“They are equally God-fearing.” If he says, “They are equal in merit,” he has contradicted the consensus of all groups. It necessarily follows, therefore, that one of them (1) must be the most God-fearing.

If, however, “the most God-fearing” denotes a particular individual, it must refer either to Abū Bakr or to ʿAlī. If it is a generic noun, it encompasses everyone to whom it applies; this (2) is the class and constitutes the first category. The only remaining possibility would be that it refers to some specified individual (3) other than the two, but this category is ruled out by the agreement of Ahl al-Sunnah and the Shia.

The claim that it refers to ʿAlī is likewise untenable, for He says:

“The one who gives his wealth to purify himself, not to repay anyone for a favor, but only seeking the Face of his Lord, the Most High. And he will surely be pleased.”

(Sūrat al-Layl: 18–21)

This description does not apply to ʿAlī, for several reasons:

First: This surah is agreed to be Meccan. While in Mecca, ʿAlī was poor and a dependent of the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—and had no wealth of his own from which to spend (4). Rather, when famine struck the people of Mecca, the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—had taken him into his household as a dependent.

Second: He says:

“not to repay anyone for a favor”

(Sūrat al-Layl: 19)

Yet the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—had rendered ʿAlī a favor that could be repaid: he had shown him kindness by taking him into his household as a dependent. This was unlike Abū Bakr, on whom the Prophet had conferred no worldly favor (5), though he had (6) conferred upon him the favor of religion. That cannot be repaid, because the reward due to the Prophet