What was the First Fitnah, and how should Muslims speak about the fighting between the Companions?

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Accepted Answer

The First Fitnah began with the murder of ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān in 35 AH by rebels who besieged his house, and continued through the Battle of the Camel (36 AH) and Ṣiffīn (37 AH) between ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib and those who demanded immediate retaliation for ʿUthmān's blood. Ahl al-Sunnah hold that these were mujtahids — and the Prophet ﷺ taught that the judge who strives and is correct has two rewards while the one who strives and errs has one — that ʿAlī and those with him were the nearer of the two parties to the truth, as the Prophet ﷺ indicated when he foretold that the nearer of two parties to the truth would fight the Khawārij, and that none of them is to be reviled or declared a disbeliever. Allah Himself calls two fighting groups of Muslims believers and brothers, so our duty is to restrain our tongues about what Allah restrained our hands from, to seek forgiveness for them as Allah taught in Sūrat al-Ḥashr, and to remember the Prophet's warning: "Do not revile my Companions." The fitnah ended in 41 AH, the ʿĀm al-Jamāʿah, when al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī handed over authority to Muʿāwiyah — fulfilling the Prophet's prophecy that Allah would reconcile two great parties of Muslims through him.