Sahaba - The Blessed

commitment of the entire Qur’ân al-kerîm to memory; to know the
ma’nâ-i-murâdî (the intended meaning), the ma’nâ-i-ishârî (the
denotative meaning), the ma’nâ-i-zimnî (the implied meaning), the
ma’nâ-i-iltizâmî (the preferential meaning) of âyat-i-kerîmas; to
know when and for what reason and about what each âyat-ikerîma
was revealed and whether it is kullî (general) or juz’î
(special, particular), nâsikh (abrogating) or mansûkh (abrogated),
muqayyad (limited) or mutlaq (absolute, unrestrained), in
addition to many other facts about them; to know how they were
derived from the qirâ’at-i-sab’a and qirâ’at-i-’ashara and qirâ’at-ishâzza;
to know by heart all the hadîth-i-sherîfs in the (six grand
books of hadîths called) Kutub-i-sitta and in the other books of
hadîth; to know when and why each hadîth-i-sherîf was uttered
and the extent of its comprehension; to know the contextual and
the temporal order of hadîth-i-sherîfs, (i.e. what hadîth-i-sherîfs
preceded and followed what others,); to know the matters they
concern; to know the events whereon they were uttered; to know
the names and biographies of their conveyors and reporters; to
master the methods and rules of the Islamic science called fiqh;
and to have an extraordinary spiritual wisdom and an illuminated
and pure heart and conscience equipped with light of îmân and
tranquility to learn and understand the twelve basic sciences, the
symbols and signs of âyat-i-kerîmas and hadîth-i-sherîfs and their
apparent and spiritual explanations. [1] These sublime qualifications
and faculties are the requirements and conditions of the rank of
ijtihâd. However, people with such powerful mental faculties and
virtues could be trained and educated only with the blessing of
sohbat, which rose with our Prophet ‘sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam’
and attained its zenith in his time, termed the ‘Asr-i-sa’âdat (Era
of Happiness), preserving its impetus during the centuries of the
Ashâb-i-kirâm, the Tâbi’în, and the Taba’i tâbi’în. As time
plodded along leaving the Era of Happiness farther and farther
behind, thoughts and ideas were polluted, heresies appeared, and
scholars in possession of these superior and valuable merits
became fewer and fewer, completely dwindling away by the end of
the fourth (Islamic) century. These facts are written with clarity in
the books Mîzân-ul-kubrâ, Radd-ul-muhtâr, and Hadîqa.
[1] The parenthesized explanations of the technical Arabic terms are
intended to help the reader develop an idea about the magnitude of
the job of ijtihâd. In fact, they are quite short of reflecting the intrinsic
meanings in the terms.
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