Kowneyn Posted July 30, 2002 The First Spiritual Inheritors of the Prophet (s) : Abu Bakr as-Siddiq and cAli ibn Abi Talib Imam Amad relates in his Musnad the following hadith with a rigorously authentic (sahih) chain of transmission: "Abu Bakr does not surpass you for fasting much or praying, but because of a secret that took root in his heart." The Prophet (s) alluded to this secret when he said, in the following hadiths mentioned respectively by Suyuti in al-hawi li-l-Fatawa and by Bukhari in his Sahih. "Whatever Allah poured into my breast I have poured into the breast of Abu Bakr as-Siddiq." "Allah has expanded my breast for what He has expanded the breast of Abu Bakr and cUmar to receive." This knowledge is again alluded to in the following authentic hadith related by Tirmidhi: "I am the City of Knowledge and cAli is the Door." This knowledge is the heavenly knowledge possessed only by prophets and their inheritors, the saints. The latter are defined thus by sayyidina cAli ®: "They are the fewest in number, the greatest in rank in the sight of God. By them does God protect His creation. They are His proof on earth, until they bequeath it to their likes, and plant it firmly in their hearts. By them knowledge has taken by assault the reality of things, so that they found easy what those given to comfort found hard, and found intimacy in what the ignorant found desolate. They accompanied the world with bodies whose spirits were attached to the Highest Regard. They are the vicegerents of Allah, the Exalted, in His land. How one yearns, how one yearns to see them!" Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
