Seâdet-i Ebediyye Endless Bliss Second Fascicle

“Fear Allâhu ta’âlâ in case you should ever hurt my Sahâba! After
me, do not think ill of them. He who loves them does so because
he loves me. He who bears hostility against them has borne
hostility against me. He who hurts them hurts me. He who hurts
me has hurt Allâhu ta’âlâ; hence He will torment him for that.”
Allâhu ta’âlâ declares in the Qur’ân al-kerîm, in the fifty-seventh
âyat of Sûrat-ul-Ahzâb: “Those who offend Allâhu ta’âlâ and His
Prophet; may they be accursed in this world and in the Hereafter!”
The great Islamic savant Sa’daddîn-i Taftâzânî ‘rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ
’alaih’, (722 [1322 A.D.], Taftâzân, Khorasan – 792 [1389],
Samarkand) says: “We should be reasonable in this order of
superiority,” in his commentary to ’Aqâid-i Nasafiyya; [1]
but his
statement is unreasonable, and his doubt is out of place. For, our
savants state that in this context ‘superior’ means ‘the one with
more thawâbs’. It does not mean the one who is more useful to
others with his goodness and trueness. A wise person will not value
such things. The Sahâba and the Tâbi’ûn informed us about so
many cases and events manifesting the goodnesses of Hadrat Alî
‘radiy-Allâhu ’anh’ as they did not communicate about any other
Sahabî. On the other hand, they, again, said that the other three
Khalîfas were higher than he. As is seen, being superior is not
because of the maniness of merits and epics. Superiority arises
from other reasons. Who can understand these reasons are only
those chosen fortunate people who have been honoured with
seeing the wahy, that is, the coming of the angel. They have
understood the reasons of superiority by seeing them clearly or
through some denotations. And they are the Sahâba of our
Prophet ‘sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam’. Then, it is out of the place
for the commentator of ’Aqâid-i Nasafî to say, “If the meaning of
superiority is the numerousness of thawâbs, this is the place to
doubt about the order of superiority.” For, if the order of
superiority had not been stated clearly by the owner of Islam,
there would be a place for doubt. Why should he doubt after it has
been stated? If the Sahâba had not understood this superiority
clearly or through some implication, would they have reported it?
What is out of place is for those who consider all the four
(Khalîfas) to be equal to say that superiority among them is out of
[1] Written by Nasafî Najm-ud-dîn Abû Hafs ’Umar bin Muhammad
‘rahmatullâhi ’alaih’, (461 [1068 A.D.], Nasaf, Fâris, Iran – 537 [1142],
Samarkand.)
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