Refraining from delving into what happened between the Companions during the time of Fitnah

19-6-2023 | IslamWeb

Question:

Asalamualaikum,I was reading through al-bidaaya wan nihaya. In the biography of Abdullah ibn zubair (may Allah be pleased with him) it is mentioned that he rebelled against uthmaan ibn affan(may Allah be pleased with him). I could not find any reference for it. Can you please confirm if this is authentic or not or if it was just a disagreement based on ijtihaad.
Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam ( may Allaah exalt his mention ) is His slave and Messenger.

Neither Ibn Kathir may Allaah have mercy upon him in Al-Bidayah Wa al-Nihayah nor other historians mentioned that Ibn Az-Zubayr may Allaah be pleased with him revolted against 'Uthman may Allaah be pleased with him. None of the Companions revolted against 'Uthman may Allaah be pleased with him. Rather, Ibn Kathir may Allaah have mercy upon him mentioned in Al-Bidayah Wa al-Nihayah that Ibn Az-Zubayr may Allaah be pleased with him was one of those who defended 'Uthman may Allaah have mercy upon him when the unruly Kharijite besieged him. Ibn Kathir may Allaah have mercy upon him said about the story of the Kharijite's siege of 'Uthman may Allaah be pleased with him: “A group of the sons of the Companions marched to him on the orders of their fathers. Among them were Al-Hasan and Al-Husayn, 'Abdullah ibn Az-Zubayr may Allaah be pleased with them - who was in charge of the house (i.e. in charge of his defense) - and Abdullah ibn 'Amr may Allaah be pleased with him and they began arguing on him and defending him so that no one of them could reach him.” [End of quote]

Whatever happened between them, the approach of Ahlus-Sunnah is to refrain from delving into what happened between the Companions during the days of fitnah (trial, tribulation), because there is no desired benefit from delving into that. Rather, it would lead to attributing any deliberate mistake to any of the Sahaabah in a matter in which they may not have been mistaken in reality, or they may have been mistaken but were excused. They tried their best to decide correctly in what happened between them, there are two rewards for those who were right, and one reward for those who erred due to their ijtihad, and their mistakes are excused and forgiven by Allah the Almighty.

Allah knows best.

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