Ali Ibn Abi Talib - Volume 2 of 2

522 'Ali's attihrde towards the Kharijites and Shia
companionship towards him during his lifetime and their continued
support of Islam after his death.
This does not contradict the words of the Prophet (&): "Some
of those who accompanied me will come to me at the reservoir, and
when I see them and they come close to me, they will be taken away
before they reach me."922 These are people who were Muslim at the
time of the Prophet (g); many of the Arab tribes apostatised after the
death of the Prophet (g), but as far he (g) knew, they accompanied
him, because when he died they were still following his religion.
Hence it will he said to him: "You do not know what they introduced
after you were gone." According to other reports, it will be said:
"You have no knowledge of what they introduced after you were
gone; they apostatised and turned on their heels."923
It seems that this applies to those who apostatised after the
death of the Prophet (g). What do the Companions of the Prophet
(B) - who supported Islam in the best manner after their Prophet
was gone, fought the apostates, strove in jihad against the
disbelievers and hypocrites, then conquered many lands until the
religion of AUah spread to many regions - have to do with these
traitors? According to Ah1 as-Sunnah, these apostates are not
considered Companions at all because a Companion, as defined by
the scholars, is one who met the Prophet (SJ, believing in him, and
died as a ~uslirn.~~~
With regard to the words of the Prophet (g), "I do not think
any of them will be saved from it (hell) except a few,"92S and the
RZdi Shia's quoting them as evidence for regarding all of the
Companions as disbelievers except for a few of them, the evidence is
in fact against them, because the pronoun in the Arabic word for 'of
them' refers to those people who will approach the reservoir then be
turned away from it, meaning that only a few from them will he
saved. This is clear from the context of the hadith because it says: