his final illness, saying repeatedly, time and again: ‘Send forth (1) Usāma’s army. May Allah curse whoever stays behind from Usāma’s army. The three were with him, but Abū Bakr and Umar were prevented from doing so.’”
The response is that this is a fabrication universally recognized as such by everyone acquainted with the Prophet’s biography (2). No scholar has ever reported that the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—sent Abū Bakr or Uthmān with Usāma’s army; this has been reported only concerning Umar. How could he have sent Abū Bakr with Usāma’s army when he had appointed him to lead the Muslims in prayer throughout his illness? His illness began on Thursday and continued through the following Thursday until Monday—a total of twelve days. According to mass-transmitted reports, he appointed no one other than Abū Bakr to lead the Muslims in prayer.
Nor did Abū Bakr lead the Muslims in only one or two prayers during the Prophet’s illness—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—or for merely one or two days, such that there might be room for the Rāfidah’s deceptive claim that Aisha put him forward without the Prophet’s instruction. Rather, he led them in prayer throughout the Prophet’s illness. People agree (3) that no one other than Abū Bakr led them in prayer during the Prophet’s final illness, and that he led them for several (4) days.
The lowest estimate given is that he led them in seventeen prayers. He led them in the late-evening prayer on the night before Friday and delivered the Friday sermon to them.