and their adherence to it during the time of Abū Bakr was better than during the time of Umar. During Umar’s time, some of them committed sins that required the ruler, exercising his judgment, to impose certain stricter measures upon them: preventing them from combining umrah and Hajj in one journey (tamattu), counting a triple divorce pronounced in a single statement as three divorces, and increasing the punishment for drinking wine. Umar would defer to those most obedient to Allah and most detached from worldly life, such as Abū Ubaydah, as he would not defer to others. Some questions of inheritance law and other matters remained unclear to them, leading them to disagree, yet they remained united and affectionate towards one another, each allowing the others to follow their own independent legal judgment.

Towards the end of Uthmān’s caliphate, change and indulgence in worldly comforts increased, and various practices appeared that had not existed during Umar’s time. Estrangement arose between some hearts, until Uthmān was killed and they fell into great turmoil. Allah Most High has said:

“And beware of a trial that will not afflict only the wrongdoers among you.”

That is, this trial does not afflict the wrongdoer alone; it afflicts both the wrongdoer and whoever remains silent instead of forbidding his wrongdoing. As the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“When people see wrongdoing and do not change it, they are on the verge of being overtaken, all of them, by a punishment from Allah.”

This became a cause of their being deprived of many good things. They began disputing over tamattu and similar matters about which there had been no contention during Umar’s time. One group, such as Ibn al-Zubayr, prohibited tamattu altogether. Another group, including the Umayyads and most people, prohibited converting an intended Hajj into umrah to be followed by Hajj, and they began punishing those who performed tamattu. Yet another group considered tamattu obligatory, and none of them