Intervening to Calm People down and Put an End to the fitnah (Discord) Between those Who are Making mistakes

the prophet (peace and blessings of allaah be upon him) did this on a number of occasions when fighting was about to break out among the muslims, so he intervened, as was reported in the incident of the slander (al-ifk) against ‘aa`ishah (may allaah be pleased with her). she said:

“the messenger of allaah (peace and blessings of allaah be upon him) stood up that day and asked for someone to deal with ‘abd-allaah ibn ubayy for him, whilst he was on the minbar. he said, ‘o muslims! who will deal with a man who i have heard is attacking me with regard to my family? by allaah, i know nothing about my family but good, and they have mentioned a man about whom i know nothing but good, and he has never entered upon my family except with me.’ sa’d ibn mu’aadh, the brother of bani ‘abd al-ashhal, stood up and said, ‘o messenger of allaah, i will deal with him for you. if he is from aws, i will strike his neck [cut his head off], and if he is from among our brothers of khazraj, tell us what to do, and we will do it.’ then a man of khazraj stood up; umm hassaan was his cousin from the same clan, and he was sa’d ibn ‘ubaadah the leader of khazraj. before that he was known to be a righteous man, but on this occasion a spirit of tribalism took hold of him, and he said to sa’d [ibn mu’aadh], ‘you are lying! by allaah, you will not kill him and you will not be able to kill him. if he were one of your people, you would not like him to be killed!’ usayd ibn hudayr, the cousin of sa’d, stood up and said to sa’d ibn ‘ubaadah: ‘you are lying! by allaah, we will kill him! you are a hypocrite defending the hypocrites!’ the two parties of aws and khazraj got so angry that they nearly began to fight whilst the messenger of allaah (peace and blessings of allaah be upon him) was standing on the minbar. the messenger of allaah (peace and blessings of allaah be upon him) kept smoothing things over until they calmed down.” (agreed upon. fath, 4141)

the prophet (peace and blessings of allaah be upon him) went to bani ‘amr ibn ‘awf to reconcile between them, and stayed there for that purpose until the time for one of the congregational prayers came, as is reported in al-saheehayn and in a report narrated by al-nisaa`i. sahl ibn sa’d al-saa’idi (may allaah be pleased with him) said: “a dispute arose between two parties among the ansaar, to the point that they were throwing stones at one another. the prophet (peace and blessings of allaah be upon him) went to reconcile between them, and the time for prayer came, so bilaal called the adhaan and waited for the messenger of allaah (peace and blessings of allaah be upon him), but he did not come. so he made the iqaamah (call immediately preceding congregational prayer) and abu bakr, may allaah be pleased with him) led the prayer…” (al-mujtabaa, kitaab aadaab al-qadaah, 8/243). according to a report narrated by ahmad, sahl ibn sa’d al-saa’idi said: “someone came to the messenger of allaah (peace and blessings of allaah be upon him) and said: ‘bani ‘amr ibn ‘awf are fighting and throwing stones at one another.’ so the messenger of allaah (peace and blessings of allaah be upon him) went out to them to reconcile between them…” (al-musnad, 5/338)