WHO WAS ABU HURAIRA r.a?

Who was Abu Huraira RA? (The lover of cats so much that this became his name)

There can be no doubt that Muhammad Mustafa, the final messenger of Allah, pbuh, loved Abu Huraira, r.a. and in turn Abu Huraira, r.a., loved Muhammad, pbuh, more than anyone or anything in the world.

Here is a short history to this companion of Prophet Muhammad pbuh who was an avid scribe and noted each and every moment with Prophet Muhammad pbuh in as much detail as possible.

HERE ARE SOME FACTS ABOUT HIM:

• Abu Huraira, r.a., along with 70 others from the Banu Dos tribe, embraced Islam and did Hijrah to join forces with Muhammad, pbuh.
• Abu Huraira, r.a., left everything in the world to embrace the Prophet, pbuh. He took his mother and his slave with him on the journey to Madinah leaving everything else behind. When he reached Madinah, he found that the Prophet, pbuh, was in Khaibar, fighting a Jewish tribe.
• Abu Huraira, r.a., joined the Prophet, pbuh, in the final days of the battle at Khaibar, in the 7th year of the Hijrah. His first act on meeting the Prophet, pbuh, was TO FREE HIS SLAVE. Islam teaches the freeing the slaves and Abu Huraira, r.a., started his life with the Prophet, pbuh, by freeing his slave.
• The Prophet, pbuh, took Abu Huraira, r.a., with him on a series of Jihad expeditions immediately after the battle of Khaibar. Some eyewitness narrations of these expeditions by Abu Huraira, r.a., are available in Hadith and in early history books. The purpose was to ward off attacks by Jewish and other tribes, which were moving to attack the Muslims. For instance there is a narration by Abu Huraira about the expedition of Wadi al-Qurra in Tabari’s TARIKH, vol. 3. A very severe expedition was that of Zaat ar-raqa’a. Some details in Bukhari’s Sahih indicate that there was only one camel for six mujahideen. They rode by turns and the rough terrain tore up the feet of the Sahaba. Abu Huraira, r.a., prayed Salatul Khauf with the Prophet, pbuh, on this expedition. 
[Bukhari’s Sahih, vol. 2]
• Abu Huraira, r.a., then took part in major Islamic moves by the Prophet’s, pbuh, army, including the CONQUEST of MAKKA, 8 Hijri, BATTLE of HUNAIN,, and in the expedition of TABOOK, 9 Hijri. Tabook was very difficult and required a journey of 350 miles in severe summer weather, which challenged the Romans for 20 days and foiled their attack plans. 
[See Bukhari’s Sahih, vol. 2, for Abu Huraira’s participation.]
• After these major moves, the Prophet, pbuh, also sent out Abu Huraira, r.a., in smaller raids to stop various threats. On one such occasion, the Prophet, pbuh, said to Abu Huraira, r.a. “I put you under Allah’s Trust and safeguard and He is the one whose Trust is never wasted.” 
[ Sunan of Ibn Maja, vol.2]
• During the Caliphate of Abu Bakr, ‘Umar and ‘Usman [Allah be pleased with all three], Abu Huraira, r.a., continued to participate in Jihad. One of the HISTORY CHANGING battles in Islamic history was the BATTLE OF YARMOUK, which brought down the power of the Roman Empire. The historian Ibn Asakir in his Tarikh Damishq writes that the Banu Azd, with its sub group of the Banu Dos, with Abu Huraira, r.a., in its core, was on the RIGHT WING of the Islamic army. The huge Roman army attacked and the outnumbered Muslims would have been wiped out but for the leadership of great companions of the Prophet, pbuh, such as Abu Huraira. Ibn Asakir quotes Abu Huraira, r.a., as he rallied the mujahideen. Abu Huraira said:

“O valiant believers! The hoories of Paradise are awaiting you. Prepare yourself to meet them. Prepare to gain the approach to Allah and to be accepted by Allah. At this time, no place is dearer to Allah than the one where you are standing.”

The ferocious Roman onslaught was beaten back. At that point, another 20,000 Romans attacked the small group led by Abu Huraira, r.a. Khalid ibn al-Waleed, r.a., the overall commander of the Islamic army noted the severe pressure on the right wing of his forces. He launched an all out attack on the Romans and routed them. Yarmouk changed the history of the Middle East forever.

Other historians, Ibn Athir, Ibn Kathir, have noted the participation of Abu Huraira in Jihad as far away as Jilan and Jurjan during the Caliphate of ‘Usman, r.a.

WHY DO SOME SECTARIANS ATTEMPT TO DISCREDIT THIS COMPANION OF OUR RASOOL PBUH? CLICK HERE TO READ……..


