How did the fight among the Companions take place?

- How should Muslims view the conflicts among the Companions?
- How did the fight in which even the caliphs and wives of the Prophet (pbuh) were involved occur?
- What was the conflict about?

Dear Brother / Sister,

''Ismah", that is, "divine protection from sins" belongs to prophets only. Since the Companions do not have the attribute of ismah, it cannot be said that they are free from making mistakes. However, a Muslim does not exit Islam when he makes a mistake; similarly, a Companion does not lose the honor of being a Companion when he makes a mistake. 

All mujtahids of the four true madhhabs regard the conflicts among the Companions as follows:

Every Companion is a mujtahid. It is their right before everyone else to make ijtihad related to the issues that are not clearly expressed in the Quran and hadiths. It is a definite rule of the science of fiqh that if a person is a mujtahid, he does not have to obey the ijtihad of another mujtahid. The disagreements, conflicts and battles that occurred among the Companions were due to difference of ijtihad. Their wishes and desires have no share - God forbid - in these disagreements. For, they were purified from bad attributes like hatred, enmity and hostility thanks to listening to the talks of the Prophet. Their souls were free from such mean things and they became lofty

Yes, every Companion is a mujtahid in Islam. As it is known, a person who makes an ijtihad gains two thawabs if he is right; he gains one thawab if he is wrong. The ijtihads of those distinguished people, who belonged to Islam with their lives and wealth and who had no other goal other than elevating and spreading Islam, aimed to elevate Islam. This love and determination were so high in them that they did not hesitate to express a view contrary to that of the Prophet (pbuh) at the Battle of Uhud. They clearly said, "We see the success of Islam in this." The Prophet (pbuh) had to act in accordance with the view of the Companions since the majority of the Companions made an ijtihad opposite to that of the Messenger of Allah (pbuh). The incidents that occurred afterwards showed that the Prophet (pbuh) was right. Although the Quran was being sent down gradually at that time, Allah Almighty did not even send down a verse to warn the Companions. He did not give them a warning; on the contrary, he ordered the Prophet (pbuh) to keep consulting them. The Messenger of Allah (pbuh) did not blame them; he still loved them and continued asking their views. Only this incident is enough to show clearly that the Companions are valuable in the eye of Allah and His Messenger and that they had the right of ijtihad in the religion.  

Now let us think mercifully. Can we judge the Companions, who were not warned by Allah or the Messenger of Allah though they thought differently from the Prophet and made a different ijtihad, due to the disagreements among themselves? A person who has even very little conscience and foresight must not resort to this crime.

If a Muslim oversteps the limit and tries to judge that distinguished group, who shed their blood for Islam during the first years of Islam, and says that one of them was right and another one was wrong, he will not blemish those stars of guidance but will harm himself.

Besides, the people that he judges are the notables of the Companions. Some of them were given the glad tiding that they were the people of Paradise. The Quran and the Prophet (pbuh) praised those people whom he criticizes.

We should not forget this issue and should act very carefully about the disagreements among the Companions and avoid overstepping the limit. 

If the disagreement of the Companions had not been legitimate and reasonable in the eye of Allah Almighty, he would have sent down an order and prevented it. As a matter of fact, when the Companions talked loudly in the presence of the Prophet (pbuh), the following verse was sent down to warn them:

"O ye who believe! Raise not your voices above the voice of the Prophet, nor speak aloud to him in talk, as ye may speak aloud to one another lest your deeds become vain and ye perceive not." (al-Hujurat, 49/2)

The believers are ordered to avoid having bad thoughts about their believing brothers:

"Would any of you like to eat the flesh of his dead brother?" (al-Hujurat, 49/12)

Allah Almighty informs us in this verse that backbiting is a deed that is as disgusting as eating the flesh of a dead person and that does not fit a believer. You can understand the danger of the issue if the person who is backbitten is a Companion and especially one of the notables of the Companions.

The Messenger of Allah (pbuh) stated the following in a hadith:

"Backbiting eats up good deeds just as fire eats up wood." (See: Ghazali, Sulwat al-‘Arifin, Lebanon 1971, 1/233-234)

Thus, he warns us severely.

It is necessary to listen to these facts in terms of our life in the hereafter and the future of Islam. Since a believer is prohibited from having bad thoughts about another believer, it is clearly understood how grave and dangerous it is to have bad thoughts about the Companions and the notables among them, who laid the foundations of Islam, who were the friends of the Prophet in daily life and wars and who were the means of the guidance of all of the Muslims of today. 

The safest way for clever people is to avoid speaking ill of them. It will be understood after thinking a little that people were not sent to this world to analyze the problems among the Companions and to decide which party is right and which one is wrong. To have a view about this issue cannot be the purpose of the creation of a person. Man was not created to hold a view about it; he was created to worship Allah properly. That is, our religion calls us to fulfill or duties to worship Allah, not to analyze the disagreements among the Companions.

The great Companions, from the caliph to the ordinary ones lived with same sustenance and felt the same excitement. They worked openly and secretly, day and night, in the development, spread and elevation of Islam. They made jihad with their lives and blood and made unmatchable sacrifices. They opposed their tribe for the love of the Quran and the Prophet and they sacrificed their families, children, property and wealth. They preferred the Prophet to their own lives, children, family and parents. They shed their blood in order to lay the foundations of Islam.  

They became a means of the worldly and otherworldly happiness of all of the Muslims beginning from that day to the Day of Judgment. It is our duty in terms of justice and conscience to feel gratitude to them, to pray, praise and thank them.

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