then went to the marketplace to sell goods and earn a living(1). Umar met him carrying striped garments over his arm and asked him, “Where are you going?”

He replied, “Did you think that I would abandon(2) seeking a livelihood for my dependents?”

Umar informed Abū Ubayda and the Emigrants of this, and they allotted Abū Bakr a stipend. He then asked Umar and Abū Ubayda to swear an oath, and they swore that it was permissible(3) for him to take two dirhams each day. He then left his wealth in the public treasury. When death approached him, he instructed Aisha to return to the public treasury whatever of the Muslims’ wealth had become part of his property. She found a threadbare plush cloth worth less than five dirhams, an Abyssinian woman who was nursing his son—or an Abyssinian male slave—and a camel used for drawing water. She sent all of this to Umar.

Abd al-Rahmān ibn Awf asked him, “Would you strip Abū Bakr’s dependents of this?”

He replied, “No, by the Lord of the Kaaba! Abū Bakr shall not absolve himself(4) of liability for it during his lifetime while I bear it after his death.”

One of the scholars said:

“Alī was detached from worldly life, but the Siddīq was even more detached than he. Abū Bakr possessed abundant wealth and conducted extensive trade at the beginning of Islam, yet he spent it in the cause of Allah. His conduct during the caliphate was as described, and he then returned what he left behind to the public treasury.”

Ibn Zanjawayh(5) said: “As for Alī, at the beginning of Islam he was poor and supported by others, rather than supporting anyone himself. He then came to possess wealth: residential properties, farms, date-palm groves, and endowments. When he was martyred, he had nineteen concubines and four wives. All of this was permissible—and to Allah belongs