fighting for the religion? Abū Bakr, meanwhile, fights those who have apostatized from Islam and those who have abandoned what Allah has prescribed, solely to secure obedience to Allah and His Messenger; yet this is not regarded as fighting (1) for the religion?

As for the leading Companions whom this Rāfidī listed as having withheld their allegiance from al-Siddīq, this is a false accusation against them, except in the case of Saʿd ibn ʿUbādah. Their pledges of allegiance to Abū Bakr and Umar are too well known to be denied. Scholars of hadith, biographies, and transmitted reports, as well as scholars of every other field, have agreed upon this, generation after generation.

Usāmah ibn Zayd did not set out on the military expedition until he had pledged allegiance to him. That is why he addressed him as “O successor to the Messenger of Allah!”

Likewise, everyone he mentioned pledged allegiance to him. Khālid ibn Saʿīd, however, had been a deputy of the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace. When the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—died, he said, “I will not serve as anyone else’s deputy,” and relinquished his office. Nevertheless, he acknowledged the caliphate of al-Siddīq. It is established through mass transmission that no one withheld his pledge of allegiance to him except Saʿd ibn ʿUbādah.

As for Ali and the Banū Hāshim, everyone agrees that they all pledged allegiance to him. None of them died without having pledged allegiance to him.

It has, however, been said that [Ali] (2) did not pledge allegiance until six months later; others say that he pledged allegiance on the second day. In any event, they pledged allegiance to him without coercion.