Are all the Companions considered trustworthy in hadith narration?

Ahl as-Sunnah hold that all the Sahabah are 'udul — upright in transmission — so their reports are not subjected to jarh and ta'dil the way later narrators are, and a chain is scrutinised only from the generation below them downwards. This is why you will not find biographical critics weighing up a Companion's reliability the way they weigh up a Successor's. The basis is Allah's own praise of them, as in "And the first forerunners among the Muhajirun and the Ansar and those who followed them with excellence — Allah is pleased with them and they with Him" (9:100) and 48:18, together with the Prophet's صلى الله عليه وسلم prohibition: "Do not revile my Companions." Their uprightness means none of them is suspected of lying about the Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم; it does not mean they were infallible, and they corrected one another's memory and ijtihad openly. Two practical consequences follow: a report can be authentic in its Companion and still be weak because of someone later in the chain, and a Companion being unnamed in a chain (mubham) does not weaken it, since whichever of them it was, he is trustworthy.

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