Aqidat Ahl al-Sunnah fi al-Sahaba li Abd al-Muhsin al-Abbad
- Author died
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- Editions
- Dar Ibn Khuzaymah
Aqidat Ahl al-Sunnah fi al-Sahaba (The Creed of Ahl al-Sunnah Regarding the Companions) is a concise theological treatise by the Saudi scholar Abd al-Muhsin al-Abbad outlining the doctrine of Sunni Islam concerning the Companions of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ .
Composition and Publication
The treatise was written while al-Abbad was a lecturer at the College of Sharia at the Islamic University of Medina . It was first published under the title Aqidat Ahl al-Sunnah wa-l-Athar fi al-Sahabah al-Kiram in the journal of the Islamic University (Majallat al-Jami'ah al-Islamiyyah), in its second issue of the fourth year, corresponding to Shawwal 1391 AH . It was later printed and distributed as an independent tract .
Contents and Structure
The work is structured around textual evidences, core creedal maxims, and citations from early Sunni authorities:
- Scriptural Evidences for Their Virtues: The author adduces verses from the Quran—including passages from Surah al-Tawbah, Surah al-Fath, Surah al-Hadid, and Surah al-Hashr—praising the Emigrants (Muhajirun) and Helpers (Ansar), as well as prophetic traditions affirming their generational excellence and forbidding their disparagement . He notes Malik ibn Anas's deduction from Surah al-Hashr that those who revile the Companions have no share in the spoils of fay' .
- Universal Probity (Adalat al-Sahaba): The treatise asserts the consensus of Sunni scholars that all Companions are upright and reliable transmitters of revelation due to divine praise . It cites al-Nawawi, Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, and al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, as well as Abu Zur'ah al-Razi's dictum that disparaging the Companions is a mark of heresy (zandaqa) because it undermines the integrity of the witnesses who transmitted the Quran and Sunnah .
- Summary of the Sunni Stance: Al-Abbad describes the Sunni position as a middle way between extreme veneration (ghuluww) and disparagement (jafa'), characterized by love, withholding tongue from criticism, and maintaining that any disputes among them arose from sincere legal interpretation (ijtihad), for which they are rewarded and their errors forgiven .
- Statements of Classical Imams: The text compiles five representative expositions from classical creedal writings: Abu Ja'far al-Tahawi's al-Aqidah al-Tahawiyyah, Ibn Abi Zayd al-Qayrawani's introduction to his Risalah, Ahmad ibn Hanbal's Kitab al-Sunnah, Abu Uthman al-Sabuni's Aqidat al-Salaf wa-Ashab al-Hadith, and Ibn Taymiyyah's al-Aqidah al-Wasitiyyah .
- Implications of Disparagement: The treatise concludes by emphasizing that defaming the Companions constitutes an assault on Islamic religious texts, while in the hereafter it deprives critics of their good deeds according to the hadith of the bankrupt person (al-muflis) without diminishing the merit of the Companions .
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