Documents of the Right Word

‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wa sallam’ stated, ‘Allâhu ta’âlâ creates some
hearts soft. So much so that they are softer than milk. And He
creates some hearts hard, so that they are harder than stone. O
Abû Bekr! You are like Ibrâhîm ‘alaihis-salâm’. He would say: He
who goes by my side will be with me. And he who does not follow
me; Allâhu ta’âlâ is ghafûr (all-forgiving) and rahîm
(compassionate)... O ’Umar! You are like Nuh (Noah) ‘alaihissalam’.
He said: Yâ Rabbi (O my Allah)! Do not leave any
disbeliever on the earth!’ Most of the As-hâb-i-kirâm were of the
opinion that they should be set free in return for property. They
set the slaves free. Upon this the ayat-i-kerîma cited above was
revealed. When ’Umar ‘radiy-Allâhu anh’ visited Rasûlullah, he
saw him and Abû Bekr weeping together. He said, ‘O the
Messenger of Allah! Why are you (two) weeping? Tell me, so that
I shall weep with you.’ He (the Prophet) said, ‘I am weeping for my
As-hâb. I have been shown the torment that was to befall them on
account of their having set the slaves free in return for property. It
(the torment) was closer than that tree,’ and he pointed to a tree
opposite them.” Beydâwî goes on as follows: Rasûlullah ‘sall-
Allâhu alaihi wa sallam’ stated, “If the torment had not been
turned back, no one except ’Umar and Sa’d bin Mu’âdh would
have escaped it.” For Sa’d had agreed with ’Umar ‘radiy-Allâhu
ta’âlâ anhumâ’ and said that the slaves should be killed. [Sa’d
belonged to the Evs (or Aws) tribe and came to îmân (became a
Muslim) one year before the Hijrat). He also brought the people
under his command to îmân (caused them to become Muslims).
He joined the ghazâs (holy wars), and died of the wound he had
received in (the holy war of) Handak (Trench). Rasûlullah
conducted the namâz of janâza for him and wept bitterly].
Rasûlullah’s ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wa sallam’ asking for paper or
ordering the preparation of an army under Usâma’s command or
deporting Merwân out of Medina may not have been by wahy.
Each of these decisions was out of his own thought and ijtihâd.
Those who did not carry out these (orders) cannot be called
disbelievers. For we know other examples as well in which the Ashâb-i-kirâm
did not agree (with Rasûlullah). We have already
cited one of them above. At that time the wahy would be revealed
and right and wrong would be distinguished from each other; those
who disobeyed such commandments would not be blamed or
reproached. Otherwise, if there had been the slightest disrespect
towards Rasûlullah, Allâhu ta’âlâ would have immediately
cautioned and dissuaded from it, warning that such acts would
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