The ruling on expressing satisfaction with Abu Sufyan, given what he did before his Islam
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
May Allah reward you. This questioner asks: Is it permissible to express satisfaction with Abu Sufyan (may Allah be pleased with him)?
The Shaykh:
Yes, we advise this.
The questioner:
When you mention his actions that harmed the Muslims.
The Shaykh:
My brother, the disbelievers did things far worse than what Abu Sufyan did, and when they embraced Islam, the goodness of their Islam led to satisfaction being expressed toward them. 'Umar did things before he embraced Islam, and Islam wipes out what came before it.[Al-Anfal 8:38] How can you rebuke him for something that Allah has turned him away from and forgiven for him? It is not permissible to rebuke Abu Sufyan, or anyone else, for something that Allah has turned him away from and forgiven for him.
May Allah reward you. This questioner asks: Is it permissible to express satisfaction with Abu Sufyan (may Allah be pleased with him)?
The Shaykh:
Yes, we advise this.
The questioner:
When you mention his actions that harmed the Muslims.
The Shaykh:
My brother, the disbelievers did things far worse than what Abu Sufyan did, and when they embraced Islam, the goodness of their Islam led to satisfaction being expressed toward them. 'Umar did things before he embraced Islam, and Islam wipes out what came before it.
Say to those who have disbelieved [that] if they cease, what has previously occurred will be forgiven for them
قُل لِّلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا إِن يَنتَهُوا يُغْفَرْ لَهُم مَّا قَدْ سَلَفَ
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، [3436/2437] حكم الترضي على أبي سفيان وقد فعل ما فعل قبل إسلامه - الشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.