The Shaykh—may Allah have mercy on him—was asked:

When did “Mu‘āwiyah ibn Abī Sufyān” embrace Islam? Was his faith like that of others or not? What else has been said about him?

He replied:

The faith of “Mu‘āwiyah ibn Abī Sufyān”—may Allah be pleased with him—is established by mass-transmitted reports and the consensus of the scholars, just as is the faith of others like him who embraced Islam in the year of the conquest of Mecca: his brother “Yazīd” ibn Abī Sufyān, Suhayl ibn ‘Amr, Safwān ibn Umayyah, ‘Ikrimah ibn Abī Jahl, al-Hārith ibn Hishām, Abū Asad ibn Abī al-‘Ās ibn Umayyah, and others like them.

These people are called “the released ones,” for they embraced Islam in the year when the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, conquered Mecca by force. He released them, bestowed favours and gifts upon them, and sought to win their hearts.

It has been reported that Mu‘āwiyah ibn Abī Sufyān embraced Islam before that and emigrated, just as Khālid ibn al-Walīd, ‘Amr ibn al-‘Ās, and ‘Uthmān ibn Talhah al-Hajabī embraced Islam before the conquest of Mecca and emigrated to Medina. If this report is authentic, then he is one of the Emigrants.