Companions of the Prophet
companion, disciple, scribe or family member of the Islamic prophet Muhammad
The Sahabah (Arabic: اَلصَّحَابَةُ, romanized: aṣ-ṣaḥāba, lit. 'the companions'), also known as the Companions of Muhammad, were the Muslim disciples and followers of the Islamic prophet Muhammad who saw or met him during his lifetime. The companions played a major role in Muslim battles, society, hadith narration, and governance during and after the life of Muhammad. The era of the companions began following the death of Muhammad in 632 CE, and ended in 110 AH (728 CE) when the last companion Abu al-Tufayl died.
Later Islamic scholars accepted their testimony of the words and deeds of Muhammad, the occasions on which the Quran was revealed and other important matters in Islamic history and practice. The testimony of the companions, as it was passed down through trusted chains of narrators (asānīd), was the basis of the developing Islamic tradition. From the traditions (hadith) of the life of Muhammad and his companions are drawn the Muslim way of life (sunnah), the code of conduct (sharia) it requires, and Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh).
The two largest Islamic denominations, the Sunni and Shia, take different approaches to weighing the value of the companions' testimonies, have different hadith collections and, as a result, have different views about the ṣaḥābah.
The second generation of Muslims after the ṣaḥāba, born after the death of Muhammad, who knew at least one ṣaḥāba, are called Tābi'ūn (also "the successors"). The third generation of Muslims after the Tābi'ūn, who knew at least one Tābi, are called tabi' al-Tabi'in. The three generations make up the salaf of Islam.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Companions of the Prophet” as companion, disciple, scribe or family member of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as companion, disciple, scribe or family member of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q188711. The Library of Congress control number is sh85088280. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Companions of the Prophet” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.