small changes in 2012 syllabus of 2058 for by the cambridge university

Please note the following amendments to the 2012 syllabus.




Hadith 7 should read as follows:

It was said: O Messenger of Allah, who is the most excellent of men?  The Messenger of Allah (may
Allah bless him and give him peace) said: ‘The believer who strives hard in the way of Allah with his
person and his property.’




Hadith 13 should read as follows:

He who studies the Qur’an is like the owner of tethered camels.  If he attends to them he will keep hold
of them, but if he lets them loose they will go away.

small changes in the syllabus of 2058 by the cambridge university

Appendix 1: Passages from the Qur’an for Special Study, Surah 6:
101-103:

In the English version of Surah 6 as set in the 2009 and 2010 syllabus, the
placement of the verse number ‘102’ should be at the beginning of the next
sentence. The correct placement of the verse number is as follows (the new
position is underlined):

101. To Him is due the primal origin of the heavens and the earth: how can
He have a son when He has no consort? He created all things, and He has
full knowledge of all things. 
102. That is Allah, your Lord! There is no god but He, the Creator of all things:
then worship Him: and He has power to dispose of all affairs.
103. No vision can grasp Him, but His grasp is over all vision: He is above all
comprehension, yet is acquainted with all things.

•  Appendix 2: Hadith for Special Study, Hadith 5:

There is a small omission in the translation of Hadith 5 as set in the 2009 and
2010 syllabus. The correct translation is as follows (the added clause is
underlined):

Every person’s every joint must perform a charity every day the sun comes
up: to act justly between two people is a charity; to help a man with his mount,
lifting him onto it or hoisting up his belongings onto it is a charity; a good word
is a charity; every step you take to prayers is a charity; and removing a
harmful thing from the road is a charity. (Nawawi 26)

In both cases, the Arabic text is unaffected

THE BLESSED COMPANIONS OF THE PROPHET

The Companions of God’s Messenger constitute the first pure and blessed channel through which the Quran and the Sunna were transmitted to later generations. God is the All-Trustworthy and Inspirer of Trust; the angel Gabriel is also trustworthy. The Quran describes the angel as trustworthy and as one, obeyed and having power (al-Takwir, 20.21). As everybody knows, the Prophet Muhammad was renowned, first of all, for his trustworthiness. Having been revealed by God to the Prophet Muhammad through the Archangel Gabriel, the Quran was entrusted to the Companions, who memorized it, recorded it and transmitted it to the following generations. This blessed community was the living embodiment of almost all laudable virtues and sought nothing but the good pleasure of God; they absorbed, besides the Quran, the Sunna of the Prophet and lived disciplined lives strictly in accordance with the example of the Prophet, and represented and transmitted it without any disloyalty to it.

Scholars are agreed upon the definition of Companionship by Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani: ‘A Companion is the believer who saw and heard God’s Messenger at least once and died as a believer’.

It goes without saying that the Companions are not equal to each other in rank or greatness. Some of them believed in God’s Messenger at the very outset of his mission, and conversions continued until his saying farewell to the world. The Quran grades them according to precedence in belief and according to conversion before the conquest of Makka and after it (al-Tawba, 9.100; al-Hadid, 57.10). The same gradation was also made by God’s Messenger himself. For example, he reproached Khalid for offending ‘Ammar, saying: Do not trouble my Companions! In the same way, he frowned at ‘Umar, when he annoyed Abu Bakr, and said: Should you not leave my Companions to me? Abu Bakr believed in me at a time when all of you denied me. Abu Bakr knelt down and explained: ‘O Messenger of God! It was my fault!’

The Companions were divided into twelve ranks by Hakim al-Nisaburi. This division was made according to the chronological order and some groups are also included in others. It was accepted by the majority of scholars:

1. The four Rightly-Guided Caliphs, namely Abu Bakr, ‘Umar, ‘Uthman and ‘Ali, and the rest of the ten to whom Paradise was promised while alive. They are Zubayr ibn al-Awwam, Abu ‘Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah, ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn ‘Awf, Talha ibn ‘Ubayd Allah, Sa‘d ibn Abi Waqqas and Sa‘id ibn Zayd, may God be pleased with them all.

2. Those who believed prior to ‘Umar’s conversion and frequently gathered together secretly in the house of Arqam to listen to God’s Messenger, upon him be peace and blessings.

3. Those who migrated to Abyssinia.

4. The Helpers (Ansar) who were present at the first ceremony of taking the oath of allegiance to God’s Messsenger at al-‘Aqaba.

5. The Helpers who took the oath of allegiance to the Messenger at al-‘Aqaba, the following year.

6. The first Emigrants who joined God’s Messenger before his arrival in Madina during the Emigration.

7. The Companions who participated in the Battle of Badr.

8. Those who emigrated to Madina during the period between the Battle of Badr and the Treaty of Hudaybiya.

9. The Companions who took the oath of allegiance to God’s Messenger under a tree during the expedition of Hudaybiya.

10. Those who converted and emigrated to Madina after the Treaty of Hudaybiya.

11. Those who became Muslims after the conquest of Makka.

12. The children who saw God’s Messenger either during the conquest of Makka or during the Farewell Pilgrimage, or in any other place and on different occasions.