Editorial Board
November 9, 2012
The first of the Ten Attributes [al-Khiṣāl al-‹Ashr] arranged by Imam Abdessalam Yassine in a context of progress and ascent—moral and spiritual. Companionship and Community means to have a spiritual guide (who is also your temporal guide, unlike Sufi orders) who shows you the way to God by opening to you all the avenues of jihad without exception. The inward jihad of the self in the company of your brothers and sisters in faith comes in the first place; then follows the jihad in all spheres of life, not exclusively in the restricted sense of military war. Thus, Companionship and Community are two sides of the same coin. In other words, a mūmin cannot attain spiritual excellence [iḥsān] in its most perfect form, that of Prophet Muhammad (God’s blessings and peace be upon him), without being engaged in a communitarian project similar to that of the Companions (God be pleased with them).