the thing that strikes me after reading more and more of these biographies (just the simple biographies like this, not written to exaggerate or idealise), is the sheer variety of lifestyles the first and best Muslims had despite the apparent restrictions of Islam to lifestyle we feel today, and their comfort with ‘career changes’. they also did not censure each other’s lives – the full-time scholars did not consider their choice to be inherently better than the ones who traded and farmed or soldiered – they valued the different ways of worship and good the different lifestyles presented, learned from each other, and are pleased with the diversity.

i think there is as much or perhaps more to be learned by today’s people from the things the sahabah exemplified merely by unsaid things of how they acted and operated within their networks, than from the words they actually said. these show more clearly their practical understanding of what aspects were prioritised in the dynamic situations of living, rather than the static ‘box-ticking’ approach some of us are brought up with. also, since it’s emergent from their life accounts, there’s less potential for mischievous alteration or ignorant interpretation, and being accummulated behaviour rather than specific accounts, it’s less sensitive to small errors in reporting as it is a sum of their consistent attitudes over time. i can begin to see how, even though they were not perfect people, they were considered the ones who understood islam the best.

May Allah swt reward you for writing this. Very helpful and helps empower.

Wish to see more on these subjects.
The article hit me right here.
Hit me more than some of the other articles did.
Different medicine for different diseases of the heart.

Salaam. 😀