2436 – Muhammad b. al-Hasan al-Fārisi informed us; he said: Ahmad b. Saʿid al-Thaqafī informed us; he said: Muhammad b. Yahya al-Dhuhlī informed us; he said: ʿAbd al-Razzaq narrated to us; he said: Maʿmar narrated to us, from al-Zuhrī, from ʿUbayd-Allah b. ʿAbd Allah, from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said:
I used to recite the Qur’an to ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. ʿAwf during the caliphate of ʿUmar. In the course of the last ḥajj he performed—and we were then in Minā—ʿAbd al-Raḥmān came to my lodging at night and said, “Had you been with the Commander of the Believers today! A man had come to him and said, ‘I heard so-and-so declare: “If the Commander of the Believers dies, I will pledge allegiance to so-and-so.”’” ʿUmar said, “This evening I shall stand before the people and warn them about those men who want to usurp the Muslims’ affair.”
I replied, “O Commander of the Believers, the season gathers the riff-raff and rabble; they will overrun your assembly. I fear that if you speak today they will seize upon your words, spread them blindly, fail to understand them, and put them in the wrong place. Wait until you reach Madinah—the abode of Hijrah and Sunnah—where you will be among the Emigrants and the Helpers. There you can speak while firmly seated, and they will comprehend your statement and place it where it belongs.”
ʿUmar answered, “By Allah—if Allah wills—I shall address it at the very first sitting I take up in Madinah.”
When we reached Madinah and Friday arrived, I went early because of what ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. ʿAwf had told me. I found Saʿīd b. Zayd b. ʿAmr b. Nufayl had preceded me and was sitting beside the pulpit, so I sat next to him, my knee touching his ⦗1361⦘. When the sun passed its zenith ʿUmar came out. As he approached I said, “By Allah, today the Commander of the Believers will utter on this pulpit words never spoken before.” Saʿīd b. Zayd grew angry and said, “What words could he say that have never been said before?”
When ʿUmar reached the pulpit, the mu’adhdhin began the call to prayer. When the call was finished, ʿUmar stood, praised Allah and extolled Him as He deserves, then said:
“To proceed: I intend to say something that has been decreed for me to say; I know not—perhaps it is just before my death. Whoever understands, memorizes, and grasps it, let him convey it wherever his mount may carry him; but whoever fears he will not retain it—I do not permit anyone to lie about me.
Allah sent Muhammad with the truth and sent down with him the Book, and among what He revealed was the verse of stoning. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ stoned, and we stoned after him. I fear that a lengthy period may pass and someone will say, ‘We do not find stoning in Allah’s Book,’ and thus they will stray by abandoning an obligation that Allah revealed. Know that stoning is a fixed penalty upon anyone who commits adultery after having been married, once proof is established, or pregnancy appears, or there is a confession.
We used to recite: ‘Do not turn away from your fathers; indeed, it is disbelief on your part to turn away from your fathers.’
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, ‘Do not exaggerate in praising me as the Christians exaggerated concerning Jesus son of Mary; I am only Allah’s servant, so say: the servant of Allah and His messenger.’
It has reached me that someone among you says, ‘If the Commander of the Believers dies, I will pledge allegiance to so-and-so.’ Let no one be deluded into saying, ‘The pledge to Abu Bakr was a sudden slip,’ for it was indeed sudden, yet Allah protected us from its evil. And none of you is such that people would stretch their necks toward him as they did for Abu Bakr; he was the best of us when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ died.
ʿAlī, al-Zubayr and those with them remained apart from us in the house of Fāṭimah, and the Ansar as a whole kept away in the roofed hall of Banū Sāʿidah, while the Muhājirūn gathered around Abu Bakr. I said, ‘Abu Bakr, come with us ⦗1362⦘ to our brothers from the Ansar.’ We set off but met two righteous Ansārīs who had fought at Badr. They asked, ‘Where are you going, Emigrants?’ We answered, ‘To our brothers among the Ansar.’ They said, ‘Go back and settle the matter among yourselves.’ I said, ‘By Allah, we shall go to them.’ We reached them and found them assembled in the roofed hall of Banū Sāʿidah, with a man wrapped up among them. I asked, ‘Who is that?’ They replied, ‘Saʿd b. ʿUbādah.’ I asked, ‘What is the matter with him?’ They said, ‘He is ill.’
Then the spokesman of the Ansar rose, praised Allah and extolled Him, and said: ‘To proceed: we are the Ansar, the fighting battalion of Islam; and you, people of Quraysh, are but a branch of us. Some of your men have now reached us and want to tear us from our root and deprive us of authority.’
I had prepared a speech that I wanted to deliver before Abu Bakr, but I was wary of some sharpness in him—he was calmer and more forbearing than I. Just as I was about to speak, he said, ‘Wait,’ so I disliked disobeying him. Abu Bakr praised Allah and extolled Him, then said: ‘By Allah, he has not omitted a single word I had prepared except that he brought it—or something better—in his spontaneous speech. To proceed: whatever good you have mentioned about yourselves, O Ansar, you truly deserve it. But the Arabs recognize leadership only for this clan of Quraysh; they are the center of the Arabs in dwelling and lineage. I am pleased to offer you one of these two men, so give your pledge to whichever you wish.’ He took my hand and the hand of Abu ʿUbaydah b. al-Jarrah.
By Allah, nothing he said displeased me except that word. By Allah, to be brought forward and have my neck struck—thus drawing no nearer to sin—would be dearer to me than ruling over a people among whom Abu Bakr is present.
When Abu Bakr finished, a man of the Ansar stood up and said, ‘I am its seasoned twig, its well-trimmed palm-shoot. From us a leader and from you a leader, people of Quraysh—or we will kindle war between us straight away.’
Maʿmar, from Qatādah, said: ʿUmar b. al-Khattab replied, ‘Two swords cannot fit ⦗1363⦘ in one sheath. Leadership is ours, and you are the advisers.’
Al-Zuhrī continued: Voices were raised, the clamor increased, and I feared division. I said, ‘Abu Bakr, extend your hand so that I may pledge allegiance to you.’ He extended his hand and I pledged allegiance; then the Muhājirūn pledged, followed by the Ansar. We surged toward Saʿd until someone said, ‘You have killed Saʿd!’ I said, ‘May Allah kill Saʿd!’ By Allah, in the matter before us we never saw anything stronger than the pledge to Abu Bakr. We feared that if we left those people they might conclude a pledge after us—either we would have to accept a pledge we disliked, or we would oppose them and turmoil would result.
Therefore, let no one be deluded into saying, ‘The pledge to Abu Bakr was a slip’; it was indeed sudden, but Allah protected us from its evil. And none of you is such that necks would stretch toward him as they did for Abu Bakr. Whoever gives allegiance to a man without consulting the Muslims—neither the pledge nor the one to whom it is given is valid, and both of them risk being killed.
Al-Zuhrī said: ʿUrwah informed me that the two Ansārīs they met were ʿUwaymir b. Sāʿidah and Maʿn b. ʿAdī, and the one who said, ‘I am its seasoned twig, its well-trimmed palm-shoot’ was Ḥubbāb b. al-Munḍir.
It is recorded by al-Bukhārī and Muslim.