Success of the Sahaba
By AbdelRahman Murphy | 2026-01-19T10:34:42.740626+00:00 | Topic: Seerah
Success of the Sahaba
Ustadh AbdelRahman Murphy
Opening
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
Learning from Success
One of the signs of an intelligent person, someone who is very, very smart, very wise, is that they have the ability to look at other people who have been successful. They have the capacity and the drive to examine why other people were able to succeed at their goals in life.
And they're able to analyze the situation and try to take from that situation and extract the benefit or the secret ingredient as to why this person in particular was successful at their goal. You see today in business, for example, there are tons of textbooks and tons of books like Good to Great and others that talk about different companies and how they were able to maintain success over a long period of time.
In fact, you could argue that in university studies and college studies, oftentimes when someone is looking at studying their certain field, there is a portion of that course, of that curriculum, that is devoted to looking at the history of those who have been successful in the field to come.
Those theorists and scientists and political scientists and all kinds of philosophers who have laid the groundwork and the foundation of success so that people can grow upon those milestones. And it's no different in our faith. It's no different with our relationship with Allah (Glorified and Exalted be He).
The Divine Approval of the Companions
We know that of the people who are most successful with their Lord were the Prophets. May Allah send His peace and blessings upon all of them. And we know that the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), his sunnah, his example, his mentorship, his teaching is the guide, the light on the straight path of Sirat al-Mustaqim.
But there are people that are amazing examples along with the example of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). Because they themselves gave their effort, their all, all of their energy to try to emulate that example. And because of that effort, because of that struggle, these people, Allah (Glorified and Exalted be He), He says about them in Surah Tawbah, in the ayah that we just mentioned. He says:
That Allah is pleased with these people. Imagine this for a second. Imagine that you're living life and all of a sudden you receive message or note that the one that is in charge of you, the one that has authority over you, the one that you strive so hard to please and to do good by, that person sends you a message saying that I'm happy with you.
You know, it's like when you leave your classroom and your professor tells you, you're doing a great job this semester. Or your boss at work says, you're one of the top performers. You leave that gathering feeling better about yourself.
You can't help it. And you know that that indication is a sign for better things to come. When the person that is in charge of you gives you a sign of pleasure, you know that later on you can expect inshallah to have accomplished the goal of doing whatever that job required.
And so in the job of iman, of faith, of these people, the sahaba, the companions of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), those who were closest to him. When Allah sends down this verse that He is pleased with them, and then He says after that:
And they are pleased with Allah.
This is a stamp of approval. This is a seal of authenticity of their actions. That Allah (Glorified and Exalted be He) is letting all of us know, the rest of humanity, whoever reads the Qur'an, this book, they will be able to know that Allah has given His stamp of approval, (Glorified and Exalted be He), to these people.
The Humanity of the Companions
And because of that, we can look, and we can investigate, and we can study the lives of these amazing women and men, these amazing people who had the opportunity, the blessed opportunity to live in the same period of time and place, and to meet, study, learn, and emulate the life of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him).
And this is why when you meet people, we have the names of Aisha, and Abdul Rahman, and Zainab, and Salman, and all kinds of names that pay homage, that give their respect to these individuals that we try our best to copy. But there's one thing that's very interesting about the companions of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him).
There's one thing that we often overlook, and there's one thing that I think it really puts a stress on particularly the young people and converts to Islam. That it really makes things difficult when young people try to grow up and be strong in their faith, or when someone accepts Islam or re-engages later on, is that often times the stories about the companions that we tell, the narratives that are
communicated, are ones of perfection. And these narratives are framed in a way that remove the humanity from these individuals.
That we forget that the companions were the best of people, the best of generations, but they were still people. That we emulate and strive to be like them, but we often times forget that the same struggles that we have are the struggles that they had. They were not born perfect.
In fact when you look at their lives, when you hear the stories of people like Umar ibn Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him), who was a raging alcoholic, who was someone who had major issues with domestic violence. These are diseases and ills that we still see in society today. We still see the poison of alcohol flowing through communities, particularly those of lower economic standing.
That they build liquor stores and try to particularly target communities with liquor stores in areas that are run down. And you find issues of domestic violence that are just ubiquitous. Husbands and wives and children and parents and brothers and sisters really attacking physically and emotionally, hurting one another.
