And how (1) could it be otherwise, when it is established in an authentic report that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“No wealth has ever benefited me as much as the wealth of Abū Bakr.” (2)

He thus denied that any of the [wealth] (3) of the community benefited him as much as Abū Bakr’s wealth. How, then, could those riches (4), which were less beneficial, be included in the verse, while the wealth that benefited him most was not included in it?

The second consideration: If the most God-fearing is the one who gives his wealth [to purify himself] (5), and the most honored of creation is the most God-fearing, then this person is the best of all people. The two well-known views concerning this verse are the Sunni view that the best of creation is Abū Bakr, and the Shia view that it is Alī. It cannot, therefore, be that the most God-fearing person—the most honored of creation in Allah’s sight—is someone other than these two, while neither of them (6) is included among the most God-fearing.

Once it is established that one of them must be included among the most God-fearing, Abū Bakr must be included in the verse and have a stronger claim to inclusion than Alī, for several reasons.

The first is that Allah said:

“Who gives his wealth to purify himself” [Surah al-Layl: 18].

It is established through mass-transmitted reports in the collections of authentic hadith and elsewhere that Abū Bakr spent his wealth and surpassed all the Companions in this regard. This is also established in the hadith narrated by al-Bukhārī from Ibn Abbās, who said:

“The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, came out during the illness from which he died, with a cloth wrapped around his head. He sat on the pulpit and praised Allah