Nasb-and-the-Nawasib

Another principle from the principles of the Ahl al-Sunnah is the impermissibility
of reviling them, denigrating them, or slandering any one of them; because the
Rasūl H has forbade us from doing so; and also because it goes against the
praises Allah E has showered upon them and His announcement of being
pleased with them.
In fact, impugning them is in reality impugning the Sharīʿah itself due to them
being its bearers and conveyers; if they are impugned then necessarily what they
have borne and conveyed will lose credit. Abū Zurʿah al-Rāzī 1 therefore states:
إذا رأيت الرجل ينتقص أحدا من أصحاب رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم فاعلم أنه زنديق،‏ وذلك أن
الرسول صلى الله عليه وسلم عندنا حق،‏ والقرآن حق،‏ وإنما أدى إلينا هذا القرآن والسنن أصحاب رسول
الله صلى الله عليه وسلم،‏ وإنما يريدون أن يجرحوا شهودنا ليبطلوا الكتاب والسنة
If you see a person denigrating any of the Ṣaḥābah of Rasūl Allāh H,
know he is a heretic. This is because it is our belief that Rasūl Allāh H is
true and the Qurʾān is true; and those who transmitted the Qurʾān and the
Sunnah were the Ṣaḥābah of Rasūl Allāh H. Hence these people intend
to impugn our witnesses and thereby discredit the Qurʾān and the Sunnah. 2
The statements of the scholars pertaining to the prohibition of reviling them are
more than popular. Imām Aḥmad said:
من سب أصحاب رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم أو أحدا منهم أو تنقصه أو طعن عليهم أو عرض بعيبهم
أو عاب أحدا منهم فهو مبتدع رافضي خبيث مخالف ل يقبل الله منه صرفا ولعدل
1 ʿUbayd ibn ʿAbd al-Karīm ibn Yazīd al-Makhzūmī (their client/ally), Abū Zurʿah al-Rāzī. A prolific
scholar of ḥadīth, a master in Jarḥ and Taʿdīl (impugning and endorsing), and a jurist with utmost
piety and disinclination from this world. He was born in 200 A.H. Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal said regarding
him, “There has not crossed the bridge of Baghdād any one more knowledgeable than Abū Zurʿah.” He
passed away in 263 A.H. Narrations with his transmissions feature in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, Sunan al-Tirmidhī,
Sunan al-Nasāʾī and Sunan Ibn Mājah. See: Tārīkh Baghdād 10/326; Tārīkh Madīnah Dimashq 38/11; Siyar
Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ 13/65; Tahdhīb al-Tahdhīb 7/28.
2 Al-Kifāyah p. 188.
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