Why Muslims shouldn't judge the companions' disagreements

Yesterday we had kind of touched on the topic due to the narrator of the Hadith.

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Anhu. And we had touched on some of the history that had occurred during the time of Muawiyah and most notably some of the disagreements which occurred between Muawiyah and Ali ibn Abi Talib.

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But Muawiyah was not alone in this amongst the companions of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam. He spearheaded the effort in order to fulfill the aspect of the truth that he felt was most correct and Muawiyah radi.

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Is not you know, some small potatoes. Muawiyah.

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And I only mention this because many of us have heard parts of this story, but most of us have misunderstood most of the parts that we've heard. And I say this from experience. if I were to just take a tally on me growing up and what I've heard from people around me and the elders in my family and in my community growing up, we were taught a very askewed view on the way that the Muslimin are to view and to hold the difference of opinion which resulted in infighting and bloodshed amongst the.

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The position of Ahlus Sunnah, the position of Ahlus Sunnah is as summarized by by Al-Qahtani rahimahullah in his Nuniyah, yaqulu da'ma jara bayna al-sahabati fil waga bisuyufihim yawm al taqal jama'ani.

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Wakilahuma fil hashri marhumani. He says, "Do not discuss and debate the sides of the issue which occurred.

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When it culminated in actual physical battle." And he says, rahimahullah, "That the one amongst the companions, any of the companions that was killed during that disagreement, he is a companion. And anyone who killed during that disagreement is also a companion. That is their close circle. We're not part of that. We don't get to judge them. We're not companions of the prophet Sallallahu alaihi wasallam. And both of them, both sides entirely, every companion that had anything to do with the disagreement or those who refrained from become involving themselves in the disagreements, all of the companions will be forgiven on the day of judgement because they are between two rewards and one reward. As the prophet Sallallahu alaihi wasallam says in that Hakim, either just had a fact for a Sabah for a who a jar what either a star for a who a jar and one word. He says that if a judge tries his best to to judge with the truth and what is correct and he makes a judgement and he is correct in said judgement, he will be rewarded twofold. And if he is wrong, he will be rewarded at least one. And so the companions of Allah and them, they had this disagreement and it as we mentioned yesterday, very simply, if we were to put it very simply, what happened? Uthman and them was attacked by a group of young impressionable men that came from both Iraq and from Egypt. And they had very unsavory origins. And they had been inoculated with a kind of arrogance and anger and hatred towards.

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They accused him of being unjust. They accused him of taking the Khilafah and making it his own. They accused him of giving positions of power to his family members, right? Nepotism and cronyism. The question here is is it wrong? Let's say I was a a person of authority, a a person in a position of power, right? Is it inherently wrong for me to make my brother in a position of power with me? Is that wrong? No. When is it wrong? When that's what put him in that position. Meaning, he's not qualified for that position, but I put him in that position anyways. That is nepotism. That is what is haram. But if my family member happens to be happens to be qualified, that actually might be better for me to put him in that position because it is closer to keeping a harmonious level-headedness to the government. So, there's an issue of ijtihad. But they came and they resorted Uthman to his house. They prohibited him from coming out of his house. They attacked him and those around him of the companions. they were armed. And they kept him in his house for a number of days, and they finally murdered him. It it culminated in his murder. And it's said that he was murdered just before the Adhan of Maghrib while he was reading the Quran. And that just before that he had had a vision and he was over 80 years old at this point that he saw the prophet Sallallahu alayhi wasallam in a in a dream and he said to him Ya Aba Layla his kunya was Abu Layla or Ya Uthman come and break your fast with us this evening. And so he woke up and he started to read the Quran knowing that his time had come and as he was hunched over the Quran sitting on the floor.

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And so he was killed in this position. Now this is not a small thing. The Khalifa of the Muslimeen has been killed by Muslims. And these Muslims were infiltrated these they were all young men all young and they were infiltrated where? At the edges of the Muslim empire. Remember we said they came from Egypt and they came from Iraq, right? Right at the edges of those two major empires that were just defeated by Umar radiyallahu anhu the Romans and the Persians. And so they had confused these young men and they had gassed them up and sent them and they got what they wanted these enemies of Islam that stayed behind the curtains. And so as these men made their way back and the reason that the other companions didn't you know didn't intervene is because Uthman insisted that nobody be hurt. That no even these young men. They're confused. Leave them. And so he chose his blood over theirs. Or he we could say he chose their blood over his. That his blood be shed before any other Muslim's blood be shed. Now, how did the Muslimin react to this? Well, we have Ali ibn Abi Talib radi.

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We have.

