Wasila bin Asqa (R.A)
Wasila, who had all of the pleasure and excitement of being a new Muslim, pushed for performing the morning prayer with the Messenger of Allah (pbuh). After the prayer, the Messenger of Allah asked who that person whom he had never seen before was. Wasila introduced himself and said that he had come to make an agreement with the Messenger of Allah. The Messenger of Allah said, "Will you make an agreement with me based on everything that I want and I do not want?"
Wasila said, "Yes." He promised that he would obey all of the orders of the Prophet and that he would never object to him. Meanwhile, the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) was making preparations for the Expedition of Tabuk. Wasila was already ready but the journey was long and he had no animal to ride on. Ka'b bin Ujra found an animal for him and he joined the expedition with the army of Islam.[1]
After that, Hz. Wasila served the Messenger of Allah for three years; therefore, he is regarded among the closest Companions to the Prophet. He had many memories about Suffa School since he stayed there for a long time.
As a matter of fact, whenever the people of Suffa needed something, they sent Wasila to the Messenger of Allah to inform him about it. He narrates one of his memories as follows:
"I was one of the people of Suffa. The people of Suffa complained about hunger and asked me to go the Messenger of Allah and to ask for food from him. I went to the Messenger of Allah and told him that the people of Suffa complained about hunger. The Messenger of Allah asked Hz. Aisha if she had anything to eat. Hz. Aisha said she had only "tirit", which was a kind of gravy. They brought the gravy to the Messenger of Allah in a deep bowl. I invited the people of Suffa in groups of ten. The Messenger of Allah said to them, "Sit down. Help yourselves. Bismillah!" The people of Suffa ate from the gravy that was enough for only ten people but they saw that it remained the same. The Messenger of Allah said to me, ‘O Wasila! Take this bowl to Hz. Aisha as it is.'"[2]
Hz. Wasila narrates a similar incident as follows:
"While we were at Suffa in Ramadan, a different person from the people of Madinah invited us to iftar (Ramadan dinner) every evening. Nobody came and invited us one evening. We did not eat anything that evening. When nobody came the next evening, we went to the Messenger of Allah and told him about the situation. The Messenger of Allah asked his wives whether they had any food with them. They said they did not have any food. Thereupon, the Messenger of Allah opened his hands and prayed as follows:
'O Allah! I want from your grace and mercy. Mercy belongs to you, not to anybody else.'
Once the Messenger of Allah finished his prayer, somebody came with grilled mutton and bread. The Messenger of Allah put it in front of us. We ate it until we became full. The Messenger of Allah said,
'We asked from Allah's grace and mercy. This is Allah's grace. He left mercy to the hereafter.'"[3]
Hz. Wasila expresses the deprivation of the students of the Messenger of Allah regarding clothes as follows: "I am one of the people of Suffa. None of us had full clothes."
The stars of the Era of Bliss that enlightened the world with their light and attraction up to this time were in poverty and deprivation like that. However, they were loyal to the Messenger of Allah so much that they forgot about everything when he was there.
Nevertheless, the Prophet informed them about the bounties that they would receive in the future as a miracle. The Messenger of Allah said,
"You will have plenty of wheat bread and olive oil after me. You will eat various kinds of food. You will wear nice clothes."
Wasila continued as follows: "Indeed, after a while, what the Messenger of Allah said came true. We ate various kinds of food, wore nice clothes and rode plenty of animals."[4]
According to a narration, Hz. Wasila stayed in Basra for a while. Then, he went to Damascus. He stayed around Humus and Damascus. He died at the age of 100 in the 83rd year of the Migration.
Lastly, we will quote a hadith that he reported: "I asked the Messenger of Allah, 'What is racism?' He said, "To help your nation in oppression and injustice.'"[5]
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[1]Usdu'l-Ghaba, 5: 77.
[2]Hilyatu'l-Awliya, 2: 22.
[3]ibid
[4]ibid, 2: 23.
[5]Abu Dawud, Adab: 113.
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