“A person who commits unlawful sexual intercourse is not a believer while committing it; a thief is not a believer while stealing; a person who drinks wine is not a believer while drinking it; and no one is a believer while plundering valuable property as people look up at him while he seizes it.”

They say: He is a believer whose faith is deficient, or a believer by virtue of his faith and sinful by virtue of his major sin. Thus, he is neither granted the unqualified designation of believer nor entirely stripped of that designation.

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Among the principles of Ahl al-Sunnah wa-l-Jamāʿah is keeping their hearts free of ill will and their tongues free of abuse toward the Companions of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, as Allah describes them in His saying, exalted be He:

“And those who came after them say, ‘Our Lord, forgive us and our brothers who preceded us in faith, and do not place in our hearts any resentment toward those who believe. Our Lord, indeed You are Kind and Merciful.’”

They also obey the Prophet in his saying:

“Do not revile my Companions. By Him in whose hand is my soul, if any one of you were to spend as much gold as Mount Uhud, it would not equal a mudd (a measure) given by one of them, nor even half of it.”

They accept what the Quran, the Sunnah, and scholarly consensus affirm concerning their virtues and ranks. They therefore consider those who spent and fought before the conquest—which refers to the Treaty of al-Hudaybiyah—superior to those who spent and fought afterward. They give precedence to the Muhājirūn (Emigrants) over the Ansār (Helpers), and they believe that “Allah said to the people of