Part of Pictures from the lives of the Companions (series completed)
· Lesson 6 of 93
Pictures from the lives of the Companions - Episode (21) - Abdullah bin Abbas, may God be pleased with them both
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Transcript
Machine translation — may contain errors
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In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
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The Mawaddah Association is pleased
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to present to you *Portraits from the Lives of the Companions*
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by 'Abd al-Rahman Ra'fat al-Basha,
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may Allah have mercy on him.
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'Abdullah ibn 'Abbas, may Allah be pleased with them both.
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This illustrious Companion
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attained nobility from every quarter,
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letting none of it pass him by.
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For he united in himself the honor of companionship—
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had his birth been delayed but a little,
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he would not have been honored with the companionship of the Messenger of Allah—
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and the honor of kinship,
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being the cousin of the Prophet of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him;
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and the honor of knowledge,
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for he was the profound scholar of the Ummah of Muhammad and its overflowing ocean of learning;
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and the honor of piety,
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for he fasted continuously by day,
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stood in prayer throughout the night,
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sought forgiveness in the hours before dawn,
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and wept out of the fear of Allah
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until tears carved furrows down his cheeks.
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He was indeed 'Abdullah ibn 'Abbas,
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the spiritual savant of the Ummah of Muhammad,
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the most knowledgeable of it in the Book of Allah,
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the most discerning of it in its interpretation,
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the most capable of plumbing its depths,
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and of grasping its ultimate aims and mysteries.
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Ibn 'Abbas was born before the Hijrah
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by three years,
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and when the Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him, passed away,
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he was only thirteen years old.
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Yet despite that,
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he preserved for the Muslims from their Prophet
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one thousand six hundred and sixty hadiths,
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which al-Bukhari and Muslim verified in their two *Sahih* collections.
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When his mother gave birth to him,
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she carried him to the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him,
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who softened a date and placed his saliva in the newborn's mouth.
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Thus, the very first thing to enter his belly
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was the blessed, pure saliva of the Prophet,
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and along with it entered piety and wisdom;
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"and whoever is granted wisdom has certainly been granted much good."
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No sooner were the child's amulets untied from the Hashimite boy
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and he reached the age of discernment,
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than he adhered to the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him,
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as closely as one eye to the other.
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He would prepare his ablution water for him
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whenever he intended to perform ablution,
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pray behind him whenever he stood for prayer,
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and ride behind him whenever he set out on a journey,
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until he became like his shadow, traveling wherever he traveled
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and revolving in his orbit however he turned.
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Throughout all of this,
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he bore within himself an attentive heart,
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a lucid mind,
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and a memory far surpassing any recording device
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known to the modern age.
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Recounting an occasion himself, he said:
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"The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, intended
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to perform ablution one time,
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and I hastily prepared the water for him.
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He was pleased with what I had done,
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and when he stood up to pray,
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he gestured for me to stand beside him.
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Yet I stood behind him instead.
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When the prayer ended, he turned to me and said,
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'What prevented you from standing beside me, O 'Abdullah?'
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I said, 'You are far too eminent in my eyes
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and far too venerable for me to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with you, O Messenger of Allah.'
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Thereupon he raised his hands to the sky and said:
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'O Allah, grant him wisdom!' "
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Allah answered the supplication of His Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him,
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and bestowed upon the Hashimite youth such wisdom
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that he surpassed the greatest of sages.
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No doubt, you would like to witness a glimpse of the wisdom of 'Abdullah ibn 'Abbas;
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here, then, is an incident
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that offers a part of what you seek:
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When some of 'Ali's followers seceded
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and deserted him in his dispute with Mu'awiyah, may Allah be pleased with them both,
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'Abdullah ibn 'Abbas said to 'Ali, may Allah be pleased with him:
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"Grant me permission, O Commander of the Faithful, to go to these people and speak with them."
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He replied:
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"I fear for your safety among them."
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Ibn 'Abbas said:
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"By no means, if Allah wills."
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He then entered upon them,
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and he had never seen a people more intensely devoted to worship than they.
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They said:
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"Welcome, O Ibn 'Abbas!
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What has brought you?"
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He said:
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"I have come to speak with you."
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Some of them said, "Do not speak to him!"
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while others said:
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"Speak, and we shall listen to you."
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He said:
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"Tell me:
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what grievance do you hold against the cousin of the Messenger of Allah, the husband of his daughter,
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and the first person to believe in him?"
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They said:
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"We hold three matters against him."
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He asked:
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"And what are they?"
