Mursal Reports of the Younger Companions
Anyone among them (1) who never heard a hadith directly from the Prophet—his narration is classed as mursal, meaning the chain is incomplete from the standpoint of transmission. Even so, (2) he is still included among the Companions, because (3) he attained the distinction of actually seeing the Prophet (4).
How Is Companionship Established?
Second: A person’s status as a Companion is known through mass-transmission (tawātur), broad circulation, or widespread fame (5); through the testimony (6) of other Companions or of reliable Successors; or through his own statement that he is a Companion—provided (7) that such a claim (8) falls within the bounds of possibility (9).
A number of scholars (10) have objected to this last criterion, arguing that such a claim is comparable to someone’s declaring, “I am a trustworthy narrator!” (11)
(1) The word minhum (“of them”) is absent from MS Y.
(2) MS J reads wa-huwa (“and he/it is”).
(3) MS H has naluhum (“reached them”).
(4) In the margin of MS D, in the author’s own hand: thumma balagha kadhalik (“then it likewise reached [them]”).
(5) MS T inserts wa-l-istifada wa-sh-shuhra (“and widespread circulation and public notoriety”). Al-Qari, may Allah have mercy on him, states in Sharh Sharh al-Nukhba (p. 591): “The phrase aw al-shuhra (or public notoriety) presupposes a difference between the two: a mustafid report remains equally well-attested at its beginning and end, whereas a mashhur report is broader than that.” Al-Laqani, may Allah have mercy on him, adds in Qada al-Watar (p. 1315): “Placing aw al-shuhra after aw al-istifada suggests they are distinct, a view held by some. On this view, istifada refers to a report circulating on the tongues of a large group that has not reached tawatur (mass transmission), while shuhra applies to a report transmitted by three or four individuals or more, so long as the number falls short of tawatur.”
(6) MS L reads aw ikhbar (“or a report”).
(7) MSS H, W, and Z read kanat (“was”).
(8) MSS H, Z, T, L, and M read tadkhulu (“enters / falls within”).
(9) In other words, once a man’s uprightness and contemporaneity are established, he may simply say, “I am a Companion”; see the author’s al-Isaba, 1:20.
(10) Ibn al-Qattan al-Fasi is among those who found this problematic; see al-Zarkashi, al-Bahr al-Muhit, 6:198.
(11) The word daʿwa (“claim”) is missing from MS A.