who are rightly guided and guided to the truth after me. Hold fast to it and cling to it with your molar teeth. Beware of newly introduced matters, for every innovation is misguidance.” An example is the decision of ‘Umar and ‘Uthmān, may Allah be pleased with them both, to retain the conquered lands rather than distribute them among those entitled to the spoils.

Whoever declares this impermissible because the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, distributed Khaybar, and maintains that a ruler’s decision to retain such lands must be overturned for contravening the Sunnah, holds a mistaken view and shows audacity toward the Rightly Guided Caliphs. What the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, did at Khaybar indicates only that his action was permissible, not that it was obligatory. Even if we had no other evidence that this was not obligatory, the practice of the Rightly Guided Caliphs would itself establish that. How much more so when it is established that he conquered Mecca by force, as numerous authentic hadiths report—indeed, this is established through mass transmission among scholars of the military campaigns and the Prophet’s biography?

He came after they had broken the treaty and encamped at Marr al-Zahrān. None of them came to negotiate peace with him, nor did he send anyone to negotiate peace with them. Rather, Abū Sufyān went out to gather intelligence, whereupon al-‘Abbās took him and brought him to the Prophet like a captive. At most, al-‘Abbās had granted him safe-conduct, making him a person under a guarantee of safety. He then embraced Islam and became one of the Muslims. How, then, could he conceivably conclude a peace treaty on behalf of the unbelievers after embracing Islam, without their authorization?

Further clarification comes from the fact that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, made safety conditional upon certain actions, saying, for example:

“Whoever enters Abū Sufyān’s house is safe, and whoever enters the mosque