Mentioning the defects of the hadith of Thabit ibn al-Harith al-Ansari regarding the permissibility of seeking assistance from the People of the Book, and whether the narrator of the hadith, Thabit ibn al-Harith, is a Companion or not?

The Shaykh : I found that the current occasion necessitates investigating the chain of narration of this hadith, which Abu Ja’far al-Tahawi uniquely narrated. It emerged from me that the hadith has two defects. The first defect is that the Companion, as it is said, is Thabit ibn al-Harith. They mentioned him in the books of the Companions, such as al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar in *al-Isabah* and Ibn ‘Abd al-Barr in *al-Ist‘ab* in the names of the Companions, and others. When I studied what they mentioned, it became clear to me that classifying this man as a Companion has no basis whatsoever according to their definition of a Companion. Because, by their consensus, a Companion is everyone who accompanied the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), even for an hour of the day. And of course, this is known from the principles.

The questioner : Peace be upon you.

The Shaykh : And upon you be peace and the mercy of Allah and His blessings. It is known that the principles of hadith science state that merely a man narrating an incident or a hadith from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) does not make that narrator a Companion. I am now giving an example of a man speaking with you now who says, “The Messenger of Allah said…” I am narrating from the Messenger of Allah. Does this mean that I am a Companion? Go back now, go back to the first century. It is possible that someone in that era could have reached the time of the Messenger and seen him and heard from him, or it is possible they did not. For example, he might have been in al-Ta’if while the Messenger was in Makkah or al-Madinah, and it was not possible for him to come to the Messenger (peace be upon him). He believed in him without seeing him. This person is not a Companion because he did not sit with him and did not hear from him. This type of people, who may have reached the time of the Messenger and heard from him, but did not hear from these [Companions], are from the Tabi’un. So if a Tabi’i now—I gave an example of someone who came after fourteen centuries, now in the first century—if a Tabi’i says, “The Messenger of Allah said,” and it is possible that he had companionship because he reached the time of the Messenger (peace be upon him), but he did not sit with him, does his companionship become established if this type of Tabi’i says, “The Messenger of Allah said”? The answer is: No. He must say, “I heard the Messenger of Allah,” or “I saw the Messenger of Allah,” or whatever indicates this meeting, so that he becomes a Companion. The truth is that I was surprised that the one who gave the most extensive biography of this man was al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar, who said he only had three hadiths, and he did not mention in any of these hadiths “I heard” or “I saw” or anything that confirms that he was a Companion. Moreover, I personally, regarding al-Hafiz, say that I am on my own path and I added a fourth hadith to his list. Even in that hadith, he did not explicitly state that he met the Messenger (peace be upon him). So I was certain at that time that he was a Tabi’i and not a Companion. And I confirmed this certainty in another way, which is that the narrator from him, if this man were a Companion, should be a Tabi’i. I mean the narrator from him, and he is not a Tabi’i, and he narrated from him. So this confirms the previous certainty, which is that he is not a Companion.