In the section dealing with his caliphate—God willing, for in Him alone we place our trust—I have compiled a separate volume on his life, the hadiths he transmitted, and the reports related from him.

Proof that he served as a scribe is found in what Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah narrated from al-Zuhrī, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mālik ibn Juʿshum, from his father, from Surāqah ibn Mālik. In the story of Surāqah’s pursuit of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ after the Prophet and Abū Bakr had left the cave and passed through his land, Surāqah—after his horse had suffered what it suffered—asked the Messenger of Allah ﷺ for a written guarantee of safety. The Prophet ordered Abū Bakr to draft it, so Abū Bakr wrote the document and tossed it to him.

Imām Aḥmad also relates, through al-Zuhrī with this same chain, that ʿĀmir ibn Fuhayrah wrote the document. It is therefore possible that Abū Bakr penned part of it and then instructed his servant ʿĀmir to complete it; Allah knows best.

Among the scribes, too, was ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān, Commander of the Believers. His biography will appear under the events of his caliphate, and his work as a scribe before the Prophet ﷺ is well known. Al-Wāqidī, with his chains of transmission, reports that when Nahshal ibn Mālik al-Wāʾilī came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, the Prophet ordered ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān to write him a document outlining the laws of Islam.

Another was ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, Commander of the Believers. His biography will also come in its proper place. We have already mentioned that he drafted the treaty between the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and Quraysh at al-Ḥudaybiyyah, stipulating safety for the people, the absence of covert seizure or treachery, and the suspension of warfare for ten years. He wrote other documents in the Prophet’s presence as well.

As for the claim made by a group of the Jews of Khaybar that they possess a document from the Prophet ﷺ exempting them from the jizyah—and ending with the words “Written by ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib,” together with the attestations of several Companions, including Saʿd ibn Muʿādh and Muʿāwiyah ibn Abī Sufyān—this is a fabricated falsehood, a contrived calumny. Many scholars have exposed its invalidity, though some earlier jurists were taken in by it and ruled that the jizyah had indeed been lifted from them; that position is extremely weak. I have devoted a separate treatise to demonstrating its falsity, proving that it is a forgery of their own making—something for which they are notorious—and gathering the scattered statements of the imams on the matter. All praise and thanks belong to Allah.