THE PHILOSOPHY OF COMPANIONSHIP
Learning from the Prophet’s Company
IT is generally believed that the distinguished status the Companions of the Prophet Muhammad received in Islam was due to the Companionship of the Prophet. In one sense, this is a true statement. But this does not mean that Companionship is a mysterious thing, and as a result of its mysterious effect, the Companions of the Prophet automatically got this benefit only due to being in his company. This view is not correct. It does not fully explain the phenomenon. For example, it offers no explanation to the fact that hundreds of people of Madinah who apparently proclaimed belief in the message of the Prophet and spent a considerable time in his company but they could not benefit from his company and were called hypocrites in the history of Islam.
In fact, there is only one means for a human being to attain higher level of faith, and that is God-realization or intellectual development. After accepting faith, a thinking process continues in a person along the path of God-realization. This thinking process is actually the only means for a believer to attain a higher level of faith.
For the Companions of the Prophet, this process continued in the company of the Prophet. People would listen to him; they would keep thinking over his words in such a way that the words would stir their minds. In this way, the process of contemplation continued unfalteringly every day. The Companionship of the Prophet of God was the source of this thinking process, so it was attributed to the Companionship of the Prophet.
However, it is not enough to simply listen to the Prophet’s words. The prophet’s words will only be useful to a person who has a receptive mind, who can listen with unwavering attention and then accept them while being free from psychological complications. This receptivity was fully present among the sincere believers, so they got the benefit of Companionship of the Prophet. In contrast, this receptivity was lacking among the hypocrites, so they could not benefit from it despite the Companionship of the Prophet.
Companionship in this sense is an Islamic term. It is defined as: “The person who observes the Prophet Muhammad in a state of faith and dies in the state of faith is a Companion (Sahabi) of the Prophet.” This is an incomplete definition of Companionship. In fact, to determine the meaning of Companionship, it has to be seen what the form of Companionship in practice during the time of the Prophet was. It does not mean that the Prophet sat quietly in an assembly and his Companions would observe him in total silence. In fact, such assemblies were a means of ever-continuing process of thinking and contemplation. The Quran has termed such events as assemblies of wisdom.
Events show that the Companionship of the Prophet was an active Companionship. He used to recite the blessing of the Lord in front of them. He used to inform the audience about the divine sustenance he was given by God, and he used to explain the verses of the Quran. He answered people’s questions. He used to say things that turned people’s doubts into beliefs. He used to teach people the words of remembrance, prayer, praise and gratitude. He used to recite the revealed parts of the Quran in front of the people. He would inform people about the influential events of prophets and believers of the bygone ages, etc.
Those who would spend time in the company of the Prophet used to hear such seismic revolutionary events from him. In his company, people would receive food for intellectual upliftment. His company was a lifechanging Companionship. So life-giving was his Companionship that it bestowed upon his Companions the great status that is now termed as the Companions of the Prophet. It was an incident of intellectual revolution, not simply just sitting in his company.
The same is the case with later scholars and elders. There is no mysterious effect in the company of any of them. This matter depends entirely on the ability of those who sit in their company and listen to what they hear. Individuals who possess the element of receptivity will be able to benefit from Companionship. And those who do not possess the element of receptivity will be deprived of benefit. In the light of this interpretation, the more accurate definition of a Companion should be this: A person who has seen the Prophet of Islam in a state of faith and has benefitted from his Companionship and died in the state of belief is a Companion.
General Companionship
Here is an example of the general Companionship of the Prophet which was often enjoyed by his Companions in a mosque or in any other assembly. This will show how the Companions of the Prophet would receive food for thought in his company:
The Prophet asked his Companion Abu Dhar: “What will happen to you when the rulers after me come? They will assume the government properties for themselves.” He replied, “By God who sent you with Truth, I will put the sword on my shoulder and fight with them with it until I meet you.” The Prophet said, “Shall I not tell you something better than this? Keep patience until you meet me.”
The Prophet gave a new insight to his Companions through this saying. It usually happens that when people see the deterioration in their rulers, they start violent confrontations with them in the name of reform politics. The Prophet guided that it is better to be patient with their deterioration than to be martyred by colliding with the rulers in times of disorder, and to keep patience until a person dies.
