Or, those “Sahabah” are actually the “major sinners” and...

Or, those “Sahabah” are actually the “major sinners” and minor heretics of all times. The affected “Sahabah” were “few” because the Messenger, sallallahu ‘alaihi wa alihi, in some ahadith, called them usayhabi with tasghir. However, looking at the actual ahadith, one must conclude that none of the Sunni interpretations is accurate. For instance, the reports identify the Sahabah meant as those “who kept me company and saw me” and “I will recognize them and they will recognize me”.

This rules out the claim that the “Sahabah” in the riwayat are all major sinners and minor heretics. None of such people in our times, for example, ever saw the Prophet or kept him company! Yet, those descriptions do not match the Bedouin Arabs either. They were nomadic people, who wandered in the desert, round about the city of al-Madinah. Some of them might have seen the Messenger of Allah. But, they certainly were not keeping him company in the city and elsewhere.

In fact, the Qur’an distinguishes between them and the people of Madinah: وممن حولكم من الأعراب منافقون ومن أهل المدينة And among the Bedouin Arabs round about you, some are hypocrites, and so are some among the people of al-Madinah.

[^4] And: ما كان لأهل المدينة ومن حولهم من الأعراب أن يتخلفوا عن رسول الله ولا يرغبوا بأنفسهم عن نفسه It was not becoming of the people of al-Madinah and the Bedouin Arabs round about them to remain behind the Messenger of Allah and to prefer their own lives to his life. [^5] Therefore, the Bedouin Arabs lived outside al-Madinah. So, they were unable to keep company of the Prophet. To do that, they must first settle in the city, which they never did.

Moreover, it was impossible for the Messenger to have personally known many of them. They lived far away from him. It was even possible that he never, for once, set his eyes on a lot of them. Yet, the ahadith are clear that he will recognize the affected Sahabah in the Hereafter! The bottom-line is that the Sahabah who will be driven into Hellfire for their “innovations” were those who lived with the Rasul in al-Madinah, kept him company, and were known personally to him.