6. PIOUS PEOPLE’S DU‘Ā (SUPPLICATION) IN THE QUR’ĀN (5)
Among
the pious people’s dua (supplication) mentioned in the Qur’ān are: g.
the people of later generation.
g. the dua of
people of later generation. After the migration of the Prophet and his
followers from Makkah to Madinah, the Muslims were divided into three
categories: 1. the Muhājirīn (the emigrants), the Anṣār (lit.
“the helpers”, the people of Madinah who helped the Prophet and the emigrants),
3. the people who came after them.
The Muhājirīn were the
inhabitants of Makkah who had converted to Islam and emigrated to Madinah
before the conquest of Makkah, to avoid persecution of the Makkan pagans. Allah
praised them when He said:
لِلْفُقَرَاءِ الْمُهَاجِرِينَ
الَّذِينَ أُخْرِجُوا مِنْ دِيَارِهِمْ وَأَمْوَالِهِمْ يَبْتَغُونَ فَضْلًا مِنَ
اللَّهِ وَرِضْوَانًا وَيَنْصُرُونَ
اللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ أُولَئِكَ هُمُ الصَّادِقُونَ (الحشر:8).
(And there is also a share in the booty)[1]
for the poor
emigrants, who were expelled from
their homes and their
property, seeking the bounties
from Allah and (His) good
pleasure, and helping Allah and
His Messenger. Such
are indeed the truthful. (Q. 59:8)
The Anṣār were the Muslims of
Madinah who welcomed and helped the Muhājirīn. They competed among
themselves in taking them as guests in their houses. After 5 month of the
Prophet’s arrival in Madinah he strengthened the brotherhood between the Muhājirīn
and the Anṣār in the house of Anas ibn Mālik: each of the 45 hosts of
the Anṣār took his guest among the 45 Muhājirīn as his brother, like blood
brotherhood, so that they inherited each other after their death, without being
relatives on the maternal side. Allah said:
وَلِكُلٍّ جَعَلْنَا مَوَالِيَ
مِمَّا تَرَكَ الْوَالِدَانِ وَالْأَقْرَبُونَ وَالَّذِينَ عَقَدَتْ أَيْمَانُكُمْ
فَآتُوهُمْ نَصِيبَهُمْ إِنَّ اللَّهَ كَانَ عَلَى
كُلِّ شَيْءٍ شَهِيدًا (النساء:33)
And to everyone, We
have appointed heirs of that
(property) left by parents and relatives. To
those also
with whom you have made a pledge
(brotherhood),
give them their due portion (by
wasiyyah-wills). Truly,
Allah is Ever a Witness over all things. (Q.4:33).
The example of this brotherhood is that the
Prophet made brotherhood between Abu Bakr and Khārijah ibn Zuhayr, between
‘Umar and ‘Utbān ibn Mālik, between ‘Uthmān ibn ‘Affān and Aws ibn Thābit, between
Abū ‘Ubaydah ibn al-Jarrāḥ and Sa‘d ibn Mu‘ādh, between al-Zubayr ibn al-‘Awwām
and Salāmah ibn Salāmah, and so on. Allah praised their hospitality in the Qur’ān
as follows:
وَالَّذِينَ تَبَوَّءُوا
الدَّارَ وَالْإِيمَانَ مِنْ قَبْلِهِمْ يُحِبُّونَ مَنْ هَاجَرَ إِلَيْهِمْ
وَلَا يَجِدُونَ فِي صُدُورِهِمْ
حَاجَةً مِمَّا أُوتُوا وَيُؤْثِرُونَ عَلَى أَنْفُسِهِمْ وَلَوْ كَانَ
بِهِمْ خَصَاصَةٌ وَمَنْ
يُوقَ شُحَّ نَفْسِهِ فَأُولَئِكَ هُمُ الْمُفْلِحُونَ (الحشر:9).
(And it is also for) those who, before them,
and homes
and had
adopted the faith, love those who
emigrate to
them,
and have no jealousy in their breath for that
which
they have been given, and give them preference
over
themselves even though they were in need of that.
And
whosoever is saved from his own greed, such
are they
who will be successful.(Q. 59:9)
We see here that the Anṣār
loved the Muhājirīn, had no jealousy for their merit (of leaving their
homeland and belongings for Allah’s sake) over them (who remained in their
homeland), and preferred them over themselves.
