The Four Companions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Four Companions, also called the Four Pillars of the Sahaba is a Shi'a term that refers to the four Sahaba Shi'a believe stayed most loyal to Ali ibn Abi Talib after the death of Muhammad:

Shi'a also believe they are among the group of the Muhammad's companions who were closest to Ali and were called Shiat Ali during the lifetime of the prophet.

These companions are later referred to as Real Shi'a. Sunnis tend to misunderstand this as referring to all other sahaba as non-Muslims. Such is not the case; Shi'a do not deny the Islam of the other Sahaba, in fact believe many of them to be Shi'a, for example Ibn Abbas, Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr and Malik ibn Ashter, however, it is only "The Four Sahaba" that are believed to have attained the rank of Real Shi'a and remained so.