Muslims of Banū Jadhīma on account of his interpretive judgment(1), then Abū Bakr had all the more reason not to execute him for killing Mālik ibn Nuwayra.

This Rāfidī’s account of what Khālid did to Banū Jadhīma has already been discussed. He knows that the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—did not execute Khālid, so why did he not make this an argument in support of Abū Bakr’s decision not to execute him? Yet whoever follows his own desire is blinded by it from following right guidance.

As for his statement:

“Umar advised that he be executed.”

The response is:

At most, this would mean that the matter was one of independent juristic judgment: Abū Bakr’s judgment was that Khālid should not be executed, whereas Umar’s judgment was that he should. Umar was no more knowledgeable than Abū Bakr—neither according to the Sunnis(2) nor according to the Shia. Abū Bakr was not obliged to abandon his own judgment for Umar’s, and no legal proof established that Umar’s view was the stronger one. How, then, could anyone regard such a matter as a fault in Abū Bakr, except someone among the most deficient of people in knowledge and religion?

Nor do we possess any authentic, firmly established reports showing that events occurred in a manner that would have required Khālid’s execution.

As for the claim that Khālid married Mālik’s wife on the very night Mālik was killed, this has not been established. Even if it had been established, there would have been a legal interpretation that precluded stoning.

The jurists differ concerning the waiting period following a husband’s death: is it obligatory when the deceased husband is a disbeliever? There are two views. They likewise disagree over whether a non-Muslim woman under Muslim protection must observe a waiting period following her husband’s death. There are two well-known positions among Muslim jurists(3). This differs from the waiting period following divorce, whose cause(4) is intercourse, for it is then necessary to ascertain that the womb is free of pregnancy. By contrast, the waiting period following a husband’s death becomes obligatory