and he repudiates their merit and their knowledge, denying the special favor with which Allah distinguished them above all who came before them and all who will appear after them until the Day of Resurrection!

The disciples who conveyed to the followers of the Messiah the essentials of his religion and his biography had known nothing of that until Allah sent the Messiah. They then witnessed the signs with which Allah honored him, saw the miracles manifested at his hands, and had their souls perfected with divine sciences and spiritual virtues. By his blessing they came to perform the marvels that the great multitude has transmitted to us about them, and they put knowledge into writing. Such, too, are these men—I mean the Companions, may Allah be pleased with them (1).

How could they be mere laymen in such matters when they were the sharpest of people by nature and the purest in soul—receiving knowledge fresh and unadulterated, straight from their Prophet, being the most eager for it and the most passionate about it, while news from heaven reached them through his tongue day and night, whether traveling or at home? Their Book contains the knowledge of earlier and later peoples, knowledge of the origin and the return, the creation of the universe and the conditions of bygone nations, the prophets, their lives and their dealings with their peoples, their ranks and stations with Allah, their number and the number of those among them who were messengers, mention of their scriptures, the kinds of punishments with which Allah afflicted their enemies and the honors He bestowed on their followers; mention of the angels, their classes and kinds, the duties assigned to them and the tasks they carry out; mention of the Last Day and the particulars of its events; mention of Paradise (with the details of its bliss) and of Hellfire with the details of its torment (2); mention of the barzakh and the particulars of the creatures’ states therein (3); and mention of the portents