Whoever swears the oath of allegiance to someone prior to consulting others...

Whoever swears the oath of allegiance to someone prior to consulting others, doing so only out of fear of being killed if he did not, then he should not do it at all [and accept death instead]...[^4] One of the rumours circulated about us when Allah took His Messenger (pbuh) away from us is that the Ansar differed from us in their views; they all assembled at the saqifa [shed] of Bani Sa’idah; besides them, ‘Ali (as) and al-Zubayr, and their followers, differed, too..." He continued to point out what had happened at the shed, the disputes and differences of opinion, the voices that rose out of concern for the safety of the religion, etc.

It was under those circumstances that ‘Umar swore allegiance to Abu Bakr. It is a fact well-known by those who research the events that prevented the members of the Prophet's household (as), the custodians of the Message, from attending the allegiance [inauguration] ceremony.

They were detained at ‘Ali's house together with Salman, Abu Tharr al-Ghifari, al-Miqdad ibn al-Aswad al-Kindi, ‘Ammar ibn Yasir, al-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam, Khuzaymah ibn Thabit, Abu ibn Ka’b, Farwah ibn ‘Amr ibn Wadqah al-Ansari, al-Bara' ibn ‘Azib, Khalid ibn Sa’d ibn al-’As al-Amawi, and many others.

So, how can it be said that there was a consensus in spite of the fact that all these men, including Muhammad's progeny (as), who are to the nation like the head to the body, the eyes to the face, the descendants of the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) and the custodians of his knowledge, the ones who are peers only to and the companions of the Book of Allah, the arks of the nation's redemption, and the gates of its salvation, the nation's protection against straying, and the standard-bearers of its guidance, as we have proven above...,[^5] did not attend?

But their dealing requires no proof if conscientiously discerned. Both Bukhari and Muslim,[^6] in their sahih s, in addition to many other renown traditionists and historians, have all proven the fact that ‘Ali (as) did not participate in the allegiance process, and that he did not reconcile and make peace except after the mistress of the ladies of the world (as) had joined her father (pbuh) [in Paradise], six months thereafter, compelled by the general Islamic interest during those very critical circumstances.