and it was he who conquered Iraq, broke the armies of Khosrow, and knew that turmoil among the Muslims was bound to arise.

In Sahīh Muslim, the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—is reported to have said:

“I asked my Lord not to destroy my community through a famine that would engulf them all, and He granted me that. I asked Him not to empower over them an enemy from beyond their own community who would eradicate them root and branch, and He granted me that. I asked Him not to make their violence fall among themselves, but He withheld that from me.” (1).

The point is that the Companions—may Allah be pleased with them—never fought one another because they disagreed over any fundamental principle of Islam. Indeed, they did not disagree over any of Islam’s fundamental principles: neither the divine attributes nor [the] divine decree (2), nor questions of religious designations and rulings (3), nor questions concerning the Imamate. They did not engage in verbal disputation over any of these matters, let alone fight one another with the sword. Rather, they affirmed the attributes by which Allah described Himself, while denying any likeness between them and the attributes of created beings. They affirmed the divine decree as Allah and His Messenger had described it; affirmed the command and prohibition, the promise and threat; affirmed Allah’s wisdom in His creation and command; and affirmed the servant’s power, capacity, and action, even as they affirmed the divine decree.

[Then] (4), in their time, there was no one who invoked the divine decree to justify sins or made the divine decree (5) an excuse for anyone who disobeyed or disbelieved, nor was there anyone who denied Allah’s knowledge and His all-encompassing will,