Why the Fitna Among the Companions Is Left Alone

Shaykh Yasir Qadhi explains:

Asked whether ʿAlī gave the bayʿah, and asked often to teach the Khulafāʾ al-Rāshidūn in detail, the shaykh explains why he declines. With the Prophet ﷺ we read everything in perfectly, for he is the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and every ijtihād of his we must accept. But the Companions were not prophets; they were deeply human, had minor disputes among themselves, and we are not bound to agree with every ijtihād of every Companion. Even in today's account there were things it might have been better to pass over.

❧Save the tongue

When the talk reaches ʿUthmān's later years, and then ʿAlī's, Ṣiffīn, the Battle of the Jamal, it sows doubt in ordinary hearts, and no one leaves such discussions with a softer heart; they leave with a harder one. These were times of fitnah: things were done and said, lives were lost, and men we love and revere stood on both sides. The shaykh's position is that of Imām Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, who when asked of the fitnah between the Companions said: that was a time from which Allah kept our swords, so let us keep our tongues from it too. As in our own lives, there is no wisdom in reopening an old quarrel with a brother or spouse, detail by detail, once it has passed; nothing is gained but fresh pain. Out of respect for the Companions, it is better to let it lie. Not every knowledge is beneficial.

❧Muawiyah

Even within Sunnism there is a spectrum, sharpest over Muʿāwiyah, from minor or even harsh criticism to much praise, and one cannot please everyone. The shaykh holds the majority position: Muʿāwiyah is a Companion, of the minor Companions, not the major, a youth of eighteen or nineteen at the time, but a Companion; and we do not impugn the integrity of any Companion, even where we differ with his ijtihād. We hold that he meant well for the Ummah, leave his ijtihād to Allah, and note that Allah willed him to found the Umayyad dynasty, one of the greatest the Ummah has seen. Beyond that it is best to stay silent.