Those who pledged allegiance to him were the least attached of all people to worldly life (1), and they were the very ones whom Allah praised. Elite and common people alike knew of the asceticism of Umar, Abū Ubayda, and others like them, as well as the Ansar’s expenditure of their wealth—men such as Usayd (2) ibn Hudayr, Abū Talha, [Abū Ayyūb], and others like them (3).

At the time of the Prophet’s death—peace and blessings be upon him—there was no public treasury from which they could be given its contents, nor was there any register of stipends in which allocations had been assigned to them. The Ansar (4) remained in possession of their estates, and likewise the Emigrants (5): whatever any one of them possessed from spoils or any other source remained his.

Abū Bakr’s policy in distributing wealth (6) was to allot it equally, and Ali followed the same policy [may Allah be pleased with him] (7). Had they pledged allegiance to Ali, he would have given them the same as Abū Bakr gave them, even though his tribe was the noblest of tribes. Moreover, members of Banū Abd Manāf—who (8) were the noblest of Quraysh, the closest of the Arabs—including at that time members of Banū Umayya [and others] (9), such as Abū Sufyān ibn Harb [and others] (10), and members of Banū Hāshim, such as al-Abbās and others, were on his side.