Nasb-and-the-Nawasib

The Ṣaḥābah and their Status according to the Ahl al-Sunnah
The literal meaning of a Ṣaḥābī:
The root letters Ṣ, Ḥ, B mean: to live with and the word Ṣuḥbah means
companionship. These root letters always give the meaning of one thing
accompanying another and being close to it, 1 as stated by Ibn Fāris. 2
The plurals of the word Ṣāḥib are: Aṣḥāb, Aṣāḥīb, Ṣaḥb, Ṣiḥāb, Ṣuḥbah, Ṣuḥbān,
Ṣaḥābah and Ṣiḥābah.
The word Ṣaḥābī is attributed either to the word Ṣaḥābah, which is the verbal
noun of the verb Ṣaḥiba and Ṣāḥaba, or to the plural of the word Ṣāḥib, which is
the active participle of the verb Ṣaḥiba. 3
The Technical Definition of a Ṣaḥābī:
This is a very crucial issue wherein the scholars have debated and their views have
differed. The crucialness thereof is owing to the various issues which are linked to
it, like the preservation of their high rank, dubbing them as people of probity, and
accepting their narrations, even if they are Mursal, inconsistent, 4 without taking
the trouble of investigating their integrity. This issue is thus normally discussed
in the books of the sciences of ḥadīth, the biography dictionaries of the Ṣaḥābah,
and the principles of Fiqh.
1 Maqāyīs al-Lughah 3/335.
2 Aḥmad ibn Fāris ibn Zakariyyā al-Hamdānī, Abū al-Ḥasan al-Rāzī. A senior lexicographer and
author. He was born in Hamadan or Qazvin in the year 306 A.H. He was well versed in the Mālikī
School and was an expert in theology. He wrote innumerable abridgements. He passed away in 395
A.H. Some of his works are the following: al-Mujmal fī al-Lughah, Maqāyīs al-Lughah and al-Ṣāḥibī. See
al-Tadwīn fī Akhbār Qazwīn 2/215; Wafayāt al-Aʿyān 1/118; Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ 17/103; al-Bidāyah wa
al-Nihāyah 11/335.
3 Al-ʿAyn 3/124; al-Muḥkam wa al-Muḥīṭ al-Aʿẓam 3/168; Lisān al-ʿArab 1/520; al-Qāmūs al-Muḥīṭ p. 134.
4 Al-Manhal al-Rawī p. 45; Muqaddamah Fatḥ al-Bārī 1/350; Tadrīb al-Rāwī 1/207; Qawāʿid al-Taḥdīth p. 143.
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