Then everyone pledged allegiance to Umar except Saʿd. No one withheld allegiance to Umar except the Banū Hāshim, and no others.

As for the pledge of allegiance to Uthmān, everyone agreed upon it. Saʿd had died during Umar’s caliphate and therefore did not live to witness it. The reason for Saʿd’s refusal to pledge allegiance is known: he (1) sought to become a ruler, with one ruler appointed from the Emigrants and another from the Helpers. What Saʿd requested (2) was not permissible, according to the explicit statement of the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—and the consensus of the Muslims.

When the error of the lone dissenter from a consensus becomes clear, it establishes that the consensus was correct and that the individual whose error is demonstrated by an explicit scriptural text holds an aberrant position that carries no weight. This differs from someone who presents scriptural evidence from the Quran and Sunnah: such evidence makes his dissent permissible. He may be right, and others may come to accept his position.

Abū Bakr, for example, was right concerning the preparation of Usāmah’s army, fighting those who withheld zakat, and other matters; the correctness of his judgment became clear afterward.

What he related about Abū Quhāfah is unanimously acknowledged to be false. Abū Quhāfah was in Mecca, however, and was an elderly man who embraced Islam in the year of the conquest. Abū Bakr brought him to the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—with his hair and beard as white as the thaghāmah plant. The Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—said:

“Had you left the elderly man where he was, we would have gone to him.” (3)

This was out of respect for Abū Bakr. And there is no