The tābiʿūn (Arabic: اَلتَّابِعُونَ, also accusative or genitive tābiʿīn اَلتَّابِعِينَ, singular tābiʿ تَابِعٌ), "followers" or "successors", are the generation of Muslims who followed the companions (ṣaḥāba) of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, and thus received their teachings secondhand.[1]Atābiʿ knew at least one ṣaḥābī.[2] As such, they played an important part in the development of Islamic thought and knowledge, and in the political development of the early caliphate.
The next generation of Muslims after the tabiʿūn are called the tābiʿ at-tābiʿīn تَابِعُو ٱلتَّابِعِينَ. The first three generations of Muhammad's followers make up the salaf سَلَفُ of Islam.
Muslims from the Sunni branch of Islam define a tābiʿ as a Muslim who:
Sunni Muslims also regard the tābiʿūn as the best generation after the companions. According to Sunni Muslims, Muhammad said: "The best people are those living in my generation, then those coming after them, and then those coming after (the second generation)"[3]
The tābiʿūn are divided by most Muslim scholars into three classes:[4]
The first tābiʿ to die was Zayd ibn Ma'mar ibn Zayd, 30 years after the hijra, and the last to die was Khalaf ibn Khalifa, who died in 180 AH. Alternatively, since the status of Khalaf ibn Khalifa as a tābiʿ is strongly challenged by reputed scholars, the last to die from amongst them may have been Jarir bin Haazim in 170 AH. Therefore, many of the tābiʿūn were tasked with the preservation of Islamic traditions from the era of the companions to later Muslims.[4]
Abu Hanifa is counted among the most illustrious of the Tabi'un (literally "the successors,"which refers to the second generation of Muslims), and some sources relate that he met at least four Companions of the Prophet