He divined that his community’s prayer for his family in the final  section  of  the  prescribed  prayers:  “O  God,  grant  blessings  to  our  master Muhammad and to the family of our master Muhammad, as You granted blessings to Abraham and to the  family of Abraham; indeed, You are Worthy of Praise, Most Exalted”10 would be accepted. That is to say, just as the vast majority of the luminous guides among the people of Abraham were prophets of Abraham’s family and line,11

so  he  saw  in  his  community  the  spiritual  poles  of  his  family  performing  the momentous duties of Islam, and in most of the paths and Sufi orders, like the prophets of  Israel.12  Therefore, being commanded to say: “Say: I ask of you no recompense save love of close kin,” he wanted his community to love his family.

There are numerous narrations corroborating this fact. He repeatedly decreed: “I leave  you  two things. If you adhere to them, you will find salvation: one is God’s Book, the other  is my Family.”13  For members of his family were the source and guardians of his  practices  (Sunna) and were charged with complying with them in

every respect. This is why what was intended by this Hadith was adherence to the Book  and   the  Prophet’s  practices.  That  is  to  say,  in  respect  of  the  office  of messengership  it was the Prophet’s (UWBP) practices that  were sought  from his family. So no one who abandoned his practices could truly be a member of his family, nor could such a person not be a true friend to them.14

Also, the reason he desired his community to gather round his family15  was that, with God’s permission, he knew it was going to become very numerous in the course of time, and  that Islam was going to become weak. An extremely strong and large mutually supportive  group of people was therefore necessary to be the instrument through which the Islamic world would progress spiritually and morally, with divine permission. He thought of this and  desired that his community should gather round his family.

Indeed, even if the members of the Prophet’s (UWBP) family were not greatly in advance of others in matters of belief and faith, they were still far ahead of them in regard to submission, partiality, and partisanship. For they were followers of Islam by nature, birth, and  temperament. Even if natural partiality is weak and unworthy, or unjustifiable even, it cannot be given up.

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10 Bukhari, Anbiya’, 10; Muslim, Salat, 65-6.

11 See, Ibn al-Hajar, Fath al-Bari, xi, 162.

12 See, al-Munawi, Fayd al-Qadir, iv, 384; al-‘Ajluni, Kashf al-Khafa’, ii, 83.

13 Tirmidhi, Manaqib, 31; Musnad, iii, 14, 17, 26.

14 See, al-Tabarani, Mu‘jam al-Awsad, iii, 338; Abu Da’ud, Fitan, 2; Musnad, ii, 133.

15 See, al-Bazzar, al-Musnad, ix, 343; al-Tabarani, al-Mu‘jam al-Kabir, iii, 45-6; xii, 34.