Men Around the Messenger by Khaalid Muhammad Khaalid
While reading this book, we cannot help but be moved by the lives of the Companions herein
depicted. How we long to have their awe and reverence for Allah! How we long to spend the same hours
in worship as they! How we long to be as brave as they were in the face of danger! How we long to be as
patient as they were under torture!
Narrated `Abd Allah (May Allah be pleased with him): The Prophet (PBUH) said, “The best people
are those living in my generation, and then those who will follow them, and then those who will follow
the latter. Then there will come some people who will bear witness before taking oaths, and take oaths
before bearing witness.” (Bukhaarii)
It is our hope that this book will fulfill a need for the English speaking Muslim to learn more about
that first generation of Muslims. Indeed the Companions – those men and women who were
contemporaneous with the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) — inspire and encourage us. Read these stories
and share them with your children, for these Companions are a part of our Islamic heritage that will,
Allah willing, strengthen us as a nation if we try to follow their examples.
Enough said for the reason for choosing this book to translate, for the book stands on its own merit.
Let us explain our reasons for some choices within the translation.
The translator is always faced with the question of how to transliterate Arabic names and whether to
translate or transliterate Islamic terms. The reader may find the spelling of names in this book different
than he or she is accustomed to. That is because we have chosen to transliterate as closely to the Arabic
pronunciation as possible, believing that the English-speaking Muslim should make an effort to
pronounce the names correctly. Lacking diacritic marks, we have transliterated the long vowels with
double vowels, which should not confuse the reader. Please refer to the notes on transliteration which
follow.
An exception to this is the spelling of some places names. If there is an English form of a name
available, this has been used instead of a transliterated Arabic name.
As for Islamic terms, we felt that most of the terms left in the Arabic would be familiar to the
Muslim reader, and they have not been italicized as foreign terms although, as noted above, their spelling
may not be the usual one. Many of these words have been incorporated into the English language and
may be found in many dictionaries, although the Muslim reader is not always satisfied with the
dictionary’s definition. Therefore, a glossary has been provided for those words which may not be
familiar to all readers.
In this book, which was previously published in five separate parts and is issued now in a complete
new edition, we present sixty personalities of the Prophet’s Companions (May Allah have peace upon
them all). As mentioned at the conclusion of this book, these sixty men represent several thousand others
of their brethren who were contemporaneous with the Messenger (PBUH) and who believed in him and
supported him. In their reflection we see the images of all the Companions. We see their faith, their
constancy, their heroism and their loyalty to Allah and His Messenger (PBUH). We see the effort they
exerted, the calamities they endured, and the victory they achieved.
Now let us approach in awe and delight those righteous men, to welcome the best human examples,
the most graceful and most virtuous. Let us see under their humble garments the most sublime and lofty
in greatness and wisdom known to the whole world. Let us witness the legion of truth treading the
ancient world in piety, filling the sky with standards of new truth in which they announced the religion of
monotheism and the liberation of mankind
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