Appearance
The Early Vanguard
وَٱلسَّـٰبِقُونَ ٱلْأَوَّلُونَ مِنَ ٱلْمُهَـٰجِرِينَ وَٱلْأَنصَارِ وَٱلَّذِينَ ٱتَّبَعُوهُم بِإِحْسَـٰنٍ رَّضِىَ ٱللَّهُ عَنْهُمْ وَرَضُوا۟ عَنْهُ وَأَعَدَّ لَهُمْ جَنَّـٰتٍ تَجْرِى تَحْتَهَا ٱلْأَنْهَـٰرُ خَـٰلِدِينَ فِيهَآ أَبَدًا ۚ ذَٰلِكَ ٱلْفَوْزُ ٱلْعَظِيمُ
(9:100) The early vanguard of the Emigrants and the Helpers and those who followed them in virtue—Allah is pleased with them and they are pleased with Him, and He has prepared for them gardens with streams running in them, to remain in them forever. That is the great success.
The question
Who are “the early vanguard of the Emigrants and the Helpers and those who followed them in virtue” with whom God is pleased — and does the verse mean God is pleased with every Companion, whatever they later did?
Views answered: the various identifications of “the early vanguard”, the view that God is pleased with all the Companions and has forgiven all their deeds
Al-Mizan's argument
After the different views on who the early vanguard were, al-Mizan argues from the wording that they are those who laid the foundations of Islam before its victory — those who believed before the Emigration and those who emigrated before Badr, with the Helpers — and that “those who followed them in virtue” are the believers of every age who followed them in the truth. God's pleasure in the verse is conditional on faith and righteous deeds, like His forgiveness throughout the Qur'an; taking it as unconditional would cancel the many verses of reward and warning. God's pleasure is an attribute of action, not of His essence. In the narrations al-Mizan answers the report that God forgave all the Companions whatever they did — had they understood the verse that way, they would not have turned against one another — and discusses ʿUmar's reading of the verse.
Reading guide
Each part opens the commentary at that point.
- Views on who the early vanguard were
- What the wording suggests
- Those who laid the foundations
- “Those who followed them in virtue”
- Three groups of true believers
- God's pleasure is conditional on faith and good deeds
- Otherwise the verses of warning would be cancelled
- “God is pleased with them and they are pleased with Him”
- Not automatic pleasure with everyone so called
- Pleasure as an attribute of action
- Narrations: the report that God forgave all the Companions
- Why the Companions did not understand it that way
- ʿUmar's reading of the verse