and wield armed strength. If we refuse, they will wrong us and attack us. Alī cannot restrain them, just as he could not defend Uthmān. We are only obliged to pledge allegiance to a caliph who can secure justice for us and treat us fairly.”
Among the ignorant on both sides were people who harboured false suspicions about Alī and Uthmān—accusations of which Allah has exonerated them both. Alī was suspected of having ordered Uthmān’s killing. Alī would swear—though he was righteous and truthful even without an oath—that he had neither killed him, nor approved of his killing, nor colluded in it. This is known with certainty concerning Alī, may Allah be pleased with him.
Some who loved Alī, and some who hated him, spread this claim about him. Those who loved him intended thereby to disparage Uthmān, claiming that he had deserved to be killed and that Alī had ordered his killing. Those who hated him intended thereby to disparage Alī, claiming that he had helped kill the wronged and martyred caliph, who bore his ordeal patiently, did not defend himself, and shed no Muslim’s blood in his own defence—let alone in seeking obedience to himself. These and similar matters are used by those who deviate against the partisans of Uthmān and Alī.
Nevertheless, every group of these partisans acknowledges that Mu‘āwiyah is not Alī’s equal in entitlement to the caliphate, and that he may not be caliph when it is possible to appoint Alī, may Allah be pleased with him. For Alī’s excellence, his precedence in Islam, his knowledge, his religious devotion, his courage and all his other virtues were clear and well known to them, as were the virtues of his brothers Abū Bakr, Umar, Uthmān and others, may Allah be pleased with them.