In this Hadith, ‘patience’ does not mean inaction, but it refers to one of the greatest actions. This means abandoning the method of conflict with the rulers and finding and adhering to a non-confrontational approach. The method of political conflict is always the product of impatience. In contrast, it is possible to plan well patiently by avoiding the conflict when a person controls his emotions.
This was a great piece of wisdom that the Prophet imparted to his Companions, who in turn understood it and practised it. As a result, in the initial period, the great Islamic revolution was carried out, which could not have happened without patient and non-confrontational approach.
There was a deviation in the political rule immediately after the rightly guided Caliphs. The Muslim rulers deviated from the prescribed path of Islam. At that time, if the believers had resorted to violent confrontation with their rulers, the result would have been that all the best people of the first and second generations would have been killed. All those history-makers of the early generation would be buried in the graves. The great history of Islam would have never materialised.
For example, the people of the early generation left the front of political conflict and became active in the field of peaceful introduction of the message of the Quran. This resulted into millions of people embracing Islam. They preserved and published the Quran before the advent of the printing press. They collected and investigated millions of Hadith narrations. They prepared precious collections of authentic Hadith reports. They accomplished the unrivalled work of Islamic jurisprudence.
Similarly, these are the early generation of believers who formulated Islamic sciences only by ignoring the deviation of the rulers. This includes biography of the Prophet, history of early Islamic period, theology, preparing dictionaries of Arabic language, syntax and grammar and other related sciences.
It is the result of these efforts of the initial generations of the believers that Islam has become a secure and reliable historical religion in every respect while no other religion has this status. And all these achievements were accomplished only because the Muslims of the early period, on the guidance given by the Prophet of Islam, adopted this wise approach that they gave up the method of violent confrontation against political disorder and became peaceful activists in the rest of the fields of service of Islam.
Extended Companionship
God says about the Prophet in the Quran: God sees your movements among those who prostrate themselves. (26: 219) This act of walking among the believers refers to the activities of the Prophet every day to reform the believers and to awaken the religious consciousness among them. These efforts were also a part of the Companionship of the Prophet in an extended sense. During these efforts, he constantly tried to awaken the religious consciousness of the believers. In order to understand the matter of extended Companionship, an example of this type is quoted here:
On one occasion, the Prophet silently smiled when Abu Bakr, his most noble Companion, refrained from responding to a person who was insulting him. But when Abu Bakr eventually spoke up, the Prophet became angry and left. The Prophet later explained, “An angel was with you, responding on your behalf. But when you said back to him some of what he said, a devil arrived, and it is not for me to sit with the devils. (Musnad Ahmad)
This is a classic example of what is called the conscious awareness of the believers taught by the Prophet. In fact, every human being has two kinds of innate impulses: evil-commanding impulse and self- criticizing impulse. The evil-commanding impulse is the symbol of Satanic promptings, and the self-criticizing impulse is the symbol of the angelic inspirations. If a man abuses you and you remain silent, then the conscience of the abuser awakens and continues to reproach him inside. It’s like an angel is answering on your behalf. On the contrary, when you also speak harshly in response to harsh words, then the other person’s ego will be activated. It is man’s coming under the influence of Satan.
The Prophet taught the Companions a great truth through this exhortation. He instilled in the Companions the intellectual insight that would guarantee their success in every matter, whether individual or societal. The Prophet implied that there are two different types of personalities hidden in each human being. One is potentially your friend and the other, potentially your enemy. It is up to you which type of personality you awaken in him.
The Prophet pointed out the important fact that sometimes in this world, not acting is also a form of action and not speaking is also a form of speaking. If a person is speaking ill of you and you don’t respond, it doesn’t mean that you didn’t respond, but it means that you kept quiet and allowed the more powerful party (the angels) to speak. In this way, it would become possible that what you would do less effectively, the angel of God would do it more effectively.
Wise is he who forgets the
wrongs and faults of others
and keeps his faults in mind.
