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Saying 'May Allaah be pleased with him' for other than the Companions

Question

Using Radi Allahu Anu for Non Sahaba is permissible or not? can we only use Radi Allahu Anu for sahaba ikram???????

Answer

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allaah exalt his mention ) is His Slave and Messenger.

Saying 'Radhi Allaahu 'anhu' for the Sahaabah (Companions) means asking Allaah to be pleased with them. Saying ' may  Allaah  be  pleased  with  him' is a prayer; like saying 'Allaahumma salli 'ala Muhammad' - it means: “O Allaah, exalt the mention of Muhammad”. So, it is permissible to supplicate and ask Allaah to be pleased with every Muslim even if he or she is not a Companion. The majority of the scholars are of this view based on the saying of Allaah (which means): {Indeed, they who have believed and done righteous deeds — those are the best of creatures. Their reward with Allaah will be gardens of perpetual residence beneath which rivers flow, wherein they will abide forever, Allaah being pleased with them and they with Him. That is for whoever has feared his Lord.}[Quran 98:7-8]

The majority of the scholars have used this utterance in their writings and speeches to ask Allaah to be pleased with the early Muslim scholars who were not from the Companions, as well as to be pleased with their Shaykhs and the righteous.

An-Nawawi  may  Allaah  have  mercy  upon  him said in Al-Majmoo’: “It is desirable to ask Allaah to be pleased with and to have mercy upon the Companions and the Taabi’is (successors) and those who came after them - especially the scholars, devout worshippers and all other righteous people. One may say ' may  Allaah  be  pleased  with  him' or ' may  Allaah  have  mercy  upon  him' or the like. As regards what some scholars said that saying ' may  Allaah  be  pleased  with  him' is particularly for the Companions, but when it comes to others we are only to say ' may  Allaah  have  mercy  upon  him', then this is not as he said and it is not concurred with; rather, the correct view is the view of the majority of the scholars - that it is desirable; and there is unlimited evidence for this.

Besides, An-Nafraawi, from the Maaliki School of jurisprudence, said in Al-Fawaakih Ad-Dawaani: “The opinion of a group of scholars - that it is desirable to say ' may  Allaah  be  pleased  with  them' and ask Allaah’s mercy upon the Companions and the Taabi’is and those who came after them - is the correct opinion. Saying ' may  Allaah  be  pleased  with  them' is not peculiar to the Companions, and saying ' may  Allaah  have  mercy  upon  them' is not peculiar to anyone other than the Companions - contrary to the view of some scholars.

On the other hand, if someone says 'Allaah is pleased with so and so' as reporting a fact and not a supplication, then this cannot be said about anyone besides the Companions, because they are the ones about whom Allaah informed us that He is pleased with.

Allaah Knows best.

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