and by al-Layth, Amr ibn al-Hārith (1), Ibn Wahb, and other scholars of Egypt; then by such men as Abd Allah ibn al-Mubārak, Wakī ibn al-Jarrāh, Abd al-Rahmān ibn Mahdī, Abū Yūsuf, and Muhammad ibn al-Hasan; such men as al-Shāfiī, Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Ishāq ibn Ibrāhīm, and Abū Ubayd; such men as al-Bukhārī, Abū Dāwūd, and Ibrāhīm al-Harbī; and such men as al-Fudayl ibn Iyād, Abū Sulaymān al-Dārānī, Marūf al-Karkhī, al-Sarī al-Saqatī, al-Junayd, and Sahl ibn Abd Allah al-Tustarī—as well as countless others of honorable renown in Islam whose number is known to Allah alone. All of them categorically affirm the precedence of Abū Bakr and Umar, just as they categorically affirm the legitimacy of their caliphates, while exercising the utmost diligence in following the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—and remaining loyal to him. What could have led them to this other than their knowledge that he himself gave precedence to Abū Bakr and Umar and favored them through his love and praise for them, his consultation with them, and other grounds for preference?

[Section: The Thirty-Ninth Proof—“And when your Lord took from the children of Adam—from their loins—their descendants and made them testify concerning themselves”—and the Response to It]

Section

The Rāfidī said (2):

“The thirty-ninth proof is the words of Allah Most High: ‘And when your Lord took from the children of Adam—from their loins—their descendants and made them testify concerning themselves: “Am I not your Lord?” They said, “Yes, we bear witness,” lest you should say on the Day of Resurrection, “We were unaware of this.”’

[Surah al-Arāf: 172]

(3) In (4) the book al-Firdaws