Some of those who accuse these men of apostasy say: “He died facing east, with a cross upon his face.” Any reasonable person knows that this is among the most outrageous lies and slanders against him. Were someone to say this about Umayyad and Abbasid rulers of lesser standing than Mu‘āwiyah—such as ‘Abd al-Malik ibn Marwān and his sons, Abū Ja‘far al-Mansūr and his two sons, known as al-Mahdī and al-Hādī, al-Rashīd, and others who assumed the caliphate and governed the believers—any reasonable person would recognize someone who accused one of them of apostasy and of dying as a Christian as among the greatest fabricators. How, then, can such a thing be said about Mu‘āwiyah and other Companions like him?
Indeed, even his son Yazīd, despite the wrongs he committed, has been slandered by anyone who calls him an unbeliever and an apostate. Rather, he was a Muslim king, like other Muslim kings. Most kings have both good deeds and bad deeds: their good deeds are great, and their bad deeds are grave. Anyone who singles out one of them for condemnation while overlooking his counterparts is either ignorant or unjust.
The same considerations apply to them as to other Muslims. Some have more good deeds than bad; some have repented of their bad deeds; some have had their sins expiated by Allah; some He may admit to Paradise; some He may punish for their bad deeds; and for some Allah may accept the intercession of a prophet or another intercessor. Thus, declaring that any particular one of these men is destined for Hell is among the claims of the people of innovation and misguidance.