The Essence of Islam – Volume III — Page 158
158 Essence of Islam-III ure it was necessary to accept Islām and to obey the Holy Prophets with complete sincerity. After this absolute cer- tainty, the kind of obedience they exhibited and the feats they performed and the manner in which they laid down their lives at the feet of their Holy Preceptor, were mat- ters which were not possible for anyone who had not witnessed what the companions had witnessed. Such high qualities cannot be developed and salvation cannot be truly achieved without such means. It is, there- fore, necessary that the Beneficent God Who has invited everyone to salvation should make a similar arrangement in every century so that His creatures should not fail in any age to attain the stage of absolute certainty. Need of the Company of the Righteous The affirmation that the Holy Qur'an and the Aḥādīth alone suffice us and that we do not need the company of the righteous is opposed to the teachings of the Holy Qur'an, as Allah the Exalted has said: وَكُونُوا مَعَ الصُّدِقِينَ 126 The truthful are those who have recognized the truth through their spiritual insight and are devoted to it. This high grade of spiritual insight cannot be achieved unless heavenly guidance conveys a seeker to the stage of cer- tainty by experience. In this sense the truly righteous are the Prophets, the Messengers, the Muhaddathīn and the perfect Auliya' who are guided by heavenly light and who behold God Almighty with the sight of certainty in this very world. The verse that we have just quoted indi- cates that the world is never left without the truthful, as 126 'And be with the truthful. '-Al-Taubah, 9:119 [Publisher]