As a result of this...

As a result of this, they disregarded ‘Alī ibn Abī Tālib ( ‘a ), the real Imām of the Islamic community unparalleled in every way from temporal or apparent leadership.[^7] Ubayy, who had painfully witnessed this chaotic state of affairs, used to say, “As long as the Noble Prophet (S) was alive, all eyes were fixed on one point.

After his sad demise, however, eyes and faces started deviating from right to left.”[^8] In the afternoon of the day of the Saqīfah, Ubayy ibn Ka‘b was passing by a group of the Ansār .

One of the Ansār asked him, “Where are you coming from, Ubayy?” He answered, “From the house of the Prophet’s family.” They asked him, “How are the Prophet’s family faring?” He responded, “How can one describe the state of those whose house is now devoid of the presence of one on whom Allah’s angels descended with His Messages?” While saying this he broke down, the tears choking his throat.

On witnessing this, the people who had asked him this question started crying too.[^9] Ubayy never paid allegiance to the First Caliph, and believed that the Saqīfah was an illegitimate assembly which possessed no legality and no value at all.[^10] Ubayy was one of the first twelve people who raised their voices of protest against the First Caliph in the Prophet’s (S) Mosque, and openly declared their support of ‘Alī ibn Abī Tālib ( ‘a ).[^11] He was constantly protesting against the rulers of his time, and during the rule of ‘Uthmān, said, “The rulers of this community have gone astray and destroyed their Hereafter.

My heart does not feel pain for them, but breaks for those who have followed these lost leaders. If I stay alive till this Friday, I will reveal the truth as I know it even if I am killed.”[^12] But it is very sad that he died on Thursday, the day before Friday of that same week! He passed away in 30 or 32 AH at the age of fifty.

Ubayy spent his life as a Muslim struggling to support and uphold the principles of Islam that he had learnt from the Holy Prophet (S) but died of a broken heart filled with sorrow for the direction it was moving in at the hands of the self-appointed rulers. May his soul rest in peace.[^13] [^1]: Al-Asābah, vol. 1, p. 19; Al-Darajāt al-Rafī‘ah, p. 324; Zarkulī, Al-A‘lām, vol. 1, p. 82; Sifat al-Safwa, vol. 1, p. 188. [^2]: Sūrat Yūnus 10:57. [^3]: Hilyat al-‘Awliyā, vol. 1, p. 250.

[^4]: Al-Darajāt al-Rafī‘ah, p. 324. [^5]: Hilyat al-Awliyā’, vol. 1, p. 250. [^6]: Hilyat al-Awliyā’, vol. 1, p. 253.