But we forget that Umar ibn Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him), who was the person who the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, that I am the final messenger, but if there was a messenger to come after me, it would be Umar. That he struggled with these problems before his acceptance of God Almighty in his life. That he struggled with these things.
And it wasn't that he was perfect. You see, Islam and religion and a relationship with our Creator doesn't happen to people because they're perfect, no. But in the process of happening, it perfects people.
People don't earn it with their pre-exemption of perfection. But that relationship and that struggle and that striving towards Allah, towards God Almighty, that is what gives people this sense of fulfilling their deficiencies, of polishing their blemishes, and of cleaning the heart and the soul.
So let's take a look at these people, these companions, and let's try to find out, in today's Jummah, in today's khutbah, what was it that made them so special? And what are some habits that they had that we can copy, that we can emulate? In today, in 2015, in Boston.
Although, alhamdulillah, Boston is beautiful when it doesn't look like Antarctica, right? MashaAllah. We ask Allah to give you guys a long summer. Ameen. And keep winter far away. Ameen.
But what was it that these individuals had that we can copy today in our lives that can make us closer to our Creator, and closer to the straight path, and closer to the sunnah, the practice of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him).
Three Qualities of the Companions
There were three things that I want to talk about today. Now, there's many. If you look at the lives of the companions, there are many things.
And this, by the way, you should do this. You should pick up the biographies of these individuals, and of the individual of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), the seerah, and as well as the hayat al-sahaba. You should pick up these books with your families, with your kids, and your spouses, and your parents.
And you should sit everyday, or once a week, for 20 minutes, and just talk about the stories of these people. You know, one of the issues with education of religion is that we teach it in a vacuum. We teach it in abstract.
When Allah (Glorified and Exalted be He) says that He sent down to the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), He said, in Surah Yusuf, He says, We sent you down the best of stories.
Quran 12:3
There's a reason why the majority of scripture of the Qur'an is in story mode, narrative mode, because it's very easy to learn from stories. It's very easy to remember stories.
So sit with your friends and families once a week and have a little halaqa, 15 minutes, talking about the lives of the companions. Talk about Fatima (may Allah be pleased with her). Talk about Mus'ab ibn Umair.
Talk about Mu'adh ibn Jabal (may Allah be pleased with them). And get some blessings and extrapolate some lessons from their lives.
First Quality: Strong Belief in the Afterlife
The first that I will talk about today, in today's khutbah, is one that Allah (Glorified and Exalted be He) teaches us in the revelation of the Qur'an.
And how in Meccan Qur'an, in the initial revelation, there was a specific focus of topic. You know, in the Qur'an in Medina that was revealed to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), the second stage of revelation, you find there was a lot of fiqh, a lot of legality, a lot of rules, a lot of do's and don'ts. But in the beginning of Qur'anic revelation, you could argue in the first half or more, 13 years.
In the first half of that revelation, the focus was solely on belief in God as one. Belief in the day of resurrection. Belief in the day of judgment and the day of resurrection.
And belief in the books and prophets and all the things of Iman. Belief in the angels, etc. It didn't focus on rules.
It didn't focus on do this, do that. What it focused on was, what is the status and the quality of your relationship with your creator. And this is genius for so many reasons.
But particularly when we talk about how religion is taught today, we teach a lot of rules. You know, the 7 year old and 8 year old, they know how to pray perfectly. But if you ask them why they pray, they don't know why.
People who accept Islam, who convert to Islam, they know exactly what they can and cannot eat. But they don't know why that is. And they don't know details about their relationship with their Lord.
We focus on rules a lot. And fiqh is important. But if we don't have the foundation of tawhid and Iman, if we don't have that fertile soil, then fiqh can't grow.
You see, fiqh is something that has to grow over time, that people practice, that people put into motion. But if there's no soil to hold it, to anchor that plant of legality, then the people will struggle with that. And so you have here that the one reason or the first reason why the companions were so remarkable was that they had such strong conviction in the existence of the afterlife.
They were convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that the afterlife existed. Now if I ask anyone in this room right now, do you believe in the afterlife? Everyone will say yes, insha'Allah. If I say, do you believe as a Muslim? Do you believe in that one day we will be resurrected? And we'll have to answer for our deeds.
And we will either be granted into paradise or we will have to suffer the consequence of hellfire. Everyone will say yes, this is basic, basic Islam. But the difference or the thing that pushed them over the edge was that their belief in al-akhirah, their iman in the afterlife changed their actions in this life.
