Injury in distinguishing the companions

Author's name
Ahmad ibn Ali ibn Hajar al-Asqalani

Al-Isabah fi Tamyiz al-Sahaba is a book written by Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, in which he sought to investigate all the Companions (i.e., those who accompanied the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him) and their biographies. It is considered one of the most important and comprehensive books ever written on the history of Islam. Its topic is distinguishing between the Companions: those whose companionship was proven and those who were not, and those whose existence was proven and those who were not. The total number of biographies is (12,446). It took forty years to write.

The author
Ibn Hajar is described in Islamic books as the Imam, Hafiz, and Commander of the Faithful for his mastery of the science of Hadith. He was one of the preachers at Al-Azhar Mosque and was given the title of Chief Justice (Qadi al-Qudat) because he held the position of judge in Egypt. His full name was Shihab al-Din Abu al-Fadl, Ahmad ibn Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Ali ibn Ahmad al-Kinani al-Shafi'i al-Misri. He was nicknamed al-Asqalani in reference to the city of Ashkelon in Palestine, from which his ancestors descended. He was born in 773 AH (773 AH) and died in 852 AH (852 AH). A large number of people attended his funeral. He was raised as an orphan by an Egyptian merchant and memorized the Quran at a young age. He studied under many scholars, numbering in the hundreds, most notably Zayn al-Din al-Iraqi, Siraj al-Din al-Bulqini, and Ibn al-Mulaqqin. He authored numerous books, totaling over 150 titles, the most famous of which are Fath al-Bari, a commentary on Sahih al-Bukhari, al-Isabah, Tahdhib al-Tahdhib, and Taqrib al-Tahdhib.
Reason for writing
Al-Hafiz mentions the reason for writing the book Al-Isabah, which is that he often came across names of Companions that were not mentioned in the many books written by scholars before him on the science of the Companions, despite the fact that they fell within the scope of these books. He also came across errors made by those who worked on it before him, for other reasons. So he thought of writing a new book on the science of the Companions that would be more comprehensive and broader than others in distinguishing the Companions from others. He actually began doing that in the year 809 AH and finished it in the year 847 AH.
Book description and method of writing
Abdul Fattah Abu Sunnah, in his foreword to Al-Isabah, says, "Al-Isabah is one of the best books written on the history of the Companions (may Allah be pleased with them). The book contains the largest number of biographies of the Companions, mentioning approximately 12,500 of them. It also distinguishes individuals who may be erroneously described as Companions and sets criteria for distinguishing between Companions and non-Companions. It also provides corrections to previous similar works. The book is distinguished by the vast period it covers, extending from the pre-Islamic period to the death of the last known Companion. One of the advantages of Al-Isabah is that it is also considered a hadith book, in which Ibn Hajar mentions the hadith, discusses the methods of its transmission, and assesses its degree of authenticity. What distinguishes the book is that it quotes from books that have been lost and are no longer available in copies. It also records historical and cultural details about the lives of the Companions, their writings, their knowledge, and the codification of the Sunnah.
Author's approach
Ibn Hajar collected in the book Al-Isabah what was written by those who preceded him in the knowledge of the Companions, and he re-researched and investigated the first ancient references that were composed and classified in relation to the biographies of the Companions, the history of the narrators, the biographies and the battles, and thus he collected a number of the names of the Companions who were not mentioned in the works of others, and he relied in his methodology of composing the book on arranging the names of the Companions according to the letters of the dictionary, starting with the letter Alif first, then Baa then Taa and so on, and he divided each letter of them into four sections.
The first section is devoted to biographies of those whose companions were mentioned through narrations from them or from others, regardless of whether the narration is authentic, good, or weak in referring to that.
The second section is a translation of the Companions from the children who were born during the era of the Prophet, for some of the Companions, and the Prophet died while they were not of the age of discernment, and that is because they were keen to bring them to the Prophet so that he could taste them and name them, and the reason for separating them in a section is that some researchers consider them to be among the mursal hadiths.
The third section is about those veterans who witnessed the pre-Islamic era and Islam, and there is no news that they met the Prophet or saw him. The hadiths of these people are unanimously mursal.
The fourth section, in which the author distinguished himself from all those who came before him, he translated those who were mentioned in the books by way of illusion and error, and explained that with evidence and in the style and methods of the people of hadith. Ibn Hajar says about this section:

The injury in distinguishing the companions
And I do not know who preceded me in this fourth section, nor who hovered over it with a bird of thought. It is the sought-after lost treasure in this flourishing chapter and the cream of what is produced from this clever and skilled art.

The injury in distinguishing the companions
However, this method of division resulted in repetition and repeated references to previous or subsequent topics. The author also clarified whether each of the Companions had met the Prophet or not. He also pointed out names that were mentioned in other works and writings by way of illusion and error. He worked hard to ensure proper pronunciation of names and words, and was careful to mention who narrated from each narrator and who narrated from them. He also repeated some biographies if a name was likely between two people, translating it once for each possible narration according to its alphabetical position. He frequently used the method of referring the reader to what was previously mentioned in the book or what will be mentioned later. The length of the biographies in the book varied greatly, with some only a few lines, while others extended to several pages.