(19) The Ja`fariyyah Shi`ah believe that the sahabah (the...

(19) The Ja`fariyyah Shi`ah believe that the sahabah (the Prophet’s ) and the men and women who clung to the Holy Prophet (S) had served Islam because they sacrificed all that they had, including their lives, to spread and preserve their religion; therefore, all Muslims should respect these individuals, appreciate their service to Islam, and pray that Almighty Allah’s good pleasure will embrace them.

However, this does not mean that all those who accompanied the Holy Prophet (S) were so decent and pure that their attitudes and deeds are above criticism. Of course, they are human beings who are not inerrant. History confirms that some of the sahabah strayed off the right path during the lifetime of the Holy Prophet (S). The Holy Qur'an stresses this fact in some chapters and verses, such as Chapters of al-Munafiqun (No. 63), al-Ahzab (No. 33), al-Hujurat (No. 49), al-Tahrim (No.

66), al-Fath (No. 48), Muhammad (No. 47), al-Tawbah (No. 9). An impartial criticism of certain situations of the sahabah is not considered disbelief. Of course, the criterion of belief and disbelief is known to everybody.

This criterion is represented in accepting or rejecting such principles like Almighty Allah’s Oneness and Muhammad’s Prophethood and other matters like the necessity of performing prayers, observing fasting, going on hajj, and the unlawfulness of intoxicants, gambling, and the like. It goes without saying that every Muslim has to abstain from obscene language, revilement and lowly writings, because such behavior is unbecoming to a true Muslim who follows the Holy Prophet as an excellent example.

It is true that the majority of sahabah were righteous, virtuous and worthy of respect and honor, but the application of the rules of investigating the biographies of the narrators of hadith (al-jarh wal-ta`dil) to the sahabah is only intended to distinguish the authentic Prophetic tradition (sunnah) from the fabricated one, because, as is known to everyone, fabrication against the Holy Prophet (S) unfortunately increased after his departure just as the Holy Prophet (S) had predicted.

This fact has led scholars of both sects, such as al-Suyuti, Ibn al-Jawzi, and others, to write valuable books on the methods of discriminating the traditions that the Holy Prophet (S) had definitely said from fabricated traditions. (20) The Ja`fariyyah Shi`ah believe in the existence of the Awaited Imam al-Mahdi (a.s).