Abu Hurayrah was one of the better known of the Prophet’s companions. He was only in the Prophet’s company for four years before the Prophet had passed away, but he was in close contact with him in those years. Hence, he was able to report a large number of Hadiths which he heard directly from the Prophet. His close association with the Prophet and his firm belief in Islam made him very keen to make people understand the Islamic message and its main principles. Hence, he taught as best as he could, through the reporting of the Prophet’s sayings and explanations of the truth underlining them.
Scholars of Hadith often include in their collections statements that are not attributed to the Prophet himself. The chain of transmission stops at the Prophet’s companion who makes the statement. Scholars consider that no one of the Prophet’s companions could have ever made such a statement unless he heard it directly from the Prophet. However, many of the Prophet’s companions refrained from attributing such statements to him, for fear of being somewhat inaccurate here or there, substituting one word for a similar one, or omitting a preposition, or the like. They remembered the Prophet’s warning that anyone who attributes something to him which is not absolutely true will be in hell. They feared that if they made a mistake in reporting, the warning might apply to them. Hence they preferred to make the statement without saying clearly that they heard it from the Prophet.
The following Hadith is an example. Abd Al-Azeez, a man from the generation immediately following the Prophet’s companions, i.e. tabieen, says: “Abu Hurayrah was with us one evening when he looked at a star facing him and said: ‘By Him who holds Abu Hurayrah’s soul in His hand, some people to whom positions of government have been assigned would one day wish that they had been hanging to that star and not having taken up such positions.’ He then turned to me and said: ‘May your hater perish! Had all this seemed fair to the people of the East in their provinces?’ I said: ‘Yes, indeed.’ He said: ‘May God make them rue what they have done. By Him who holds Abu Hurayrah’s soul in His hand, He will drive them like mutilated asses, with their heads hanging down, until they go back to their own places, each returning to his field or his cattle’.” (Related by Al-Bukhari in Al-Adab Al-Mufrad)
The first point in this Hadith is that people who assume high positions of government may regret holding such positions. This is due to the fact that a position of power may tempt a person to exceed the limits of what is right. A ruler may give orders and impose certain things to preserve his power. His orders may represent some injustice to others. If this is the case, he will be punished for such injustice. God’s punishment is so severe that all the authority that position of government imparts will disappear and whatever a person enjoyed as a result of it would seem very trivial, when compared to the punishment he is made to suffer. Hence, he would wish any calamity could have happened to him if only he could be released of what he had done.
The picture given here is so vivid that the wish to disown everything one has done is very clear to us. It is a picture of a person holding to a star, fearing to fall, but sensing the inevitability of such a fall. What happens to a person when he falls from an aeroplane is so fearful that we can hardly imagine it, although, compared to the distance between the earth and a planet or a star, the height at which an aeroplane flies is minor indeed.
The Hadith then wonders at the deeds people of the East did, and if they thought they were fair. The reporter answers in the affirmative. The people of the east included at the Prophet’s time all areas beginning with Iraq. The Prophet said that trouble would be coming from that direction. It was from these provinces that the internal conflicts within the Muslim state leading to the assassination of the third and fourth Caliphs started. Later troubles came from areas further east, until the Tartars marched against the Muslim state and destroyed its capital Baghdad. There were other problems in between which also started in eastern provinces. All this may be taken as confirmation of the Prophet’s statement.
The Hadith then mentions that God has made the consequences of their deeds turn badly against them. The destruction they caused might have seemed, at the time when it was wreaked, to spell out total victory against one of the most powerful states at the time. But it was soon to be checked. The tide was turned against them, particularly the Tartars who suffered a resounding defeat at the hands of the Egyptian army in the Battle of Ain Jaloot in Palestine. They could not imagine that such an army, much smaller than their own, could stand up to their might. But their defeat was total and their power collapsed.
The end result is spelled out very clearly by the Prophet who says that they would be driven back like mutilated asses. The Prophet does not state how mutilated they would be, but the important reference here is that their defeat would be total, that they would suffer wounds and cutting of limbs and other injuries. They would hang down their heads in total humiliation. Their endeavors which promised so much as they scored victory after victory came to nothing. Thus, they came to rue what they had done. It was like those people taking up positions in government wishing that they were hanging from far away planets and stars, if only they could be freed of the burden of their power. In the same way, those Tartars were driven back, ruing the day they started from their eastern provinces on their destructive mission. It all came to nothing and they would wish only to go back to their fields and their cattle.
In this Hadith, we see again how the Prophet’s description comes true. It all confirms the fact that he did not speak of his own behest. He was inspired, or he expressed in his words the meanings revealed to him by God. Hence, his words came true in the clearest form.
The Prophet often spoke to his companions, and indeed to all generations of Muslims, pointing out the basic facts of life and faith. One of these is that death comes to us at all times and places. Sometimes a person lives in one place, but God has willed that he would die in a far away place, perhaps in the other hemisphere. If he is unlikely to go there, then God will make it necessary for him to travel there. He would go and then meet his death. The Prophet says: “If God wants to gather someone’s soul in a certain place, He will place there something he needs.” (Related by Al-Bukhari in Al-Adab Al-Mufrad, Ahmad and Al-Tirmithi).