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He's not some chump, some guy that just meandered into the governance of Ash-Sham. He was appointed by Umar ibn al-Khattab.

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Do you know how hard it would be to be appointed by Umar ibn al-Khattab? You've never met anyone that would be appointed by Umar ibn al-Khattab. Let's say it that. Perhaps you and I have never met anyone that would qualify to be trusted by Umar to be a governor. And not only was he entrusted by Umar for 20 years. But he was in charge of the entire western front. All of it. All of it. Egypt, Ash-Sham, Falastin, al-Urdun, Yemen, Oman, al-Haramain, Mecca and Medina, and Egypt all the way out to Morocco. They were all under the governance of.

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Anhu. This isn't some kid. His opinion matters and people loved him dearly in Asham. Now, when he received the news that Uthman had been killed, he was very angry and he felt that we have to act quick regardless of what Uthman wanted. He didn't want anybody to be brought to death for his on his behalf, but it's not up to Uthman. We need to take these six boys or these five boys and they need to be put to death immediately in order to show a position of power and so that these things will be settled and then he said to Ali, "If you do that, I will give you my allegiance." That's it. So, he used his allegiance as leverage to try to force Ali's hand. Difference of opinion. Ali ibn Abi Talib felt that these young men were too well rooted in their communities and we will lose the allegiance of entire tribes if we bring these young men to death now, especially being that we're divided and that not everyone has given allegiance for Ali to be the Khalifa yet. And so, if we bring these young men to death, we're going to lose the allegiance of these regions and we're going to have a mutiny on our hands. That was Ali's position. Now, if we were to look at it analytically, who is more acquainted with his people, Ali or Muawiyah? Meaning in Iraq, Ali. He's He's more acquainted with them. But either way, this was the the issue that happened. They in Siffin. Before that, they had a skirmish. It's not really a battle. We can call it more of a skirmish in.

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Anha went with al-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam and Talhah and went to speak to Ali and tried to get retribution for Uthman's blood. They all agreed on what needed to happen. They disagreed on the order in which these things needed to happen. That's it. Right? And so, there was fat fighting and battling. But, when Ali ibn Abi Talib was assassinated, Muawiyah was was attempted to be assassinated on the same day. And actually, he was attempted twice to be assassinated on the same day at the same time. Radi.

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One time, he was attacked with a poison knife, and another time in salah. Both times in salah.

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And the idea was to completely get rid of all of the companions of the prophet because they were being pushed and they were being inoculated, if you will, and propagandized and radicalized by who? Does anyone know his name? Huh? Abdullah ibn Saba. Yes, a Jewish man. Abdullah ibn Saba is the grandfather of the Khawarij, and he's the grandfather of the Rafidah, the Shia who later turned into a Rafidah once they became more radical. And Sheikh al-Islam compares him to Paul from the Christians. You know Paul? You know the story of Paul? He wrote most of the books in the New Testament. He was a Jew who specialized in killing Jews and killing Christians. He was a Jew who specialized in killing Christians. Okay, so imagine Hitler but for the Christians. And then suddenly on his way to Damascus, he sees you know, what he says is Isa and he says, "Why do you kick against the pricks?" Blah, blah, blah. Oh, he has a change of heart. Now he is the greatest Christian that ever walked the earth. And so he wrote a bunch of books and added them to the New Testament. Could you imagine? Could you imagine if Hitler in World War II say 1944, 1945 just before the fall of Berlin, he said, "You know what? I saw Moses on the path on the way to Berlin. And he said, 'Why do you kick against the pricks? I now love the Jews and here's a bunch of new books that I wrote that God inspired me. Add them to the Torah.' Could you imagine? Right? That that's exactly what happened. So Sheikh ul-Islam tells us that Abdullah ibn Saba is the Paul of this ummah. He's the one that started these two radical groups and and funny enough, these two radical groups, the Khawarij and the Rafidah, they are two opposites. But they are two sides of the same coin. And it's said that Ali ibn Abi Talib put him to death during his life and it's said that he escaped to Persia before he was able to be brought to justice. Muawiyah radiyallahu anhu, Abu Abdurrahman, he does not have a completely white past. Has he made mistakes? Yes, the scholars have pointed those out. There is no companion who has not made individual mistakes. He doesn't exist. And Muawiyah was in a very precarious situation and he was dealing with a very different political climate. And so it is considered unanimous amongst the scholars of Islam that insulting Muawiyah is an innovation in Islam. Muawiyah passed away in the year 60 after Hijrah. And as we mentioned he is the first king of the Muslimin and there are many narrations regarding his virtues.

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