Abū Hurayrah narrated
that a man came to the Prophet. The Prophet asked his wives to entertain him,
but they said that that had nothing for him except water. Then a man among the Anṣār
said he would entertain his guest. He came home and told his wife to entertain
the Prophet’s guest, but his wife told him that she had nothing except food for
children. He told her to prepare the meal and to make her children sleep and to
light the lamp.
When the time for meal arrived, the children were asleep, and she
pretended to repair the lamp, so that they had their meal in the dark, and he
pretended to share the meal. In the morning he told the Prophet how he
entertained his guest. The Prophet said that Allah admired what the couple had
done, and revealed, “and give them preference over themselves even though
they were in need of that. And whosoever is saved from his own greed, such are
they who will be successful.” (Reported by Bukhari).
The
Prophet told the Anṣār whether they would share their wealth and
property with the Muhājirīn, and at the same time would share the spoils
of war with them, or give the whole spoils of war to the Muhājirīn and
without sharing their wealth and property with them. The Anṣār said that
they would let the whole spoils of war to the Muhājirīn, and at the same
time they would share their wealth and property with them. To this, Allah
praised their sacrifice with the above verse, “… and give them preference over themselves even though they were in need of
that.”
The Anṣār were so
good to the Muhājirīn, that the latter asked the Prophet whether there
would still remain for them thawāb
(reward for going good) left by the Anṣār for their enormous good deed
to them. The Prophet told them that there was still reward, left as long as
they appreciate what they had done and pray for them.
This law of inheriting each other was put into effect till the occurrence
of the Battle of Badr. Since then, this law became abrogated, with the
following verse, although the brotherhood remained.
وَأُوْلُواْ الارْحَامِ بَعْضُهُمْ أَوْلَى بِبَعْضٍ فِي كِتَبِ اللَّهِ
إِنَّ اللَّهَ بِكُلّ شَىْء عَلِيمٌ (الأنفال:75)
…But kindred by blood are nearer to one another
(regarding inheritance)
in the decree ordained by Allah.
Verily, Allah is
All-Knower of everything.(Q. 8:75)
The Anṣār
loved the Muhājirīn very much, that they offered to the Prophet to
divide their agricultural land between the Muhājirīn and themselves, but
the Prophet rejected this proposal. But when they proposed to share the fruit
of it, the Prophet accepted it.
Sa‘d ibn al-Rabī‘ who was the riches man among the Anṣār, offered
his emigrant brother ‘Abd al-Raḥmān ibn ‘Awf half of his land, and to let him
marry one of his two wives, after divorcing her and the lapse of
the period of iddah. But ‘Abd al-Raḥman rejected the offer
with appreciation, and asked the location of the Qaynuqā‘ market where he
started his business. Soon after that he become prosperous and married a woman
among the Anṣār.
All these kinds of people
were promised by Allah with Paradise,
وَالسَّابِقُونَ الْأَوَّلُونَ مِنَ الْمُهَاجِرِينَ وَالْأَنْصَارِ
وَالَّذِينَ اتَّبَعُوهُمْ بِإِحْسَانٍ
رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُمْ
وَرَضُوا عَنْهُ وَأَعَدَّ لَهُمْ جَنَّاتٍ تَجْرِي تَحْتَهَا الْأَنْهَارُ
خَالِدِينَ فِيهَا أَبَدًا ذَلِكَ الْفَوْزُ الْعَظِيمُ
(التوبة:100)
And the foremost to
embrace Islam of the Muhajirin
(those who migrated from Makkah to al-Madinah)
and the
Anṣār (the citizens of al-Madinah who helped
and gave aid
to the Muhajirin)
and also those who follow them exactly
(in Faith). Allah is well-pleased with them as
they are
well-pleased with Him. He has prepared for the
Gardens under which rivers flow (Paradise),
to dwell there-in forever. That is the
supreme success.(Q.
9:100)
Allah
prepares Paradise for the Muhājirīn and the Anṣār, and the Prophet
said, as reported by Bukhārī and Muslims, that the best generation is his
generation, then the one following it, and then the one following it. He
praised the Anṣār when he said, “Nobody loves the Anṣār, except
he is a Muslim, nobody hates the Anṣār except he is a hypocrite; whoever
loves them Allah will love him, and whoever hates them, Allah will hate them.”
(Reported by Bukhārī). He prayed for the Anṣār; he said “O Allah,
forgive the Anṣār, the children of the Anṣār, the spouses of the Anṣār,
and the descendants of the Anṣār” (Reported by Ahmad).
