COMPANIONS WERE NOT THE REAL CAUSE OF THE DISORDERS IN ISLAM

Remember well that the notion of certain eminent companions being responsible for the disorders in Islam is absolutely false. After a collective study of the accounts of these people it cannot even be imagined that they attempted to destroy and ruin Islam for their personal interests or benefit. Those who have embarked to find causes for the emergence of dissension and discord in Islam within the community of the companions have faltered gravely. The causes of disorder arose from other quarters and the only hope for reaching an accurate conclusion is if they are investigated in these quarters. If the false narrations, which have been spread in relation to that era, are accepted as being true, not a single Companion(ra) can be absolved from having taken part in this disorder and not a single one appears to have stood firmly upon virtue and honesty. This is such an attack upon the truth of Islam, that both foundation and basis are uprooted. Hazrat Masih(as) [the Messiah] states that a tree is recognised by its fruit1 and due to these narrations, the fruits of the tree of Islam prove to be so bitter that no one would even be prepared to take them for free, let alone at an expense. However, would anyone who has studied the spiritual power of the Holy Prophet(sa) to even the slightest degree, be ready to accept such a notion? Of course not! It is far from reason to presume that such people who lived in the company of the Holy Prophet(sa); were his eminent and devoted Companions; were very near relatives of the Holy Prophet(sa) and all of the other Companions without exception, deviated to such an extent in merely a few years that all of them fell into conflict due to personal interests, not due to religious reasons, and this misfortune shook the very core of Islam. It is unfortunate that although Muslims do not explicitly state that the companions created disorder in order to destroy and ruin Islam, but they have accepted the narrations of such people as being true, who had not fully accepted Islam and had only made a verbal declaration of faith. Then, they have relied on the research of bitter enemies of Islam who were in pursuit of its destruction. Ultimately, therefore, such people concede that the community of the companions was, God forbid, completely devoid of virtue and honesty.2

In my exposition, I shall bear in mind not to mention dates so that it is not difficult to understand and the subject does not become confusing. The real objective of this lecture is to familiarise college students with certain events of early Islam. For this reason, I shall also abstain from quoting Arabic quotations insofar as possible and shall describe events in the form of a narrative.