowned, first of all, for his
trustworthiness. Having been revealed by God to the
Prophet Muhammad through the Archangel Gabriel, the Quran
was entrusted to the Companions, who memorized it,
recorded it and transmitted it to the following
generations. This blessed community, which was praised in
the Torah and Gospel, were the living embodiment of almost
all laudable virtues and sought nothing but the good
pleasure of God; they absorbed, besides the Quran, the Sunna
of the Prophet and lived disciplined lives strictly in
accordance with the example of the Prophet, and
represented and transmitted it without any disloyalty to
it.
Scholars
are agreed upon the definition of Companionship by Ibn
Hajar al-Asqalani: ‘A Companion is the believer who saw
and heard God’s Messenger at least once and died as a
believer’.1 Even though some scholars have
stipulated that, in order to be ranked as a Companion, a
believer should have lived in the company of God’s
Messenger for one or even two years, the majority of the
scholars regarded it as enough to have been present in the
radiant atmosphere of the Messenger long enough to have
derived some benefit from it.
It
goes without saying that the Companions are not equal to
each other in rank or greatness. Some of them believed in
God’s Messenger at the very outset of his mission, and
conversions continued until his saying farewell to the
world. The Quran grades them according to precedence in
belief and according to conversion before the conquest of
Makka and after it (al-Tawba, 9.100; al-Hadid, 57.10). The
same gradation was also made by God’s Messenger himself.
For example, he reproached Khalid for offending ‘Ammar,
saying: Do not trouble my Companions!2 In the
same way, he frowned at ‘Umar, when he annoyed Abu Bakr,
and said: Should you not leave my Companions to me? Abu
Bakr believed in me at a time when all of you denied me.
Abu Bakr knelt down and explained: ‘O Messenger of God!
It was my fault!’ 3
The
Companions were divided into twelve ranks by Hakim
al-Nisaburi.4 This division was made according
to the chronological order and some groups are also
included in others. It was accepted by the majority of
scholars:
1.
The four Rightly-Guided Caliphs, namely Abu Bakr,
‘Umar, ‘Uthman and ‘Ali, and the rest of the ten
to whom Paradise was promised while alive. They are
Zubayr ibn al-Awwam, Abu ‘Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah,
‘Abd al-Rahman ibn ‘Awf, Talha ibn ‘Ubayd Allah,
Sa‘d ibn Abi Waqqas and Sa‘id ibn Zayd, may God be
pleased with them all.
2.
Those who believed prior to ‘Umar’s conversion and
frequently gathered together secretly in the house of
Arqam to listen to God’s Messenger, upon him be
peace and blessings.
3.
Those who migrated to Abyssinia.
4.
The Helpers (Ansar) who were present at the first
ceremony of taking the oath of allegiance to God’s
Messsenger at al-‘Aqaba.
5.
The Helpers who took the oath of allegiance to the
Messenger at al-‘Aqaba, the following year.
6.
The first Emigrants who joined God’s Messenger
before his arrival in Madina during the Emigration.
7.
The Companions who participated in the Battle of Badr.
8.
Those who emigrated to Madina during the period
between the Battle of Badr and the Treaty of
Hudaybiya.
9.
The Companions who took the oath of allegiance to
God’s Messenger under a tree during the expedition
of Hudaybiya.
10.
Those who converted and emigrated to Madina after the
Treaty of Hudaybiya.
11.
Those who became Muslims after the conquest of Makka.
12.
The children who saw God’s Messenger either during
the conquest of Makka or during the Farewell
Pilgrimage, or in any other place and on different
occasions.
1. I.
Hajar, al-Isaba, 1.7.
2. I. Athir, Usd al-Ghaba, 4.132.
3. Bukhari, “Tafsir,” 7/3.
4. Hakim, Ma‘rifat Ulum al-Hadith, 22-4.
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