It wasn't theory, it wasn't future, it was now. You know, often times we think of the al-akhirah as only being effective in our future. No, the al-akhirah is effective in our lives right now.
You find Abu Bakr As-Siddiq (may Allah be pleased with him), the closest companion to the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). I want you to think about this for a second. What was the famous statement that he made? He said, if you were to put heaven and hellfire in front of me right now, I could see both of them in front of my eyes.
He said, I would not be increased in belief by them by one atom, by one seed of belief. I already believe in them so much that even seeing them with my own eyes wouldn't affect my quality of belief in them. Subhanallah.
That's the quality of belief that when someone is alone by themselves and they are tempted to cook the books a little bit in their accounting office, to pocket some change, to have a conversation with somebody that they shouldn't, to look at lewd material like pornography when they shouldn't. That kind of belief is what hold somebody back. The absolute conviction that this is real and that one day someone is going to have to go through that experience.
Their iman in the afterlife was huge. And they didn't value this life anywhere close to the next life. This life did not hold the weight of the next life.
One of the poets, he said something beautiful. He said:
When he was speaking about the dunya, he said, if you want to live a life of happiness in this world, then live in such a way where you don't need it.
If you want to be someone who is truly happy in this life, the hayat al-dunya, then try to live your best in a way that you don't need this life. Not that you're going to live in a way where you're constantly struggling, and your family is not taken care of, no. But that in your heart of hearts, you know that this is not the end goal.
And that is what the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) said, when he said:
That true wealth, true richness is actually contentment. True wealth, if someone is rich, it has nothing to do with the amount in their bank account, because someone can be financially wealthy, but still be needy. And someone can be financially poor, but still be content.
So true wealth, the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) said, is when a person is completely and totally satisfied with this life, and understands that all of their effort, all of their emotion and energy and focus should be on the next life. So those companions, what was remarkable about them was that any good that they received in this world, they used it to benefit the next world. Any car or camel, I'm sorry, right? Any mode of transportation, any money, property, wealth, gift, any blessing they got in this life, the first thought that crossed their mind was, how can I use this to better my property in Al-Akhirah, in the next life.
They weren't ultimately concerned with this life, which is a very difficult station to get to, but it changes everything. We ask Allah, God Almighty to grant us that station. Ameen.
Second Quality: Immediate Obedience
The second quality that they had, the companions had, which was remarkable, absolutely amazing, that really shows you and shows us as a group, how they transcended from being the average human being to being enlightened, was that when something was revealed, when something from the Qur'an, from divine scripture was shown to them or revealed to them through the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), or when something came as a teaching from the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), they listened to it right away. They obeyed it immediately. They didn't question.
You know, today, nowadays, someone might come to you and say, brother, you know, the Qur'an says this, we should really try to stay away from that. Oh, but you know, isn't there some sort of loophole? You know, we live in America now, can we... There's this loophole searching system. We become the best detectives, mashallah, when it comes to what the Qur'an and the hadith say.
But listen to this story of Hakeem ibn Hizam. Listen to this story and think to yourself the quality of dedication he had to his faith. Hakeem ibn Hizam was the cousin of Khadijah, the wife of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him).
And Hakeem was somebody who was not very wealthy. In fact, he struggled financially. He didn't have a lot of money.
So he would go to the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) and he narrates this hadith. He says:
(Source Name)
He says, I asked the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) and this is a very classy way of him saying, basically, I asked him for some money. Right, سَأَلْتُ فَأَعْطَانِي I asked him and he gave me.
Then he said:
(Source Name)
Then I asked him again and he gave me. Then one more time:
(Source Name)
So he's begging from the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) three times. Can I have some money? Okay.
Can I have some money? Okay. Then the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) says to him:
Hakeem says:
Let me teach you something about this money that you're asking for.
Because you're very focused on it. He said, this money that you keep striving for, that you keep pushing for, he said it has two qualities. Number one, it's very sweet.
Which means the what? That you can enjoy it for a brief moment, but it's not good for you and it spoils quickly. And number two, he says it's green, right? Like it's very lively, it looks very, you know, full of life, but in reality that's just a delusion. Then he tells him:
That whoever takes it to satisfy their soul, to be satisfied with it, and not seeking more money.