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They answered:
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"First, he appointed men to arbitrate in the religion of Allah;
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second,
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he fought 'A'ishah and Mu'awiyah,
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yet took neither spoils of war nor captives;
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and third,
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he erased from himself the title of 'Commander of the Faithful',
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even though the Muslims had pledged allegiance to him and made him their ruler."
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He said:
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"Tell me, if I recite to you from the Book of Allah
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and narrate to you from the hadith of the Messenger of Allah that which you cannot deny,
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will you renounce the stance you have taken?"
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They replied:
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"Yes."
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He said:
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"As for your saying
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that he appointed men to arbitrate in the religion of Allah,
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Allah, Exalted is He, says:
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'O you who have believed...'
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“O ye who believe! Kill no wild game while ye are on the pilgrimage. Whoso of you killeth it of set purpose he shall pay its forfeit in the equivalent of that which he hath killed, of domestic animals, the judge to be two men among you known for justice, (the forfeit) to be brought as an offering to the Ka'bah; or, for expiation, he shall feed poor persons, or the equivalent thereof in fasting, that he may taste the evil consequences of his deed. Allah forgiveth whatever (of this kind) may have happened in the past, but whoso relapseth, Allah will take retribution from him. Allah is Mighty, Able to Requite (the wrong).” (5:95)
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“O ye who believe! Kill no wild game while ye are on the pilgrimage. Whoso of you killeth it of set purpose he shall pay its forfeit in the equivalent of that which he hath killed, of domestic animals, the judge to be two men among you known for justice, (the forfeit) to be brought as an offering to the Ka'bah; or, for expiation, he shall feed poor persons, or the equivalent thereof in fasting, that he may taste the evil consequences of his deed. Allah forgiveth whatever (of this kind) may have happened in the past, but whoso relapseth, Allah will take retribution from him. Allah is Mighty, Able to Requite (the wrong).” (5:95)
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“O ye who believe! Kill no wild game while ye are on the pilgrimage. Whoso of you killeth it of set purpose he shall pay its forfeit in the equivalent of that which he hath killed, of domestic animals, the judge to be two men among you known for justice, (the forfeit) to be brought as an offering to the Ka'bah; or, for expiation, he shall feed poor persons, or the equivalent thereof in fasting, that he may taste the evil consequences of his deed. Allah forgiveth whatever (of this kind) may have happened in the past, but whoso relapseth, Allah will take retribution from him. Allah is Mighty, Able to Requite (the wrong).” (5:95)
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'...judged by two just men among you.'
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I adjure you by Allah:
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is the arbitration of men to spare their blood and their lives
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and to reconcile their relations more worthy,
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or their arbitration concerning a hare worth a quarter of a dirham?"
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They replied:
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"Rather, to spare the blood of Muslims and reconcile their relations."
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He said:
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"Have we settled this point?"
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They said:
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"By Allah, yes!"
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He said:
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"And as for your saying
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that 'Ali fought but took no captives as the Messenger of Allah did:
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would you have taken your mother 'A'ishah captive,
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and treated her as permissible for yourselves as ordinary female captives are?
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If you say yes, you have committed disbelief;
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and if you say she is not your mother, you have also committed disbelief,
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for Allah, Exalted is He, says:
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'The Prophet is closer to the believers than their own selves, and his wives are their mothers.'
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Choose, then, whichever position you wish!"
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Then he said:
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"Have we settled this point as well?"
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They said:
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"By Allah, yes!"
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He said:
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"And as for your saying
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that 'Ali erased from himself the title of Commander of the Faithful:
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indeed, the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him,
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when he asked the polytheists on the day of al-Hudaybiyyah
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to write in the peace treaty he concluded with them:
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'This is what Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah, has agreed upon,'
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they said:
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'Had we believed that you were the Messenger of Allah,
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we would not have barred you from the House nor fought you;
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rather, write: Muhammad ibn 'Abdillah.'
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So he conceded to their demand, saying:
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'By Allah, I am indeed the Messenger of Allah, even if you reject me.'
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Have we now settled this point?"
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They answered:
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"By Allah, yes!"
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The outcome of this meeting—
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and of what 'Abdullah ibn 'Abbas demonstrated in it
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of profound wisdom and decisive proof—
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was that twenty thousand of them returned to the ranks of 'Ali,
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while four thousand persisted in their hostility toward him
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out of sheer obstinacy and aversion to the truth.
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The young 'Abdullah ibn 'Abbas traversed
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every path in pursuit of knowledge
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and exerted every effort in its acquisition.
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He continued to drink deeply from the spring of the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him,
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as long as the Prophet lived.
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Then, when the noble Messenger joined the company of his Lord,
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he turned to the remaining scholars among the Companions,
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setting about learning from them and receiving knowledge at their hands.
