The probity of the Companions ('adalat al-sahaba)

The probity of the Companions is a principle that al-Khatib al-Baghdadi sets out in al-Kifaya, in a chapter entitled "what has come on God's and His Messenger's vindication of the Companions, and that there is no need to enquire about them; enquiry is required only for those after them". ¹ In hadith science it means that a hadith whose chain reaches the Prophet need not be acted on until the probity of its men is established, and their state must be examined — except for the Companion who carried it to the Prophet, because the probity of the Companions is established and known. ¹

Al-Khatib cites verses including Al Imran 110 and al-Baqara 143, noting that the wording of the latter, though general, means a particular group, and that it is said to concern the Companions specifically. ¹ Others are al-Fath 18 on the pledge under the tree, al-Tawba 100 on the first forerunners of the Emigrants and Helpers, al-Waqi'a 10, al-Anfal 64, and the two verses of al-Hashr on the Emigrants and Helpers, al-Hashr 8 and 9. ^{1 2} He then relates through his chains the hadiths "the best of my community is my generation, then those who follow them" from Ibn Mas'ud, Abu Hurayra (may God be pleased with him) and Imran ibn Husayn, and the hadith forbidding the cursing of the Companions. ^{2 3} He also relates reports likening the Companions to stars, through chains some of which critics have questioned, without ruling on them at this point. ³

He adds an argument from their history: even had nothing of this come down, their emigration, struggle, support, sacrifice of lives and wealth and killing of their own fathers and sons for the faith would require certainty of their probity, and that they are better than all who vindicate others after them. ⁴ None of them, he says, needs anyone's vindication alongside God's, unless it were proven that one committed an act that admits no reading but intended sin outside any interpretation — "and God has cleared them of that". ^{3 4} He states: "This is the position of all the scholars and of the jurists whose word counts." ⁴

Al-Khatib reports that a group he calls people of innovation held that the Companions' state was approved until the wars that arose among them, so that those who fought in them lost their probity, and since they were mixed with the blameless, the transmitters among them must be examined. ⁴ He replies that what happened among them admits interpretation and independent judgement, so they are like jurists differing in interpreting rulings, and they remain on the original presumption of probity since nothing removing it has been proven. ⁴ He closes the chapter with Abu Zur'a al-Razi: when you see a man disparaging any of the Companions, know that he is a heretic, for the Qur'an and the Sunna reached us through the Companions, and such people want to wound our witnesses in order to annul the Book and the Sunna. ⁴

Al-Khatib follows with a chapter on what it means to call someone a Companion and how this is known, quoting varied sayings: Shu'ba said of Jundab ibn Sufyan that he came to the Prophet "and if you wish, say he had companionship"; Asim al-Ahwal said that Abd Allah ibn Sarjis saw the Prophet "but had no companionship"; Ahmad was unsure about Amir ibn Mas'ud al-Qurashi's companionship, which Mus'ab al-Zubayri affirmed. ^{4 5} See also companionship.

In the thirty-ninth type, Ibn al-Salah states that the hadith scholars' known practice counts every Muslim who saw the Prophet as a Companion, citing al-Bukhari's words in his Sahih. ⁶

He reports two stricter definitions:

• from Abu al-Muzaffar al-Sam'ani, that the legal theorists require long companionship;
• from Sa'id ibn al-Musayyab, that he counted as a Companion only one who stayed with the Prophet a year or two and went on one or two campaigns with him.

Ibn al-Salah remarks that the second wording is too narrow: it would exclude Jarir ibn Abd Allah al-Bajali and others whose companionship no one disputes. ^{6 7}

Companionship, he says, is known in four ways:

• by mass transmission;
• by wide report;
• by the word of a Companion;
• by a man's own statement once his uprightness is established.

He then says the Companions as a whole share one distinction: no one's uprightness among them is questioned. They are declared upright without qualification by the texts of the Book and the Sunna and by the consensus of those whose view counts in consensus. ⁷

In al-Taqrib, al-Nawawi states that the Companions are all upright, both those who were caught up in the civil strife and the others, by the consensus of those whose view counts. ⁸

Al-Suyuti, commenting, quotes the Imam al-Haramayn on why their uprightness is not examined: they are the carriers of the Sharia. Were their transmission held in doubt, the Sharia would be confined to the Prophet's own time and would not have flowed on through the ages. ^{11 10}

He then reports dissenting views. He calls them all incorrect, thinking well of the Companions and taking each of them to have exercised a reasoned judgement for which he is rewarded:

The editor, Muhammad Awwama, comments that al-Suyuti's verdict "incorrect" is too mild. Al-Zarkashi and others, after reporting these views, said: all of them are false; the first view is the sound one, held by most scholars of the early and later generations. He also quotes al-Abyari: their uprightness does not mean they were protected from sin; it means their reports are accepted without inquiry into the grounds of their uprightness. ^{12 10}