Justice as a Quality of the Companions of the Prophet:A Challenge of the Applicability of the Quranic Arguments

Certain verses of the Quran have been provided as one of the arguments in favor of justice as a quality of each and every one of the so-called famous Companions of the Prophet. This paper investigates the said verses to illuminate their manner of argumentation as well as their degree of indication. The results confirm that the title of Sahābī (Companion of the Prophet), in its idiomatic usage, refers to its meaning adopted after the death of the Prophet and only in the subsequent periods it started to be used in this sense. Therefore, the word Sahābī, in the said sense, is not known in the Quran. As a result, if the Holy Quran praises some people of the Muslim community or gives them glad tidings, it is because of their qualities and their righteous deeds as believers, rather than because of their titles as Sahābī. Consequently, such praises go to those of the believers with those qualifications; yet, they are not absolute and are contingent upon certain conditions such as the believers’ bidding to good and forbidding the evil, or their final salvation and the like. Moreover, the verses invoked may at times refer to some specific individuals. For instance, one verse refers to those who swore allegiance at Hudaybīyya, and does not encompass all the Companions of the Prophet. Similarly, a verse may be so comprehensive and general that it may refer not to a specific group of people but to all Muslims. Finally, mere title of Sahābī is not regarded as a value in the Quran.