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Recounting his own practice, he said:
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"Whenever news of a hadith in the possession of one of the Companions of the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, reached me,
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I would go to the door of his house at the time of his midday rest
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and use my cloak as a pillow upon the threshold of his dwelling,
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while the wind blew over me whatever dust it blew.
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Had I wished to ask permission to enter upon him, he would have permitted me,
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but I did so only to set his heart at ease.
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When he came out of his house and saw me in this state, he would say:
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'O cousin of the Messenger of Allah, what has brought you?
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Why did you not send for me so that I might come to you?'
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And I would reply: 'It is I who ought to come to you,
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for knowledge is to be sought, it does not seek you out.'
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Then I would ask him concerning the hadith."
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Just as Ibn 'Abbas humbled himself in the pursuit of knowledge,
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he likewise elevated the stature of scholars.
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Here was Zayd ibn Thabit, the scribe of revelation
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and the foremost authority of the people of Madinah in judicial rulings, fiqh,
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Qur'anic recitation, and the laws of inheritance:
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as he prepared to mount his beast,
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the Hashimite youth, 'Abdullah ibn 'Abbas, stood before him
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standing as a servant before his master,
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holding his stirrup for him,
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and taking the reins of his mount.
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Zayd said to him, "Do not do this, O cousin of the Messenger of Allah!"
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But Ibn Abbas replied,
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"Thus were we commanded to treat our scholars."
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Then Zayd said to him, "Show me your hand."
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So Ibn Abbas extended his hand to him,
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and Zayd bent over it, kissed it, and said,
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"Thus were we commanded to treat the family of our Prophet."
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Ibn Abbas persevered tirelessly in seeking knowledge,
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until he attained a level in it that astonished the foremost scholars.
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Regarding him, Masruq ibn al-Ajda',
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one of the senior Tabi'un, said:
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"Whenever I saw Ibn Abbas,
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I would say: He is the handsomest of people.
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When he spoke, I would say: He is the most eloquent of people.
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And when he conversed, I would say: He is the most knowledgeable of people."
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When Ibn Abbas had fully achieved his scholastic aspirations,
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he transitioned into a teacher instructing the people,
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and his house became a university for the Muslims.
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Indeed, it became a university in the fullest sense of the word in our modern era.
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The only difference between Ibn Abbas's university and our modern universities
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is that the universities of today
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assemble dozens of professors,
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and sometimes hundreds,
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whereas the university of Ibn Abbas
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rested entirely upon the shoulders of a single professor,
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who was Ibn Abbas himself.
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One of his companions narrated, saying:
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"I witnessed an assembly held by Ibn Abbas
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that, had all of Quraysh taken pride in it,
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it would have been a lasting glory for them.
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I saw people gather along the roads leading to his house until the streets became crowded with them
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and blocked to ordinary passersby.
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So I entered upon him and informed him of the crowd assembling at his door.
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He said, 'Bring me water for ablution.'
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So he performed ablution and sat down,
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then said, 'Go out and tell them:
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Whoever wishes to ask about the Qur'an and its recitation, let him enter.'
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I went out and told them,
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and they entered until they filled the house and the chamber.
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They did not ask him about anything except that he informed them of it,
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and even gave them more than what they had asked.
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Then he said to them, 'Make way for your brethren,'
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and they departed.
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Then he said to me, 'Go out and say:
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Whoever wishes to ask about the Tafsir of the Qur'an and its interpretation, let him enter.'
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I went out and told them,
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and they entered until they filled the house and the chamber.
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They did not ask him about anything except that he informed them of it,
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and even gave them more than what they had asked.
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Then he said to them, 'Make way for your brethren,'
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and they departed.
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Then he said to me, 'Go out and say:
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Whoever wishes to ask about lawful and unlawful matters and fiqh, let him enter.'
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I went out and told them,
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and they entered until they filled the house and the chamber.
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They did not ask him about anything except that he informed them of it and added further knowledge to it.
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Then he said, 'Make way for your brethren,'
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and they departed.
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Then he said to me, 'Go out and say:
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Whoever wishes to ask about the inheritance laws and related topics, let him enter.'
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I went out and told them,
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and they entered until they filled the house and the chamber.
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They did not ask him about anything except that he informed them of it and added further knowledge to it.
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Then he said to them, 'Make way for your brethren,'
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and they departed.
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Then he said to me, 'Go out and say:
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Whoever wishes to ask about the Arabic language, poetry, and rare tribal vocabulary, let him enter.'
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And they entered until they filled the house and the chamber.
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They did not ask him about anything except that he informed them of it and added further knowledge to it."
