Caliph Muawiyah was giving a speech, perhaps before Friday prayers, when he said that he heard the Prophet (peace be upon him) saying: “When God wants to give someone goodness (in abundance) He will give him insight into the faith. I am only one who shares out (things), but it is God who gives them. This community will remain true to God’s message, unworried by whoever opposes them until God’s will has been accomplished.” (Related by Al-Bukhari).
It is important for the understanding of a certain statement made by the Prophet to recall the occasion on which it was said so that it is put in perspective, even though the statement itself is true in all situations. The first sentence in this Hadith is a true statement applicable to all people, but the connection between it and what follows in the Hadith needs the recall of the occasion.
A battle fought by the Muslims ended in victory with the Muslims taking much of the spoils of war. As the Prophet was giving his troops their shares of the booty, someone said to him: “Be fair in the way you share it out.” The Prophet said to him: “Who will be fair if I am not?” He then urged his companions to try to understand their faith fully, because the one who has insight into the faith is the one who is certain to receive much goodness.
The relevance here is that a Muslim should know that any judgment made by the Prophet is the right judgment because it is always based on God’s law. Even when there appears to be discrepancy, a closer look will show that the Prophet’s action is correct. Hence, the need for a better understanding of the faith and its teachings.
The first sentence in the Hadith means that those who acquire a clear insight into the faith will always remain the source of goodness for their community. They are the ones that take a clear stand advocating the truth, paying no heed to those who oppose them. They are the ones who follow God’s guidance and implement His teachings. The Hadith makes clear that there will always remain a group of such people within the Muslim community so that the truth will always continue to be set before people and they have the chance to stick to it. Thus no community will be in total ignorance of the truth.
Speaking of his decision on sharing out the booty, the Prophet makes clear to the person who asked him to be fair that he was only giving each one their shares in all fairness. These shares have been given to them by God while the Prophet was only ensuring that they were shared out properly.
It should be explained that Qur’anic rules assign one-fifth of the booty to the state, while the remaining four-fifths, i.e. 80 percent, are to be shared out among the soldiers who fight the battle yielding such booty. On some occasions, the Prophet gave certain individuals some large gifts out of the spoils of war so as to strengthen their loyalty to Islam. These gifts were taken from the share of the state. He was acting as head of state, hoping that the security of the state would benefit by those people’s stronger loyalty. There was no favoritism in the Prophet’s action.