Section:

Once this is clear, it is well known that the means by which the faith of an individual Companion is established are the same as those by which the faith of his peers is established. Likewise, the means by which his companionship with the Prophet is established are the same as those by which the companionship of others like him is established.

Those granted amnesty who embraced Islam in the year of the conquest include Mu‘āwiya and his brother Yazīd, ‘Ikrima ibn Abī Jahl, Safwān ibn Umayya, al-Hārith ibn Hishām, and Suhayl ibn ‘Amr. Their acceptance of Islam and their adherence to it until death are established among specialists through mass transmission.

Mu‘āwiya’s adherence to Islam was more evident than that of others, for he held authority for forty years: twenty years as a governor under ‘Umar and ‘Uthmān, including his time in office during the caliphate of ‘Alī, may Allah be pleased with him, and twenty years as an independent ruler. He assumed authority in the year sixty, fifty years after the death of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace.

Al-Hasan ibn ‘Alī, may Allah be pleased with them both, relinquished authority to him in the year forty, known as the Year of Unity because the Muslims became united and the strife among them came to an end. This action of al-Hasan, may Allah be pleased with him, was among the things for which the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, praised him, as is established in Sahīh al-Bukhārī and elsewhere, on the authority of Abū Bakr—may Allah be pleased with him—that the Prophet