are good deeds and great merits that wipe out whatever mistakes some of them may have made.

Accordingly, Muslims are obliged to ask Allah to be pleased with them, to look for excuses on their behalf, and to defend them. The creed of Ahl al-Sunnah wa-l-Jamāʿah is never to pry into the disputes that arose among the Companions, because of the rank and precedence Allah granted them and in light of the Prophet’s—peace and blessings be upon him—statement: “Do not revile my Companions. By the One in whose hand is my soul, were any of you to spend gold equal to Mount Uhud, it would not equal even a handful of what one of them spent, nor half of it.” (1)

Whoever meddles in what transpired among the Companions and nourishes any resentment toward them is a heretic. As for someone who claims, “We only delve into what befell the Companions for scholarly research,” this is a grave danger and is not permissible. When ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz was asked about those events, he replied, “They were a people whose hands Allah kept pure of our blood, so we must keep our tongues pure of their honor.”

The Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—also said, “Will you not leave my Companions for me?” (2) Therefore we do not intrude upon what occurred among the Companions, for refraining from that is part of true faith and part of the sincere counsel owed to Allah, His Messenger, His Book, and to all Muslims, common and elite alike.