hadith, jurisprudence, exegesis, or Quranic studies. Rather, the leading figures among the Rāfidah are either ignorant men or heretics, like the religious leaders of the People of the Book.
Indeed, the earliest forerunners (1) and the leading authorities of the Sunnah and hadith unanimously agree on giving precedence to Uthmān. Yet they did not reach this consensus out of hope or fear. Rather, they did so despite the divergence of their opinions, inclinations, and learning, and despite their many disagreements on all other questions of knowledge. Thus, the leading authorities among the Companions and Successors—may Allah be pleased with them—agree on this, as do those who came after them, such as Mālik ibn Anas, Ibn Abī Dhib, Abd al-Azīz ibn al-Mājishūn, and other scholars of Medina.
Mālik reports that those whom he met were unanimous: they did not differ over giving precedence to Abū Bakr and Umar. The same was true of Ibn Jurayj, Ibn Uyaynah, Sad (2) ibn Sālim, Muslim ibn Khālid (3), and other scholars of Mecca; Abū Hanīfah, al-Thawrī, Sharīk ibn Abd Allah, Ibn Abī Laylā, and other jurists of Kufa—which was the home of the Shia—to the extent that al-Thawrī (4) would say, “Whoever gives Alī precedence over Abū Bakr, I do not believe any deed of his ascends to Allah.” Abū Dāwūd narrated this in his Sunan (5).
The same was held by Hammād ibn Zayd, Hammād ibn Salamah, Saīd ibn Abī Arūbah, and their peers among the scholars of Basra; and by al-Awzāī, Saīd ibn Abd al-Azīz, and other scholars of Syria;