AbdAllah ibn Sabá narrates that people asked Mawla Ali: 'appoint a khalifah for us.' He replied: 'no. I won't appoint anyone. Rather I will leave it as RasulAllah ﷺ left it.' [Musnad Ahmad, 1:309, Kanz al-'Ummal, 11:328, Fatawa Ridawiyyah, 11:142] Hazrat Sása'ah bin Sawhan relates that when Mawla Ali was near his demise, after he was attacked by ibn Muljam, he gave a sermon. We asked: 'O commander of the faithful! Appoint a khalifah upon us.' Mawla Ali replied: 'I shall leave you as RasulAllah ﷺ left us. We too asked RasulAllah ﷺ the same that appoint a khalifah for us but RasulAllah ﷺ said: 'no. If Allah ta'ala Wills goodness for you then He will make him your leader who is the best amongst you. Mawla Ali said: 'Allah ta'ala did Will good for us and made Abu Bakr our leader.' [Mustadrak Hakim, 3:106] Imam Hasan Basri relates that two men came to Mawla Ali in during his khilafah and asked about khilafah: 'is this an order of RasulAllah ﷺ or your opinion?' Mawla Ali replied: 'it is my opinion.' As for RasulAllah ﷺ making an order about me, then this is untrue. If I was the first to believe in RasulAllah ﷺ then I won't be the first to invent a lie about him. If I did have an order from RasulAllah ﷺ about khilafah, then I wouldn't have let Abu Bakr and Umar ascend the pulpit and I have would waged war against them even if I had no helper besides this cloak I'm wearing. The thing is, RasulAllah ﷺ was neither martyred nor did he demise suddenly. Rather, he was ill for many days. The mu'addhin would come and call the adhan and RasulAllah ﷺ would order Abu Bakr to lead the prayer even though I was present before the prophet. Then the mu'addhin would come and inform again and again, RasulAllah ﷺ would only order Abu Bakr to lead the prayer even though I was not absent. And by Allah! One of the blessed wives wished to defer this from Abu Bakr but RasulAllah ﷺ became angry and didn't pay heed to her and ordered: 'You too are like the women of Yusuf. Order Abu Bakr to lead the prayer!' So when RasulAllah ﷺ passed away, we pondered over our worldly matters and we chose him for khilafah in our worldly affairs whom RasulAllah ﷺ had chosen for our religious affairs, meaning salah. Because salah is the essence of Islam and what upholds it. Hence, we pledged allegiance to Abu Bakr and he was worthy of it. Not one of us disagreed about it. After saying all this, Mawla Ali said: 'So I only gave Abu Bakr his right and considered obedience to him binding. And I joined him and fought in his armies. When he would give me from the treasury, I would accept. When he would send me for war, I would go. Then Mawla Ali repeated the very same words about Umar and Uthman. [Tarikh Dimashq ibn Asakir, Sawayiq al-Muhriqah ibn Hajar, Fatawa Ridawiyyah, 11:143] رضي الله عنهم
