a cup of milk. I drank until I could see the effects of being fully quenched emerging through my fingernails. Then I gave what remained to Umar.”

They asked, “What did you interpret it to mean, O Messenger of Allah?”

He replied, “Knowledge” (1).

It is also narrated in al-Tirmidhī and other collections that he, peace and blessings be upon him, said:

“Had I not been sent among you, Umar would have been sent among you.”

Al-Tirmidhī’s wording is:

“Had there been a prophet after me, it would have been Umar.”

Al-Tirmidhī said, “It is a good hadith” (2).

Furthermore, the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, appointed al-Siddīq to lead the prayer in his stead—which is the pillar of Islam—and to preside over the pilgrimage rites before the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, himself performed Hajj. Abu Bakr proclaimed:

“After this year, no polytheist shall perform Hajj, and no naked person shall circumambulate the House.”

“The Prophet then sent Ali after him. Abu Bakr asked, ‘Are you a commander, or are you under orders?’ Ali replied, ‘Rather, I am under orders’” (3). Thus, the Prophet placed Abu Bakr in command over Ali. Ali was therefore among those (4) whom the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, commanded to hear and obey Abu Bakr.

This occurred after the expedition of Tabūk, during which the Prophet had left Ali in charge of Medina.

Abu Bakr’s written directive on zakat is the most authentic and the latest of such documents (5). Most jurists therefore followed it, whereas someone else’s document contains earlier material that had been abrogated. This shows that Abu Bakr had greater knowledge of the later Sunnah that abrogated earlier rulings.

It is narrated in the two Sahīh collections that Abu Saīd said, “Abu Bakr understood the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, better than any of us did” (6).