It is reported that in the battle of Uḥud, when attacking the Prophet (PBUH) the enemy forced him to fall into a ditch and his life was then endangered. There was no way to save him from this situation except through forming a wall of human bodies around the ditch. The Companions competed with each other to do this. They stood around the ditch and exposed themselves to the arrows of the enemy who sought to destroy this human fortress while another group extracted the Prophet (PBUH). As a result, they were unable to cause any further harm to the Prophet (PBUH). As the bodies of this human fortress would fall one after another, new men would rush to replace them. May God’s mercy be upon all of them who taught us the true essence of loyalty and love for the Messenger (PBUH) through their actions.
Similarly, it is reported that a woman from the Anṣār came out after hearing that her father, brother, and husband had been slain on the Day of Uḥud. She said, “What has happened to the Messenger of God?” They said, “[He is] well. Thanks be to God, he is as you would like him [to be].” She said, “Show him to me so that I may look at him.” After seeing him she said, “Every calamity after your [safety] is insignificant.”
When the pagans took Zayd b. Dathna (RA) out to execute him after he had been one of their prisoners, Abū Sufyān b. Ḥarb (he was still a pagan at this time) said, “I summon you by God O Zayd. Would you prefer that Muḥammad was in your place today so that we execute him [instead] while you are with your family, safe from getting killed?” Zayd h said to him, “By God, I would not wish for the Prophet to get pricked with a thorn in the place that he currently is [in exchange] for me to be sitting with my family.” Abū Sufyān said, “By God, I did not see anybody who loves another person the way the Companions of Muḥammad love Muḥammad.” Some reports state that this question was posed to Khubayb b. ʿAdī who replied, “I would not wish that a thorn prick his foot so that I may be saved.”[2]
The intense devotion of the Companions to the commands of the Messenger of God (PBUH) is also depicted in the incident of the “three who remained behind” from the battle of Tabūk. When the Muslims were ordered not to speak to these three individuals, there was not a single person in the community who disobeyed, neither openly nor discretely. As they would later recollect in their own words, the city became a ghost town for them in which there was not a single soul who would acknowledge their presence or return their greetings.
The Companions of the Prophet (PBUH) represented an examplary model of individuals for whom God and His Messenger had become dearer to them than anything in their world and they became the ultimate manifestation of the reality of this love. When ʿAlī (RA) was asked what their love for the Messenger (PBUH) was like he answered, “The Messenger of God (PBUH) was more beloved to us than our wealth, our children, our fathers and our mothers. He was more beloved to us than cold water during intense thirst.”
ʿUrwa b. Masʿūd al-Thaqafī said to the pagans after negotiating with Prophet (PBUH) during Ḥudaybiya, “O people, by God I have served as a representative to kings. I have been a representative to the Caesar, Kisra, and Najāshī. By God, I have absolutely never seen a king whose people venerate him the way the Companions of Muḥammad venerate Muḥammad. He does not spit except that it lands in the hand of one of them who rubs it on his face and his skin. If he commands them, they race to fulfill his command. If he makes ablutions, they fight with each other for the remains of its water. If they speak, they lower their voices in his presence. And they do not gaze at him intently out of reverence for him.”[3]
The Companions also realized that the objective in loving the Messenger of God (PBUH) was not simply to experience delight in his presence or to possess an emotional bond with him, but rather this love had to be manifested in their actions through the practice of self-discipline, submission, and following his teachings. This is best illustrated in the words of Saʿd b. Muʿādh (RA) in which he spoke on behalf of himself and the Anṣār to the Prophet (PBUH) before the Battle of Badr saying, “I speak on behalf of the Anṣār and answer on their behalf. Traverse wherever you please. Attach the ropes of whom you please and break the ropes of whom you please. Take from our properties whatever you please and give us whatever you please. It is dearer to us that you take from us than you give to us. You will not command us except that we will fulfill your command. By God, even if you set forth until you reached the far off corners of Yemen ( al-bark min al-ghimd) we will go with you. Even if you set off to the ocean to cross it, we will cross it with you.”
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