Who is a Companion of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ?

[HaiderAli]

Scholars have various definitions as to who is a Sahabi. They have set different standards to rule whether a person living during the time of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ is eligible to be called a Sahabi or Companion as we say in the English language.
Many scholars judge by

• the time interval a person spent in the presence of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ.
• the number of times one met Prophet Muhammad ﷺor saw him.
• the number of battles a Sahabi fought alongside Prophet Muhammad ﷺ.

A Sahabi is one who has met Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, believed in what he preached and died as a Muslim.
The most famous distribution of the Sahaba has been done by Hakim An Nisabori (a great scholar of Hadith) in his book “Ma’arifatu ulum al Hadith". He has ranked the Sahaba in a total of 12 levels according to his criterion.