, he sought Ibn al-Sawdā (1), about whom this had been reported to him. It is also said that he intended to put him to death, but Ibn al-Sawdā fled from him to the land (2) of Qarqīsiyā.
As for those who gave him precedence over Abū Bakr and Umar, it is related that he said:
“If anyone who gives me precedence over Abū Bakr and Umar is brought before me, I will administer to him the prescribed penalty for slander.”
It has been mass-transmitted from him (3) that he would say from the pulpit in Kufa, “The best of this nation after its Prophet are Abū Bakr and then Umar.” (4) This was narrated from him (5) through more than eighty lines of transmission, and al-Bukhārī and others recorded it. (6) For this reason, all the early Shiites agreed (7) on the precedence of Abū Bakr and Umar, as more than one scholar has mentioned.
Thus, these two innovations—the innovation of the Kharijites and that of the Shiites—arose at that time, when the civil strife occurred. Then, toward the end of the Companions’ era, the innovation of the Qadarites arose—
(1) Scholars disagree as to whether Ibn al-Sawdā was Abd Allah ibn Saba or another person. Ibn Tāhir al-Baghdādī (*al-Farq bayn al-Firaq*, p. [0–9]44) holds that Ibn al-Sawdā was a Jew who shared Abd Allah ibn Saba’s views in order to foment civil strife. Al-Isfarāyīnī (*al-Tabsīr fī al-Dīn*, p. [0–9]2) followed Ibn Tāhir in this view. In our earlier discussion of Abd Allah ibn Saba and the Sabaiyya, we cited al-Nawbakhtī’s report that Abd Allah ibn Saba was a Jew. Al-Shahrastānī also reports this (*al-Milal wa-al-Nihal*, 1/155), suggesting that he and Ibn al-Sawdā were the same person. See also Shaykh al-Kawtharī’s annotation in *al-Farq bayn al-Firaq*, p. 144; Ahmad Amīn, *Fajr al-Islām*, p. 110.
(2) The word “land” is omitted from A and B.
(3) N and M read: “and it has been mass-transmitted.”
(4) N and M read: “Abū Bakr and Umar.”
(5) N and M read: “and it was narrated from him.”
(6) This report was mentioned previously (p. 12), where Ibn Taymiyya called the *Mufaddila*—those who gave Ali precedence—*al-muftariya* (“the slanderers”). There (n. 3), we also quoted the statement of Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyya ibn Ali ibn Abī Tālib as recorded by al-Bukhārī in his *Sahīh*.
(7) N, M, and A read *muttafiqūn* (“in agreement”), which is incorrect.