Abu Bakr had no choice, except to present his own viewpoint regarding
precedence of inferior, and he did not express this viewpoint, except to prove his
Caliphate valid and to get precedence over one, whom Almighty Allah praised in
His great Book and deemed him to be the soul of Holy Prophet (s.a.w.a.) and
deemed his obedience and mastership (Wilayat) same as obedience and
mastership (Wilayat) of Prophet; and perfected and completed the religion
through that; and commanded the Prophet to convey this matter and became his
guarantor from people; in a gathering ranging from 100000 or more persons and
said:
“O people, Almighty Allah is my master and I am the master of believers;
and I have more discretion on them than they have on themselves; Of
whomsoever I am the master, Ali is (also) his master. O Allah, love those, who
love him and be inimical to those, who are inimical to him.”
And the excellence of the father of the two grandsons of Messenger of Allah
(s.a.w.a.), his capabilities and spiritualities; precedence in Islam and his being
annihilated in the being of God; and his superiority in knowledge and all merits is
not concealed from anyone and there is no one who may think or say that Abu
Bakr and Umar are superior to Maula Ameerul Momineen (a.s.).
This is Abu Bakr, who declared from the pulpits: “I have become your ruler,
but I am not the best among you. I have a satan, who misguides me.” And he
asked the Ummah to help him in his weakness and to remove his deviation and
weakness.1
And this is Umar bin Khattab and his clarifications are before your eyes;
when he says: “Rulership was for Ali, but they deprived him of it due to his
young age and the blood he had spilt.”2
Or the excuse, which Umar mentioned at the time of appointing his
successor: “Your greatness and nobility is amazing,3 but only if you had not been
so humorous (I would have appointed you as the caliph).”4
He always prayed to Almighty Allah not to leave him in a problem when
Abul Hasan was not there to help him out and he believed that if Ali has not been
there, he would be misguided, destroyed and degraded.5 And that women are
helpless to give birth to a child like Ali. And other numerous traditional reports
which were mentioned in the intellectual masterpieces of Umar and he did not at
anytime imagine that he was like Ali in any excellence or even close to him.
After that you understood the meaning of Caliphate in view of Ahle Sunnat
and viewpoints of their past scholars, most of all their first Caliph. Come let us now see the hypocrisy and contradictions of those words with beliefs of another
group:
وَلَوْ كَانَ مِنْ عِنْدِ غَيْرِ اللهِ لَوَجَدُوا فِيهِ اخْتِلَافًا كَثِيرًا
“And if it were from any other than Allah, they would have found in it many a discrepancy.”6
Ahmad bin Muhammad Watri Baghdadi says in Rauzatul Nazireen:7
“Know that: the majority of Ahle Sunnat wal Jamaat believe that the most
excellent of people after Holy Prophet (s.a.w.a.) was Abu Bakr, then Umar and
then Umar and then Ali (may God be pleased with them) and whoever was
superior in Caliphate was superior in excellence as well, because precedence of
the inferior over the superior is impossible.
The companions, in the matter of Caliphate relied on superiority of
candidate and the evidence is that: When Abu Bakr clarified his will for Umar to
succeed him as Caliph, Talha stood up and asked:
“What reply would you give to Allah that you made as our leader a man,
who is ill-mannered and ill-natured?”
Abu Bakr said: “You may fret and fume as much as you like; if God asks
me, I will say: I appointed the best of Your creatures as Caliph.”
This statement of Abu Bakr proves that they followed the dictum of
precedence.”
And you will see that this statement is a lie for deceiving the weak ones of
this helpless Ummah; a statement which is opposed to the viewpoint of the
majority and scholars of theology, which is opposed to the conduct and
statements of companions and before all, opposed to viewpoint of the Caliph
himself (Abu Bakr).
As if this impossibility (precedence of inferior over superior) remained
concealed from him.
As if history and “intellectual masterpieces of Umar” are not enough to
understand the value of Umar and not commit excess about it and if Umar by this
conduct and innovations is the best of the Ummah, then one should say good-bye
to Islam!
Yes, this is blind following of lusts and personal desires that anyone says
what he likes and issues verdicts according to his inclinations. We make your
perfect reasoning to be criterion to judge the two imams: an imam that we
describe and another imam that Ahle Sunnat talk of; so apply your reasoning to
both of them; one, who is a means to Allah, the Mighty and High, one, who has
the capacity to overcome his personal inclinations and defend the lives, honor and
laws of Muslims in the world and the hereafter. Although if the balance of his justice is not faulty:
وَيْلٌ لِلْمُطَفِّفِينَ
“Woe to the defrauders,”8