That Allah will place blessing in the amount that they got. So if someone wants some money and doesn't want more, they just want a little bit to take care of themselves, their family, their needs, Allah will put بركة in their money. But if a person:
That whoever takes it, and always constantly wants more of it, never is satisfied with it, then Allah will not put بركة in it
That this person will be like a person who eats food and never gets full, like a teenage boy, right? That they eat food and they never get full, they're constantly hungry.
So what is he teaching حكيم in this conversation? He's teaching حكيمlook man, this money it has a purpose, but if you make this your end goal, if this dunya, this money becomes your end goal in life, you'll never be satisfied, you'll never truly be happy if you constantly keep looking after money.
And this is why the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) said that nothing will satisfy the sons and daughters of Adam, i.e. all of humanity, except for dirt, meaning the grave.
Nothing will satisfy the soul of the sons and daughters, meaning what? That this dunya is in a way where we constantly want more. Your nafs will never tell you stop. Your nafs, my nafs will never tell me, Abdurrahman, that's enough.
It will always say, get more, more, more. So it's up to the قَلْب the heart of the individual, the iman to say, enough.
Listen to this, that story was remarkable, yes? But listen to how it completely transformed حکیم from someone who asked the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) three times, now listen to this.
He said, I left the company of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). I walked away from the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), that moment, and I was shaking. The knowledge he gave me, it caused me to actually shake.
Like to really think about who I am and what I'm doing with my life. And he said that later on, after the death of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), he proclaimed, actually he told the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that day, I will never ask for money from anyone ever again. And I will never take it from anyone ever again.
Look at that dedication. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) tells him, look, be smart. By the way, the Prophet didn't forbid him from asking or taking. He just said, don't do it so often. But he was so fervent and so devoted, that he said, I will never do it again. And many of us have been in that situation.
Ramadan comes, we get very spiritually high up, and we're like, I'm never gonna go back to that sin again. And now Ramadan is a little bit over, a month gone. And subhanAllah, look at us.
Back to the state that we've been. The masjid is empty, right? May Allah forgive us. So he leaves, and the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) passes away.
Now listen to this. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) passes away. Meaning the one who told him, don't ask so much, is no longer there in the flesh. So you think to yourself, okay, he's a human being, he's weak. He's probably gonna start asking again. No.
During the khilafah of Abu Bakr As-Siddiq, Hakeem was given a stipend. Meaning what? That the government gave him some welfare. When the time came for him to get his check, Hakeem said, no, I'm not gonna take it.
Show me where the marketplace is, let me get to work. They said, Hakeem, this is your money. He said, no.
The Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) said that:
(Source Name)
The one that gives is better than the one that takes. Right? The hand that gives, be a giver, don't be a taker. So I'm gonna go and make my own money, and I'm gonna give, I don't wanna take anymore.
Subhanallah. Then Abu Bakr As-Siddiq passes away, and Umar ibn Khattab's leadership comes, and the ummah has more wealth, and so there's more welfare, and Hakeem has his stipend, and he says, no, I'm not gonna take it. So Umar, he becomes concerned.
Why? Because if Hakeem is not taking his money, everyone's gonna say, who's keeping it? Oh, Umar is keeping the money. So he's keeping a little extra on the side. So Umar calls everyone into the middle of the city, and he says, listen, Hakeem, take your money, dude.
If you don't take it, who's gonna take it? Hakeem says, Wallahi, I will not take it. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said:
(Source Name)
I'm not gonna take it. So Umar ibn Khattab said, okay, we're gonna put it back into the بيت المال the charity, the welfare system.
But look at how Hakeem was transformed. One conversation, one with the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), and he completely stifled his ego, completely extinguished his sense of entitlement, his sense of selfishness and said, I'm gonna listen to what the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) said.
Imagine the quality of the Muslim, the believer, when if they read something, they do it. If they hear something, they do it:
That when the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) says this, we do it and we do it happening.
Imagine the quality of someone's faith, that they're able to do that.
We ask Allah to give us that quality of faith. That when we hear:
When we hear the speech of Allah, or the wisdom and the sunnah of his Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), that our hearts yearn to follow that guidance.
Third Quality: Understanding the "Why" Behind Islamic Practices
We're gonna do the third one inshallah, after the break of du'a.
So we ask Allah (Glorified and Exalted be He) to accept, and to accept the first khutbah. We ask Allah (Glorified and Exalted be He) to forgive us all of our sins.
