This was among the evidence they invoked against the Ansār on the Day of the Saqīfa. How, then, could it be thought that Umar intended to appoint a man from outside Quraysh? Rather, he may have intended to appoint him to a limited office (1), or to consult him about whom to appoint, or similar matters for which Sālim, the freedman of Abū Hudhayfa, was well suited. Sālim was among the finest of the Companions, and it was he who led them in prayer during the lifetime of Allah’s Messenger—peace and blessings be upon him—when the Emigrants arrived.

[Reply to the Rāfidi’s Claim That Umar Placed the More Virtuous and the Less Virtuous Together]

As for the Rāfidi’s statement:

“He placed the more virtuous and the less virtuous together, whereas the more virtuous is entitled to precedence [over the less virtuous] (2).”

The reply is:

First, [these men] (3) were close to one another in merit. The superiority of some over others was not manifest in the way that the superiority of Abū Bakr and Umar over the rest was manifest. Accordingly, in the consultative council, (4) Uthmān’s view would sometimes be adopted, at other times [Alī’s view would be adopted] (5), and at still other times Abd al-Rahmān’s view. Each of them possessed virtues in which the others did not share.

Second, it is said to him: Even if there were among them one who was more virtuous and another who was less so, why do you claim that Alī was the more virtuous, while Uthmān and the others were less virtuous? This claim contradicts what the Emigrants and the Ansār unanimously agreed upon, [as more than one of the leading scholars stated, among them