The Twenty-seventh Word

Addendum on the Prophet’s Companions

 

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, All-Glorified is He.

There is nothing but it glorifies Him with praise.

In the Name of God, the All-Merciful, the All-Compassionate.

Muhammad is the Messenger of God, and those who are in his company are firm and unyielding against the unbelievers and compassionate among themselves... (48:29)

 

QUESTION: Some narrations say: “At a time when religious innovation is widespread and heresy is on the attack, some righteous God-conscious believers who try to conform to God’s laws of religion and life may attain to the Companions’ rank or even be more virtuous.” Are these authentic? If so, what do they mean?

ANSWER: The Ahlu’s-Sunna wa’l-Jama‘a are unanimous that, after the Prophets, the Companions are the most virtuous people.151 Therefore the authentic ones among such narrations refer to particular virtues [not virtuousness in general]. A less virtuous person may excel a more virtuous one in particular virtues. As regards general superiority, however, no one can equal or better the Companions, whom God describes (in 48:29) as having praiseworthy qualities, and whom the Torah and Gospel predicted and praise highly. Three of the innumerable reasons for this are as follows:

FIRST REASON: Companionship with the Prophet and being taught by him is such an elixir that one honored with it for even a minute may receive as much enlightenment as that which another person receives only after years of spiritual journeying. Companionship and the Prophet’s education cause one to be colored with the Prophet’s color and receive his reflections. Following the Prophet and being illumined by the greatest light of Prophethood enables a person to rise to the highest spiritual level. This is like a great king’s servant who, through servanthood and absolute allegiance to the king, reaches the rank that an ordinary king cannot.

Even the greatest saint cannot rise to the same degree as the Companions. Great saints like Jalalu’d-Din as-Suyuti, who, having come centuries later, talked with God’s Messenger many times while awake, cannot equal the Companions, for the latter were illumined by the light of Muhammad’s Prophethood. He lived among them and communed with them as a Prophet. Saints who see him after his death are honored only with his sainthood’s light, for now there is no Prophethood. Given this, these two types of communication with God’s Messenger, upon him be peace and blessings, are as different as Prophethood and sainthood.

His conversation and companionship was such an enlightening elixir that when a wild and hard-hearted Bedouin who had murdered his daughter by burying her alive was honored with an hour of his companionship, he would become so compassionate and tender-hearted that he no longer even trod on an ant. Savage and ignorant persons honored in this way for only a day went as far as India and China to teach truths and guide civilized people to human perfection.

SECOND REASON: As explained in The Twenty-seventh Word’s discussion of ijtihad, most of the Companions attained the highest degrees of human perfection, for Islam revealed good and truth in their full beauty and evil and falsehood in their full ugliness. These were actually experienced. The difference between good and evil, as well as truth and lying, was a great as that between belief and unbelief, and Paradise and Hell.

The Companions had lofty emotions, were enamored of moral virtues and inclined to dignity and glory. Therefore, they never approached evil and falsehood voluntarily and fell to the level of Musaylima the Liar, the sample and herald of lying, evil, and falsehood who eventually became an object of ridicule. Witnessing the Beloved of God as the highest example, sample and herald of human perfections, truth, right, and good, their pure characters impelled them to exert all their strength and effort to follow him.

Sometimes, due to their dreadful results and detestable effects, people flee from certain things in the market of human civilization and the shop of human social life. At the same time, like beneficial cures or brilliant diamonds, certain things are in much demand and draw everybody’s attention because of their good effects and valuable results. Everybody tries to buy them. During the Age of Happiness, such articles as unbelief, lying, and evil yielded results like eternal doom and torment and produced laughing-stocks like Musaylima the Liar. The Companions, enamored of high moral qualities and praiseworthy virtues, fled from them in disgust. With their pure and elevated characteristics, as if they were most beneficial cures and most precious diamonds, they strove to be the best and most ardent customers of truth, right, and belief, which result in eternal happiness and produced illustrious fruits like God’s Messenger, upon him be peace and blessings.

However, after that time, the distance between truth and lying gradually lessened so that now they now stand side by side in the same shop and are sold together. Social morality has been corrupted, and political propaganda encourages lying and causes it to be in demand. When lying’s awesome ugliness remains concealed and truth’s brilliant beauty is invisible, who could claim to have the same degree of strength, firmness, and meticulousness as the Companions in matters of justice, truthfulness, and moral sublimity? I will clarify this by relating one of my experiences.

