leading the prayer for several days beforehand. All this is established in the Sahīh, so clearly that it is as though you were seeing it yourself.

Anas’s hadith states that he signalled to Abū Bakr to step forward and lead them in this final prayer, which was the last prayer the Muslims performed during the lifetime of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. Here he addressed him directly by signalling to him, either during the prayer or before it.

At the outset, he had sent messengers to him, who conveyed the instruction. It was not ‘Ā’isha who conveyed his command, nor did she tell her father that he had instructed him to do so, as these fabricating Rāfidīs claim.

Thus, these liars’ assertion that, when Bilāl gave the call to prayer, ‘Ā’isha instructed him to put Abū Bakr forward is an obvious lie. ‘Ā’isha did not instruct him to put Abū Bakr forward, nor did she instruct him to do anything. Bilāl did not receive that instruction from her; rather, he was the one who notified the Prophet that it was time for prayer. The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said to everyone present—to Bilāl and the others:

“Tell Abū Bakr to lead the people in prayer.”

He did not address ‘Ā’isha alone, nor did Bilāl hear this from her.

As for his statement:

“When he regained consciousness, he heard the takbīr (proclamation of Allah’s greatness) and asked, ‘Who is leading the people in prayer?’ They replied, ‘Abū Bakr.’ He said, ‘Take me out.’”

This is a manifest lie. For it is established by widely transmitted texts (1), whose authenticity the scholars of hadith unanimously accept, that Abū Bakr led them in prayer for several days before the Prophet came out, just as he led them for several days after he came out, and that no one else led them in prayer during his illness.

It is then said in response: It is known through recurrent transmission that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, was ill