If We Had Lived in His Time

The story of Ḥudhayfah. There are two narrations of it: one is the narration of Aḥmad, and the other one is the narration of Muslim. The narration of Aḥmad is a bit more detailed.

A man from Kūfah asked Ḥudhayfah ibn al-Yamān, "Have you actually seen the Messenger of Allah, and were you really a Companion of his?" So this happened in the time of the Tābiʿīn. Ḥudhayfah said, "Oh, yes, nephew." So this Tābiʿī said, "And how did you get by?" How did you treat him? How did you deal with him? Ḥudhayfah said, "It was difficult for us, I swear by Allah." But we tried our best. So this man, this Tābiʿī, said, "I swear, if we'd lived at his time, we'd never have let his foot so much as touch the ground. We'd have carried him on our shoulders."

This Tābiʿī heard stories about how the Ṣaḥābah were with the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), and he felt that if the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) came in their time, they would have treated him much better than the Ṣaḥābah. He said, "We would have carried him on our shoulders; we wouldn't even let his feet touch the ground." Now, Ḥudhayfah wants to teach this man a lesson and let him understand that it's easier said than done. Yes, now, because we brought Islam to you — this is the Ṣaḥābah speaking to the Tābiʿīn — now, because Islam was brought to you and you understand how great the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) is, and you see the fruits of his mission, and you see the khilāfah that he established, now you say, "Well, if we were living then, we would have done so and so."

But this Tābiʿī doesn't understand that these were men who were living with the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), and they had to fight their fathers, they had to fight their brothers, they had to fight their clans, they had to give up their wealth, they had to sacrifice their lives. So it wasn't easy. Yes, it's easy now to say that we would have carried the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) on our shoulders, but if you were there, you would maybe have acted differently. So Ḥudhayfah wants to give him an example of how the situation was and how difficult it was. He's telling him about the reality.