As for the people of the Sunnah, they agree on the uprightness of those involved. However, scholars of our school and others hold differing views as to who was right and who was wrong.

The first view is that Alī alone was right. The second is that all were right. The third is that only one side was right, without specifying which. The fourth is to refrain altogether from discussing the disputes that arose between them, while knowing that Alī and his companions were the closer of the two parties to the truth, as stated in the hadith of Abū Sa‘īd, in which the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said:

“A faction will break away at a time of division among the Muslims, and the closer of the two parties to the truth will kill them.”

This concerns the war against the people of Syria. The hadiths indicate that the Battle of the Camel was an episode of civil strife and that refraining from fighting in it was preferable. This is the position expressed in the explicit statements of Ahmad and most of the people of the Sunnah. That verbal and physical conflict lay at the root of what subsequently occurred within the Muslim community in religious and worldly affairs. Let the discerning take a lesson from this. This is the position of the people of the Sunnah and the united community.

He—may Allah have mercy on him—was asked:

Two groups of farmers fought one another, and one defeated the other. The defeated group fled, and several of them were killed after their defeat. Are those killed among the defeated to be judged as destined for the Fire, and do they fall within the Prophet’s saying, peace and blessings be upon him:

“Both the killer and the one killed are in the Fire”?

Or do they not? Does the same ruling apply to someone who flees as to one of them who kills on the battlefield, or not?