Prophet Muhammad's (peace on him) Companions &

The First Three Generations of Muslims

Prophet Muhammad peace on him, said: "The best of my nation is my generation then those who follow them and then those who follow them." (Saheeh Bukhaaree)

Ahl as-Sunnah believe that the Caliph after the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) is Abu Bakr; then 'Umar; then 'Uthman, then 'Ali, and that whoever contests the Caliphate of any one of these Imams is indeed more lost than an ass.  Ahl as-Sunnah do not think that each of the Sahabah (May Allah be pleased with them) is infallible of committing grave sins or light sins, but that they are liable to commit general offenses. Nevertheless, to them belongs priority in accepting Islam and in doing good deeds which qualify them for forgiveness of what they may have committed, to the extent that their offenses are forgiven. The same offenses will not be forgiven of those who come after them because they (as-Sahabah (May Allah be pleased with them) have a credit of good deeds which erase the bad deeds, a credit the generations after them do not have. It has been confirmed by the saying of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him): "That they are the best of all generations," (hadith al-Bukhari and Muslim)

[Ahl as-Sunnah] urge people to mend the relations with those who have broken with them, to give to those who have deprived them, and to forgive those who have done injustice to them. They order people to keep filial piety, to be good to other relatives, to be good neighbors, to treat orphans, wayfarers and the poor kindly and to be gentle and humane to the slave. They forbid bragging, arrogance and transgression. They prevent people from feeling superior over others, rightly or wrongly. And they bid people use high manners and prohibit them from pursuing trifles. All that they say or do of the above, or of other than it, in all of it they follow the Book (The Qur'an) and the Sunnah. Their "path" is the religion of Islam, for which Allah sent Muhammad (peace be upon him).

But for all this, the Prophet (peace be upon him) foretold: "That his 'Ummah will split into seventy-three factions, all of them in Hell except one: The Jama'ah (the Community)." (Reported by Ahmad Ibn Hanbal)

 And (the Prophet) (peace be upon him) said in another hadith: "They are those who will follow what I am and what my companions are today." (at-Tirmidhi)

Ikrimah ibn Abi Jahl

He was at the end of the third decade of his life on the day the
Prophet made public his call to guidance and truth. He was held in
high regard by the Quraysh, being wealthy and of noble lineage. Some
others like him, Sa'd ibn abi Waqqas, Mus'ab ibn Umayr and other
sons of noble families in Makkah had become Muslims. He too might
have followed their example were it not for his father. His father,
Abu Jahl, was the foremost proponent of Shirk and one of the
greatest tyrants of Makkah. Through torture, he sorely tested the
faith of the early believers but they remained steadfast. He used
every strategem to make them waver but they continued to affirm the
truth.

Ikrimah found himself defending the leadership and authority of his
father as he pitted himself against the Prophet. His animosity
towards the Prophet, his persecution of his followers and his
attempts to block the progress of Islam and the Muslims won the
admiration of his father.

At Badr, Abu Jahl led the Makkan polytheists in the battle against
the Muslims. He swore by al-Laat and al- Uzza that he would not
return to Makkah unless he crushed Muhammad. At Badr he sacrificed
three camels to these goddesses. He drank wine and had the music of
smglng girls to spur the Quraysh on to fight.

Abu Jahl was among the first to fall in the battle. His son Ikrimah
saw him as spears pierced his body and heard him let out his last
cry of agony. Ikrimah returned to Makkah leavmg behind the corpse of
the Quraysh chieftain, his father. He wanted to bury him in Makkah
but the crushing defeat they suffered made this impossible.

From that day, the fire of hatred burned even more fiercely in the
heart of Ikrimah. Others whose fathers were killed at Badr, also
became more hostile to Muhammad and his followers. This eventually
led to the Battle of Uhud.

At Uhud Ikrimah was accompanied by his wife, Umm Hakim. She and
other women stood behind the battle lines beating their drums,
urging the Quraysh on to battle and upbraiding any horseman who felt
inclined to flee.

Leading the right flank of the Quraysh was Khalid ibn Walid. On the
left was Ikrimah ibn abi Jahl. The Quraysh inflicted heavy losses on
the Muslims and felt that they had avenged themselves for the defeat
at Badr. This was not, however, the end of the state of conflict.