[KEY TO ABBREVIATIONS: r.a. = radi Allah unh =Allah be pleased with him.] 
[pbuh = peace be on him. ]

WAS THE HADITH WRITTEN IN THE TIME OF THE PROPHET PBUH ? PART TWO OF TWO

100-Years-Old-Photos-of-Madina: Courtesy: http://www.pics-site.com/2011/01/03/100-years-old-photos-of-madina/100-years-old-photos-of-madina-19/

Question from Sis. N. In Detroit [From a long letter]:

I am originally from Iran, moving to real Islam, Qur’an and Hadith. I read a good book by Fazlur Rahman (Chicago University) but it confused me on some points. He writes, Hadith was written in third century after the Prophet. New Trend’s web site says follow Qur’an and Hadith. I am confused please explain why Hadith was not written in time of the Prophet pbuh ?

ANSWER PART TWO OF TWO

Dr. Fazlur Rahman was influenced by Christian missionaries and Jewish orientalists. He tried to confuse the Muslims of Pakistan, with the support of the military government, but was defeated and fled to America where he was immediately given a senior position at Chicago University to teach Islam.

Both the Qur’an and the Hadith were written down in the time of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). The Qur’an is the word of Allah revealed to Muhammad (peace be on him). The Hadith is the commentary, explanation, implementation of the Qur’an by Muhammad (pbuh). Both are interlinked and essential to each other. No authentic Islamic scholar has ever tried to say that Hadith is not necessary or was written later.

 The people, who wrote down the Qur’an, on bits and pieces of materials, were the SAHABA or companions of the Prophet (pbuh). Paper and printing were not available at that time. So, people could not go around with printed and bound copies of the Qur’an. Even the collation and putting together of the Qur’an was done by the SAHABA so that the Qur’an became a BOOK between two covers after the Prophet (pbuh) passed away. This great work was done under the supervision of Abu Bakr, Umar, Osman and Ali (may Allah be pleased with them all). They were the first four rightly guided Caliphs of Islam.

The same SAHABA also wrote and transmitted the Hadith and made sure that nothing was falsely attributed to the Prophet (pbuh).

The Sahaba also MEMORIZED the QUR’AN. In fact few of them had it in writing but many of them knew it from memory. The cross checking of memory with writing was carried out to make sure that the Qur’an as revealed to the Prophet, pbuh, was transmitted to future generations and across continents as people in droves embraced islam:

بِسْمِ اللَّـهِ الرَّحْمَـٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ

إِذَا جَاءَ نَصْرُ اللَّـهِ وَالْفَتْحُ ﴿١﴾ وَرَأَيْتَ النَّاسَ يَدْخُلُونَ فِي دِينِ اللَّـهِ أَفْوَاجًا ﴿٢﴾

[110:1] Yusuf Ali

When comes the Help of Allah, and Victory,

[110:2] Yusuf Ali

And thou dost see the people enter Allah’s Religion in crowds,

The HADITH was also memorized by the SAHABA and transmitted to future generations. Any scholar of Hadith had to MEMORIZE the HADITH from the written collections of the Sahaba and then RECITE IT FROM MEMORY to his/her teacher. Thus an accurate record of the Prophet’s, pbuh, life and teachings was enshrined in the scholarship of the Muslim world.

In the era after the SAHABA various kinds of sects arose which tried to disseminate their own versions of the Qur’an. Some of them claimed that Hazrat Ali (r.a.) had received suras of the Qur’an from the Prophet, pbuh, which no one else had. The scholars of the line of Ali (r.a.) and Fatima (r.a.), such as Imam Jafar and Imam Baqir, were able to repudiate these claims because they had the Qur’an both by memory and in writing.

Similarly attempts were made to invent “Hadith.” This was a very serious effort by Kings and emperors who wanted religion to justify their tyranny and to create a “tame Islam.” The problem was aggravated by the fact that various SAHABA had migrated to various cities, and after they passed away, various people could claim that they had heard Hadith from them.

It was in that context that great scholars like Imam Bukhari stepped forward to ENSURE that fabrications did not enter the corpus of Hadith. I think that these scholars were a bit too strict and as a result they sometimes designated as “weak” even those Hadith which were authentic but which would not pass the test of extremely severe scrutiny.

Imam Bukhari and other imams are the ones Dr. Fazlur Rahman was quoting without confirming hadith chronology when he claimed that Hadith was written in the third century after the Prophet pbuh.

Unfortunately Fazlur Rahman was ignorant of the chronology of the collection and documentation of the Hadith and hence recklessly fell into the trap set for him by Christian missionaries and Jewish orientalists.

 

May Allah Subhanawataala forgive us for our mistakes.