Suwar min Hayat al-Sahaba (Portraits from the Lives of the Companions)

Suwar min Hayat al-Sahaba ("Portraits from the Lives of the Companions") is a book by Dr Abd al-Rahman Ra'fat al-Basha, first published by Dar al-Nafa'is, Beirut, in 1412/1992. ^{1 2} It opens with a prayer in which, out of love for the Prophet ﷺ's Companions, he asks God to unite him with them on the Day of the Great Terror. ³

It consists of seven "books" of about ten portraits each — the first includes Sa'id ibn Amir al-Jumahi, al-Tufayl ibn Amr al-Dawsi (may God be pleased with him), Abd Allah ibn Hudhafa al-Sahmi, Umayr ibn Wahb, al-Bara' ibn Malik, Umm Salama, Thumama ibn Uthal (may God be pleased with him), Abu Ayyub al-Ansari (may God be pleased with him) and Amr ibn al-Jamuh (may God be pleased with him) — and ends with an alphabetical index of the Companions and the table of contents. ^{4 5 6 7 8}

Each portrait is narrative, often told in the subject's own voice — as in the portrait of Rabi'a ibn Ka'b: "Rabi'a ibn Ka'b said: I was a young lad…" — with difficult words glossed in the notes, and a "for further reading" list of biographical and hadith works with volumes and pages at the end. ^{9 10}

• Pages are PDF pages, printed = PDF. The book is narrative; its reports are attributed to its author and to the sources he lists after each portrait.