The Sahabah
Companions of the Prophet peace be upon him

The Companions are all those Muslim male and females who met our Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him.) and died as Muslims.

Allah says

 "So if they believe in the like of that which you believe, they are rightly guided, but if they turn away, then they are only in opposition. So Allah will suffice you against them. And He is the All-Hearer, the All-Knower." [2:137

Allah commanded  His Messenger to say to his companions:

Say (O Muhammad  to mankind): "If you (really) love Allah then follow me (i.e. accept Islamic Monotheism, follow the Quran and the Sunnah), Allah will love you and forgive you of your sins. And Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful." (3:31)

  And Allah says:

 But no, by your Lord, they can have no Faith, until they make you (O Muhammad ) judge in all disputes between them, and find in themselves no resistance against your decisions, and accept (them) with full submission.(4:65)

In the next verse Allah again tells his Messenger

Say (O Muhammad SAW): "Obey Allah and the Messenger (Muhammad SAW)." But if they turn away, then Allah does not like the disbeliever's(3:32)

These verses clearly indicate that disobedient to either Allah or His Messenger or both takes one out of Islam.Therefore one has to make shure that they are obediant to Allah and His Messenger.

The Ideal example of following and loving Allah and Allah's Messenger  was shown by the Companions of the Prophet peace be upon him.

Every Muslim on the planet claims to be a true Muslim and claims he is

They were best followers of the Quran and the Prophet peace be upon him.

They were undoubtedly the best in terms of understanding the religious obligations, the Sunnah of the Prophet and the way of establishing the Islamic teachings. Their belief is an example for us, as Allah says in the Quran:

 "You are the best of peoples ever raised for mankind, you enjoin good and forbid evil, and you believe in Allah." [3:110] "

And the first to embrace Islam of the Muhajiroon (the Emigrants from Makkah) and the Ansar (the citizens of Al-Madeenah who helped the Muhajiroon) and also those who followed them exactly (in Faith). Allah is well-pleased with them as they are well pleased with Him. He has prepared for them Gardens under which rivers flow, to dwell therein forever. That is the supreme success." [9:100]

"Indeed, Allah was pleased with the believers when they gave their pledge to you (O Muhammad) under the tree. He knew what was in their hearts and He sent down calmness and tranquility upon them..." [48:18]

Our Attitude Towards Them

Obedience to Prophet is associated with obedience to Allah in forty different instances in the Quran. Disobediance to the Prophet (SAW) will result in a person being barred from paradise and he or she will be dragged into the hell fire.

The Messenger of Allah (saw) said " All my followers will enter paradise except those who refuse . "They said , " O Allah's Messenger ! Who will refuse ? " He said " Whoever obeys me will enter paradise and whoever disobeys me is the one who refuses (to enter it) . "

All the paths are blocked for Man except for those Muslims who follow in the footsteps of the Prophet (saw) For such believers all roads to goodness are open .

As was mentioned earlier the best followers of the Quran and the prophet were the companions of the Prophet (SAW).

They undoubtedly the best in terms of understanding the religious obligations, the Sunnah of the Prophet and the way of establishing the Islamic teachings. Their belief is an example for us, as Allah says in the Quran: "So if they believe in the like of that which you believe, they are rightly guided, but if they turn away, then they are only in opposition. So Allah will suffice you against them. And He is the All-Hearer, the All-Knower." [2:137]

And they are the best people, and the Prophet (s.a.w.) said "The best of the people are my generation, then those after them, then those after them..." This is also reported by Muslim, Aboo Dawood, at-Tirmidhee, An-Nasa'ee and others.

And he also said, "Do not abuse my Companions, for if any of you were to spend gold equal to (mountain of) Uhud in charity, it would not equal a handful of one of them or even half of that" [al-Bukharee, Muslim]. And he said, "Whoever abuses my Companions, upon them is the curse of Allah, the angels and all the people" [Saheeh, At-Tabaranee].

The Sahaba (Companions) are praised in many Quranic verses: "You are the best of peoples ever raised for mankind, you enjoin good and forbid evil, and you believe in Allah..." [3:110] "And the first to embrace Islam of the Muhajiroon (the Emigrants from Makkah) and the Ansar (the citizens of Al-Madeenah who helped the Muhajiroon) and also those who followed them exactly (in Faith). Allah is well-pleased with them as they are well pleased with Him. He has prepared for them Gardens under which rivers flow, to dwell therein forever. That is the supreme success." [9:100] "Indeed, Allah was pleased with the believers when they gave their pledge to you (O Muhammad) under the tree. He knew what was in their hearts and He sent down calmness and tranquillity upon them..." [48:18]

And Allah also described them: "Among the believers are men who have been true to their covenant with Allah and showed not their backs to the disbeliever's, of them some have fulfilled their obligations and some of them are still waiting, but they never changed (i.e. they never proved treacherous to their covenant which they concluded with Allah) in the least." [33:23]

So let us look at how they followed the prophet so that we know how to follow Allah and His Messenger correctly.

Let us turn our minds back to the early days of Islam and listen to those people who truly knew how to follow and love the Messenger of Allah.

