The prophetic knowledge and practice
have mainly reached the ummah through the Companions (rta), so they acquire a
marked priority over the rest of the ummah. It is only the Prophet’s (sws)
Companions (rta) through whom the rest of the people of the world have acquired
the entire corpus of the religion of God. Their status and privilege is not
shared by anyone coming after them. They alone are the enchanting flowers of the
ummah. The Qur’ān itself awards them with such a high station. In fact, the
importance the muḥaddithūn attached to them cannot be debated over even in the
absence of the textual proofs of the fact.
Testimony of the Qur’ān
God Almighty says that the Companions (rta)
are the advance party of the ummah and the witnesses to God in this world:
And similarly we have made you a
middle nation so that you may be witnesses over the people and the Messenger
becomes a witness over you. (2:143)
This verse throws light on two important
facts. First, God has put the responsibility of communicating and disseminating
His religion on the Prophet (sws). He decreed that the Companions (rta) are
responsible for this task after the death of the Prophet (sws). This was their
clear and concrete responsibility. It was not an optional religious act they
could perform or leave aside on choice. Second, the high status and superiority
the Companions (rta) enjoy within the ummah owes itself to the fact that they
are shu‘adā’ lillāhi ’ala al-nnās fī al-arḍ (God’s witnesses over the people on
this earth). It means that they inherited the prophetic knowledge and practice
and stood witnesses to it before the world.
Testimony of Aḥādīth
The status of the Companions (rta), in
the sight of the Prophet (sws), has been preserved in the Hadīth literature. It
is clearly mentioned in many prophetic traditions. I quote the following
narrative from al-Kifāyah fī ‘ilm al riwāyah. Ibn ‘Abbās (rta) reports that the
Prophet (sws) said:
Whatever has been given to you in the
Book of God is obligatory for you. There is no valid excuse for anyone to
abandon the Qur’ānic edicts. If the issue facing you is not dealt with in the
Book of God, then you have to follow my practice. If you find that there is no
such practice of mine to guide you then you should follow what my Companions
tell you for my Companions are like stars in the sky; whoever of them you take
as a guide, you shall be rightly guided.
This shows that the Companions (rta) are
the people who have transmitted the Sunnah of the Prophet (sws) to the world and
they themselves are the beacon of light. They are the medium through which the
knowledge and practice of the Prophet (sws) has been handed down to the rest of
the world. The basis of their exalted status, as the Prophet (sws) pointed out,
is that they are the source of guidance for the world.
Muhaddithūn’s
Viewpoint
In view of this extraordinary importance
of the Companions (rta), the muḥaddithūn decided that the principles of
character and cognitive analysis of the narrators will not be applied to them.
In this regard, the muḥaddithūn adopted the guiding principle that all the
Companions (rta), without any exception, are reliable. They are above customary
analysis in this regard. While deciding whether a narrative ascribed to the
Prophet (sws) is reliable and acceptable, an expert has to scrutinize the
characters of all narrators in its chain of transmission. Their good and bad
have to be vigorously analyzed. It is only after a thorough investigation that a
narrative they report is accepted or rejected. Contrarily, the Companions (rta)
shall not be subjected to such an investigation.
Once this principle applied to the
practice of the transmission of the prophetic aḥādīth is accepted, it leads to
the question of the definition of a ṣaḥābī (Companion of the Prophet). Who is
a ṣaḥābī? Would a person who has merely seen the Prophet (sws) and has not
enjoyed his company for a considerable time merit to be called a ṣaḥābī? Would
such a person be exempted from the principles of jarḥ wa ta‘dīl (the act of
affirming or disaffirming the narrators as reliable transmitters)? Would he be
considered a beacon of guidance? The muḥaddithūn have, quite naturally,
differed over this issue and three distinct groups of them emerged
The First Group
The view of the first group as
represented by ‘Abdullāh ibn ‘Umar (rta) follows:
I have observed that scholars hold
that every adult Muslim who met the Prophet (sws), even for a moment, while he
understood the religion and found it pleasing can be called a ṣaḥābī. However,
I believe that the Companions (rta) can be divided into different categories
according to their status considering their taqaddum fī al-islām.
By taqaddum fī al-islām, ‘Abdullāh ibn
‘Umar (rta) means that all the Companions (rta) are not equal; they are of
different status and should be put in different categories. Some are of a very
high status others are in the middle whilst some others hold a low status.
