reason ever existed that would lead the Muslims to hold back the man whom the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—had put forward and expressly designated, and instead advance the man whom he wished to hold back and exclude.

Had he wished, out of fear of the two men, to send them away with Usāmah’s army, he would have told the people:

“Do not pledge allegiance to either of them.”

I wish I knew: whom could the Messenger possibly have feared? Allah had granted him victory and might, and around him were the Emigrants and the Helpers, who would have obeyed had he commanded them to kill their own fathers and sons.

Allah had revealed Surah Barā’ah, in which He exposed the condition of the hypocrites and identified them to the Muslims. They were discredited and reviled in the eyes of the Messenger and his community.

Abū Bakr and Umar were (1) the two people closest to him and the most honored in his sight. They were the dearest to him and enjoyed the most privileged standing with him. More than anyone else, they kept him company night and day, were in accord with him and loved him, and were the keenest to obey his commands and exalt his religion. How, then, could any rational person suppose that these two were, in the Messenger’s eyes, of the same kind as the hypocrites, when his Companions knew that he shunned and humiliated the hypocrites and that, after Surah Barā’ah, he brought none of them close to him?

Rather, Allah Most High said:

“If the hypocrites, those in whose hearts is disease, and the rumor-mongers in Medina do not desist, We shall surely rouse you against them. Then they will remain your neighbors there only briefly—accursed; wherever they are found, they will be seized and relentlessly slain.”

[Surah al-Ahzāb: 60, 61]

They consequently ceased openly displaying hypocrisy and were subdued.

All the while, Abū Bakr was, in his eyes, the mightiest, most honored, and dearest of all people.