Nasb-and-the-Nawasib

Hereunder are the various positions of the scholars in this regard:
The First Position
الصحابي هو من لقي النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم مؤمنا به ومات على اإلسالم
A Ṣaḥābī is a person who met Nabī H believing in him and passed
away upon Islām. 1
With a little more detail:
من لقي النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم يقظة مؤمنا به بعد بعثته حال حياته ومات على اإليمان
A person who met Nabī H whilst awake, believing in him after his
prophethood during his lifetime, and passed away upon īmān. 2
This is the position of majority of the ḥadīth scholars 3 and is also the position of
some of the scholars of the principles of Fiqh. 4 It is the preferred opinion.
Imām Aḥmad says:
كل من صحبه سنة أو شهرا أو يوما أو ساعة أو رآه فهو من أصحابه،‏ له من الصحبة على قدر ما صحبه
Anyone who accompanied him for a year, a month, a day or even an hour,
or merely saw him is from his Companions. Each one has attained his
companionship proportionate to the time he accompanied him. 5
1 Nuzhah al-Naẓr p. 28; al-Iṣābah fī Tamyīz al-Ṣaḥābah 1/353; Raḍī al-Dīn al-Ḥalabī: Qafw al-Athar 1/89;
al-Munāwī al-Yawāqīt wa al-Durar 2/200. Also see: al-Subkī: al-Ibhāj 1/15; Tadrīb al-Rāwī 2/209.
2 Ṣaḥābah Rasūl Allah H fī al-Kitāb wa al-Sunnah p. 39. Also see: al-Kifāyah p. 50; al-Taqyīd wa al-Īḍāḥ
p. 295; Fatḥ al-Mughīth 3/93.
3 Taḥqīq Munīf al-Rutbah p. 32; Irshād al-Fuḥūl p. 129.
4 Bayān al-Mukhtaṣar (Sharḥ Mukhtaṣar Ibn al-Ḥājib) 1/716.
5 Ṭabaqāt al-Ḥanābilah 1/243; al-Kifāyah p. 192; al-Kalūdhānī: al-Tamhīd 3/173; Fatḥ al-Mughīth 3/93.
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