What he asked for when people disagreed
He asked for the truth in it, not for his own side.
اهْدِنِي لِمَا اخْتُلِفَ فِيهِ مِنَ الْحَقِّ بِإِذْنِكَ إِنَّكَ تَهْدِي مَنْ تَشَاءُ إِلَى صِرَاطٍ مُسْتَقِيمٍ
Ihdinī limā-khtulifa fīhi mina-l-ḥaqqi bi-idhnik, innaka tahdī man tashāʾu ilā ṣirāṭin mustaqīm
“Guide me to the truth in what is disputed, by Your permission. You guide whoever You will to a straight path.”
Where this comes from
He would open the night prayer by calling on the Originator of the heavens and the earth, the Knower of the unseen and the seen, and saying that He judges between His servants in what they differ about. Then this. It assumes there is a truth inside the disagreement, and asks to be put on it rather than to win.
The full narration
Abd al-Rahman b. 'Auf reported:I asked 'A'isha, the mother of the believers, (to tell me) the words with which the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) commenced the prayer when he got up at night. She said: When he got up at night he would commence his prayer with these words: O Allah, Lord of Gabriel, and Michael, and Israfil, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, Who knowest the unseen and the seen; Thou decidest amongst Thy servants concerning their differences. Guide me with Thy permission in the divergent views (which the people) hold about Truth, for it is Thou Who guidest whom Thou wilt to the Straight Path
Source
Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim · 1811
- Agreed upon as authentic (al-Bukhārī / Muslim)