I want to finish the third characteristic by going back to something that I mentioned earlier.
And the reason why I want to talk about this characteristic is because in the city that I live in right now there have been a large amount of young people and families, mothers and fathers of teenage and college age Muslims that have come to me and said that our young people, our kids, our children they are all just leaving Islam like in large groups like I'm talking 30, 40, 50 kids at a time.
And when I sit and talk to them and I ask the parents okay, this is obviously a problem but these things don't happen overnight can you tell me how did you teach your kids about Islam? How did you teach them about Islam? They said, you know, we just kind of did what our parents did and we just kind of did what the community was doing Sunday school, prayer, prayers, fast in Ramadan, etc.
And it's become clear to me that we have become a community of what and how without a why.
We have become a community that tells people what to do and how to do it without explaining to them why we do it in the first place. And this is a very, very dangerous way of explaining faith. It's a very dangerous way of mentoring someone's faith and their relationship with Allah (Glorified and Exalted be He) because after a period of time a person's nafs, their ego will revolt against the what and the how and if they don't have the why to de-escalate the situation then it's going to get out of control.
You know, the companions, the last thing that I wanted to talk about today that made them great was that they had a very thorough understanding of why they were doing what they were doing. Why they did what they did.
Why am I praying? Because Allah (Glorified and Exalted be He) says that prayer is a sign of gratitude for the servant.
Why am I fasting?
Because it gives me taqwa. Why am I giving charity? Because it purifies my wealth. They would be able to quote the Qur'an for every instance of worship to understand the rationale behind that worship.
Now I'm not saying that a human being has the right to question God. I'm not saying that. What I'm saying is that if we are going to teach our people, our community that this is a faith that is beautiful and enriching they have to be able to understand and explain to others who maybe are not Muslim why that is because they're going to have the same questions.
And I'm going to tell all of you parents now. All you parents of Muslim kids right now. If you cannot explain to your co-workers and your colleagues and your neighbors why you do things in Islam then you will not be able to explain it to your kids.
Because the younger generation is growing up in a society now that is empirical in nature. We are empiricists. We question everything.
It's the basis upon what American philosophy was built on is questioning. If I can't taste, touch, smell, see or hear or feel something I don't believe in it. So we have to really think deeply about why we are Muslim.
The question that I ask young people is that if you weren't Muslim would you be the same quality of individual as you are if you were? And the companions like Umar ibn Khattab his story (may Allah be pleased with him), answers that question for us. How does Islam change the companions that we look and we study their lives? How did it change them and why did it change them?
And the more we know about why we do what we do the stronger our faith will become. We ask Allah (Glorified and Exalted be He) to give us steadfastness and our iman.
To give us strong faith. We ask Allah (Glorified and Exalted be He), we ask God Almighty to forgive us all of our sins and to forgive us all of our bad habits and to make us people who strive for goodness and good habits. And we ask Allah (Glorified and Exalted be He) to give us faith that is strong like Abu Bakr As-Siddiq.
To give us iman that is transformative like Umar ibn Khattab and to give us the devoutness and the devotion of Hakeem ibn Hizam who when we hear something we decide we're gonna do it right away. We ask Allah (Glorified and Exalted be He) to forgive all those who have passed away. We ask Allah (Glorified and Exalted be He) to cure all of those who are ill.
We ask Allah, we ask God Almighty to uplift all of humanity out of its darknesses and its oppression. We ask God Almighty to help and aid all of those who are being oppressed in America and abroad. We ask Allah (Glorified and Exalted be He) to give everyone happiness and light and contentment and a relationship with Him.
Closing Prayers and Supplications
"Indeed, Allah and His angels send blessings upon the Prophet. O you who have believed, ask [Allah to confer] blessing upon him and ask [Allah to grant him] peace."
"O Allah, send prayers upon Muhammad and upon the family of Muhammad, as You sent prayers upon Abraham and upon the family of Abraham. Indeed, You are Praiseworthy and Glorious. O Allah, bless Muhammad and the family of Muhammad, as You blessed Abraham and the family of Abraham. Indeed, You are Praiseworthy and Glorious."
"Indeed, Allah orders justice and good conduct and giving to relatives and forbids immorality and bad conduct and oppression. He admonishes you that perhaps you will be reminded."
May Allah make us of them, Ameen