Suhba (companionship with the Prophet: who is a Companion, how companionship is proved, the uprightness of all Companions, and the ruling on insulting them)

In language suhba is constant company, accompaniment and fellowship, said by some only of travel; it is wider than friendship. When the word is used alone in law it means companionship with the Prophet. ^{1 2}

Ibn Hajar holds that the best definition he found is: the Companion is one who met the Prophet as a believer and died in Islam. This includes one whose company was long or short, one who narrated from him or did not, one who fought with him or did not, one who saw him even from afar, and one who did not see him because of a defect such as blindness. It excludes one who met him as an unbeliever and did not meet him again after faith, and one who apostatised and died in apostasy. Some require discernment when the sight occurred. Others say one is a Companion only if he stayed with the Prophet for a year or fought with him, a view reported from Sa'id ibn al-Musayyab; others require long company and transmission, or one of them, or fighting, since the companionship of the Prophet is a great honour that comes only with long association. ² Companionship is proved by widespread transmission; then by a general reputation short of that; then by a report from a Companion or a Successor that someone had companionship, based on accepting one witness's praise; and by a man of proven uprightness who lived in that time saying "I am a Companion". His uprightness is a condition, since his word before his uprightness is proved would prove it. His contemporaneity is measured by the passing of a hundred and ten years from the Hijra, following the Prophet's words near the end of his life that after a hundred years none of those living on earth would remain; Muslim adds that this was a month before his death. ³

Sunni scholars agree that all the Companions are upright, and only deviant innovators disagree. It is a privilege of them all, and no one asks about any one's uprightness, since God has declared them upright in the Qur'an: "you are the best community brought forth for mankind" (Family of 'Imran, 110); "thus We made you a middle community, that you might be witnesses over the people" (Cow, 143); "Muhammad is the messenger of God, and those with him are hard against the unbelievers" (Victory, 29). The Prophet said: do not revile my Companions; by Him in whose hand is my soul, if one of you spent gold equal to Uhud he would not reach a handful of one of them. Ibn al-Salah says the community agrees on the uprightness of all of them. al-Khatib holds that their conditions of emigration, jihad, support for Islam and giving of life and wealth alone require their uprightness. Abu Zur'a al-Razi said: when you see a man belittle one of the Companions, know that he is a heretic. ^{3 4}

The jurists agree that whoever denies Abu Bakr's companionship is an unbeliever, since he denies the verse of Repentance (40): "when he said to his companion, do not grieve". They differ on denying the companionship of others, such as 'Umar, 'Uthman and 'Ali: the Shafi'is hold that denying it for any Companion except Abu Bakr is not unbelief, which is also the sense of the Malikis and Hanafis; the Hanbalis hold it is unbelief, since it contradicts the Prophet and companionship is known to the general and the particular. ⁵

One who ascribes to them a fault that does not touch their uprightness or their religion, such as stinginess, cowardice, little knowledge or little asceticism, is not an unbeliever by consensus, but is disciplined. One who accuses them of what impugns their religion or uprightness, such as slander, is an unbeliever by consensus if he slanders 'A'isha, the daughter of Abu Bakr, of what God cleared her of, since he contradicts the Qur'an. For the rest, the majority hold that reviling one of them does not make one an unbeliever; but one who declares them all apostates after the Prophet, or corrupt, is an unbeliever. The Fatawa of Qadikhan require the declaration of unbelief for one who declares 'Uthman, 'Ali, Talha or 'A'isha unbelievers, and for one who reviles or curses the two shaykhs. ⁵