Love of the Companions and how to speak of them (in the Tahawi creed)

"We love the Companions of the Messenger of God; we do not go to excess in loving any of them, nor do we disown any of them; we hate whoever hates them and mentions them with other than good; we mention them only with good" ¹. He describes loving them as "religion, faith and ihsan", and hating them as "unbelief, hypocrisy and transgression" ¹.

"Whoever speaks well of the Messenger of God's Companions, of his wives pure from every stain, and of his offspring sanctified from every impurity, is quit of hypocrisy" ². He says the scholars of the Salaf among the forerunners and the Tabi'in after them "are mentioned only with what is fine; whoever mentions them with ill is on a path other than the path" ².

See the ten promised Paradise.

Ibn Qudama says: "Part of the Sunna is allegiance to the Messenger of God's Companions, loving them, mentioning their merits, asking mercy and forgiveness for them, refraining from mention of their faults and what occurred between them, and believing in their virtue and knowing their precedence" ³; he cites the verse of al-Hashr and cites the hadith "Do not revile my Companions" ⁴. He mentions the Prophet's wives, and of A'isha says: "Whoever accuses her of what God cleared her of has disbelieved in God the Great" ⁴. Then he says: "And Mu'awiya is the uncle of the believers and the scribe of God's revelation, one of the Muslims' caliphs" ⁵.

Ibn Taymiyya says: "Among the principles of the people of the Sunna and the Community is soundness of their hearts and tongues toward the Messenger of God's Companions" ⁶. He mentions that they "hold back from what occurred among the Companions and say: of these reports transmitted about their faults, some are falsehoods, some have had addition and omission and were altered from their proper form; the sound part — they are excused in it: either striving and right, or striving and wrong" ⁷; "they do not believe every one of the Companions infallible against great and small sins", but their precedences and virtues warrant forgiveness of what issues from them ⁷; if right they have two rewards, if wrong one reward and the error forgiven ⁸. He mentions that they give allegiance to the Messenger of God's household and his wives the Mothers of the Believers, and disown the way of those who hate and revile the Companions and those who harm the household in word or deed ⁷.

In "the account of the sum of the saying of the people of hadith and sunna" in Maqalat al-Islamiyyin, Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari presents what the people of hadith and sunna hold, ending: "And in all we have mentioned of their saying we speak, and to it we go" ⁹. He relates there that they "acknowledge the right of the Salaf whom God chose for His prophet's companionship, take up their virtues, and hold back from what occurred among them, small and great" ¹⁰.

This entry presents the positions of the 'Aqida al-Tahawiyya, Ibn Qudama's Lum'at al-I'tiqad, Ibn Taymiyya's al-Wasitiyya, and what al-Ash'ari related in Maqalat al-Islamiyyin of the people of hadith and sunna and declared his own — each attributed to its book. The sayings of the Maturidis and the remaining Sunni and non-Sunni schools from their own books have not yet been added; the entry needs specialist review before promotion.