The Second Group
The view of the second group of the
scholars in this regard has been represented by Sa‘īd ibn al-Musayyab as
follows:
We do not consider someone a ṣaḥābī
(Companion) unless he has remained in the company of the Prophet (sws) for a
year or two and has fought with him a couple of ghazwahs.
The Third Group
Al-Khaṭīb has recorded the opinion of
another scholar. His view represents the third group in this regard. This view,
by its nature, criticizes the previous views and points out the true picture of
the matter. This view follows:
The lexicographers unanimously hold
that the word ṣaḥābī is a derivation of the root Ṣ Ḥ B. The meaning of the
word does not hinge upon the duration of the company. It can equally be applied
to company of a very short as well as a long duration. As for the lexicon, the
word applies to any such person as blessed with the company of the Prophet (sws),
no matter how long. However, it is a known reality that it is customary among
the Muslims to refer to a person as a ṣaḥābī who has been in the company of
the Prophet (sws) for a long time and has been meeting him continuously.
Customarily, this word is not used for someone who had a short meeting with the
Prophet (sws), or walked along with him a few steps or heard him say something.
This entails that we restrict the application of the word to those only who can
appropriately be called ṣaḥābī. Still, however, the Aḥādīth transmitted by
reliable and trustworthy individuals (among the first generation) shall be
accepted even though the narrator has not been blessed with a longer company of
the Prophet (sws) and has heard him only once.
The first part of the assertion is quite
weak. The scholar holds that the duration of the company has no bearing on the
meaning of the word ṣaḥābī whatsoever. We know that if somebody accidently
happens to confront someone, neither of them is called a companion of the other.
Similarly, it is not applied to a person who walks a few steps with us. The
word, by its nature, implies company of a longer duration. However, the second
part of the statement is very strong. It proves that the great scholars of the
past considered the duration of the company of a man before declaring him a
ṣaḥābī of the Propeht (sws). Besides, he must have rendered services in the
cause of the religion. If we consider this fact in our definition of the term
ṣaḥābī we come to know that the three major responsibilities the Qur’ān and
the Ḥadīth put on the Companions (sws) are well established. It makes the
decision of the muḥaddithūn regarding the exemption of the Companions (rta)
from jarḥ wa ta‘dīl understandable.
Ṣaḥābiyyah According to the Qur’ān
We have learnt that the muḥaddithūn
would not subject the Companions (rta) to jarḥ wa ta‘dīl. They invoked certain
Qur’ānic verses which praise the Companions (rta) of the Prophet (sws). Such
verses refer to and praise only those individuals who embraced the religion
first of all and stood with the Prophet (sws) in good and bad times. They spent
their wealth in the cause of the religion of God and fought the enemies of God
in the holy wars bravely. These verses do not refer to those who happened to
have seen the Prophet (sws) accidently. While exposing the evil of the
hypocrites from among the Bedouin people, the Qur’ān has clearly stated that
they had not enjoyed the company of the Prophet (sws) in spite of the fact that
they had seen him and vehemently professed belief in him.
An inductive survey of the Qur’ānic
verses dealing with the Companions (rta) and their virtues is imperative in this
study. We have to ascertain whether the Almighty gives any importance to merely
and accidentally seeing the Prophet (sws). We have to see whether it is their
long company, help and support that raise their status over the rest of the
ummah. It may be their endeavours to seek knowledge from and get training from
the Prophet (sws) that holds the primary importance in this regard. In the
foregoing pages I have referred to a verse from Sūrah al-Baqarah. It can prove
to be a decisive verdict in this regard. The verse tells us that the real
significance, the Companions (rta) draw, is grounded in that they received and
transmitted the knowledge and practice of the Prophet (sws); they obtained,
taught and preached it. This, however, is not possible without relatively long
company, full commitment and sincere devotion.
Another relevant verse discusses the
devoted Companions (rta) who pledged to give their lives at the prophetic call
to jihād, even though they were hundreds of miles away from their homes, were
not properly armed and were direly exposed to the enemy.
