Sahaba - The Blessed

as well as in peace-time, he would never leave the Messenger of
Allah alone. He was Rasûlullah’s faithful companion, confident,
and counsellor in all matters. The hadîth-i-sherîf, “Allâhu ta’âlâ
has supported me with four viziers. Two of them are angels. Their
names are Jebrâ’îl and Mikâil. And two of them are human. Their
names are Abû Bakr and ’Umar,” indicates his high honour. The
Ashâb-i-kirâm would make a ring around the Messenger of Allah
when they sat in his presence. The blessed Messenger would have
Abû Bakr seated on his right-hand side, with ’Umar seated on the
Prophet’s left. He would never let anyone occupy a seat prior to
that of Abû Bakr or take his seat in his absence. His seat would be
vacant when he was absent. In moral and habitual aesthetics, in
valour, in generosity, in knowledge, in intelligence, and
particularly in taqwâ (fear of Allah, abstinence from His
prohibitions), he was superior par excellence to all the other
Sahâbîs. “Abû Bakr is the bravest of us all,” was Hadrat Alî’s
acknowledgement. When the Messenger of Allah passed away,
most of the Arabian peasants abandoned Islam and lapsed into
apostasy. When Hadrat Abû Bakr became Khalîfa, he ordered to
make war against the renegades. The Sahâba asked how they
could make war against entire Arabia. Upon this he drew his
sword and proceeded. And so did the Sahâba, behind him. The
sûra of Wa-l-layl was revealed to praise him. The blessed
Messenger’s statement, “Abû Bakr’s property has been of such
great benefit as no one else’s has been to me,” is written in Imâm
Ahmad’s Musnad as well as in Munâwî. He dispensed all his
earnings from trade for the sake of the Messenger of Allah.
Whenever a canonical question arose during his caliphate, he
would look up the Qur’ân al-kerîm and the hadîth-i-sherîfs he
knew for an answer. When he could not find an answer, he would
ask the Sahâba. If they could not find a hadîth-i-sherîf by which to
solve the question, they would continue their research, trying to
reach a consensus in the last resort and adapting their practices to
the result of the consensus. In case they did not reach a consensus,
he (Hadrat Abû Bakr) would solve the matter with his own ijtihâd.
As for Hadrat ’Umar’s ‘radiy-Allâhu ta’âlâ ’anh’ policy during his
caliphate; whenever he did not find an answer for a certain
question after the first stage of his research which he would
normally do by minutely scanning the Qur’ân al-kerîm and hadîthi-sherîfs,
he would search for an ijtihâd which Abû Bakr ‘radiy-
Allâhu ta’âlâ ’anh’ might have employed for the solution of the
question. Otherwise, he would employ his own ijtihâd.
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