fection would emerge. He divined that his community’s prayer for his family in the final section of the prescribed prayers: “O God, grant blessings to our master Muhammad and to the family of our master Muhammad, as You granted blessings to Abraham and to the family of Abraham; indeed, You are Worthy of Praise, Most Exalted” [^10] would be accepted. That is to say, just as the vast majority of the luminous guides among the people of Abraham were prophets of Abraham’s family and line, [^11] so he saw in his community the spiritual poles of his family performing the momentous duties of Islam, and in most of the paths and Sufi orders, like the prophets of Israel. [^12] Therefore, being commanded to say: “Say: I ask of you no recompense save love of close kin,” he wanted his community to love his family.

[^10]: Bukhārī, Anbiyā’, 10; Muslim, Ṣalāt, 65-6.

[^11]: See, Ibn al-Ḥajar, Fatḥ al-Bārī, xi, 162.

[^12]: See, al-Munāwī, Fayḍ al-Qadīr, iv, 384; al-‘Ajlūnī, Kashf al-Khafā’, ii, 83.

There are numerous narrations corroborating this fact. He repeatedly decreed: “I leave you two things. If you adhere to them, you will find salvation: one is God’s Book, the other is my Family.” [^13] For members of his family were the source and guardians of his practices (Sunna) and were charged with complying with them in every respect. This is why what was intended by this Hadith was adherence to the Book and the Prophet’s practices. That is to say, in respect of the office of messengership it was the Prophet’s (UWBP) practices that were sought from his family. So no one who abandoned his practices could truly be a member of his family, nor could such a person not be a true friend to them. [^14]

[^13]: Tirmidhī, Manāqib, 31; Musnad, iii, 14, 17, 26.

[^14]: See, al-Ṭabarānī, Mu‘jam al-Awṣād, iii, 338; Abū Dā’ūd, Fitan, 2; Musnad, ii, 133.

Also, the reason he desired his community to gather round his family [^15] was that, with God’s permission, he knew it was going to become very numerous in the course of time, and that Islam was going to become weak. An extremely strong and large mutually supportive group of people was therefore necessary to be the instrument through which the Islamic world would progress spiritually and morally, with divine permission. He thought of this and desired that his community should gather round his family.

[^15]: See, al-Bazzār, al-Musnad, ix, 343; al-Ṭabarānī, al-Mu‘jam al-Kabīr, iii, 45-6; xii, 34.

Indeed, even if the members of the Prophet’s (UWBP) family were not greatly in advance of others in matters of belief and faith, they were still far ahead of them in regard to submission, partiality, and partisanship. For they were followers of Islam by nature, birth, and temperament. Even if natural partiality is weak and unworthy, or unjustifiable even, it cannot be given