Thus We appointed you a midmost community.... Surely God is clement, ever-merciful toward the people. It is the wise Lord, the knowing King, whose power and existence-giving bring forth beings. The newly arrived things exist through His exaltedness and His making them manifest, and the earth and the heavens stand forth through His keeping. He created the newly arrived things and chose from among them the animals. From among the animals He chose the Adamites, from the Adamites He chose the faithful, from the faithful He chose the prophets, and from the prophets He chose MuḤammad. He chose his community above the previous communities. This is why MuṣṬafā said, “I was brought forth from the best generation of the children of Adam, generation after generation, until I came to be in the generation in which I am.” He also said, “Surely God chose my companions above all the world's folk save the prophets and the envoys. He chose four of my companions and made them the best of my companions-and in all of my companions there is good-Abū Bakr, ʿUmar, ʿUthmān, and ʿAlī. He chose my community over the other com- munities, so He sent me forth in the best generation. Then there will be the second and third in succession, then the fourth, one after another.” What is understood from this report is that MuṣṬafā is the best of the Adamites, the chosen from among the world's folk, the leader of the creatures, the adornment of the world, the weighty one of the time, the lamp of the earth, the full moon of heaven, the shelter of the disobedient, the interceder for the sinners, the master of all the messengers and their seal. After MuṣṬafā the best of all creatures is Abū Bakr the sincerely truthful. The Lord of the Worlds placed the cushion of his imamate on the throne of MuṣṬafā's Shariah, turned the lodging place of his servanthood into self-purification and truthfulness, and made trust and certainty the keeper of the rank of his friendship. After him the best of creatures is ʿUmar KhaṬṬāb. The Lord of the Worlds placed the reins of lowering and raising the legal rulings in the hand of his sufficiency and pulled the robe of his rulership over the forehead of the creed. With his harshness and awesomeness the smoke of as- sociationism was subdued by its own misfortune.
