Shaykh al-Islām, may Allah have mercy on him, said:

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As for the Companions and the Successors, more than one of the imams stated that everyone who accompanied the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, is superior, without qualification, to anyone who did not accompany him. They specifically applied this to the comparison between Mu‘āwiya and ‘Umar ibn ‘Abd al-‘Azīz, despite acknowledging that ‘Umar ibn ‘Abd al-‘Azīz’s conduct was more just than Mu‘āwiya’s. They said, however, that the rank the Companions attained through companionship cannot be matched by what others attain through their knowledge.

They cited as evidence his saying, recorded in the two Sahīh collections:

“Do not revile my Companions. By Him in whose hand is my soul, were any one of you to spend gold equal to Mount Uhud, it would not equal a mudd given by one of them, nor even half of it.”

They said: If gold equal to Mount Uhud does not equal half a mudd given by one of them, this disparity in merit makes clear that no one has attained ranks like those they reached through accompanying the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. This issue calls for an extensive discussion and explanation for which there is no room here.