The Devotion of Life — Page 39
39 deeply desire that I am sacrificed in the way of God Almighty; I am reborn and I sacrifice my life again in His way. ’ This was not a mere longing. In fact, it was his heartfelt desire. That is why the God of the Heavens also bore testimony to it when He said, “Say, ‘My Prayer and my sacrifice and my life and my death are all for Allah, the Lord of the worlds’” (6:163). No doubt, all that he possessed was sacrificed complying with the pleasure of Allah. The Promised Messiah as has said, “Whosoever devoted his life for the sake of Allah, in fact he is a martyr. ” Thus, the status of martyrdom was granted to the Holy Prophet (Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon him), while he was alive. Hundreds, rather thousands became witness to it as they followed his path. Hadrat Abu Bakr ra , Hadrat Umar ra , Hadrat Usman ra and Hadrat Ali ra were the leaders of those who devoted their lives in the cause of Allah and traversed the dangerous and arduous path. The group included men like Hadrat Abu Ubaidah ra , Hadrat Abdur Rahman bin Auf ra , Hadrat Talha ra and Hadrat Zubair ra who followed these Leaders of Sacrifices. Then there was Hadrat Zaid bin Harath ra who gave preference to the Holy Prophet (Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon him) over his own parents and Hadrat Bilal ra who remained devoted to his Master, the Holy Prophet (Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon him) all of his life. These also included Hadrat Mus’ab bin Umair ra , who was the first Missionary of Islam in Medina and Hadrat Anas bin Malik ra who passed a large part of his childhood and youth serving the Holy Prophet (Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon him). In Medina, amongst the devoted group of Ansar there were Hadrat Sa’ad bin Mu’az ra , Hadrat Sa’ad bin Rabi’ bin Ayyub Ansari ra , Hadrat Abu Talha ra , Hadrat Khubaib bin ‘Addi ra , Hadrat Zaid bin Dathna ra and their other Companions ra in large numbers.