al-Muʿniq (1) and Laymūt were paired as brothers; Ḥāṭib ibn Abī Baltaʿah and ʿUwaym ibn Sāʿidah were brothers; Salmān and Abū al-Dardāʾ were brothers; and Bilāl and Abū Ruwayḥah ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Khathʿamī—who later joined the contingent known as al-Fazaʿ (2)—were likewise brothers.
He said: These are the names that have reached us of the Companions whom the Messenger of Allah ﷺ joined together in brotherhood.
I say: Some of what he has mentioned requires scrutiny. With regard to the alleged brotherhood between the Prophet ﷺ and ʿAlī, a number of scholars reject it and regard it as unsound. Their reasoning is that this institution of brotherhood was prescribed so that the Companions might benefit from one another and that their hearts might be reconciled; accordingly, there was no need for the Prophet ﷺ to be paired with anyone, nor for one Emigrant to be paired with another—as was also claimed in the pairing of Ḥamzah with Zayd ibn Ḥārithah—unless one were to say that the Prophet ﷺ did not wish to entrust ʿAlī’s affairs to someone else, for the Messenger of Allah ﷺ had been providing for him since childhood during the lifetime of his father Abū Ṭālib, as related earlier from Mujāhid and others. On the same basis Ḥamzah may have taken responsibility for their freedman Zayd ibn Ḥārithah and was therefore paired with him. Allah knows best.
The same objection applies to the claim that Jaʿfar was paired with Muʿādh ibn Jabal, as ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Hishām pointed out, for Jaʿfar ibn Abī Ṭālib did not return until the conquest of Khaybar in the early part of the seventh year AH, as will be explained. How, then, could he have been paired with Muʿādh ibn Jabal at the very beginning of his arrival in Madinah? Unless one were to argue that the Prophet ﷺ simply reserved that pairing in advance, to take effect once Jaʿfar arrived.
Similarly, the statement that Abū ʿUbaydah and Saʿd ibn Muʿādh were brothers conflicts with what Imām Aḥmad (3) recorded: “ʿAbd al-Ṣamad related to us; Ḥammād related to us; Thābit from Anas ibn Mālik—that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ made Abū ʿUbaydah ibn al-Jarrāḥ and Abū Ṭalḥah brothers.” Muslim (4) transmits the same report through Ḥajjāj ibn al-Shāʿir from ʿAbd al-Ṣamad ibn ʿAbd al-Wārith. This version is more reliable than Ibn Isḥāq’s claim that Abū ʿUbaydah was paired with Saʿd ibn Muʿādh. Allah knows best.
Al-Bukhārī (5) entitled a chapter, “How the Prophet ﷺ established brotherhood among his Companions,” in which he recorded that ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf said, “The Prophet ﷺ made me and Saʿd ibn al-Rabīʿ brothers when we arrived in Madinah.” Abū Juḥayfah likewise said, “The Prophet ﷺ paired Salmān the Persian with Abū al-Dardāʾ.”
Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf related to us; Sufyān related to us, from Ḥumayd, from Anas, who said: “ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf arrived, and the Prophet ﷺ made him the brother of Saʿd ibn al-Rabīʿ al-Anṣārī. Saʿd offered to split with him half of his family and wealth. But ʿAbd al-Raḥmān replied, ‘May Allah bless your family and wealth for you; just show me the marketplace.’ He went there, earned a profit from some dried curd and clarified butter, and a few days later the Prophet ﷺ saw him …”