So, when Allah sent down His sakinah , He excluded ‘Umar,...
So, when Allah sent down His sakinah , He excluded ‘Umar, and whoever was like him: فأنزل الله سكينته على رسوله وعلى المؤمنين So, Allah sent down His sakinah upon His Messenger and upon the believers .[^6] And: لقد رضي الله عن المؤمنين إذ يبايعونك تحت الشجرة فعلم ما في قلوبهم فأنزل السكينة عليهم He knew what was in their hearts.
Therefore, He sent down sakinah upon them.[^7] At this point, it is apposite to quote this verse: إنما المؤمنون الذين آمنوا بالله ورسوله ثم لم يرتابوا وجاهدوا بأموالهم وأنفسهم في سبيل الله أولئك هم الصادقون The believers are only those who have believed in Allah and His Messenger, and do not doubt afterwards , and they do jihad with their wealth and with their lives , for the Cause of Allah.
They are the truthful ones.[^8] Did Abu Bakr and ‘Umar ever doubt Allah or His Messenger after they had accepted Islam? Did Abu Bakr and ‘Umar ever shield their lives from jihad by running away? Were they true believers then? Can people like them really be the best ones in this Ummah after our Prophet? What about those of the Sahabah, like Imam ‘Ali, ‘alaihi al-salam , and perhaps others, who never doubted after their acceptance of Islam, and who never fled the battlefield?
How could they have been inferior? How can a doubter be superior to a firm, unshakable believer? How can someone who escapes with his life from jihad be better than someone who completely sold his life to Allah? How can someone who abandoned the Messenger of Allah in fatal danger and ran to save his own life be more valuable than another who placed his life in the midst of pagan swords so that the Prophet could live?
Most importantly, the Messenger also specifically named the second best of the entirety of this Ummah – during his lifetime – after himself. It is in Hadith al-Ikhtiyar , recorded by Imam al-Tabarani (d.
360 H): حدثنا محمد بن جابات الجند نيسابوري و الحسن بن علي المعمري قالا : ثنا عبد الرزاق عن معمر عن ابن أبي نجيح عن مجاهد عن ابن عباس قال لما زوج النبي صلى الله عليه و سلم فاطمة عليا قالت فاطمة : يا رسول الله زوجتني من رجل فقير ليس له شيء فقال رسول الله صلى الله عليه و سلم : أما ترضين يا يا فاطمة أن الله عز و جل اختار من أهل الأرض رجلين أحدهما أبوك والآخر زوجك Muhammad b. Jabat al-Jund Naysaburi AND al-Hasan b.
‘Ali al-Ma’mari – ‘Abd al-Razzaq – Ma’mar – Ibn Abi Najih – Mujahid – Ibn ‘Abbas: When the Prophet, peace be upon him, married Faṭimah to ‘Ali, Faṭimah said, “O Messenger of Allah!