From here, it is understood that showing respect for the companions of the Messenger of Allah —while it is a good and appropriate act due to their services to him—never means ignoring part of Allah’s statements or lying about them. It is clear that acknowledging their mistakes, based on the intellect and Sharia, is not considered disrespect toward them; rather, it is respect for the intellect and Sharia. Disrespect toward them is only reviling them, which is rationally and religiously an abhorrent and impermissible act.

Based on this, it can be said that many of the companions of the Messenger of Allah , after his passing, changed morally and replaced their Islamic characteristics with their pre-Islamic traits. For this reason, they differed among themselves, considered it lawful to violate one another’s wealth, life, and honor, and became poor role models for subsequent Islamic generations who took them as their leaders.

It appears that what paved the way for this moral transformation in them was, on the one hand, the expansion of Islamic conquests after the Messenger of Allah , which led to an improvement in Muslims’ worldly standard of living and to their familiarity with the luxury of disbelieving nations; and on the other hand, the royal rule of the Banu Umayyah, which fueled the spread of worldliness and pre-Islamic traits. These two inauspicious factors—in addition to the passing of a number of the companions of the Messenger of Allah who were committed to Islamic morals and followed his simple lifestyle, as well as the spread of open sinfulness and immorality among the ruling class beginning with the time of Yazid ibn Mu‘awiyah ibn Abi Sufyan (d. 64 AH)—paved the way for the moral decline of Muslims and weakened piety, which was the most important guarantor of their moving along the line of Islam and of their loyalty to the ideals of the Messenger of Allah .

There is no doubt that piety—meaning being wary of Allah and fearing His punishment in the Hereafter—is the best deterrent against deviation and misguided thinking among Muslims; because being wary of and fearing the punishment of others cannot naturally be permanent, and there is no deterrent effect where others lack knowledge or power.