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The narrator of the account said:
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"Had all of Quraysh taken pride in that, it would have been a lasting glory for them."
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It was as though Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him,
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decided to distribute the subjects across different days
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so that such congestion would not recur at his door.
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Thus, he designated one day of the week exclusively for Tafsir,
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one day exclusively for fiqh,
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one day exclusively for the military expeditions,
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one day exclusively for poetry,
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and one day exclusively for the historical battles and lore of the Arabs.
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Never did a scholar sit with him without being humbled before his knowledge,
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nor did any questioner ask him except that he found abundant knowledge with him.
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By virtue of his knowledge and fiqh, Ibn Abbas became
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an advisor to the Rightly Guided Caliphate despite his young age.
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Whenever a critical matter confronted Umar ibn al-Khattab,
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or a complex dilemma arose before him,
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he would summon the senior Companions and summon Abdullah ibn Abbas along with them.
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When he arrived, Umar would elevate his status and seat him close by,
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saying to him, "A difficult matter has arisen before us, and you are well-suited for it and its like."
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Umar was once questioned about giving precedence to him and seating him among the elders
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while he was still a youth,
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so he replied, "He is the mature youth:
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he possesses an inquisitive tongue and an insightful heart."
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Yet, even as Ibn Abbas dedicated himself to instructing and educating the scholarly elite,
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he did not neglect his duty toward the general public.
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He would hold gatherings of exhortation and spiritual reminder for them,
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and among his admonitions was his address to those entangled in sin:
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"O committer of sin, do not feel secure from the consequences of your sin!
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Know that what accompanies the sin is far graver than the sin itself:
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for your lack of shame before the angels on your right and on your left
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while committing the sin is no lesser than the sin itself;
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your laughter while sinning,
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when you do not know what Allah will do with you, is graver than the sin;
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your joy at committing the sin when you successfully manage it is graver than the sin;
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your sorrow over missing out on the sin when it eludes you is graver than the sin;
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and your fear of the wind fluttering your curtain while you commit the sin,
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while your heart remains untroubled by Allah's gaze upon you, is graver than the sin itself!
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O committer of sin,
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do you know what the shortcoming of Ayyub, peace be upon him, was
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when Allah, Exalted and Glorious, afflicted him in his body and his wealth?
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His shortcoming was merely that a destitute person sought his aid to ward off an injustice,
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but he did not assist him."
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Ibn Abbas was never one of those who preach what they do not practice,
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nor one who forbids others while failing to restrain himself.
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Rather, he fasted continually by day and stood in prayer by night.
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Abdullah ibn Abi Mulaykah reported concerning him, saying:
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"I accompanied Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, from Mecca to Medina,
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and whenever we halted at an encampment,
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he would stand in prayer for half the night,
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while people were asleep from sheer exhaustion.
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I saw him one night reciting,
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“And the agony of death cometh in truth. (And it is said unto him): This is that which thou wast wont to shun.” (50:19)
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and he continued repeating it and weeping bitterly until the break of dawn."
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It is sufficient for us, after all of this,
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to know that Abdullah ibn Abbas
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was among the most handsome of people
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and possessed the most luminous of faces;
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yet he continued to weep in the depths of the night out of the fear of Allah,
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until his flowing tears carved
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two visible tear-tracks across his smooth cheeks,
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which some compared to the worn thongs of sandals.
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Ibn Abbas reached the pinnacle of scholarly honor.
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It happened that the Caliph of the Muslims, Mu'awiyah ibn Abi Sufyan,
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set out one year for the pilgrimage,
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and Abdullah ibn Abbas likewise set out for the pilgrimage,
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possessing neither sovereign authority nor political office.
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Mu'awiyah was accompanied by a grand entourage of his statesmen,
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whereas Abdullah ibn Abbas
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was accompanied by a retinue of students of knowledge that surpassed even the Caliph's procession.
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Ibn Abbas lived for seventy-one years,
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during which he filled the world with knowledge, understanding,
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wisdom, and piety.
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When the certainty of death arrived for him,
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the funeral prayer over him was led by Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyyah,
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alongside the surviving Companions of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him,
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and the most eminent figures among the Tabi'un.
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And as they were covering him with the earth,
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they heard an unseen reciter reciting:
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“But ah! thou soul at peace!” (89:27)
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“Return unto thy Lord, content in His good pleasure!” (89:28)
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"So enter among My righteous servants,
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and enter My Paradise."
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"He is indeed the mature youth,
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endowed with an inquisitive tongue
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and an insightful heart."
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Umar ibn al-Khattab
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established the towering edifice of guidance.
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O poetic verse, pour forth abundantly in full measure;
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in praising their virtues, can there ever be too much?