The Pleasure of Allāh with those who swore this fealty does...

The Pleasure of Allāh with those who swore this fealty does not obligate His Pleasure with them for eternity. The evidence for this is what He, the Almighty, said about them: “Truly those who pledge their fealty to you [O Muhammad!] do no less than pledge their fealty to Allāh: the hand of Allāh is above their hands” (Qur’ān, 48:10).

Had some of those who swore fealty not renege in his oath, and had the Pleasure of Allāh been with them forever, there would have been no use for this verse of the Almighty: “... Then anyone who violates his oath does so to the harm of his own soul” (Qur’ān, 48:10). Among the sahābah were those predicted by the Messenger of Allāh (ṣ) to revert to pre-Islamic beliefs after the Prophet’s demise and would perish on the Day of Judgment.

We know this from the following tradition which al-Bukhāri cites in his Sahīh with the isnād to Sahl ibn Sa’d who said, “I heard the Prophet (ṣ) say, “I shall precede you at the Pool [of Kawthar]. Whoever reaches it will drink of it, and whoever drinks of it shall never taste of thirst. People whom I know and who know me shall meet me there, but a barrier shall be placed between us.” Sahl goes on to say that the statement of the Prophet (ṣ) had additional details.

The Prophet (ṣ) would then say, “But they are my companions!” It will be said to him, “You do not know what alterations [to the creed] they did after you.” The Prophet (ṣ) shall say, “Crushed, may anyone who makes changes (to the creed) after me be crushed.”[^2] Abdullāh [ibn Abbās] is quoted as having cited the Prophet (ṣ) saying the following to some sahābah : “I shall precede you at the Pool. Some of you, men, shall be raised to me.

If I try to hand them [water], they shall not be able to reach me. I shall say, ‘Lord! But these are my companions!’ He shall say, ‘You do not know what they introduced [into the creed] after you.” ^3 As a testimony to both past traditions which point out to alterations and innovations introduced into the creed, the Messenger of Allāh (ṣ) compares some of his sahābah to Jewish and Christian nations that altered the Word of Allāh from its rightful place.

Abū Sa’īd al-Khudri says that the Prophet (ṣ) has said, “You shall follow the ways of those before you the distance of a span, the distance of a yard, [and so on].