Abu Bakr is your master who has bought you...

Abu Bakr is your master who has bought you, and freed you, and saved you from the punishment, and gave to yourself your own wealth, whereas Ali -asws Bin Abu Talib -asws has not done to you anything from this, and you are revering Abu Al-Hassan Ali -asws in a way that you do not revere Abu Bakr. This is disbelief in the bounties, and ignorance of sequential order’.

Bilal said: ‘Is it a must for me to revere Abu Bakr more than to revere the Messenger of Allah -saww ?’ They said: ‘Allah -azwj Forbid!’ He said: ‘These words or yours are against your previous words. If it were not permissible for me to prefer Ali -asws over Abu Bakr, because Abu Bakr freed me, similarly it would not be permissible for me to prefer the Messenger of Allah -saww over Abu Bakr, because Abu Bakr freed me’.

They said: ‘They -asws are not equal, for the Messenger of Allah -saww is the highest of the creation of Allah -saww ‘. Bilal said: ‘And Abu Bakr and Ali -asws are also not equal, for Ali -asws himself is the highest of the creation of Allah -azwj , and he -asws is also the highest of the creation of Allah -azwj after His -azwj Prophet -saww , and the most beloved of the creation of Allah -azwj for having eaten the bird with the Messenger of Allah -saww by the supplication “Our Allah -azwj !

Give it to me by the most beloved to You -azwj “, and he -asws is the most similar from the creation of Allah -azwj to the Messenger of Allah -saww , when Allah -azwj Made him -asws to be his -saww brother in the Religion of Allah -azwj ‘. ‘And Abu Bakr does not seek from me that which you are seeking, because he is aware of the elevated status of Ali -asws which you are ignorant of.

Meaning, he understands that the right of Ali -asws on me is greater than his right, because Ali -asws has freed me from the slavery of everlasting punishment, and for being patient to him -asws enjoined on me the Gardens of Bliss. And, Ali -asws has saved me from eternal Punishment and obligated to me, by my being in his -asws Mastership, and my having preferred him -asws , is for eternal Bounties’.