fighting them. The Commander of the Faithful, Alī ibn Abī Tālib, may Allah be pleased with him, fought them and cited the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, which called for fighting them. He rejoiced at their being killed and prostrated to Allah in gratitude when he saw their father, Dhū al-Thudayyah, lying dead. This was unlike what happened at the Battle of the Camel and at Siffīn: Alī did not rejoice at that; rather, his pain and regret were plain to see. Nor did he cite any Sunnah from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, concerning that fighting. Instead, he stated that he had fought on the basis of his own independent judgment.

Thus, the people of Medina followed the Sunnah in fighting those who departed from the Sharia and in refraining from fighting during civil strife. This is also the position of the leading scholars of hadith, unlike those who equated fighting the former with fighting the latter. Indeed, they also equated this with al-Siddīq’s fighting those who withheld zakat, placing all these groups in the category of rebels, as some authors writing on fighting rebels have done. This conflates matters that Allah has distinguished. The people of Medina and the Sunnah, however, distinguished between what Allah has distinguished and followed authentic texts and sound, just analogical reasoning.

Sound analogical reasoning is a form of justice: it means treating like cases alike and distinguishing between unlike cases. The people of Medina have the strongest claim to following authentic texts and just analogical reasoning. An exhaustive treatment of this subject would be lengthy; we have discussed as much of it as Allah has willed