ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books ‘Ali: The Best of the Sahabah Hadith Al-Ikhtiyar, Examining The Verse Of The Cave ======================================================= Shaykh Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728 H) states: يقول الله إلا تنصروه فقد نصره الله إذ أخرجه الذين كفروا ثاني اثنين إذ هما في الغار إذ يقول لصاحبه لا تحزن أن الله معنا و مثل هذه الفضيلة لم تحصل لغير أبي بكر قطعا ...

And superiority is established only through exclusive merits, and not through shared qualities ... The scholars have said: “What has been authentically transmited among the merits of ‘Ali are only shared qualities, which others too share with him, as opposed to al-Siddiq, for lots of his merits and most of them are exclusive to him, and not shared with him by anyone.”[^1] In other words, the above verse establishes the superiority of Abu Bakr over all the Sahabah. It contains his exclusive merit.

Our Shaykh says further: فيقال لا ريب أن الفضيلة التي حصلت لأبي بكر قي الهجرة لم تحصل لغيره من الصحابة بالكتاب و السنة و الإجماع فتكون هذه الأفضلية ثابتة له دون عمر و عثمان و علي و غيرهم من الصحابة فيكون هو الإمام So, it is said that there is no doubt that the merit achieved by Abu Bakr during the Hijrah , none other of the Sahabah achieved it , in accordance with the Book, the Sunnah and the consensus (of the Sunni scholars).

Therefore, this superiority becomes established for him, and not for ‘Umar, ‘Uthman, ‘Ali or other Sahabah. As such, he was the Imam. ^2 Our Shaykh’s line of argument goes like this: Whichever of the Sahabah had a merit which none other possessed was the best of them. Such a Sahabi was also the true Imam among them.

In line with this reasoning, he argues – citing unnamed Sunni scholars as support - that most of Abu Bakr’s “merits” were exclusive to him, and none of Amir al-Muminin’s merits was exclusive to him! This is very strange though.