Seadet-i Ebediyye - Endless Bliss Second Fascicle

“Since hadrat Alî holds Hadrat Abû Bakr and Hadrat ’Umar
‘radiy-Allâhu ’anhumâ’ superior to himself, I hold them superior,
too. For, if I did not hold them superior I would have disagreed
with Hadrat Alî ‘radiy-Allâhu ’anh’, though I love him very much;
and that would be a grave sin for me.”
[A Jew named Murtadâ writes false stories in his book entitled
Husniyya, and says that those three Khalîfas are disbelievers. He
has been given beautiful answers in my books entitled Documents
of the Right Word and Sahâba ‘the Blessed’. The true Alawîs who
have been following Hadrat Alî have never been heard to utter
such ugly and base words.] We have extracted what we have
written about Hadrat Abû Bakr and Hadrat ’Umar ‘radiy-Allâhu
’anhumâ’ from the book Sawâiq-ul-mukhriqa, by the great savant
Ibnu Hajar-i Haytamî ‘rahmatullâhi ’alaih’.
As for the fact that Imâm-i ’Uthmân ‘radiy-Allâhu ’anh’ is
higher than Imâm-i Alî; most of the savants of Ahl as-sunnat said:
“After the Shaikhayn, [that is, after Abû Bakr and ’Umar,] the
highest Muslim is ’Uthmân. After him the highest is Alî ‘radiy-
Allâhu ’anh’.” So did the imâms of the four Madhhabs say.
Though al-imâm-i Mâlik is said to have doubted about the
superiority of Hadrat ’Uthmân ‘radiy-Allâhu ’anh’, Qâdî Iyâd, the
author of the book Shifâ, says that later he said that hadrat
’Uthmân is higher. Also, Imâm-i Qurtubî says: “Inshâ-Allah, this
is the truth of the matter.” Some (savants) say that it is inferrable
by his statement, “The sign of being Sunnî is to believe the
superiority of the Shaikhayn and to love the two sons-in-law,”
that al-imâm-ul-a’zam Abû Hanîfa does not hold any of the two
sons-in-law ‘radiy-Allâhu ’anhumâ’ superior to the other; but, to
the understanding of this faqîr, there were other reasons why the
imâm said so. That is, seeing the discord, the frustration in the
hearts because of the chaos and faction that had begun during the
caliphates of the two sons-in-law ‘radiy-Allâhu ’anhumâ’, the
imâm deemed the phrase “loving the two sons-in-law” pertinent,
and said that loving them is the sign of being Sunnî. Could alimâm-ul-a’zam
Abû Hanîfa be said to have had doubts on the
superiority of Hadrat ’Uthmân ‘radiy-Allâhu ’anh’, while the
books of the savants of the Hanafî Madhhab teem with
statements like “Superiority is in accordance with the order of
caliphate”? In short, the superiority of the Shaikhayn is definite.
But, that Hadrat ’Uthmân ‘radiy-Allâhu ’anh’ is higher than
Hadrat Alî ‘radiy-Allâhu ’anh’ is not so definite. Yet we must
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