Reviling the Companions (sabb al-sahaba)

The Sheikh counts reviling any of the Prophet's Companions as a very grave fault of the tongue, and hopes that whoever is afflicted with it repents before leaving this world. ^{1 2}

He cites a hadith qudsi in the two Sahihs about whoever shows enmity to a friend of God, and says: if the Companions are not God's friends, then God has no friend on earth. ² He quotes al-Shafi'i as saying that God's friends are the scholars, and that if the scholars are not, God has no friend; then he asks: how much more the Companions of the Prophet? ³

He mentions the hadith forbidding the reviling of the Companions, in which spending gold the size of Mount Uhud does not reach a handful of theirs or half of it, and the hadith warning against making them a target; he likens the words 'God, God, regarding my Companions' to someone crying 'fire, fire!' in warning. ^{3 4 5} He mentions a hadith from Anas about those who revile the Companions, and a report forbidding eating, sitting, intermarrying and praying with those who disparage them, as these reached him (needs_source: neither report is referenced in the recording). ^{6 7 8} He mentions Ibn Mas'ud's hadith on holding back when the Companions are mentioned. ⁸

He holds that the Companions were the first to believe, strove, spread the religion and taught people the obligations and the sunna, and that without them neither a root nor a branch of the religion, nor a single hadith of the Prophet, would have reached us. ^{9 10} He judges that whoever attacks the Companions leaves the religion as an arrow passes through its target, and that reviling them shows the rancour in the heart against the best people after the Prophet. ^{10 11} This judgement is his; the museum reports it as his.

• Abu Bakr: he stopped supporting Mistah ibn Uthatha when Mistah took part in the slander against Aisha, then resumed when the verse on pardon in Surat al-Nur came down; he also mentions the Qur'an's description of him as the companion in the cave. ^{12 13 14}
• Uthman: equipped the army of hardship and married two daughters of the Prophet. ^{14 15}
• Ali: he mentions the hadith of the station (like Harun to Musa). ¹⁵
• Sa'd: he mentions the Prophet's words 'this is my maternal uncle'. ¹⁵
• The Emigrants and the Helpers: he mentions the Qur'an's praise of the Helpers' self-preference. ¹⁶

See also: love of the Companions.