“Our souls are entirely in Allah’s hand; when He wills to awaken us, He awakens us.” The Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—then turned away, striking his thigh and saying:

“Yet man is more contentious than anything.” (1)

If (2) this and similar incidents do not impugn Ali—because he was exercising independent judgment and then returned to what had become clear to him as the truth—then Umar is likewise not impugned by what he said in the exercise of independent judgment, since he too returned to what had become clear to him as the truth.

The matters on which Ali should have changed his position (3) were far more serious than those on which Umar should have changed his (4). Moreover, Umar changed his position on nearly all those matters, whereas Ali is known to have changed his position on only some of them, such as withdrawing his proposal to Abū Jahl’s daughter.

As for some of the others—such as his ruling that a pregnant widow must observe whichever of the two prescribed waiting periods is longer; that a woman married without a specified dowry is entitled to no dowry if her husband dies; and his statement, “[A wife who has been given the choice] (5), if she chooses her husband, that constitutes one divorce” (6), even though the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—gave his wives that choice and it did not constitute divorce—nothing is known other than that he maintained these positions until he died.

Likewise, there are many issues that al-Shāfi‘i mentioned in his book “The Disagreements of Ali and Abd Allah” (7), and that Muhammad ibn Nasr