God became pleased with the believers
when they were pledging allegiance to you under the tree. God knew the state of
their hearts. And God sent down on their hearts tranquillity and He decreed for
them a victory in the near future. (48:18)
This theme has again been repeated in
Sūrah al-Tawbah in the following words:
Those of the Emigrants and the
Helpers who have outreached others and have embraced Islam first of all and the
ones who have beautifully followed their example, God is pleased with them all
while they are pleased with God. (9:100)
These qualities of the Companions (rta)
of the Prophet (sws) have been mentioned in the following verses of Sūrah al-Ḥashr:
[This is specifically] for those of
the needy Emigrants who have been forced to abandon their homes and assets while
they were helping the Messenger of God, seeking God’s blessings and His
pleasure. Such are the real upholders of truth. Those who are already settled in
their abodes and are maintaining their faith love those who migrate to them.
They do not feel unease at heart for whatever is given to them [the Emigrants].
They [the Helpers] prefer them [the Emigrants] over themselves even when they
themselves are in need. (59:8-9)
If we carefully ponder over these
verses, we learn that they not only establish veracity and justness of the
Companions (rta) but also award them an exalted status, both in this and the
next world. This quality cannot be shared with them by any other group of people
from among the ummah. The Qur’ān does not state that this status is granted to
them because they happened to have seen the Prophet (sws). Contrarily, their
blessed status draws on their outreaching others in accepting the faith. They
migrated from their homeland, abandoned their assets and wealth for the cause of
Islam and risked their lives in fighting for the cause of God. They sacrificed
everything they possessed in helping God’s religion and His Messenger. The
helpers too participated in this noble cause by sharing their homes and wealth
with the Emigrants.
If we keep the above discussion in mind,
we can justly claim that the soundest view regarding the position of those who
happened to have seen the Prophet (sws) is the one that has been ascribed to
‘Āṣim Aḥwal:
‘Abd Allāh ibn Sarjis has seen the
Prophet (sws). However, he is not a Companion of him.
According to ‘Āṣim, one does not become
a ṣaḥābī by merely seeing the Prophet (sws). Ṣaḥābiyyat does not hinge upon
one’s accidental meeting with the Prophet (sws). Thus, about the position of
those who merely saw the Prophet (sws), we can, at best, adopt the following
careful view ascribed to Shu‘bah:
Jundub ibn Sufyān came to meet the
Prophet (sws) and you can say, if you insist, that he has been blessed with the
ṣuḥbah (company) of the Prophet (sws).
Some other scholars express the true
status and position of a person who accidently or rarely met the Prophet (sws)
as follows: kāna lahū ru’yah [he saw the Prophet (sws)].
Conclusion
I believe that the opportunity to have
seen the Prophet (sws) is a great blessing of God. However, the Qur’ān has not
attached any importance to this fact alone. According to the Qur’ān, the high
status of the Companions (rta) of the Prophet (sws), is due to their services to
the religion, valour and bravery they showed in defending, upholding and
preaching religion and helping the Messenger of God (sws). The Companions (rta)
are categorized and grouped by analyzing the degree and extent of their services
to religion and the Messenger (sws). If it is only seeing the Prophet (sws) that
makes somebody his Companion (rta), then the deserters in the battles of Aḥzāb
and Tabūk and the hypocrites of Madīnah and those from among the Bedouin, and
those who established Masjid-i Ḍarār are no less deserving of this status.
These people not only saw the Prophet (sws) but also fought some of the battles
with him. They have been spending in the way of God though hypocritically. Yet,
the way the Qur’ān condemns their behaviour and rejects their faith is not
unclear to anyone, the details of which can be found in Sūrah Munāfiqūn, Tawbah
and Anfāl. As far as the transmission of Aḥādīth is concerned, we accept
narrators from all the groups and categories of the Companions (rta) of the
Prophet (sws). Still, however, in the exercise of interpreting Aḥādīth we may
only consider the views, wordings and analysis of the narratives of those
Companions who are the most prominent and famous for their understanding of the
words of the Prophet (sws). For example, Abū Bakr (rta), ‘Umar (rta), ‘Uthmān (rta),
‘Alī (rta), ‘Ā’ishah (rta), Abū al-Dardā’ (rta), Mu‘ādh ibn Jabal (rta),
‘Abdullāh ibn ‘Umar (rta), and ‘Abd Allāh ibn ‘Abbās (rta) etc. It is extremely
important for the students of the ḥadīth literature to appreciate who are more
knowledgeable and experts in the ḥadīth literature among the first generation
of the believers.
(Translated from
Mabādī Tadabbur-i Hadīth by Tariq Hashmi)
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