Companions and Summary
Sunnis believe that the companions were the best of the Muslims, based on hadiths such as this one: It was narrated from ‘Abd-Allah ibn Mas’ud that Muhammad said: "The best of the people are my generation, then those who come after them, then those who come after them." Support for this view is also found in verses of Quran such as this one in Surah Tawba verse 100 (9:100) "Those who believed, and went into exile and fought for God's cause with their property and their persons, as well as those who sheltered and helped them,- these shall be friends, one of another."
Sunnis believe that the companions were true believers since it was the companions who were given the task of compiling the Quran. However many scholars have proven that it was the prophet's family who had the biggest hand in this affair. Furthermore, narrations that were narrated by the companions are a great source of knowledge for Muslims and a great source on the Sunnah i.e. example of Muhammad.
Estimates of the world Sunni population varies from over 75% to 90% of all Muslims.
Read more about this topic: Sunni Islam
Famous quotes containing the words companions and/or summary:
“To coöperate in the highest as well as the lowest sense, means to get our living together. I heard it proposed lately that two young men should travel together over the world, the one without money, earning his means as he went, before the mast and behind the plow, the other carrying a bill of exchange in his pocket. It was easy to see that they could not long be companions or coöperate, since one would not operate at all. They would part at the first interesting crisis in their adventures.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I have simplified my politics into an utter detestation of all existing governments; and, as it is the shortest and most agreeable and summary feeling imaginable, the first moment of an universal republic would convert me into an advocate for single and uncontradicted despotism. The fact is, riches are power, and poverty is slavery all over the earth, and one sort of establishment is no better, nor worse, for a people than another.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)