Explanation of the Book of the Heart—01b

The Reciter: In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and may Allah send prayers and blessings upon our Prophet Muhammad, and upon his family and all his Companions. Al-Bukhari (may Allah have mercy on him) said: Muhammad ibn Bashshar narrated to me, saying: Muhammad ibn Ja'far narrated to us, saying: Shu'bah narrated to us, saying: I heard Abu Jamrah say: Zahdm ibn Mudhir narrated to us, saying: I heard 'Imran ibn Husayn (may Allah be pleased with them both) from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), who said: And 'Imran said: I do not know if the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said "then those who follow them" twice or three times.

The Shaykh : This is a hadith, as you see, in the chapter on what is to be feared regarding the adornment of this world and competition in it.
The Reciter: We read the hadith before this one, but you did not explain it; it is the hadith of Abu Sa'id.

The Shaykh : Very well, yes, it is authentic, though we did not finish it. But let us begin with what we started here. The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) is speaking about the best of the generations in this Ummah. He says, "The best of you are my generation, then those who follow them," and so on. If his generation is the best of this Ummah, then they are the best of all people, because this Ummah is the best of nations and the most honored in the sight of Allah, as Allah the Exalted said: By "his generation" he means the Companions, then those who follow them are the Tabi'un, and those who follow them are the followers of the Tabi'un. These three generations are called by the scholars the three preferred generations. They are the best of this Ummah. The meaning of "best" after the Companions is best in general, best in general, not in every individual. For there may be among the followers of the Tabi'un one who is better than many of the Tabi'un, but the meaning is best in general. Just as you say, "Men are better than women," and there may be among the women one who is better than many of the men. As for the Companions, no one equals them or precedes them in excellence, because they are distinguished by something in which no one shares with them, which is the companionship of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). This companionship is not attained by anyone other than them. Then the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) mentioned, after these three generations, people who testify but are not called to testify, meaning they give testimony but are not called to testify because they are not trusted. They are traitors; people do not call them to testify, but they do testify. This is one thing. The second is: they betray and are not trusted. If they are entrusted with something, they betray it, may Allah protect us from that, whether that thing is money, speech, or secret matters.