الحمد لله على نعمة الإسلام وكفى بها نعمة
و الصلاة والسلام على سيدنا محمد وعلى آله وصحبه ومن والاه
Beloved brothers and sisters, you are all welcome to the halqah session of this week. Baarakallaahu feekum. May Allah make it beneficial for both the reader and the writer, aameen.
We began last week by describing the Message and Spirit of Islam. And by mentioning the Sahaabah and their embodiment of this Spirit.
We mentioned that once the Din took its form in the Sahaabah, it took its form on the society. And the entire society became an embodiment of this great Spirit and Message.
That was the society founded by the Rasul – salallaahu alayhi wasallam. About them – the Sahaabah, Imaam Al-Hasan Al-Basri – alayhi rahmatullaah – said:
“إنَّ أصحاب محمد – صلى الله عليه وسلم – كانوا أكياساً، عملوا صالحاً، وأكلوا طيباً، وقدموا فضلاً، لَم يُنافسوا أهل الدنيا في دنياهم، ولم يجزعوا من ذلها، أخذوا صفْوها، وتركوا كدرها، والله ما تعاظمتْ في أنفسهم حسنةٌ عملوها، ولا تصاغرت في أنفسهم سيئةٌ أمرهم الشيطان بها.
“Indeed the Companions of Muhammad – salallaahu alayhi wasallam – were wise and astute men. They did good deeds and ate of pure. They gave out what was surplus. They never vied with the People of Dunya in their dunya pursuits nor periled in its humiliation. They took of it its best and left what wasn’t good of it. By Allah, never did any good they did look great in their estimations nor did any evil which Shaytaan commands them to do looked small to them…”
So, beloved ones, they carried the Message after the passing away of the Rasul – salallaahu alayhi wasallam through the lands and the seas. And imbibed same in the students of theirs- The Taabi’in. Each of them had students , Disciples and followers who remained with them, And took of them what they had of knowledge, discipline and spirituality.
While some of them specialized in widening the borders of Islam, by waging Jihad against the tyrants that ruled empires in Persia and Syria. Others remained in the Masaajid rendering Ibaadaat and acquiring knowledge from the Sahaabah. May Allah reward them in our behalf, aameen.
About them Allah – ta’aala said:
والسَّابِقُونَ الْأَوَّلُونَ مِنَ الْمُهَاجِرِينَ وَالْأَنْصَارِ وَالَّذِينَ اتَّبَعُوهُمْ بِإِحْسَانٍ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُمْ وَرَضُوا عَنْهُ وَأَعَدَّ لَهُمْ جَنَّاتٍ تَجْرِي تَحْتَهَا الْأَنْهَار
“And those who were foremost and earliest, of the Muhajirun and the Ansaar, and those that followed them in good, Allah has been pleased with them, and they have been pleased with him, and He has promised them Jannaat beneath which streams flow.”
“Those who followed them in good”, Includes all of those that followed the Sahaabah after them in carrying the Spirit and Message of Islam, And of course, the Taabi’in were the first of them.”
Among the students of Ibn Abbas – radiyallaahu anhuma: Ataa, Mujaahid, Taawus Ibn Kaysaan, Said Ibn Musayyib – the last of the earliest, Ikrimah, and Jaabir Ibn Zayd,
These great men were carriers of Ilm (knowledge), they excelled in the sciences of Tafsir (Quran exegeses), Qur’an, Hadith and Fiqh (Jurisprudence). And became the moon that shined the path of those that threaded the path of Knowledge after them,
Of the students of Ibn umar – radiyallaahu anhuma: Busr Ibn Said, Said Ibn Jubayr, Abdullah Ibn Dinaar, and many others. They were the carriers of the science of Fiqh, And the bearers of the knowledge of Hadith, May Allah reward them on our behalf.
And after them were their own students and followers too, who carried the banner of Islam far and wide. Of them were the great Imaams of Fiqh, of Hadith and of Qur’an, that are looked upon today and quoted and used as reference.
But Islam did not only thrive by a dedication to the sciences of the Literature, it also thrived by opening its gates to all the sciences and knowledge that men have benefited from through history. Except for sciences that the texts of the Shari’ah forbade and prohibited.
With time, Ulamaa concentrated in the synthesizing of knowledge, Its digestion and its propagation. Then, there was no mosque unless it was attached to a madrasah and a school where all sciences were taught; Hadith, Qur’an, Fiqh and Grammar, Logic, Rhetoric, Geography and Astronomy. Our great Ulamaa looked into the works of the philosophers of the past and discarded what was evil of it. And took of logic and rhetoric what was beneficial for the derivation and argumentation in Academic pursuits.
Others thrived in the knowledge of Chemistry, Physics, Botany and Engineering. And the books of our great Ulamaa, and the literatures they left behind remain an evidence for what we just described.
There is one thing that Historians have kept in their scrolls, And referred to as one of the main factors that led to the supremacy of Islam;
It is the pursuit of knowledge and its application in all the works and dimensions of human life. Islam reached the peak of power, strength and dominion world-wide.
But its message remained as it was in the time of the Rasul – salallaahu alayhi wasallam. The spirit remained the same, Tawhid, Justice, Mercy and Courtesy.
Baarakallaahu feekum.
Assalaamu alaykum warahmatullaah wabarakaatuh
