Did Prophet Muhammad Disown His Companions? Hadith Explained
title: “Deception No. 20: Did Prophet Muhammad Disown His Companions?”
category: “Islamic Refutations”
tags:
- hadith
- sahabah
- hypocrites
- resurrection
- refutations
Some deceivers quote the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ saying, “My companions,” and then being told, “You do not know what they innovated after you,” as if this is a condemnation of the true Companions. This is a shallow reading. The narration concerns those outwardly attached to the Muslim community, including hypocrites and later innovators, not the Companions who believed sincerely and upon whom the Prophet ﷺ died pleased.
The Hadith Used in the Objection
The Prophet stood up among us and delivered a sermon and said:
“You will be gathered before Allah barefoot, naked and uncircumcised:
{As We began the first creation, We will repeat it. [It is] a promise binding upon Us. Indeed, We will do it.}
Then the first to be clothed on the Day of Resurrection will be Abraham.
Beware, men from my nation will be brought and taken to the left. I will say: O Lord, my companions.
It will be said: You do not know what they innovated after you.
I will say as the righteous servant said:
{And I was a witness over them as long as I was — until His saying — a witness.}
It will be said: These people have not ceased to turn back on their heels.”
The deceiver wants to pretend that this is a rejection of the Companions. In reality, the wording itself gives the answer: these were people who innovated after the Prophet ﷺ and turned back on their heels.
First Response: Outward Islam Does Not Mean True Faith
We repeat and add to a matter that no one seems to hear or understand except those whom your Lord has mercy upon.
Everyone who utters the two testimonies of faith is counted outwardly among the group of Muslims, while Allah judges the hidden realities on the Day of Resurrection. There were hypocrites who outwardly appeared Muslim and uttered the two testimonies, while inwardly concealing disbelief.
When the hypocrites come to you, they say, “We bear witness that you are indeed the Messenger of Allah.” And Allah knows that you are indeed His Messenger, and Allah bears witness that the hypocrites are liars.
They bore witness before the Messenger of Allah ﷺ that they believed in him, and Allah bore witness that they were lying in their claim of faith. Despite that, they were outwardly counted among the group of Islam.
This is why, when Abdullah ibn Ubayy ibn Salul, the head of the hypocrites, said his infamous statement, the Prophet ﷺ refused to have him killed publicly.
“If we return to Madinah, the more honorable will surely expel therefrom the more lowly.”
Umar said:
“Let me, O Messenger of Allah, strike the head of this hypocrite.”
He said:
“Leave him, so that people will not say that Muhammad kills his companions.”
Here is the key point: the Prophet ﷺ used the outward social label because people saw Abdullah ibn Ubayy as part of the Muslim community. That does not make him a true Companion in the religious sense.
Second Response: The Narrations Speak About Men From the Ummah
It is natural and logical that in every time and place there are people outwardly attributed to the Muslim community who are not truly from it. In fact, some are enemies of Islam from within.
If the forger understood anything about hadith narration and the Arabic language, he would have brought other narrations, because the narrations speak about men from the nation, not the entire nation.
Although one could respond by saying that perhaps they were not from those who directly accompanied the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, I will not rely on that answer alone. Rather, I say clearly: among those who accompanied the Messenger ﷺ outwardly and uttered the two testimonies were hypocrites.
But we do not count them in our terminology as true Companions, despite their outward companionship. By “Companion,” we mean one who believed in the Messenger ﷺ during his life and upon whom the Prophet ﷺ died pleased. These hypocrites and innovators are definitely not among them.
In Sunni terminology, a true Companion is not merely someone who outwardly mixed with the Muslims. A true Companion is one who believed in the Prophet ﷺ, met him upon faith, and died upon Islam.
So the objection depends on confusing two different meanings: outward attribution and true religious companionship.
Third Response: Why Did the Prophet ﷺ Say “My Companions”?
I know that the arrogant objector will come and say: How can the Prophet ﷺ say about them on the Day of Resurrection, “They are my companions”?
The answer is simple.
