= On the virtues of the Companions, from the marfuʿ report of Zayd b. Arqam: “People, I am only a human being; the messenger of my Lord is soon to come and I shall answer his call. I am leaving with you two weighty trusts (al-thaqalayn): the first is the Book of Allah, in which there is guidance and light; so take hold of the Book of Allah and cling to it.” The Prophet thus urged attachment to the Book of Allah and encouraged devotion to it. He then added: “And my Household (ahl al-bayt): I remind you before Allah concerning my Household, I remind you before Allah concerning my Household, I remind you before Allah concerning my Household.” A man’s ʿitrah denotes his family and his closest clan. Because the word ʿitrah was used with several meanings, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ clarified his intent with the expression “my Household,” indicating that he meant his descendants, his near blood-relatives, and his wives. Al-Tibi, commenting on the phrase “I am leaving with you the two weighty trusts,” notes that it likens them to twins left behind by the Messenger of Allah. He is, therefore, enjoining the community to treat both trusts well and to give them precedence over their own interests, just as a compassionate father exhorts people regarding his children. This is supported by the version of Zayd b. Arqam recorded by Muslim: “I remind you before Allah concerning my Household,” comparable to a caring father’s plea, “Fear Allah, fear Allah, with regard to my children.” (1) Jaʿfar—namely, Jaʿfar b. al-Zubayr al-Bahili of Damascus—is a narrator whose hadith are to be discarded, while al-Qasim here is al-Qasim b. ʿAbd al-Rahman of Damascus, the companion of Abu Umamah. The hadith, however, is authentic through another chain from Abu Hurayrah: Ahmad, 2/317; al-Bukhari, 1/93 (Book of Faith, chapter “The excellence of a person’s Islam”); Muslim, no. 129 (Book of Faith, chapter “When a servant intends a good deed it is recorded, and when he intends an evil deed it is not recorded”), through ʿAbd al-Razzaq → Maʿmar → Hammam b. Munabbih → Abu Hurayrah, who related that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “When one of you perfects his Islam, every good deed he performs is recorded tenfold up to seven hundred-fold, whereas every evil deed he commits is recorded only as one until he meets Allah.”