Abdur Rahman ibn ‘Awf reported: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Abu Bakr is in Paradise. Umar is in Paradise. Uthman is in Paradise. Ali is in Paradise. Talhah is in Paradise. Al-Zubayr is in Paradise. Abdur Rahman ibn ‘Awf is in Paradise. Sa’d is in Paradise. Sa’id is in Paradise. Abu ‘Ubaydah ibn al-Jarrah is in Paradise.”
Note: In Arabic, “X is in Paradise” denotes a future outcome, not a current one.
Ponder This Hadith
If the Prophet ﷺ informed the Ummah that Abu Bakr, ʿUmar, ʿUthmān, and other Companions would be successful on the Day of Judgment, this necessarily affirms that Allah is pleased with their overall conduct. Ultimate success is not granted to those who knowingly betray a divine command.
Yet Ismaili theology holds that Abu Bakr, ʿUmar, and ʿUthmān deliberately disobeyed the Prophet ﷺ by rejecting ʿAlī’s divinely appointed Imamate and ruling in his place. If this were true, their actions would amount to conscious rebellion against prophetic authority—an act incompatible with salvation or elevated prophetic praise.
These claims cannot both be true. Either the Prophet ﷺ affirmed men whom Allah knew to be deliberate violators of divine authority, or the Ismaili/Shia view is unfounded.