Ponder This Hadith

The Prophet ﷺ here deliberately lists the premier Companions with respect to what they have been most favored for by Allah — not just in that generation, but for the entire Muslim Ummah until the Day of Judgment. This was not done simply to praise or flatter them. Rather, this is an important doctrinal point for Muslims: we are to accept that these individuals have been favored in these characteristics over all others in the Ummah, and that they are the ones we should look up to and follow in their respective fields.

According to the Ismaili and Shia view of the first Muslims (the Sahabah) in general, these individuals are considered evil and should not be looked up to — because they are seen to have “usurped” or “stolen” the right of leadership from Ali. But as you can see here, that simply cannot be the case. How could “the strictest of them in the commands of Allah” and “the most sincerely conscientious of them” go against such a supposedly critical command of the Prophet ﷺ — if that were indeed the case?

Secondly, this hadith also negates the concept of Imamat entirely. The doctrine of Imamat requires that Ali would have been the most knowledgeable, the strictest in the commands of Allah, the most conscientious, and the trustee of the Ummah — all in one. Yet the Prophet ﷺ distributed these titles among various Companions, none of whom was Ali. This is not a slight against Ali (رضي الله عنه) — he has his own immense virtues — but it decisively dismantles the claim that one man held supreme authority over the Ummah in every capacity after the Prophet ﷺ.