and those with him were closer to the truth at that time than the other group. If a person or group is less meritorious in certain circumstances, this does not prevent them from upholding Allah’s command or from prevailing through upholding His command in obedience to Allah and His Messenger. An act may constitute obedience, while another act constitutes greater obedience.

As for some of them being guilty of rebellion at certain times, when their rebellion was a forgiven error or a forgiven sin, this likewise does not contradict what the texts attest. For the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, spoke of the people of Syria as a whole and of their greatness. There is no doubt that, taken as a whole, they were superior in most circumstances.

Likewise, during his caliphate, ‘Umar ibn al-Khattāb preferred them to the people of Iraq. He visited Syria more than once but refrained from going to Iraq; he sought advice and was advised not to go there. Similarly, when he was dying after being stabbed, he first admitted the people of Medina, who were then the best of the community, then the people of Syria, and then the people of Iraq, who were the last to enter his presence. This is how it is reported in al-Sahīh.

Likewise, Abū Bakr al-Siddīq devoted greater attention to conquering Syria than to conquering Iraq, to the point that he said:

“A single village among the villages of Syria is dearer to me than the conquest of a city in Iraq.”

The texts in Allah’s Book, the Sunnah of His Messenger, and the reports of his Companions concerning the superiority of Syria and the people of the west over Najd, Iraq, and the rest of the people of the east are too numerous to mention here. Indeed, from