Could Abu-Bakr ever gain one of these peculiarities?

Could Abu-Bakr ever gain one of these peculiarities? Omar sees Abu Bakr's priority in his wealth, his being close to the Prophet in the cave of Thur and that he prayed in the place of the Prophet. As for the first priority, not much can be said, except that this was a misconception common to the man of the age of Ignorance when great wealth was a sign of prestige. One of the criticisms directed at the Prophet by disbelievers was why the Quran had not been revealed unto a rich and wealthy prophet.

If we take the association with the Prophet at the cave of Thur as a sign of priority then we should give Ali (as) more credit, since he slept on the Prophet's bed on the night when the disbelievers had aimed to kill the Prophet. Ali slept in the same place where the Prophet laid so as to misguide the Prophet’s assassins.

We do not know whether he carried out the prayer or not; we are not sure whether or not it was done with the Prophet's consent; we do not know whether it was done due to a suggestion made by some of the Prophet’s wives. (In a subsequent chapter we will study this issue).

Nevertheless, if this issue could be taken as credit for becoming caliph, we should add here that whenever the Prophet was not in town, he would always appoint a substitute for himself f and would assign him the rein of government including praying with people at congregations; the names of such people are recorded in the biographies of the Prophet.

The two basic requirements for an Imam, and for the Prophet's successor are thorough knowledge of the principles and the practical laws of Islam and immunity against sins and wrongdoings. But there was no mention of these two conditions in the Saqifah council. Would it not have been appropriate for these individuals to bring up the issues of knowledge and chastity instead of other imaginary criteria such as nationality or connection with others?

The way these two groups reasoned shows that they only had superficial domination over people in mind and that they had ignored the Prophet's other roles and positions.