Rijal Hawl al-Rasul (Men Around the Messenger)

Rijal Hawl al-Rasul ("Men Around the Messenger") is a book by Khalid Muhammad Khalid presenting sixty Companions of the Prophet; it first appeared in Cairo in Rabi' II 1384 / September 1964, then in five separate parts, and then in a "unified, complete edition". ^{1 2}

In his introduction the author says the greatness of the Companions shown in the book "is not legend, even if in its wonder it seems like legend", since no other era received such documentation and search for truth, and that his book does not claim to present this greatness fully but only "to point to its features". ³ He holds that these sixty stand for the thousands of their brethren, so that in their portraits one sees all the Companions. ²

The four caliphs are not included, because he devoted a book to each (Wa-Ja'a Abu Bakr, Bayna Yaday Umar, Fi Rihab Ali, Wada'an Uthman). ² Each chapter opens with a literary title summing up its subject, such as "Devil of the Jahiliyya, Disciple of Islam" for Umayr ibn Wahb, "Falcon of the Day of al-Yamama" for Zayd ibn al-Khattab, "Tomorrow you will see the governors after me" for Utba ibn Ghazwan, "A legend of sacrifice and love" for Habib ibn Zayd and "A hero to the end" for Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi Bakr. ^{4 5 6 7 8} It closes with a "word of farewell", the list of the sixty and a list of the author's works. ^{9 10 11}

At the end he lists "historical references": Ibn Hajar's al-Isaba, Ibn Abd al-Barr's al-Isti'ab, Ibn al-Athir's Usd al-Ghaba, Ibn Hisham's al-Sira al-Nabawiyya, Ibn Sa'd's al-Tabaqat al-Kubra, Ibn Kathir's al-Bidaya wa-al-Nihaya and Abu Nu'aym's Hilyat al-Awliya'. ¹²

The book is literary and hortatory: it retells reports known from the sira and biographical works in rhetorical prose with the author's reflections, without citing a source for each report, though it sometimes names the narrator — "let Urwa ibn al-Zubayr relate their conversation to us". ¹³

• Pages are PDF pages of the 1994 Dar al-Muqattam edition; printed = PDF − 4. The judgements and reflections in the book are its author's.