Sahaba - The Blessed

’Amr bin Abû Sufyân reports in Dârimî: Hadrat ’Umar ‘radiy-
Allâhu ’anh’ said, “Write down what you know lest it should be
forgotten!” This statement of Hadrat ’Umar’s formed a basis for
the science of Hadîth.
There were quite a number of matters that had not been
explained during the time of Rasûlullah ‘sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa
sallam’; nor had most of them been explicated yet by the end of
the caliphate of Abû Bakr. Hadrat ’Umar provided a consensus
for each and every one of them, leaving none of them unclear. As
for those matters not explained by Hadrat ’Umar; there will not
be a consensus on them till the end of the world. Had it not been
for Hadrat ’Umar, the Islamic scholars would be in a continuous
plight till the end of the world. The scholars of Ahl as-Sunnat, who
have been holding Islam’s flag, have based their conclusions on
matters for which Hadrat ’Umar Fârûq arranged unanimous
solutions.
In a narration reported in the book Musnad by Imâm Ahmad,
Abdurrazzâq relates: I have not seen anyone who performed
namâz better than Ibn Jurayh. Ibn Jurayh learned how to
perform namâz from Atâ, who had learned it from Abdullah bin
Zubayr, who had learned it from Abû Bakr as-Siddîq, and who
had learned it from the Messenger of Allah. Shâh Waliyyullah
Dahlawî wrote myriad pages in which he quoted the statements
which Hadrat Abû Bakr and Hadrat ’Umar made in all the
branches of fiqh. If a reasonable person reads those pages, he will
realize that the two Khalîfas rendered great and zealous services
not only in the expansion of the Islamic countries, but also in the
spreading of Islam’s teachings. It was for that reason that Hadrat
Alî remarked, “’Umar’s conclusions are always correct.” On
another occasion he observed, “’Umar’s whip is more useful than
our swords.” It is stated in a hadîth-i-sherîf: “The best of all ages
is the one I am living in. The second best is the one to follow.”
The Ashâb-i-kirâm ‘alaihim-ur-ridwân’ were superior to the
Muslims after them because they intermediated between them
and the Messenger of Allah. Muslims in each century have
always been the master of their successors by conveying Islam to
them. They are, therefore, more useful and better than the
generations following them. The same rule applies to
contemporaries, in which case teachers are held higher than their
students. Hence all the virtues of the Shaikhayn. Hadrat Alî is
quoted as having said as follows in the book of Imâm Ahmad:
– 234 –