His Death
After a life rich in study, teaching, authorship, and striving—by heart, tongue, and hand—for the triumph of the religion and the exaltation of Allah’s word, he passed away on the morning of Tuesday, the twentieth of Dhu al-Qaʿdah in the year 728 AH (32). At the time he was confined in the Citadel of Damascus—may Allah envelop him in boundless mercy (33).

Description of the Manuscript Copy
This copy is kept at the Manuscripts Center of the Central Library of the Islamic University under catalogue number 2385/4. It is a photographic reproduction of the autograph preserved in the Egyptian National Library in Cairo. The volume is a composite collection containing works by several scholars, and this epistle is the sole contribution of Shaykh al-Islam within it.

Title of the Work
The manuscript catalogues in the Islamic University record the title as “A Refutation Issued in Answer to a Question on Preferring ʿAli over the Rightly Guided Caliphs.” This heading, however, was not assigned by the author; it was derived from the wording of the question posed to Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah.

For the present study I have entitled it “The Merit of Abu Bakr,” because the reply centers on establishing Abu Bakr’s superiority over ʿAli and does not mention any of the other caliphs.

A condensed version of this answer appears in the collected Fatwas of Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, compiled by Shaykh ʿAbd al-Rahman ibn Qasim, 4/414.