3-Endless Bliss Third Fascicle - Hakikat Kitabevi

than all others.
Our Prophet ‘sallallâhu alaihi wa sallam’ wished that Islam’s
exaltation and strengthening would be through ’Umar-ul-Fârûq.
Allâhu ta’âlâ made him sufficient to help His beloved Prophet.
He declared in the sixty-fourth âyat of Anfâl Sûra: “O My
Prophet! Allâhu ta’âlâ and those Believers who follow thee
will suffice in helping thee.” Abdullah ibni Abbâs ‘radiyallâhu
anhumâ’ said, “This âyat descended when ’Umar-ul-Fârûq
became a Muslim.” Then, after Abû Bakr Siddîq, he is the
highest one. It is for this reason that the Sahâba and the Tâbi’în
declared unanimously that these two were the highest. Hadrat
Alî ‘radiyallâhu anh’ said, “Abû Bakr and ’Umar are the highest
of the Ummat. He who thinks I am higher than they are is a
slanderer. As slanderers will be beaten, I will beat him with a
stick.” I have explained these in detail in my other letters. [The
superiority of these two is explained in detail in the book
Qurrat-ul-’aynayn and in the Turkish book, As’hâb-i kirâm.]
It is idiocy to consider oneself equal to the Sahâba. It is
ignorance to liken oneself to the superior people who came
earlier. Let us mention also that the superiority caused by the
honour of being earlier is peculiar to those who attained the
sohbat of the Best of Mankind in the first century (of Islam). This
rule does not apply to the later centuries. Those who came in
the later centuries may be superior to those who came in the
centuries previous to them. In fact, of those who are in the
same century, the later ones may be higher than the earlier
ones [the disciple may surpass his master]. May Allâhu ta’âlâ
awaken those who slander them from the sleep of
unawareness! It is so base, so abominable to gossip about a
Muslim, to swear at him thinking that he is guilty. It is
stubbornness, a grudge to say that a Muslim is a heretic or that
he is a disbeliever through illusion or supposition. Those who
commit such slanders without any grounds become heretical,
they become disbelievers. The hadîth states that this is so.
Let us come back to our subject. Let us explain the second
group of those who speak ill of the sâliks. They do not say
‘disbelievers’ or ‘heretical’ about those sâliks who say that they
are in those grades, yet one of the two possibilities may be the
case: they say that the Sâlik is a liar. This means to think ill of a
Muslim and is harâm. But if they believe what he says and know
that he does not claim to be equal to the great, there will no
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