The Moral Vision
Recognizing Oneself
~ 210 ~
authority of Abu Huraira, while less than one
hundred can be traced back to Khalid.
Extraordinary as this disparity may seem, all it
indicates is a difference in the arena in which they
worked. It does not mean that one of them did more
for Islam than the other.
Abu Huraira and Khalid were both sincere,
dedicated Muslims. But as regards talents, they
were very different from each other. Each of them
awoke to his separate vocation in life, and followed
it implicitly. In accordance with his own particular
abilities, Abu Huraira picked one arena in which to
serve the cause of Islam, while Khalid picked
another, equally suitable one, for himself.
Before Khalid became a Muslim, he took part in
several military campaigns against Islam. He later
told of how he used to fight with the feeling the he
had “adopted a mistaken stance”—that he was
fighting for the wrong cause. His conscience
continued to haunt him, until shortly before the
conquest of Mecca, when he went to Medina and
accepted Islam.
