Is the statement of a companion a binding evidence?
Answered by our Shaykh, the ‘Allāmah, the Trustworthy Advisor, Abu ‘Abdirrahmān Yahya bin ‘Ali Al-Hajūri – may Allāh preserve him – on the 27th, Dhūl-Hijjah, 1441H
Question:
Is the statement of a companion a binding evidence?
Answer:
If he is alone in this statement and none opposed him from the companions.
But if anyone from the companions oppose him, then it is not from the truth to take the statement of one and leave the statement of the other, but verily it is from the truth to take what coincides with the evidence.
And it’s also stipulated that it doesn’t oppose an evidence, either due to his ijtihād or that the evidence did not reach him, or misinterpretation from him, they never used to oppose the evidence based on desires, they were far away from this, but there could be misinterpretation, opposing others in this, or it could be that it didn’t reach him.
So by way of this it’s known that the statement of a companion is a binding evidence with two conditions:
• That he doesn’t oppose an authentic proof from the Qurān or the Sunnah.
• That he doesn’t oppose another companion.
So if these are met it becomes like an ˹Ijmā’ Sukūti˺ a silent consensus [due to there not being any opposition] and his statement becomes a binding evidence.
And you can see that the people used the statement of Ibn ‘Abbās, may Allāh be pleased with him, as a proof that the Kursī is the place of the two feet of Ar-Rahmān, and they considered this a binding evidence, and they took what this entails as creed, while this is the statement of a companion, this is because none of the companions opposed him in it, and he didn’t oppose any evidence from the Book nor the Sunnah.
Then you can also see that Ibn ‘Umar used to raise his hands in the Takbīrah of the funeral prayer, the ones after the ˹Takbīratl Ihrām˺ (opening Takbīr), and there is no hadith established to the Prophet ﷺ concerning the raising of the hands, it was only established from Ibn ‘Umar and Ibn ‘Abbās and none of the companions opposed them, so this statement became the correct, considering that the foundation of raising is following on from the first Takbīr, secondly no other companion opposed him neither in statement nor action and the majority of scholars are upon this.
Transcribed to Arabic by: Abūl-Majd bin Muhammad (may Allāh reward him with good)
Translated by: Abū ‘Abdillāh ‘Omar bin Yahya Al-‘Akawi
Click on the link to view the Arabic: https://t.me/sh_yahia_duroos/7666
Click on the link to listen to the Audio: https://t.me/sh_yahia_duroos/7639