his state of iḥrām, and once their rites were finished the two of them slaughtered their sacrificial animals, as noted above.
When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ fell ill, al-ʿAbbās said to ʿAlī, “Ask the Messenger of Allah ﷺ about who will assume authority after him.” ʿAlī replied, “By Allah, I will not ask him; for if he withholds it from us, the people will never give it to us after him.” The sound, explicit hadiths make it absolutely clear that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ did not bequeath the caliphate to him—or to anyone else. Rather, he merely hinted at as-Ṣiddīq, giving an unmistakably intelligible indication of him, as we have already explained—praise be to Allah.
As for the claim fabricated by many of the ignorant among the Shīʿah and the storytellers (those dullards) that he ﷺ appointed ʿAlī to the caliphate, it is a lie, a slander, and a monstrous falsehood. It necessarily entails a grave error: accusing the Companions (1) of treachery and collusion in neglecting to carry out his alleged testament, failing to deliver it to the one supposedly designated, and diverting it to someone else without cause or reason. Every believer in Allah and His Messenger, firmly convinced (2) that the religion of Islam is the truth, knows the falsity of this calumny, for the Companions were the best of creation after the prophets, the finest generation of this community—which is itself the noblest of nations, by the explicit wording of the Quran and by the consensus of early and later scholars—in this world and the Hereafter, praise be to Allah.
Likewise, the tales some marketplace storytellers, common folk and others recite about a supposed bequest to ʿAlī concerning etiquette and manners (3) in eating, drinking, and dress—such as their saying: “Yā ʿAlī, lā taʿtam wa anta qāʿid (O ʿAlī, do not wrap your turban while you are seated); Yā ʿAlī, lā talbis sarāwīlaka wa anta qāʾim (O ʿAlī, do not put on your trousers while standing); Yā ʿAlī, lā tumsik ʿuḍādatay al-bāb (O ʿAlī, do not hold the two doorposts); do not sit on the threshold; do not sew your garment while wearing it,” and the like—all of that is sheer nonsense. None of it has any basis (4); it is pure invention (5) by some base and ignorant riffraff, and only a dull-witted simpleton is taken in by it.
When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ passed away, ʿAlī was among those who washed him, shrouded him, and oversaw his burial, as we have already detailed—praise and thanks to Allah. In the chapter on his virtues we shall mention that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ married him to Fāṭimah after the Battle of Badr, and she bore him Ḥasan, Ḥusayn and Muḥsin (as stated earlier). A number of hadiths have been transmitted about this, but none of them is authentic; indeed, most are fabrications of the Rāfiḍah and the storytellers.
When as-Ṣiddīq was given the pledge of allegiance at the Portico (as-Saqīfah), ʿAlī was among those who pledged to him in the mosque (as already mentioned). He stood before as-Ṣiddīq like the other eminent Companions, regarding obedience to him as obligatory upon himself and as the thing he most desired.
After Fāṭimah died six months later—and she had been somewhat displeased (6) with Abū Bakr over the inheritance she did not receive from her father, peace be upon him, being unaware of the specific text that prophets leave no inheritance—then, when