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In Islam, the Ṣaḥābah (Arabic: الصحابة "companions", sing. Ṣaḥābiy صحابي) were the companions of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. This form is plural; the singular is Ṣaḥābi (fem. Ṣaḥābiyyah). A list of the best-known companions can be found in the List of Sahaba.
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Definitions of companion
Most Sunnis regard anyone who, in the state of faith, saw him to be a companion or Ṣahābi[1]. Lists of prominent companions usually run to fifty or sixty names, being the people most closely associated with Muhammad. However, there were clearly many others who had some contact with Muhammad, and their names and biographies were recorded in religious reference texts such as Muhammad ibn Sa'd's early Kitāb at-Tabāqat al-Kabīr.
It was important to identify the companions because later scholars accepted their testimony (the hadith, or traditions) as to the words and deeds of Muhammad, the occasions on which the Qur'an was revealed, and various important matters of Islamic history and practice (sunnah). The testimony of the companions, as it was passed down through chains of trusted narrators (isnads), was the basis of the developing Islamic tradition.
Other links in the chain of isnad
Because the hadith were not written down until many years after the death of Muhammad, the isnads, or chains of transmission, always have several links. The first link is preferably a companion, who had direct contact with Muhammad. The companion then related the tradition to a taba'een, the companion of the companion. Taba'een had no direct contact with Muhammad, but did have direct contact with the Ṣahāba. The tradition then would have been passed from the taba'een to the taba taba'een, the third link.
The second and third links in the chain of transmission were also of great interest to Muslim scholars, who treated of them in biographical dictionaries and evaluated them for bias and reliability. Again, Shi'a and Sunni apply different metrics.
Numbers of companions
Some Muslims assert that there were more than one hundred thousand companions. The last sermon Muhammad delivered after making his last pilgrimage, or Hajj, to Mecca. Muslims believe that there were about 124,000 witnesses to this sermon.
Views of the companions
Soon after Muhammad's death the Muslim community, the ummah, was riven by conflicts over leadership. Companions took sides in the conflicts – or were forced to take sides – and later scholars considered their allegiances in weighing their testimony. The two largest Muslim denominations, the Shia and Sunni take very different approaches in weighing the value of the companions' testimony.
"God is pleased with him" (Arabic: Radhi-Allah-hu 'anhu رضي الله عنه) is usually mentioned by Sunnis after the names of the Sahaba.
Sunni views
According to Sunni scholars, Muslims of the past should be considered companions if they had any contact with Prophet Muhammad, and they were not liars or opposed to the Prophet and his teachings. If they saw him, heard him, or were in his presence even briefly, they are companions. Blind people are considered companions even if they could not see Muhammad. Even unlearned Muslims are considered companions. However, anyone who died after rejecting Islam and becoming an apostate is not considered a companion.
Regard for Companions (Sahabah) is evident from the hadith: It was narrated from ‘Abd-Allaah ibn Mas’ood that the Muhammad SAW said: “The best of the people are my generation, then those who come after them, then those who come after them.” Narrated by Sahih Bukhari (2652) and Sahih Muslim (2533).
Sunni Muslim scholars classified companions into many categories, based on a number of criteria. Suyuti recognized eleven levels of companionship. However, all companions are assumed to be just (udul) unless they are proven otherwise; that is, Sunni scholars do not believe that companions would lie or fabricate hadith unless they were proven to be liars, untrustworthy or opposed to Islam. The hadith quoted above shows the rank of Sahabah(Companions), Ta'bayeen(Companions' companions),and the Ta'ba- Ta'bayeen (Ta'bayeen's companions) among general muslims.
Shi'a views
Shi'a Muslims do not accept all companions as just. The Shi'a believe that after the death of Muhammad, all except three, or some says twelve, Muslims turned aside from true Islam and followed leaders like the first caliphs, Abu Bakr and Umar. Only a few of the early Muslims held fast to Ali ibn Abi Talib, whom Shi'a Muslims regard as the rightful successor to Muhammad. Shi'a scholars therefore deprecate hadith believed to have been transmitted through unjust companions, and place much more reliance on hadith believed to have been related by companions who supported Ali.
Qur'an alone views
Qur'an aloners view that the view pertaining that "ALL of them [were] good and righteous people" is the creation of "corrupted scholars and their blind followers disregarded [of] what Allah said in the Quran".
See also
- List of Sahaba
- Non-Muslim interactants with Muslims during Muhammad's era.
- Timing of Sahaba becoming Muslims
- Salaf
- Taba'een
- Taba Tabe'een
Related to hadith:
Related to Muhammad's family:
- Munzir ibn Sawa Al Tamimi — became Muslim, but not a ṣaḥābi.
References
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This article or section includes a list of references or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations. You can improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate. |
- ^ To be with the truthful by Muhammad al-Tijani on Al-Islam.org [1]
- Ibn Sa'd, Muhammad -- The book of The Major Classes, only partially translated into English; see Men of Medina and Women of Medina published by Ta-Ha Publishers, and first two volumes as published by Kitab Bhavan, New Delhi
- Wilferd Madelung -- The Succession to Muhammad, Cambridge University Press, 1997
- Maxime Rodinson -- Muhammad, 1961, as translated into English and published in 1980 by Pantheon Books
- William Montgomery Watt -- Muhammad at Medina, Oxford University Press 1956
External links
- Describes the Sunni perspective
- Companions of the Prophet - Great Compilation
- Companions of the Prophet - Excellent Compilation
- Men around the Messenger - Khalid Muhammad Khalid - download the pdf
- Islamic Glossary includes the names of some Sahaba.
- The Companions of the Prophet: Definition, Status, and Ranking
- ummah gives support to the idea that Imam Abu Hanifa was a taba'een
- Companions of the Prophet - the Sahabah provides extensive information about the lives of some Sahaba.
- Why are Sahaba the most successful An online video lecture by Shaykh Sayyed Muhammad bin Yahya Al-Husayni Al-Ninowy
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