you associate these three in the Caliphate—meaning, if you appoint them as caliphs—your deeds are rendered void.’ On this basis they have twisted the Quran in the most outrageous fashion; we seek refuge in Allah from such distortion.

They further claim that the verse, “Indeed Allah commands you to slaughter a cow” (Al-Baqarah 67), in fact refers to ʿĀʾishah.

Explanation
May Allah fight them! It is Moses who utters this statement to his people, yet they insist that what is meant is ʿĀʾishah, alleging that Allah has commanded us to slaughter her. In my view, anyone who comes across such exegeses can have no doubt about their disbelief—God forbid—nor about their shamelessness before Allah and their lack of embarrassment before His servants. Allah says, “And when Moses said to his people, ‘Indeed Allah commands you to slaughter a cow…’” (Al-Baqarah 67). What connection does ʿĀʾishah have to Moses such that the speech of the Lord of the Worlds should descend with these meanings?

This is the position of the early Rāfiḍites, and the later ones follow them and defend them. It is therefore incorrect to claim that the early Rāfiḍites acknowledged the leadership of Abū Bakr and ʿUmar. I have witnessed something astonishing from some of them—though not all—who declare: Abū Bakr is an unbeliever, ʿUmar is an unbeliever, ʿUthmān is an unbeliever, and even ʿAlī is an unbeliever. The first three, they say, are unbelievers because they were oppressors; the fourth, ʿAlī, they accuse of disbelief because he did not defend the truth but surrendered to falsehood, thereby, in their eyes, disbelieving by acquiescing to it.

As for the verse, “So fight the leaders of disbelief” (At-Tawbah 12), they claim it refers to Ṭalḥah and az-Zubayr.