He said, “That was the last time we ever saw him.” The statement of a Companion has priority over that of a Successor—Allah knows best.

The point, then, is that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ appointed Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq to lead all the Companions in the prayer, the greatest of Islam’s practical pillars.

Imām Abū ’l-Ḥasan al-Ashʿarī said: “His putting Abū Bakr forward is something known by necessity in the religion of Islam. Moreover, his appointing him is proof that Abū Bakr was the most knowledgeable and the most proficient in Qur’ānic recitation among the Companions, for it is established in the sound, unanimously accepted ḥadīth that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said (1):

‘Let the one who is the most versed in the Book of Allah lead the people in prayer; if they are equal in recitation, then the one most knowledgeable of the Sunnah; if they are equal in the Sunnah, then the eldest of them; and if they are equal in age, then the one who embraced Islam earliest.’”

I say: These words of al-Ashʿarī—may Allah have mercy on him—deserve to be written in gold. All of these qualities were combined in al-Ṣiddīq—may Allah be pleased with him. The fact that the Prophet ﷺ prayed behind him on certain occasions, as we have already cited through sound reports, does not contradict what is related in the Ṣaḥīḥ that Abū Bakr followed the Prophet ﷺ, for that occurred in a different prayer, as al-Shāfiʿī and other leading imams have explicitly stated—may Allah have mercy on them.

Benefit. Mālik, al-Shāfiʿī, and a group of scholars—among them al-Bukhārī (2)—argued from the incident in which the Prophet ﷺ prayed seated while Abū Bakr followed him standing and the people followed Abū Bakr, that this abrogated the Prophet’s earlier statement in the agreed-upon ḥadīth (3). On that earlier occasion he had fallen from a horse and bruised his side (4); he prayed sitting while those behind him stood, and he gestured to them to sit. When he finished he said:

“By the One in whose hand is my soul, you were about to act like the Persians and Romans: they stand before their leaders while the leaders remain seated.” He also said (7): “The imam has only been appointed to be followed: when he pronounces the takbīr, pronounce the takbīr; when he bows, bow; when he rises, rise; when he prostrates, prostrate; and when he performs the prayer seated, then all of you pray seated.”

They further noted that, during his final illness, he led them sitting while they remained standing, which, in their view, proves the abrogation of what had come before. Allah knows best.

People have offered many different answers to this line of reasoning; a detailed discussion belongs in the book al-Aḥkām al-Kabīr, if Allah wills. In Him we place our trust, and upon Him we rely.