Once it occurred to me why saints with extraordinary qualities (like Muhyi’d-Din ibnu’l-‘Arabi) cannot equal the Companions. While reciting “All-Glorified be my Lord, the All-High” during the prostration, a portion of this phrase’s full meaning was unveiled and its truth was revealed to me. I thought: “If only I could perform one prescribed Prayer as perfectly as I discovered that phrase’s meaning. It would excel one year’s usual worship in virtue.” I came to see that this experience was to guide me to perceive why one cannot reach the Companions’ degrees.

In the mighty social revolutions brought about by the Qur’an’s lights, opposites were completely separated from each other. Evil (with all its darkness, details, and consequences) and good and perfection (with all their lights and results) stood face to face. Thus in that exciting, stimulating time, all levels of the meaning of words and phrases of recitation, praise, and glorification were revealed in their full freshness and originality. This stirred up and awakened the feelings and spiritual faculties of those fully experiencing all stages of this mighty revolution, and even caused such senses as fancy and imagining to wake up fully, receive, and absorb these meanings based on their own perception.

Thus the Companions, all of whose senses were awakened and faculties alert, pronounced the blessed words and phrases containing all the lights of belief and glorification in all their meanings, and derived their shares with all their faculties. Over time, people gradually lost the taste and pleasure they received from these phrases, for familiarity and insensitivity caused their faculties to sleep and their senses to become heedless. All that has remained of those fruits is some moisture (superficiality). Only a reflective and contemplative operation can restore our faculties and senses to their former state. This is why people cannot attain in forty days or even forty years what a Companion reached in forty minutes.

THIRD REASON: As explained in the Twelfth, Twenty-fourth, and Twenty-fifth Words, compared to sainthood, Prophethood is like the sun in relation to its images in mirrors. Thus, however much superior Prophethood is to sainthood, the Companions, the servants of Prophethood and the planets around that sun, are must be superior to saints to the same degree. Even if a saint reaches the rank of absolute truthfulness, loyalty, and succession to the Prophet (the highest rank of sainthood belonging to the Companions), they cannot reach the Companions’ degree. I will explain three of the many aspects of this third reason:

First aspect: No one can equal the Companions in ijtihad (deducing God’s ordinances and what He approves of from the Qur’an and Sunna). For the mighty Divine revolution at that time sought to learn and understand God’s commandments and the things of which He approves. All minds were concentrated upon deducing Divine ordinances, and all hearts wondered what their Lord wanted from them. All events and circumstances impelled people toward that goal. Conversations, discussions, and stories taught Divine ordinances and what He approves of in His servants. These all perfected the Companions’ capacities and enlightened their minds.

Moreover, since their potentials to make deductions and exercise ijtihad were as ready to ignite as matches, even if we had their level of intelligence and capacity we could not attain in ten or even a hundred years the level of deduction and ijtihad they attained in a day or a month. For at present, people consider worldly happiness rather than eternal happiness and so concentrate on other aims. Since the struggle to make a living and not relying on God have bewildered and stupefied spirits, and naturalistic and materialistic philosophy have blinded intellects, the social environment only scatters and confuses people’s minds and capacities in exercising ijtihad. While discussing ijtihad in The Twenty-seventh Word, I explained why no modern person, even if having the same intelligence as Sufyan ibn Uyayna, could obtain in a hundred years what Sufyan obtained in ten years.

Second aspect: No saint can reach the rank of the Companions in nearness to God Almighty, Who is nearer to us than everything while we are infinitely far from Him. One can acquire nearness to Him in two ways. The first way is through God’s favor to make one near to Him and to make one realize His nearness. Through companionship with and succession to the Prophet, the Companions were endowed with this sort of nearness. The second way is through continuous promotion to higher ranks until honored with nearness to God. Most saints follow this way and make a long spiritual journey in their inner world and through the outer world.

The first way is a gift of God and thus does not depend upon one’s efforts. Such nearness is realized through the Merciful One’s attraction and being beloved by Him. This way is short but extremely elevated and sound, perfectly pure and free of obscurity. The other is long, depends on one’s endeavors, and has obscurities. Even if the one following it is endowed with miracle-like wonders, this way is inferior to the former in acquiring nearness to God Almighty. Consider this example: One can experience yesterday once more in two ways. Without following the course of time, one rises by a sacred spiritual power to a position from which all time is seen as a single point. Or, following the course of time, one lives a whole year and reaches the same day next year. Despite this, one cannot preserve yesterday or pre vent it from passing.

