Through these actions...

Through these actions, Allah made the plan of the disbelievers to fail, and His Own Plan to succeed. Particular attention must be paid to this part: إلا تنصروه فقد نصره الله إذ أخرجه الذين كفروا ثاني اثنين إذ هما في الغار إذ يقول لصاحبه If you help him not, for Allah did indeed help him when the disbelievers drove him out - the second of two when they both were in the cave - and he was saying to his companion The expression “the second of two” is a description of the one who was driven out by the disbelievers and helped by Allah.

He was the second of two people in the cave, and it was he who said what he said to his companion. This is so obvious from the text of the verse. Meanwhile, Prof. Ibn Yasin, a contemporary Sunni mufassir , also states in support of our proposition under the verse: أخرج الطبري بسنده الصحيح عن مجاهد: (إلا تنصروه) ذكر ما كان في أول شأنه حين بعثه يقول الله: فأنا فاعل ذلك به وناصره، كما نصرته إذ ذاك وهو ثاني اثنين.

Al-Tabari records with his sahih chain from Mujahid that he said: “(If you help him not) He mentioned what was his affair since He appointed him (on a prophetic mission). Allah says: I do that with Him and I am his Helper, and I helped him when he was like that, and he was the second of two .[^4] In very simple terms, the Messenger of Allah was the second of two as we have stated. Abu Bakr was the first . Getting this part of the verse straight is extremely crucial to our discussion.

This is because the alleged “exclusive merit” of Abu Bakr in it is only a widespread Sunni misconception that he was the one referred to as “the second of two”! For instance, Imam al-Bukhari (d.

256 H) records: حدثنا إبراهيم بن موسى أخبرنا هشام عن معمر عن الزهري أخبرني أنس بن مالك رضي الله عنه أنه سمع خطبة عمر الآخرة حين جلس على المنبر وذلك الغد من يوم توفي النبي صلى الله عليه و سلم فتشهد وأبو بكر صامت لا يتكلم قال كنت أرجو أن يعيش رسول الله صلى الله عليه و سلم حتى يدبرنا يريد بذلك أن يكون آخرهم فإن يك محمد صلى الله عليه و سلم قد مات فإن الله تعالى قد جعل بين أظهركم نورا تهتدون به بما هدى الله محمدا صلى الله عليه و سلم وإن أبا بكر صاحب رسول الله صلى الله عليه و سلم ثاني اثنين فإنه أولى المسلمين بأموركم فقوموا فبايعوه وكانت طائفة منهم قد بايعوه قبل ذلك في سقيفة بني ساعدة وكانت بيعة العامة على المنبر Ibrahim b.

Musa – Hisham – Ma’mar – al-Zuhri – Anas b. Malik, may Allah be pleased with him: I heard ‘Umar's second sermon which he delivered while he was sitting on the pulpit on the day following the death of the Prophet, peace be upon him.