So would it be possible for a person to give up his support for a truth to which all his forefathers – who were most strong, most constant and true, and most illustrious – had been  bound, and through which they had won glory, and for which they had sacrificed their lives, a truth the person clearly felt to be so fundamental and natural? Thus, due to this  intense  partiality and natural submission, the Prophet’s (UWBP) family accepted the least hint  in favour of the religion of Islam as though it were a powerful proof. For they were  partial by nature. Others become partial only after some powerful proof.

FOURTH POINT

In connection with the Third Point, we shall indicate briefly a matter that has been disputed by the Shi‘ites and the Sunnis and has been magnified to such an extent that it has been included in the books on doctrine, among the fundamentals of belief.16

The Sunnis say: “‘Ali (May God be pleased with him) was the fourth of the Rightly-Guided Caliphs. Abu Bakr the Veracious (May God be pleased with him) was superior to him and was more deserving of the Caliphate, therefore it passed to him first.”17 While the Shi‘ites say: “It was ‘Ali’s right. An injustice was done to him. ‘Ali was the  most worthy of them all.” A summary of the arguments for their claims is

this. They say: “The Hadiths of the Prophet (UWBP) about ‘Ali,18 and with his title of King of Sainthood his being the recognized authority of the vast majority of the saints and  spiritual paths, and his extraordinary knowledge, courage, and worship, and the Prophet’s (Upon whom be blessings and peace) intense concern for him and towards his descendants all show that he was the most worthy. The Caliphate was always his right; it was seized from him.”

The Answer: The fact that ‘Ali (May God be pleased with him) followed the first three Caliphs, whom he repeatedly acknowledged,19 and held the position of their Shaikh al-Islam,  refutes these claims of the Shi‘ites. Furthermore, the victories of Islam and the struggles against its enemies in the time of the first three Caliphs and the events in ‘Ali’s time, refute the Shi‘ites’ claims, again from the point of view of the Islamic Caliphate. That is to say the Sunnis’ claim is rightful.

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16 See, al-Taftazani, Sharh al-’Aqa’id (Turk. tr. Süleyman Uludağ), 321.

17 See, Ahmad b. Hanbal, al-‘Aqida, i, 123; Ibn Abi ‘Izz, Sharh ‘Aqida al-Tahawiyya, i, 545, 548.

18 Tirmidhi, Manaqib, 19; Ibn Maja, Muqaddima, 11; Musnad, i, 84, 118; iv, 281.

19 See, Bukhari, Fada’il Ashab, 5; Abu Da’ud, Sunna, 7; Musnad, i, 106.