in Medina. Thus, if we compare the length of Abū Bakr’s remaining life with that of Alī; set Alī’s traversing(1) one land after another and the frequency with which people heard hadith from him against Abū Bakr’s remaining in his own locality and the fact that those around him had little need to transmit reports from him; and then compare the number of hadiths transmitted from each and their respective legal opinions, everyone possessing any measure of knowledge will know that Abū Bakr possessed many times as much knowledge as Alī.

The proof is that few reports were transmitted from any Companion who survived for only a short time, whereas many were transmitted from those who lived longer (except for a few)(2) who were content to have others deputize(3) for them in teaching the people. Alī lived for seventeen years less a few months(4) after Umar. The number of Umar’s hadiths with connected chains is five hundred and thirty-seven; approximately fifty of them are sound, precisely the same as for Alī(5). Accordingly, Alī had only forty-nine(6) more hadiths than Umar over this period(7), and his total of sound hadiths exceeded Umar’s by no more than one or two.

Umar’s legal opinions are on a par with Alī’s across the branches of jurisprudence. Thus, if we compare their respective spans of life, their travels through the lands, and one body of hadith with the other,