and exercised his independent judgment, which agreed with the text. Then, out of his diligence and scrupulousness, he wished that he had a text to assist him in exercising his judgment (1). This demonstrates the excellence of his knowledge, since his judgment agreed with the text, and his scrupulousness, since he feared that he might have contradicted it. How does any of this discredit him?

[Section: The Rāfidī’s eighth argument—Abū Bakr’s statement during his final illness, “I wish I had left Fātima’s house alone and not raided it”—and the response to it]

Section

The Rāfidī said (2):

“Eighth: His statement during his final illness: ‘I wish I had left the house (3) of Fātima alone and not raided it (4). I also wish that, in the shelter of Banū Sāʿida, I had pledged allegiance to one (5) of the two men, so that he would have been the ruler and I the minister (6).’ This indicates that he proceeded against the house (7) of Fātima when the Commander of the Faithful, al-Zubayr and others were gathered there” (8).

The response is:

No criticism can be accepted unless the wording is established through an authentic chain of transmission and is