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ is the mercy sent and the intercessor. His heart almost broke every time a soul slipped from his hands, refused belief, and fell into the Fire. So he will ask for mercy for everyone in the hope that Allah Almighty may accept from these hypocrites some prostration or bowing that they performed one day.
But once Allah informs him that they are among those who innovated after him, attacked his religion, and attempted to distort it, the Prophet ﷺ disavows them.
This is exactly like Jesus, peace be upon him, disavowing those who distorted his law and message.
مَا قُلْتُ لَهُمْ إِلَّا مَآ أَمَرْتَنِى بِهِۦٓ أَنِ ٱعْبُدُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ رَبِّى وَرَبَّكُمْ ۚ وَكُنتُ عَلَيْهِمْ شَهِيدًا مَّا دُمْتُ فِيهِمْ ۖ فَلَمَّا تَوَفَّيْتَنِى كُنتَ أَنتَ ٱلرَّقِيبَ عَلَيْهِمْ ۚ وَأَنتَ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَىْءٍ شَهِيدٌ
And when Allah said, “O Jesus, son of Mary, did you say to the people, ‘Take me and my mother as two deities besides Allah?’” He said, “Glory be to You! It is not for me to say that which I have no right to. If I had said it, You would have known it. You know what is within myself, and I do not know what is within Yourself. Indeed, You are the Knower of the unseen.”
“I said to them nothing except what You commanded me: Worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord. And I was a witness over them as long as I remained among them. But when You took me, You were the Observer over them, and You are Witness over all things.”
The Prophet ﷺ uses part of the words of Jesus, peace be upon him, because the situation is similar: a messenger is innocent of those who distorted the message after him.
Fourth Response: The Mercy of the Prophet ﷺ Toward Abdullah ibn Ubayy
What further clarifies this is what happened with Abdullah ibn Ubayy ibn Salul, the leader of the hypocrites, when he died.
The Prophet ﷺ knew that he was a hypocrite — indeed, the leader of hypocrisy — and despite that, he wanted to pray over him. In some narrations, he actually prayed over him, until Allah ordered him not to do that after that day.
When Abdullah bin Ubayy bin Salul came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and asked him to give him his shirt to shroud his father in, he gave it to him. Then he asked him to pray over him.
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ stood up to pray over him, so Umar stood up and took hold of the Messenger of Allah’s garment ﷺ and said:
“O Messenger of Allah, will you pray over him when Allah has forbidden you to pray over him?”
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:
“Allah has given me a choice and said: Ask forgiveness for them or do not ask forgiveness for them. If you ask forgiveness for them seventy times, Allah will not forgive them. And I will add more than seventy.”
He said:
“He is a hypocrite.”
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ prayed over him, and Allah Almighty revealed:
“And never pray over any of them if he dies, nor stand over his grave.”
Narrated by: Al-Bukhari in his Sahih on the authority of Musaddad, and Muslim on the authority of Abu Musa.
Ask forgiveness for them or do not ask forgiveness for them. If you ask forgiveness for them seventy times, Allah will never forgive them.
And never pray over any of them who dies, nor stand over his grave.
Is there any greater evidence of the mercy of the Messenger ﷺ than this?
He showed mercy even to the head of the hypocrites until Allah revealed the decisive command forbidding prayer over such people. So when he says on the Day of Resurrection, “My companions,” this reflects his mercy, concern, and outward recognition of those who were attributed to his Ummah — not an endorsement of hypocrites as true Companions.
The Failed Accusation Against the Companions
Is this a slander against the Companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ?
No.
The hadith does not attack the true Companions. It attacks those who innovated, apostatized, distorted, or outwardly attached themselves to Islam while inwardly opposing it.
The hadith, “You do not know what they innovated after you,” is not a condemnation of the true Companions. It concerns people outwardly attributed to the Prophet’s company or Ummah while inwardly corrupt, hypocritical, or later guilty of innovation. The Prophet ﷺ, being the mercy sent, initially seeks mercy for them, but when Allah informs him of their reality, he disavows them. The forger’s accusation collapses because it confuses outward affiliation with true companionship, and mercy with approval.