‘Uthmān ranked below Abū Bakr and ‘Umar. Nevertheless, when they sought to kill him while he was in office, he neither fought the Muslims nor killed any Muslim to retain his authority.

If you allow that these men might have been unjust rulers and enemies of the Messenger, then the argument of the Nāsibī (one hostile to the Prophet’s family) against you is stronger still. If you malign these men and accuse them of injustice and hostility towards the Messenger and his followers, you thereby furnish the renegade Khārijite Nāsibīs with an argument against you. For they say:

“Who is more deserving of being accused of seeking leadership: someone who fought Muslims—not disbelievers—to retain his authority, initiating hostilities to make them obey him when they would not, and killing many thousands of ‘those who face the qiblah’—people who establish prayer, pay zakah, perform pilgrimage to the Ancient House, fast the month of Ramadan, and recite the Quran—or those who fought no Muslim, but instead strengthened, supported, and sheltered those who observed prayer and paid zakah? Or someone who was killed while in office, who neither fought nor defended himself, until he was killed in his own home among his family—may Allah be pleased with him?”

If you allow that someone like this might have exercised kingship unjustly and wronged the Muslims through his rule, then such an accusation is all the more applicable to someone who fought to retain authority and killed Muslims for its sake.

This and similar considerations make it clear that the Rāfidah are a community with neither sound reason, authentic transmitted evidence, acceptable religion, nor worldly success. Rather, they are among the most dishonest and ignorant sects. Their religion opens the way into the Muslim community for every heretic and apostate, as the Nusayriyyah have entered their ranks,