Companions of the Prophet (Arabic:
al-sahaba; ashab al-nabi)
The Companions of the Prophet are the Muslims
who joined with mUhammad (d. 632) in medina
during the seventh century to form the first
Islamic community. They are highly esteemed by
Sunni Muslims not only because of the roles they
played in early Islamic history but also because of
their involvement in the preservation and trans-
mission of the qUran after Muhammad’s death
and in the definition and consolidation of the
sUnna itself. In fact, the hadith upon which the
sunna is based include lists of transmitters that
invariably give the names of companions who had
witnessed what Muhammad said or did or who
are themselves considered to have been virtuous
exemplars of authentic Islamic practice.
Sunni tradition recognizes several groups among
the companions, with some overlap among them.
They are the first four “rightly guided caliphs”
(Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, and Ali); the emigrants
(muhajirun) from mecca; the Helpers (ansar)
from Medina, veterans of Badr, Uhud, and other
early battles against Muhammad’s enemies; and the
People of the Bench. The last-named was a group of
poor and pious Muslims who gathered at a bench
(suffa) in Muhammad’s mosqUe in Medina. They
are highly respected in Sufi tradition. The compan-
ions also included Women, especially the “Moth-
ers of the Believers,” among whom Muhammad’s
wife, aisha, was foremost. On the other hand, the
companions whom Sunnis revere (except Ali) are
reviled by many Shii Muslims. The Shia contend
that individuals such as Abu Bakr, Umar, and Aisha
actually corrupted the pristine Islamic community
by preventing Ali, the first Shii Imam, from becom-
ing Muhammad’s successor after his death in 632.
See also sharia; umma.
Further reading: Fuad Jabali, The Companions of the
Prophet: A Study of Geographical Distribution and Politi-
cal Alignments (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2003); Muslim ibn
al-Hajjaj, Sahih Muslim, trans. Abdul Hamid Siddiqi, 4
vols. (Lahore: Sh. Muhammad Ashraf, 1975).
consensus See ijmaa.
Constantinople See istanbul.
constitutionalism
Minimally, constitutionalism means government
can and should be legally limited in its powers
and that aUthority is derived from and depends
upon those limitations. Such constitutionalism,
in principle, even if not in practice, has become
part and parcel of Islamic history. Indeed, the
Charter (or Constitution) of medina, mUhammad’s
compact with the Muslim and Jewish community
(umma) that constituted the first Islamic polity
after the hiJra in 622, has been regarded as an
early foundation for constitutionalism in modern
Muslim-majority countries.
Sociologically speaking, a constitution is a
“coordinating convention” that establishes “self-
regulating” institutions that both “enable” and
“constrain” democratic behavior. Social contract
theories are misleading inasmuch as “agreement”
or “tacit consent” is not a condition for accept-
ing the constitutional order; mere acquiescence
suffices. This renders the Western conception of
“popular sovereignty” a rhetorical contrivance or
metaphor, which, in turn, has important conse-
quences for Islamic political theory. One oft-cited
reason for Muslim hostility to liberal constitution-
alism is the notion of popular sovereignty, which
is seen as infringing upon or contradicting the
sovereignty that properly belongs to God. Never-
theless, the idea of sovereignty may have still have
a role to play in constitutionalism if God’s confer-
ral of “vice-regency” (or deputation of author-
ity) to humans implies some sort of individual
sovereignty. Here, sovereignty (in a distributive
or shared sense) entails according human beings
theological and metaphysical freedom, which is
logically prior to any notion of rights and liber-
ties found in a constitution. The citizen-sovereign
would thus make the laws, be bound by thoseK (^162) Companions of the Prophet