We have slain many of their elders … and balanced it against Badr, so the score is even.”

They say other things of this kind as well. Such a view comes easily to the Rāfida, who declare Abū Bakr, ‘Umar, and ‘Uthmān unbelievers; declaring Yazīd an unbeliever is far easier still.

Those at the other extreme think that he was a righteous man and a just ruler, and that he was among the “Companions” born during the Prophet’s lifetime, whom the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, carried in his arms and blessed. Some of them even consider him superior to Abū Bakr and ‘Umar, while others go so far as to regard him as a prophet. They falsely attribute to “Shaykh ‘Adī” or to Hasan, who was killed, the claim that seventy friends of Allah had their faces turned away from the direction of prayer because they withheld judgment concerning Yazīd. This is the view of extremists among the ‘Adawiyya, the Kurds, and other misguided people like them.

Shaykh ‘Adī belonged to the Umayyads and was a righteous, devout, and virtuous man. Nothing is recorded from him indicating that he called them to anything other than the Sunnah upheld by others, such as Shaykh “Abū al-Faraj” al-Maqdisī, whose creed agreed with his. Yet they added lies and misguidance to the Sunnah: fabricated hadiths, false likening of Allah to His creation, excessive veneration of Shaykh ‘Adī and Yazīd, and excessive condemnation of the Rāfida, claiming that their repentance would not be accepted, along with other things.

Both views are plainly false to anyone possessing even the slightest reason and knowledge of these matters and the lives of earlier generations. Accordingly, neither view is attributed to any scholar known for adherence to the Sunnah, nor to any sensible person possessing sound judgment and experience.