and the Ismā‘īliyyah and others. They deliberately turn against the best of the Muslim community, while allying themselves with Allah’s enemies among the Jews, Christians, and polytheists. They reject manifest truth established through mass transmission, while upholding fabricated lies whose falsehood is known. They are as al-Sha‘bī—who knew them exceptionally well—described them:

“Were they beasts, they would be donkeys; were they birds, they would be vultures.”

Thus, they are among the most shameless slanderers and fabricators, as illustrated by what they relate about Mu‘āwiyah. It is established through mass transmission that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, assigned Mu‘āwiyah duties as he did others, and that Mu‘āwiyah fought alongside him. The Prophet trusted him to write down revelation for him and never suspected him of dishonesty in doing so.

‘Umar ibn al-Khattāb appointed him to office. ‘Umar was exceptionally discerning in his judgment of men, and Allah had established truth upon his tongue and in his heart; he did not suspect Mu‘āwiyah of dishonesty in his administration. The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, had also appointed his father, Abū Sufyān, to office, and he remained in that position until the Prophet died. By the Muslims’ agreement, Mu‘āwiyah was better than his father and more upright in his Islam. If the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, appointed his father, then Mu‘āwiyah’s appointment was all the more permissible and appropriate.

He was never an apostate, nor did any scholar ever accuse him of apostasy. Those who accuse such men of apostasy are the very people who attribute unworthy things to Abū Bakr, ‘Umar, ‘Uthmān, the great majority of those who fought at Badr and those who gave the Pledge of Divine Pleasure, and the other earliest pioneers among the Emigrants and the Helpers, as well as those who followed them in righteousness.