Sahaba - The Blessed

love Abû Bakr very much,” at a third place, and, “I love Alî very
much,” at a fourth place. That different types of love are involved
is a bare fact.
A person’s being superior to another means his having more of
the same attribute than does the latter. The superiority may be in
the entirety of the attribute as well as in its parts only. One of the
two people may be superior in one of the parts and the other in
another part. For instance, one part of courage may exist in a
wrestler’s [or sportsman’s] nature, while another part may be
possessed by a president. The president’s courage is certainly more
valuable than that of the wrestler. The attribute knowledge has
various branches. To understand a question well, and not to confuse
it with other matters, is one of the parts. Likewise, zuhd is composed
of two categories: The zuhd of the Awliyâ is to avoid (Islam’s
prohibitions termed) harâm, whereas the zuhd of prophets is not to
think of anything other than promulgating Islam.
Promulgating Islam requires propagating the Qur’ân al-kerîm
and the hadîth-i-sherîfs. To this end, our Prophet ‘sall-Allâhu
ta’âlâ ’alaihi wa sallam’ commended some of the Ashâb-i-kirâm on
their profound knowledge, -they had committed the entire Qur’ân
al-kerîm to their heart-, and encouraged others to learn from
them. The prophetic commendation was tantamount to a diploma
for them. It also equipped them with verbal credentials to
stimulate some people who were otherwise quite unlikely to
identify them. This superiority is the common property of all the
Ashâb-i-kirâm.
It is a fact stated in (an âyat-i-kerîma of) the Qur’ân al-kerîm
that those who sacrificed their property and made jihâd in the way
of Allah before the conquest of Mekka were superior (to those
who did so afterwards). According to the Ashâb-i-kirâm, the
revelation of that âyat-i-kerîma was intended for Abû Bakr as-
Siddîq. For he was the first Muslim to sacrifice his property and
make jihâd. Doing this duty throughout his life, he was superior to
those who began doing so later, as well as to those who did not live
long enough to do so due to an early martyrdom, although they
were early enough in the performance of the two sacred duties.
It was stated in a hadîth-i-sherîf: “After me pay homage to Abû
Bakr and ’Umar!” A person to be paid homage to has to be a
scholar. When Hadrat ’Umar was asked a question, he would
convene the Sahâba, and they would reach a consensus. Not so was
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