No one among Ahl al-Sunnah says that Talha, al-Zubayr, Sad, or Abd al-Rahmān ibn Awf was superior to him. The most they might (1) say is that one should refrain from ranking the members of the consultative council relative to one another. In their view, these council members were the best of the foremost early believers, and the foremost [early believers] (2) were superior to those who spent and fought after the Conquest. According to the sounder of the two views, they were those who pledged allegiance beneath the Tree in the year of al-Hudaybiya. It has also been said that they were those who prayed [toward] (3) both qiblas, but this view is untenable.

Among those who embraced Islam after al-Hudaybiya were Khālid ibn al-Walīd, Amr ibn al-Ās, Shayba al-Hajabī (4), and others. As for Suhayl ibn Amr, Ikrima ibn Abī Jahl, Abū Sufyān ibn Harb, his two sons Yazīd and Muawiya, Safwān ibn Umayya, and others, they embraced Islam at the Conquest. Some say that Muawiya—may Allah be pleased with him—embraced Islam before his father and thus place him in the first category.

It is authentically established that an exchange once took place between Khālid ibn al-Walīd and Abd al-Rahmān ibn Awf. The Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—said: “O Khālid, do not revile my Companions. If one of you were to spend gold equal to Mount Uhud, it would not equal (5) a mudd given by one of them, nor even half of it.” (6) \ 21.

He therefore forbade Khālid and those like him—among those who spent and fought after the Conquest—from