At the battle of the Ditch, the Quraysh mushrikun besieged Madinah.
It was a long siege. The resources and the patience of the mushrikun
were wearing out. Ikrimah, feeling the strain of the siege, saw a
place where the ditch, dug by the Muslims, was relatively narrow.
With a gigantic effort, he managed to cross. A small group of
Quraysh followed him. It was a foolhardy undertaking. One of them
was immediately killed and it was only by turning on his heels that
Ikrimah managed to save himself.

Nine years after his hijrah, the Prophet returned with thousands of
his companions to Makkah. The Quraysh saw them approaching and
decided to leave the way open for them because they knew that the
Prophet had given instructions to his commanders not to open
hostilities. Ikrimah and some others however went against the consen-
sus of the Quraysh and attempted to block the progress of the
Muslim forces. Khalid ibn al-Walid, now a Muslim, met and defeated
them in a small engagement during which some of Ikrimah's men were
killed and others who could, fled. Among those who escaped was
Ikrimah himself.

Any standing or influence that Ikrimah may have had was now
completely destroyed. The Prophet, peace be upon him, entered Makkah
and gave a general pardon and amnesty to all Quraysh who entered the
sacred mosque, or who stayed in their houses or who went to the
house of Abu Sufyan, the paramount Quraysh leader. However he
refused to grant amnesty to a few individuals whom he named. He gave
orders that they should be killed even if they were found under the
covering of the Ka'bah. At the top of this list was Ikrimah ibn abi
Jahl. When Ikrimah learnt of this, he slipped out of Makkah in
disguise and headed for the Yemen.

Umm Hakim, Ikrimah's wife, then went to the camp of the Prophet.
With her was Hind bint Utbah, the wife of Abu Sufyan and the mother
of Mu'awiyah, and about ten other women who wanted to pledge
allegiance to the Prophet. At the camp, were two of his wives, his
daughter Fatimah and some women of the Abdulmuttalib clan. Hind was
the one who spoke. She was veiled and ashamed of what she had done
to Hamzah, the Prophet's uncle, at the battle of Uhud.

"O Messenger of God," she said, "Praise be to God Who has made
manifes1 the religion He has chosen for Himself. I beseech you out
of the bonds of kinship to treat me well. I am now a believing woman
who affirms the Truth of your mission." She then unveiled herself
and said:

"I am Hind, the daughter of Utbah, O Messenger of God. "

"Welcome to you," replied the Prophet, peace be on him.

"By God, O Prophet" continued Hind, "there was not a house on earth
that I wanted to destroy more than your house. Now, there is no
house on earth that I so dearly wish to honour and raise in glory
than yours."

Umm Hakim then got up and professed her faith in Islam and said:

"O Messenger of God, Ikrimah has fled from you to the Yemen out of
fear that you would kill him. Grant him security and God will grant
you security."

"He is secure," promised the Prophet.

Umm Hakim set out immediately in search of Ikrimah. Accompanying her
was a Greek slave. When they had gone quite far on the way, he tried
to seduce her but she managed to put him off until she came to a
settlement of Arabs. She sought their help against him. They tied
him up and kept him. Umm Hakim continued on her way until she
finally found Ikrimah on the coast of the Red Sea in the region of
Tihamah. He was negotiating transport with a Muslim seaman who was
saying to him:

"Be pure and sincere and I will transport you."

"How can I be pure?" asked Ikrimah.

"Say, I testify that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is
the Messenger of Allah."

"I have fled from this very thing," said Ikrimah.

At this point, Umm Hakim came up to Ikrimah and said:

"O cousin, I have come to you from the most generous of men, the
most righteous of men, the best of men . . . from Muhammad ibn
Abdullah. I have asked him for an amnesty for you. This he has
granted. So do not destroy yourself."

"Have you spoken to him?"

"Yes, I have spoken to him and he has granted you amnesty," she
assured him and he returned with her. She told him about the attempt
of their Greek slave to dishonour her and Ikrimah went directly to
the Arab settlement where he lay bound and killed him.

At one of their resting places on their way back, Ikrimah wanted to
sleep with his wife but she vehemently refused and said:

"I am a Muslimah and you are a lifushrik."

Ikrimah was totally taken aback and said, "Living without you and
without your sleeping with me is an impossible situation."

As Ikrimah approached Makkah, the Prophet, peace be upon him, told
his companions:

"Ikrimah ibn abi Jahl shall come to you as a believer and a muhajEr
(a refugee). Do not insult his father. Insulting the dead causes
grief to the living and does not reach the dead."