Similarly, one can pass from the external observation of religious commandments to the realization of their truth in two ways. Without entering the intermediate world of religious orders, one submits to the truth’s attraction and finds it directly in its external aspect. [In other words, one sees the external and the internal combined into a single unity.] Or, one is initiated into a spiritual way and continually promoted to higher ranks. But however successful they are in self-annihilation and killing their carnal, evil-commanding souls, saints cannot reach the Companions, who were purified, had refined souls, and were honored with all varieties of worship and sorts of praise and thanksgiving with the selfhood’s multiple inborn faculties. The worship of the saints who completely annihilate their selfhood becomes simple and one dimensional.

Third aspect: No one can reach the Companions in merits of deeds, rewards for actions, and virtues pertaining to the Hereafter. A soldier guarding a dangerous point under perilous conditions for an hour can gain the merits of a year of worship, and a soldier who achieves martyrdom in one minute can attain the rank of a type of sainthood that others can reach only after at least forty days. The Companions’ services in establishing Islam, spreading the Qur’an’s commandments, and challenging the world for Islam’s sake were so meritorious and rewarding that others cannot gain in one year the merits they acquired in a minute. It can even be said that every minute of theirs equals the minute of that soldier martyred while in that sacred service. Every hour of theirs is like the hour of watch of a self-sacrificing soldier under perilous conditions. Even though it seems a small act, it is extremely valuable and meritorious.

Since the Companions were the first line in establishing Islam and disseminating the Qur’an’s lights, according to the rule of “The cause is like the doer,” they share in all Muslims’ rewards, regardless of time or place. Muslims invoke God’s peace and blessings on them, saying: “O God, bestow blessings and peace on our master Muhammad, his Family, and Companions,” there by showing that the Companions share in all Muslims’ rewards [without causing any reduction in the Muslims’ rewards].

Just as an insignificant characteristic in a tree’s roots assumes a great form in its branches and is larger than the largest branch, just as a small amount at the beginning becomes a large mass, and just as a little point in the center forms a wide angle in the circumference, the Companions’ few actions were multiplied and their small service acquired a huge consequence. They formed the roots of the blessed, illustrious tree of Islam, were among the Muslim community’s leaders and first in establishing its traditions, and were the nearest to the center of the Sun of Prophethood and the Lamp of Truth, upon him be peace and blessings. Only another Companion can reach them.

O God, bestow blessings and peace our Master Muhammad, who said: “My Companions are like stars; whichever of them you follow, you will be rightly guided.152 The best of the ages is my age.”153—and on his Family and Companions.

All-Glorified are You! We have no knowledge save what You have taught us. Surely You are the All-Knowing, the All-Wise.

QUESTION: Some people argue: “The Companions saw God’s Messenger, upon him be peace and blessings, and believed. But we believed without seeing him, and so our belief must be stronger. In addition, there are narrations indicating the strength of our belief.”

ANSWER: At a time when the world’s public view opposed the truths of Islam, the Companions saw God’s Messenger only in his apparent human form. Many of them believed even without seeing a single miracle. Yet their belief was so firm that opposing views had no effect. And you compare your belief with theirs?

Although the public view of the Muslim world and Islam’s magnificent history form a formidable proof and support for your belief, and although you have seen God’s Messenger with his collective personality formed of all of Islam’s lights and the Qur’an’s truths and enveloped by as many as a thousand miracles, not with his apparent human form and character, which was the seed of the blessed universal tree of his Prophethood, one word from an European philosopher can cause you to doubt and waver in belief. How can your belief equal that of the Companions, who never wavered in the face of total opposition from the forces of unbelief and polytheism, among them philosophers, Christians, and Jews?

Also, how can your weak and dim belief which cannot even make you perform the religious obligatory duties regularly and accurately can be compared with the Companions’ strong piety and perfect righteousness which originated in their belief and showed its strength? As for the Prophetic tradition: “The belief of one who believes at the end of time without seeing me is greater in value,”154 this deals with particular virtues and pertains to certain individuals. Here we are discussing general superiority and the majority.

QUESTION: Saints and people of perfection usually renounce the world. A tradition says that love of the world is the beginning of all sins and faults.155

However, the Companions, may God be pleased with them, indulged in the world to such an extent that some enjoyed it more than the worldly people of that time. How can you say that the greatest saint cannot reach a Companion of the lowest degree?

