A history teacher is asked by his students about the ruling on the fighting among the Companions, so how does he answer?
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The questioner : In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
Your Eminence, peace be upon you and Allah's mercy: I am a teacher of history, and in the history curriculum for the first year of middle school, we cover the battles of Siffin and al-Jamal. We face some questions from the students: How did the Companions fight among themselves? They also mention to us the hadith of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him):Sahih Muslim 2888b to the end of the hadith. So what is our position in this situation?
The Shaykh : Our position in this situation is to stand as the people of the Sunnah and the community stand toward what occurred between the Companions, which is to say: "These are bloods from which Allah purified our swords, so let us purify our tongues from them" And in this, the poet says:
"And we remain silent about the war of the Companions, for what *** occurred between them was pure ijtihad"
They were mujtahids, and not every mujtahid is correct. A person may exercise ijtihad and make a mistake. This ijtihad that occurred on their part undoubtedly occurred due to error, and error, when it issues from ijtihad, is forgiven, by the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him):Sunan an-Nasa'i 5381Sahih (Darussalam).
The obligatory thing: if a question comes to us from a student: How could this be from the Companions? We say: Allah knows best.
It is obligatory that we restrain our tongues from that and not ask, and we say: Each of them was a mujtahid, so whoever was correct has two rewards, and whoever made a mistake has one reward.
Your Eminence, peace be upon you and Allah's mercy: I am a teacher of history, and in the history curriculum for the first year of middle school, we cover the battles of Siffin and al-Jamal. We face some questions from the students: How did the Companions fight among themselves? They also mention to us the hadith of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him):
When two Muslims confront each other with their swords, both the slayer and the slain are doomed to Hell-Fire.
إذا التقى المسلمان بسيفيهما فالقاتل والمقتول في النارThe Shaykh : Our position in this situation is to stand as the people of the Sunnah and the community stand toward what occurred between the Companions, which is to say: "These are bloods from which Allah purified our swords, so let us purify our tongues from them" And in this, the poet says:
"And we remain silent about the war of the Companions, for what *** occurred between them was pure ijtihad"
They were mujtahids, and not every mujtahid is correct. A person may exercise ijtihad and make a mistake. This ijtihad that occurred on their part undoubtedly occurred due to error, and error, when it issues from ijtihad, is forgiven, by the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him):
If a judge passes judgment and strives to reach the right conclusion and gets it right, he will have two rewards; if he strives to reach the right conclusion but gets it wrong, he will still have one reward.
إذا حكم الحاكم فاجتهد فأصاب فله أجران، وإن أخطأ فله أجرThe obligatory thing: if a question comes to us from a student: How could this be from the Companions? We say: Allah knows best.
It is obligatory that we restrain our tongues from that and not ask, and we say: Each of them was a mujtahid, so whoever was correct has two rewards, and whoever made a mistake has one reward.