On the day of the battle of Badr the Muslims said "Go forth , O Messenger of Allah, to your desired destination , for we are with you. We swear by Him who has sent you with the truth that (even) if you decided to cross this sea, will would all follow you, not even a single man from us will fall behind. Go forth with the blessing of Allah .

When the verse for the prohibition of alcohol came down they didn't ask why is it prohibited they just poured it away and he who had alcohol in his mouth spat it out.

And when the verses for hijab came the Muslim Women didn't say why or but our female rights or girl power or why us and not the men, they immediately cut their waist sheets at the edges and covered their heads and faces with the cut pieces of cloth.

On another occasion because the men mixed with the women in the street, and so the Messenger of Allah (SAW), said "Draw back, for you (women) must not walk in the middle of the road; keep to the sides of the road." Then the women walked so close to the walls that their garments rubbed against them.

Umar once came to the messenger and said "O Messenger of Allah I love you more the whole world and what it contains except myself and the Messenger said " No Umar you will never taste the sweetness of Iman until I become dearer to you than the whole world and all it contains including yourself "

These were hearts that truly loved Allah and His Messenger and that is why they are known as the best generation and ten of them were given the news of a place in paradise by the Prophet (SAW) himself even though they were still alive. These were the ideal Muslims and we should try to be like them as much as possible. As for those poeple who want to devise a better way than the sahaba to follow the Quran and the Prophet we can only say that they are on a lost cause as the Prophet (SAW) said "The best of the people are my generation, then those after them, then those after them..." This is also reported by Muslim, Aboo Dawood, at-Tirmidhee, An-Nasa'ee and others. and he (SAW) said "Do not abuse my Companions, for if any of you were to spend gold equal to (mountain of) Uhud in charity, it would not equal a handful of one of them or even half of that" [al-Bukharee, Muslim]. And he said, "Whoever abuses my Companions, upon them is the curse of Allah, the angels and all the people" [Saheeh, At-Tabaranee].

Thus we can not have Iman until we love and obey Allah's Messenger (SAW) the way the Sahaba obeyed and loved him. In another hadith The prophet said" Everyone will be with the one he loves." Who would not want to be with the Prophet in the Jannat Al-Firdous? Unfortunatelly many Muslims do not follow the Quran and the Prophet's Sunnah as the companions did some of them want to devise their own ways (such as the Sufi's) other want to have an Islam which suits their desire (such as the modernists) and their are many others who want to understand Islam in a different way and this has led them to stray away from the path of Islam.

In this time of ours were we have so many deviant sects we have to remember the golden rules and that is Follow what Allah has said in His Book Al Quran and what the prophet (SAW) has said. The prophet (saw) has foretold us about our situation in the following hadith

However we know this would hapen because the Prophet has told us that this will happen. The Prophet (s.a.w.) said, "The tribes of Israel broke into seventy- two sects. My Ummah shall break up into seventy-three sects. All of them will be in the Fire, except one: what I am upon and my Companions." [At-Tirmidhee]

So it is clear from the above saying of the Prophet (saw) that all paths other than what the Prophet (saw) Himself was on and what His companions were on will lead to the hellfire were we do not want to be so we should follow Islam as shown to us by the Prophet and His companions.

The prophet (SAW) did not leave anything out He even told us the manners of how to go to the toilet. Without the prophet (SAW) telling us about this we would not have known. So how can we know about far more complicated matters such as how to love the Prophet or follow him or get close to Allah without being told?

To end this is what the Prophet (saw) told us to do in our time

Unfortunately the deviant Muslim sects such as the Sufis and the Modernists when asked about toilet manners they will refer to hadith [sayings of the Prophet (SAW)] but when it comes to loving and following the they will not refer to what Allah says and what the Prophet says nor what the rightly guided khalifs did but they will come with their own system of loving the Prophet (SAW) and thus adding to the religion something that was not there. No Muslim no matter how pious he/she is will achieve the piety of the Sahaba so how can we invent a better way to love the Prophet (SAW) than the way of the sahaba? The answer is very simple. We cannot invent a better way to get closer to Allah nor a better way to love the Prophet (saw). And the Prophet (SAW) has warned us of the severe consequences of inventing new matters in religion. We are fortunate that Allah Himself will protect the Quran, otherwise we would have added or even deleted parts of it like the Christians and thus no longer have a book that is totally error free.

It is quite clear from the above and the following hadith that we must follow the path that the prophet and His companions were on. They did not celebrate his birthday and other invented things so why should we? In fact this is an insult to them because we are indirectly saying that we know better than them.

On the authority of Abu Najih Al-Erbadh bin Sariah, who said:

The messenger of Allah gave us a sermon by which our hearts were filled with fear and tears came to our eyes. We said: "O Messenger of Allah, it is as though this is a farewell sermon, so council us." He said: "I council you to fear Allah and to give absolute obedience even if a slave becomes your leader. Verily he among you who lives [long] will see great controversy, so you must keep to my Sunnah and to the Sunnah of the rightly-guided Khalifahs - cling to them stubbornly. Beware of newly invented matters, for every invented matter is an innovation and every innovation is a going astray, and every going astray is in Hell-fire."

(The rightly-guided Khalifahs were Abu Bakr, then 'Umar, then 'Uthman, then 'Ali.)