of ḥadith; hence a brief digression (1) has been made from it (2) to define the term “Companion.” What, then, is a Companion? I have said: (He is one who met the Prophet ﷺ while believing in him and who died upon Islam—even if, according to the sounder view, an interval of apostasy had occurred (3).)
By “meeting” (4) I mean something broader than merely sitting with him (5), walking beside him, or one of the two reaching the other even if they did not converse (6). It likewise (7) includes the circumstance in which one of them sees (8) the other, whether (9) that (10) took place directly or (11) through someone else (12).
Employing the term “meeting” (13) is preferable to the wording of some who say, “A Companion is one who saw the Prophet ﷺ,” because (14) that would exclude Ibn Umm Maktūm and other blind individuals, who are without doubt Companions. In this definition the word “meeting” (15) functions as the generic category,
(1) In MSS J and W the wording reads istatradat ("digressed").
(2) MS L has fihi ("in it"), while a marginal copy reads minhu ("from it").
(3) MS A reads ʿala ("upon").
(4) MS T reads bil-laqi ("by encounter").
(5) MS A has bil-mujalasa ("by sitting together").
(6) MS D reads yukallimuhu ("he speaks to him").
(7) MSS H, T, Y and M read watadkhul ("and it enters"); the diacritical dots are missing in H.
(8) MS T reads riwaya ("narration").
(9) MS H reads akan ("was it").
(10) The word thalika ("that") is absent from MS K.
(11) MSS B, J, H, W and Z read am ("or").
(12) MS T reads ghayruhu ("other than him"). The example the author gives is: "the infants who were brought to the Prophet—even if only for tahnik." See al-Laqani, Qada al-Watar, p. 1307.
(13) MS D has bil-liqa ("by meeting"), while a marginal copy reads bil-laqi ("by encounter").
(14) MS J reads likawnihi ("because it is").
(15) MS H adds wa-al-liqa ("and the meeting").