ANSWER: As convincingly argued in the Risale-i Nur,156 loving the facets of the world that look to the Hereafter and manifest God’s Names is a means of perfection. The more profound one is in appreciating and loving these two facets of the world, the deeper one is in worship and knowledge of God. The Companions concerned themselves with these two facets. Considering the world an arable field of the Hereafter, they sowed it with seeds to grow in the Hereafter. They saw all creatures as mirrors reflecting the Divine Names and observed them lovingly. The world is evil in its mortal facet which looks to our animal appetites.

QUESTION: Religious spiritual orders are ways to truth. Some assert that the Naqshbandi order is the most famous, most elevated, and broadest way. Some inspired Naqshbandi leaders describe its foundations as follows: “In the Naqshbandi way, four things should be renounced: the world, the Hereafter (it should not be taken as the main aim in the name of the carnal soul), being or becoming, and the idea of renunciation (in order not to get into self-pride and vanity).” Does this mean that true knowledge of God and human perfection can be attained by renouncing all that is other than God?

ANSWER: If we were no more than a heart, we would have to renounce everything other than God. We would even have to give up our concern for God’s Names and Attributes and completely give ourselves to His Essence. In reality, however, we have many senses and faculties (e.g., the intellect, spirit, soul, and the innermost ones), each of which has particular duties and functions. Perfect people are those who, using each sense and faculty in its particular type of worship, strive to reach the truth. With their hearts serving as the commander and the other faculties as soldiers, they advance heroically like the Companions in a broad sphere and in a manifold way toward their goal. For the heart to leave its soldiers in order to save itself and proceed on its own is a cause of distress, not of pride.

QUESTION: Why do some claim superiority to the Companions? Who puts it forward? Should such a claim be discussed? From where does the claim of equality with the great mujtahids arise?

ANSWER: Two groups of people put forward these claims. One group comprises some pure-hearted religious scholars and pious people who, seeing certain Traditions, start such discussions to encourage and hearten righteous and devoted Muslims. We have nothing to say to them. Anyway, they are few and quickly are made aware of the matter’s truth. The other group consists of very conceited and dangerous people seeking to spread their denial of the legal schools by claiming such equality, and to promote their heresy by claiming equality with the Companions.

First, such misguided people are addicted to dissipation. To excuse their neglect of religious duties (which forbid dissipation), they argue: “Those matters are secondary and depend on ijtihad. The legal schools disagree about them. Since the mujtahids were people like us, and therefore fallible, we can exercise ijtihad and worship in whatever way we wish. Why should we follow the early mujtahids?” This is how Satan leads people out of the legal schools’ bounds. To see how groundless their claim is, refer to The Twenty-seventh Word.

Second, those misguided people do not only claim equality with mujtahids, who concerned themselves only with religion’s theoretical matters, but pursue their ultimate goal: abandoning and changing Islam’s basic obligations. Mujtahids can rule only in theoretical matters and secondary, non categorical issues. But these misguided people, who refuse to follow a legal school, want to mix their ideas in the basic obligations of the Religion, change unalterable matters, and oppose Islam’s definite pillars. Therefore, they feel compelled to criticize the Companions, the bearers and supports of Islam’s basic obligations. No one, not only these apparently human ones, but even the greatest saints, who are the most perfect of true human beings, can equal even the least virtuous Companion.

O God. Bestow blessings and peace on Your Messenger, who said: “Do not reprove my Companions. If one of you spent gold equivalent to Mount Uhud (in the cause of God), you could not attain (the virtue) of a handful of one of my Companions.”157 God’s Messenger told the truth.

All-Glorified are You! We have no knowledge save what You have taught us. Surely You are the All-Knowing, the All-Wise.

Bediuzzaman Said Nursi

151 Ibn Hibban, as-Sahih, 10:477; al-Haysami, Majma‘uz-Zawaid, 1:153.

152 al-Munawi, Faydu’l-Qadir, 6:297., 10:477.

153 al-Bukhari, “Fadailu Ashabi’n-Nabiyy” 1; at-Tirmidhi, “Fitan” 45.

154 Ahmad ibn Hanbal, al-Musnad,5:248, 257, 264.

155 al-Bukhari, Tarikhu’l-Kabir, 3:472; al-Bayhaqi, Shu‘abu’l-Iman, 7:323, 338.

156 In the second and third Stations of the 32nd Word.

157 al-B:ukhari, “Fadailu Ashabi’n-Nabiyy” 5; Muslim, “Fadailu’s-Sahaba” 221, 222.