Ikrimah and his wife came up to where the Prophet was sitting. The
Prophet got up and greeted him enthusiastically.

"Muhammad," said Ikrimah, "Umm Hakim has told me that you have
granted me an amnesty."

"That's right," said the Prophet, "You are safe."

"To what do you invite?" asked Ikrimah.

"I invite you to testify that there is no god but Allah and that I
am the servant of Allah and His messenger, to establish Prayer and
pay the Zakat and carry out all the other obligations of Islam."

"By God," responded Ikrimah, "You have only called to what is true
and you have only commanded that which is good. You lived among us
before the start of your mission and then you were the most
trustworthy of us in speech and the most righteous of us."
Stretching forth his hands he said, "I testify that there is no god
but Allah and that Muhammad is His servant and His messenger." The
Prophet then instructed him to say, "I call on God and those present
here to witness that I am a Muslim who is a Mujahid and a Muhajir".
This Ikrimah repeated and then said:

"I ask you to ask God for forgiveness for me for all the hostility I
directed against you and for whatever insults I expressed in your
presence or absence." The Prophet replied with the prayer:

"O Lord, forgive him for all the hostility he directed against me
and for all the expeditions he mounted wishing to put out Your
light. Forgive him for whatever he has said or done in my presence
or absence to dishonour me." Ikrimah's face beamed with happiness.

"By God, O messenger of Allah, I promise that whatever I have spent
obstructing the way of God, I shall spend twice as much in His path
and whatever battles I have fought against God's way I shall fight
twice as much in His way."

From that day on, Ikrimah was committed to the mission of Islam as a
brave horseman in the field of battle and as a steadfast worshipper
who would spend much time in mosques reading the book of God. Often
he would place the mushaf on his face and say, "The Book of my Lord,
the words of my Lord" and he would cry from the fear of God.

Ikrimah remained true to his pledge to the Prophet. Whatever battles
the Muslims engaged in thereafter, he participated in them and he
was always in the vanguard of the army. At the battle of Yarmuk he
plunged into the attack as a thirsty person after cold water on a
blistering hot day. In one encounter in which the Muslims were under
heavy attack, Ikrimah penetrated deep into the ranks of the
Byzantines. Khalid ibn al-Walid rushed up to him and said, "Don't,
Ikrimah. Your death will be a severe blow to the Muslims."

"Let us carry on, Khalid," said Ikrimah, now at the peak of
motivation. "You had the privilege of being with the Messenger of
God before this. As for myself and my father, we were among his
bitterest enemies. Leave me now to atone for what I have done in the
past. I fought the Prophet on many occasions. Shall I now flee from
the Byzantines? This shall never be." Then calling out to the
Muslims, he shouted, "Who shall pledge to fight until death?"

Four hundred Muslims including al-Harith ibn Hisham and Ayyash ibn
Abi Rabiah responded to his call. They plunged into the battle and
fought heroically without the leadership of Khalid ibn al-Walid.
Their daring attack paved the way for a decisive Muslim victory.

When the battle was over, the bodies of three wounded mujahideen lay
sprawled on the battleground, among them Al-Harith ibn Hisham,
Ayyash ibn Abi Rabi'ah and Ikrimah ibn abi Jahl. Al-Harith called
for water to drink. As it was brought to him, Ayyash looked at him
and Harith said:

"Give it to Ayyash." By the time they got to Ayyash, he had just
breathed his last. When they returned to al-Harith and Ikrimah, they
found that they too had passed away.

The companions prayed that God may be pleased with them all and
grant them refreshment from the spring of Kawthar in Paradise, a
refreshment after which there is thirst no more.

"The best words in their best order in any language cannot adequately depict the way God's Messenger (peace be upon him) looked at the dirham and dinar, wealth and property, and the world and all that it stands for. Indeed, even the disciples who had served their time at the feet of the Prophet's companions (may Allah be pleased with them) or the disciples of such disciples never regarded fortunes and treasures fit enough for the dusthole. Their pure and pious lives, their indifference to wealth and worldly possessions, the way they showered bounty on one and all and preferred others over their own selves, their contentedness with the barest minimum and their heroic selflessness and self-denial take one's breath away. One can only picture to oneself the nobleness of heart and openhanded generosity as well as self-abnegation and unearthly disposition of the great teacher who had enlarged the minds of all the later godly souls."
 
-IslamToday.com