and they said, “We will not stay in a town where ʿUthmān is reviled.”

Among the Successors it is related that ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ordered thirty lashes for anyone who insulted ʿUthmān. ʿĀṣim al-Aḥwal—who served as the market inspector for the ʿAbbāsid caliphs—gave one who cursed ʿUthmān seventy lashes, administered over several sessions. ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz likewise flogged those who cursed Muʿāwiya.

Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal said: “He is to be beaten, and I do not regard him as still within Islam.”

Ibrāhīm al-Nakhaʿī used to say, “Abusing Abu Bakr and ʿUmar counts among the major sins.” Abu Isḥāq al-Sabīʿī declared, “Reviling Abu Bakr and ʿUmar is one of the major sins concerning which Allah says, ‘If you avoid the major sins you have been forbidden…’ (Q 4:31).”

Zāʾida once asked Manṣūr ibn al-Muʿtamir, “While I am fasting, may I speak ill of the governors?” He replied, “No.” I then asked, “And what about someone who attacks Abu Bakr and ʿUmar?” He answered, “Yes.”

Ṭalḥa ibn Muṣarrif said, “It used to be said: hatred for the Banū Hāshim is hypocrisy, hatred for Abu Bakr and ʿUmar is hypocrisy, and doubting Abu Bakr is like doubting the Sunnah.”

Among the jurists, Mālik ibn Anas held that whoever reviles the Companions has no share with the Muslims in the public revenues (fayʾ).