As for his exiling Abu Dharr to Ar-Rabadha, he did not do it. Abu Dharr was an ascetic (someone with severe self-discipline and who abstains from all forms of indulgence). He used to scold the governors of `Uthman and he recited to them, “Those who hoard up gold and silver and do not spend it in the way of Allah, give them the good news of painful punishment” (9:34) He saw them increasing the amount of mounts and clothes and he objected to them doing that and wanted to divide up everything in their possession that was not a necessity. Ibn `Umar and other Companions said, “That on which zakat has been paid is not treasure.”
***Look at the clarification of Fiqh and the details of the Shari’a on this question in `The Path of the Sunna’ by Ibn Taymiyya (3: 198-199).***
In Syria, some words passed between Abu Dharr and Mu`awiya. (4) Abu Dharr went to Medina and people gathered around him. He began to act in that way. `Uthman said to him,”If you were to retire…” meaning that you have a school which is not conducive to mixing with people. Mixing with people has preconditions and retirement has preconditions as well. Whoever is on the path of Abu Dharr has a state which demands that he should be on his own or mix with people allowing everyone their state providing it is not haram in the Shari`a. Therefore Abu Dharr went out to Ar- Rabadha as an excellent man of zuhd and he left excellent men behind him. All of them had good, blessing and excellence. The state of Abu Dharr was better but it is not possible for everyone. If they had based themselves on it, they would have been destroyed. (5) Glory be to the one who ordered the ranks! It is strange that he is criticised for something which `Umar did. It is related that `Umar b. al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him, confined Ibn Mas`ud and some of the Companions for a year in Madina before he was martyred. Then `Uthman released them. He had them confined because the people had too many hadith from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace.
***Judgements’ by Ibn Hazm (2:139) is the mursal report which Ibn Shu`ba related from Sa`d b. Ibrahim b. `Abdu’r-Rahman b. `Awf from his father (Ibrahim b. `Abdu’r-Rahman b. `Awf) who said, “`Umar said to Ibn Mas`ud, Abu’d-Darda’ and Abu Dharr, `This hadith is not from the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace.”‘ He said, “I believe that he did not let them leave Madina until he died.” Ibn Hazm noted that this report is mursal and it is not permitted to use it as a proof. Shaykh Ahmad Shakir added to it that al-Bayhaqi agreed with Ibn Hazm that Ibrahim b. `Abdu’r-Rahman b. `Awf (d. 65 or 66 when he was 75 years old) did not take directly from `Umar. I do not know whether Ibn al-`Arabi relied on this mursal report in this passage, or on another report which we have not read.”***
Some words passed between Abu Dharr and Mu`awiya. Abu Dharr used words which were not said in the time of `Umar. Mu`awiya relayed that to `Uthman. He feared that sedition would arise among the common people. Abu Dharr used to encourage them to take on zuhd and other things which not everyone can bear. They are only for a few. `Uthman wrote to him, as we have already said, to come to Madina. When he came, people gathered to him. He said to `Uthman, “I want to go to Ar-Rabdha.” `Uthman told him, “Do it,” so he retired. That alone was suitable for him due to the way he had taken. (7)
***Qadi Abu’l-Walid b. Khaldun mentioned in `The `Ibar’ and the rest of 2:139 that Abu Dharr asked `Uthman for permission to leave Madina. He said, “The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, commanded me to leave it when the buildings reached Sal’.” `Uthman gave him permission and he settled in ar-Rabadha and built a mosque there. `Uthman allotted him a herd of camels and gave him two slaves and provided him with provision. He used to visit Madina. There were three miles between Madina and ar-Rabadha. Yaqut said, “It was one of the best houses on the road to Makkah.”***
Some words passed between Abu’d-Darda’ and Mu`awiya. Abu’d- Darda’ was an excellent man of zuhd, one of their qadis. When he was harsh in the truth and left the path of `Umar with the people they could not bear it and they dismissed him, so he went to Madina.
All of these are benefits which do not diminish the deed. They do not affect the positon of any of the muslims by a state. Abu’d- Darda’ and Abu Dharr were free from fault. `Uthman was completely and utterly innocent and had more integrity. If someone else relates that he was exiled and told of a cause for it, that is entirely false.
***Mu`awiya himself tried to act in the path of `Umar as Ibn Kathir transmitted in `The Beginning and the End’ (8:131) from Muhammad b. Sa`d. He said, ‘Arim related to us from Hammad b. Yazid from Ma`mar from az-Zuhri that Mu`awiya acted for two years as `Umar acted and did not cut off any of it. He was far from that.” Someone who has not looked into the life of peoples and their politics supposes that the ruler can do whatever he likes wherever he is. This is an error. The environment has an effect on the ruler and the organisations of the ruler more than the effect that the ruler and the organisations of the ruler have on the environment. This is one of the meanings of the words of Allah, the Mighty, the Majestic, “Allah will not change a people until they change themselves.”***