In view of Ibne Hajar, one of the clear evidences that the Caliph was without
any exception, the most knowledgeable of companions is a traditional report,
which he has mentioned in Sawaiq1 narrating without chains of narrators from
Ayesha that:
“When Messenger of Allah (s.a.w.a.) passed away…they said: Where would
we bury the Messenger of Allah (s.a.w.a.)? No one replied.
Abu Bakr said: “I heard Messenger of Allah (s.a.w.a.) say: No prophet dies
but that he is buried below the bed where he has passed away.”
And they disputed regarding inheritance of Prophet and no one had any
knowledge about it. So, Abu Bakr said:
“I heard Messenger of Allah (s.a.w.a.) say: We prophets do not leave
inheritance; what we leave is charity (Sadaqah).”
Allamah Amini says: The most information conveyed in these two
chainless traditional reports is that: Abu Bakr narrated two traditions from the
Prophet and others present there did not narrate these two reports.
Now, if Abu Bakr, due to quoting these two reports is the wisest of
companions without an exception, what about those, who compiled thousands of
traditions? In spite of this none of them is said to be the wisest of companions or
slightly lesser knowledgeable than Abu Bakr.
Was Abu Bakr not the author of extraordinary views regarding ‘abb’,
‘Kalala’, inheritance of grandmother and two grandmothers and instances of
these kind?
Was it not him that inquired about Sunnah from the like of Mughira bin
Shoba, Muhammad bin Muslima, Abdur Rahman bin Suhail and other ordinary
people?
It seems as if Ibne Hajar has compared those people with himself and
thought that they are sons of stones, such that none of them understands and he
only hears it.
Did he himself not say that what the companions understood from these statements of the Messenger of Allah (s.a.w.a.):
- “There is a garden of Paradise between my grave and my pulpit.”2
- “There is a garden of Paradise between my house and my pulpit.”3
- “There is a garden of Paradise between my chamber and my pulpit.”4
- “There is a garden of Paradise between the pulpit and the house of Ayesha.”5
- “One wishes to pray in a garden from the gardens of Paradise, should pray between my grave and my pulpit.”6
Ibne Abil Hadid has mentioned in his Sharh Nahjul Balagha:7
“I say: How did they dispute regarding the place of burial of His Eminence
(s.a.w.a.), whereas he had told them previously:
“Bury me on my board in this chamber towards the head side of my grave.8
This is clarification that he would be buried in the chamber of Ayesha, where the
companions had gathered.”
Did Ibne Hajar think that even after these traditions, the companions did not
identify that sacred garden, about which the Prophet had informed and
commanded them to pray there? Or they identified the grave and the pulpit and
the garden located between the two, or had at least understood their limits from
Prophet. Then they disputed about place of his burial and Abu Bakr expressed the
location and that is why he became the most intelligent of companions?
Moreover, if the report of the burial is correct, the Messenger of Allah
(s.a.w.a.) should have mentioned the place of his burial to whom he made
bequest for his last rites;9 and who became the caretaker of the last rites of
Prophet;10 and one, who knew that he would bury His Eminence in the middle of
the night in absence of all, anyone other than relatives of Prophet;11 and not one,
who would be absent at that time and whom sleep has overcome and
specification of the place of burial in the view of all – what to say about Ali (a.s.)
– is the most important thing, which is willed.