The reply: It was as though the personal perfections of Abu Bakr, the Supremely Veracious, and ‘Umar, the Supreme Distinguisher between True and False (May God be pleased with them), had been placed in the pan of some scales together with their achievements during their Caliphates, realized through their performance of the duties inherited from the Prophet (UWBP), and in the other pan had been placed

‘Ali’s (May God be pleased with him) extraordinary personal perfections together with the  internal Caliphate struggles, which resulted from the tragic events he was compelled to enter upon and were the object of suspicion and distrust, and the Sunnis saw that Abu Bakr’s or ‘Umar’s or ‘Uthman’s (Dhi’l-Nurayn) pan weighed heavier, and so they gave them precedence.

Moreover, as is proved in the Twelth and Twenty-Fourth Words, prophethood is

so elevated in comparison to sainthood that a tiny manifestation of it is superior to a large  manifestation of sainthood. In regard to this, the successes of the Supremely Veracious  and  the  Supreme  Distinguisher  between  True  and  False  during  their Caliphates  was  an   indication  for  the  Sunnis  that  their  share  in  the  legacy  of

prophethood30  and the establishment of its laws had been divinely bestowed. Since

‘Ali’s  personal  perfections  did  not  dismiss  that  greater  share,  which  had  been inherited  from the Prophet (UWBP), he acted as Shaikh al-Islam for Abu Bakr and

‘Umar, the two Illustrious Elders, in the time of their Caliphates, and esteemed them. How should the Sunnis, who love and revere ‘Ali, not love and revere the two Elders, whom ‘Ali loved and revered sincerely? Let us make this truth clear be means of an example:

One of the sons of a very rich man is given twenty batmans31  of silver and four

batmans of gold from his father’s legacy, and another is given five of silver and five of gold. So if the third is given three of silver and five of gold, of course the last two will receive less in quantity, but more in quality. Like this example, the lesser amount of the two elders’ share  of the gold of the truth of divine immediacy, which was manifested in the legacy of  prophethood and the establishment of its laws, would weigh  heavier  than the  great  amount  of divine  proximity  and  the  perfections  of sainthood which sprang from the jewel of  sainthood. These points should also be taken into account when weighing them up.32  But if they are compared with one  another from the point of view of personal courage, knowledge, and sainthood, the matter takes on a different complexion.

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30 See, Bukhari, Fada’il Ashab, 6; Muslim, Fada’il al-Sahaba, 15-16; Tirmidhi, Ruya, 9.

31 Batman: a weight varying from 5-30 lbs. [Tr.]

32 See, Tirmidhi, Ruya, 10; Abu Da’ud, Sunna, 8; Musnad, v, 44, 50.