Based
on this verse the Qur’ān commentator Ibn Kathīr indicates the twisting minds
and the turning upside down of the heart of the Rāfiḍah (a sect in Shiites) who
hate and curse the companions of the Prophet who have been promised with Paradise,
such as Abū Bakr and ‘Umar.
Allah said about the third group, who
came after the Muhājirīn and the Anṣār, as follows:
وَالَّذِينَ جَاءُوا مِنْ
بَعْدِهِمْ يَقُولُونَ رَبَّنَا اغْفِرْ لَنَا وَلِإِخْوَانِنَا الَّذِينَ سَبَقُونَا
بِالْإِيمَانِ
وَلَا تَجْعَلْ فِي قُلُوبِنَا
غِلًّا لِلَّذِينَ آمَنُوا رَبَّنَا إِنَّكَ رَءُوفٌ رَحِيمٌ (الحشر:10).
And those who came after them
say: “Our Lord! Forgive
us and our brethren who have preceded us in Faith, and
put not in our hearts any hatred against those
who have
believe. Our Lord! You are indeed full
of kindness, Most Merciful.” (Q. 59:10)
The third group is the Muslims who come after
the Muhājirīn and the Anṣār till the Judgment day. It is our generation where we have to follow
their examples in every aspect of piety, generosity, sincerity, and dedication
to Islam. At least, love and pray for them as Allah
taught us in the above verse. We ask Allah to forgive us and forgive our
brothers who came before us, including the companions of the Prophet.
When the Prophet
was passing a cemetery he greeted the people in the grave, and then he said, “I
wish to see our brothers.” When his companions asked him, “Are not we your
brothers?” The Prophet s.a.w. replied, “No, you are my companions. Our
brothers are those who have not come yet.”
A group of people from Iraq
came to ‘Ali ibn al-Ḥusayn r.a. and curses Abu Bakr and ‘Umar and ‘Uthmān
r.a. He asked whether they belonged to the first category of Muslims,
namely, the Muhājirīn. When they
said “no”, he asked them whether they belonged to the second category of
Muslims, namely, the Anṣār. When they said “no”, he said that they
definitely did not belong to the third category of Muslims who prayed, loved,
and asked forgiveness for them, as mentioned in the above verse.
The number of the
Prophet’s companions exceeds a hundred thousands, some thousands of them are known
to us, and some hundreds were well-known to us. Abū’l-Qāsim al-Baghawī (d. 317
AH) and Ibn Qāni‘ (d.351 AH) were among the earlier scholar recording the ṣaḥābah
in their books entitled Mu‘jam al-Ṣaḥābah (Dictionary of the Ṣaḥābah). Ibn al-Athīr (d. 630 AH) recorded the names of over seven
thousands of the ṣaḥābah in his work Usud al-Ghābah fī Ma‘rifat al-Ṣaḥābah
in 8 volumes. Another
writer was Ibn Hajar (d.852/1449) who wrote al-Iṣābah fī Tamyīz al-Ṣaḥābah,
in
8 volumes, containing more than twelve thousand names, the most comprehensive
dictionary of the Companions of the Prophet.
(CIVIC,
20.02.15)
المراجع:
المكتبة الشاملة
تفسير الطبري (ت. 310 هـ(
تفسير القرطبى (ت. 671
هـ(
تفسير ابن كثير (ت.
774 هـ(
Ali, A.Yusuf. The Meanings of the Holy
Qur’ān. Kuala Lumpur: Percetakan Zafar Sdn Bhd, 2005.
Asad,
Muhammad. The Message of the Qur’ān. Gibraltar: Dar al-Andalus, 1984.
http://articles.islamweb.net/media/index.php?page=article&lang=A&id=13431.
[1]The fay’ (booty
without fighting) was taken from the Jewish tribe Banī ‘l-Naḍīr who tried to
kill the Prophet when he came to them in order to get rid of him and to avoid
paying blood money demanded by the Prophet. The Prophet gave them an ultimatum
to leave the Madinah within ten days. The leader of the hypocrites of
Madinah, ‘Abdullah ibn Ubayy, told them that he and his people were on their
side, and advised them not to leave their houses, but to protect themselves in
their fortresses. The Prophet and his army sieged their fortress. Finally, they
surrendered, and were allowed to leave and to take whatever they could except
weapons. With 600 camels fully loaded, they set out for Khaybar. What was left
behind became the spoils of war to be divided among the Muhājirīn, while
the Anṣār, out of their sympathy with the Muhājirīn, did not want
to take any share from the booty. This took place in 4 A.H.
