It is now finished—may it spread with goodness—through the hand of the poorest of Allah’s servants and the one most in need of His pardon: Ṣāliḥ ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Qādir. May Allah forgive him, his parents, and all believing men and women.

Conclusion:
In this valuable epistle Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah showed that al-Ṣiddīq, Abū Bakr, is the best of the Companions, indeed the finest of this community after its Prophet. This is because sound, explicit hadiths have been narrated about him that are not shared by anyone else and by which he stands apart—such as the Prophet’s statement that, had he taken an intimate friend (khalīl), it would have been Abū Bakr; his command that Abū Bakr lead the people in prayer during his final illness; and his appointing him to head the pilgrimage in the ninth year after the Hijrah. By contrast, the hadiths praising other Companions are of the kind they share with one another.

A Note:
It is fitting to conclude this treatise with a report transmitted by an authentic chain and voiced by ʿAlī himself. In it he mentions the virtues of the two Shaykhs and their rank in Islam, so that the matter is judged by the one most entitled to speak. It also shows that the question of precedence has deep historical roots and is not merely an academic ranking, but has been used by certain people of desire to malign the senior Companions, Abū Bakr and ʿUmar.

Suwayd ibn Ghafalah (146) narrated: “I passed by a group of the Shīʿah who were reviling Abū Bakr and ʿUmar and belittling them, so I went in to see ʿAlī ibn Abī