and peace from Allah be upon him—and Abū Bakr, with ‘Umar as their third; but ‘Umar was not privy to their entire secret. This resembled the missionary movement of the esoteric Ismā‘īlīs and the Qarmatians: thus (1), whoever was closer to their imam [was] (2) more knowledgeable about the movement’s hidden teachings and more diligent in concealing them than others.”

For this reason, they arranged them in ranks. These hypocritical heretics knew that Abū Bakr’s loyalty and closeness to the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—surpassed those of anyone else. They therefore portrayed him as someone privy to the hidden nature of his undertaking, who concealed it from others and helped him achieve his purpose, unlike anyone else.

Whoever claims that Abū Bakr was inwardly his enemy (3) is among the greatest fabricators on earth. Furthermore, if someone making this claim were confronted with a similar claim about ‘Alī, and it were said [to him]—“to him” is an addition in (م)—: “He was inwardly hostile to the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—and during the rule of the three caliphs he was unable to undermine the Prophet’s religion. When the leading Companions had passed away and he remained, he then sought to undermine the Prophet’s religion and destroy his community. That was why he killed a great many Muslims; he intended to destroy the rest, but was unable to do so. It was for this reason that hypocritical heretics who hated the Messenger, such as the Qarmatians, the Ismā‘īlīs and the Nusayrīs, claimed affiliation with him. Thus, every enemy of Islam seeks assistance in that endeavour by professing allegiance to ‘Alī—assistance he could not obtain by professing allegiance to Abū Bakr and ‘Umar.”