Nasb-and-the-Nawasib

لتسبوا أصحابي،‏ فلو أن أحدكم أنفق مثل أحد ذهبا ما بلغ مد أحدهم ول نصيفه
Do not abuse my companions, for if one of you were to spend gold
equivalent to the mount of Uḥud it would not reach the Mudd 1 of any of
them, nay not even half of it. 2
ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf and his like were from the forerunners who accompanied
Nabī H at a time when Khālid and his like were opposing him; they spent
their wealth before the conquest and strove. They therefore hold a higher rank
than those who spent after the conquest and strove (but Allah has promised
goodness to all of them). They enjoyed companionship which Khālid did not.
Nabī H thus forbade him and his like, i.e. those who accepted Islam after
the conquest (the treaty of Ḥudaybiyyah) and strove thereafter, from verbally
offending those who accompanied him before that.
Similarly, the comparison between those who did not accompany him at all and
those who accompanied him is just like the comparison between Khālid ibn al-
Walīd and the forerunners, or even broader. 3
The Status of the Ṣaḥābah M, their Integrity and their Rights
The companionship of Nabī H is the greatest of privileges that a person
can enjoy, for in essence it is a selection from Allah E; and Allah would not
select for the companionship of his Nabī, the noblest of all the prophets who was
sent with a complete religion, but the purest of people. They were thus the best
generation of this Ummah without any dispute.
1 A measurement which is equal to 0.688 litres.
2 The narration of Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī I which is recorded in: Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī: chapter regarding
the merits of the Ṣaḥābah: sub-chapter regarding the statement of Nabī H, “If I were to take
a bosom friend…” ḥadīth no. 3470; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim: chapter regarding the merits of the Ṣaḥābah: subchapter
regarding the prohibition of verbally assaulting the Ṣaḥābah: ḥadīth no. 4541.
3 Al-Ṣārim al-Maslūl 3/1077.
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