#sialm

Cry not out at misfortune, O wretch, come, trust in Allah! For know that crying out compounds the misfortune and is a great error. * * * Find misfortune’s Sender, and know it is a gift within gift, and pleasure. So leave crying out and offer thanks; like the nightingale, smile through your tears! * * * If you find Him not, know the world is all pain within pain, transience and loss. So why lament at a small misfortune while upon you is a worldful of woe? Come trust in Allah! * * * Trust in Allah! Laugh in misfortune’s face; it too will laugh. As it laughs, it will diminish; it will be changed and transformed. * * * Know, O arrogant one, happiness in this world is in abandoning it. To know Allah is enough. Abandon the world; all things will be for you. * * * To be arrogant is total loss; whatever you do, all things will be against you. So both states demand abandoning the world here. * * * Abandoning the world is to regard it as Allah’s property, with His permission, in His Name... If you want to do trade, it is in making this fleeting life eternal. * * * If you seek yourself, it is both rotten and without foundation. If you seek the world outside, the stamp of ephemerality is upon it. * * * That means there is no value in taking it; the goods in this market are all rotten. So pass on... the sound goods are all lined up beyond it.... [The Old Said spoke this with the tongue of the New Said under the blessed mulberry tree.] The one I’m addressing isn’t Ziya Pasha, it’s those enamoured of Europe. The one speaking isn’t my soul, it’s my heart in the name of the students of the Qur’an. * * * The previous words are all truth; beware, don’t lose course, don’t exceed their bounds! Don’t heed the ideas of Europe and deviate, or they’ll make you regret it! * * * You see the most enlightened of them, in brilliance their standard-bearer, Exclaim in bewilderment: Of whom, to whom can I complain? * * * The Qur’an says, and I say too - I won’t hold back: I lodge my complaint with Him. I’m not confused, like you. * * * I cry out to the True Allah; I don’t slip away, like you. I shout my cause from the ground to the skies; I don’t flee, like you. * * *

For all the Qur’an’s cause is light upon light; I don’t renege, like you. In the Qur’an is truth and wisdom; I’ll prove it. I count as nothing hostile philosophy. * * * In the Criterion are diamond truths; I take them to myself, not sell them, like you. I journey from creation to Creator; I don’t lose the way, like you. * * * I pass over thorny paths, I don’t tread on them, like you. From the earth to the Throne, I offer thanks; I don’t neglect it, like you. * * * I look on death and the appointed hour as a friend; I am not frightened, like you. I’ll enter the grave smiling, not trembling, like you. * * * I don’t see it as a monster’s mouth, a beast’s lair, descending to nothingness, like you. It joins me with my friends; I’m not vexed at the grave, like you. * * * It’s the door of Mercy, gate of Light, portal of Truth; I am not discomforted by it; I won’t retreat.

Hz. Zayd lost his father when he was very young and became an orphan. Abdullah bin Rawaha took care of him. He stayed with Abdullah bin Rawaha for a long time. When Abdullah bin Rawaha became a Muslim, he became a Muslim at a very young age.

Hz. Zayd could not take part in the Battle of Badr and Uhud because he was very young. However, he took part in all battles and wars after that. He fought heroically.

During the Battle of Bani Mustaliq, in which the Prophet also took part, Abdullah bin Ubayy started to talk against the Prophet and Muslims. Hz. Zayd was also there. When he heard those words that were full of mischief, he could not help intervening. He said to Abdullah bin Ubayy, "I swear by Allah that you are the mean and cursed one in your tribe. Muhammad (pbuh) was made honorable by Allah, who is the most gracious." When Abdullah bin Ubayy heard it, he got very offended and said to him, "I swear by Allah that I will not love you at all from now on." When Hz. Zayd said that he was going to tell the Messenger of Allah about what he heard, Abdullah bin Ubayy changed his attitude and said, "O my brother's son! Keep quiet! I was only joking!"  

Zayd b. Arqam did not heed him. He regarded it as an important duty to tell the Messenger of Allah about this munafiq, who tried to cause mischief among Muslims. He went to the Prophet and told him whatever he heard from Abdullah b. Ubayy. The Prophet believed in Zayd but in order to search the issue he said to Zayd, "I hope you do not say so because of you are angry with Ibn Ubayy." Zayd said, "No! I swear by Allah that I heard them from him." The Messenger of Allah asked again, "You may have misheard."Zayd said, "No. O Messenger of Allah! I am telling the truth. It is not wrong." The Prophet continued asking, "Can somebody else have told you this about him?" Zayd said," No. I swear by Allah that I heard those words exactly from him.

There were many Companions with the Messenger of Allah at that time. They got very angry with Abdullah bin Ubayy due to his words. Some of them even offered the Prophet to kill him. The Prophet did not approve it. He sent for Abdullah bin Ubayy in order to listen to the issue from him. Meanwhile some Companions got angry with Zayd and asked him, "Why did you inform the Prophet about it?" Hz. Zayd said, "I swear by Allah that if I had heard those from my own father, I would have told the Messenger of Allah about it."

After a while, Abdullah bin Ubayy arrived. The Prophet asked him, "Did you utter those words?" Abdullah bin Ubayy did not confess; he denied it: "I swear by Allah, who sent you the book, that I did not utter any of those words. Zayd told you a lie. I do not know anybody closer than you among the people here who will be a means of Allah's putting into Paradise." After this talk, the Prophet ordered the army to set off.

The settlement of the issue like that embarrassed Hz. Zayd. He could not approach the Messenger of Allah due to his embarrassment. He said to those who wanted to speak to him about the issue, "I hope that Allah will send revelation to his Prophet and tell him who is lying." He also prayed Allah as follows: "O Allah! Send your Prophet the revelation that will confirm what I say!"

After a tiring journey, the mujahids arrived in Madinah. Allah Almighty sent down verses 1-8 of the chapter of al-Munafiqun. Those verses confirmed Zayd. The last verses of this revelation are as follows:

"They are the ones who say, "Spend nothing on those who are with Allah's Messenger, to the end that they may disperse (and quit Madinah). But to Allah belong the treasures of the heavens and the earth; but the Hypocrites understand not. They say, "If we return to Madinah, surely the more honorable (element) will expel there from the meaner." But honor belongs to Allah and His Messenger, and to the Believers; but the Hypocrites know not."

When those verses were sent down the Messenger of Allah called Zayd, held his ear and said, "Here is the young man who fulfilled his duty in the way of Allah through his ear! O Zayd! Allah confirmed what you had said!"

After that, nobody believed in Abdullah bin Ubayy. When something like that happened, they scolded and condemned him. The Prophet said to those who wanted Ubayy to be killed, "If I had had him killed, there would have been chaos." For, he was the leader of his tribe. Everybody liked and respected him. If the Prophet had not migrated to Madinah, he would have been the ruler of Madinah.

When Hz. Zayd became ill, the Prophet (pbuh) visited this young Companion and asked about his health. Once, Hz. Zayd's eye got ill. The Prophet visited him and prayed for him. When his eye got well, the Prophet asked Zayd, "What would you do if your eyes remained like that?" Hz. Zayd answered in reliance to Allah, "I would show patience and put up with its hardship." His reliance pleased the Messenger of Allah . The Prophet said, "If you died after your patience, you would definitely go to Paradise."

Hz. Zayd learned a lot of things from the Messenger of Allah. The Muslims applied to him about religious issues. He answered their questions and gave them advice.

Hz. Zayd, who narrated about 90 hadiths, died in Kufa in the 68th year of the Migration. One of the hadiths that he narrated is as follows: