Did the Prophet point to Abu Bakr as his successor?

Ibn al-Mutahhar al-Hilli and Ibn Taymiyya disagree over the caliphate of Abu Bakr. Al-Hilli gives a chapter to refuting the caliphates of Abu Bakr, Umar and Uthman, while Ibn Taymiyya holds that the Prophet guided the community to Abu Bakr's caliphate and pointed them to it. ^{1 2}

In Ibn Taymiyya's quotation, al-Hilli attributes to the Sunnis the view that the Prophet designated no imam and died without a testament. On this account the imam after him was Abu Bakr, by Umar's pledge with the consent of four men (Abu Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah (may God be pleased with him), Salim the client of Abu Hudhayfa, Usayd ibn Hudayr (may God be pleased with him) and Bashir ibn Sa'd), and then Umar, by Abu Bakr's designation. ³ Al-Hilli holds that those who came before Ali were not imams. ⁴

Ibn Taymiyya says that the Prophet guided the community to the caliphate of al-Siddiq, pointed them to it and made clear that he was the most deserving of it. He cites the report in the two Sahihs from Jubayr ibn Mut'im: a woman asked the Prophet for something and he told her to come back. She asked, "What if I come and do not find you?", and he said, "If you do not find me, go to Abu Bakr." ² He says the Prophet knew that God and the believers would choose no one else. When the community, by its own knowledge, chooses the one it knows to be most deserving, this brings benefits that would not come otherwise. ²

He states that rulings are made clear sometimes by an explicit, emphatic text, sometimes by an explicit text alone, and sometimes by a text in which some people may find ambiguity. Clear conveyance, he says, does not require that no one ever find it unclear. ^{2 5}

He also argues from the Prophet putting Abu Bakr forward in prayer. This happened while he was well: he went to the Banu Amr ibn Awf at Quba to make peace among them, Abu Bakr led the people in the afternoon prayer, and when the Prophet arrived he signalled to him to stay, but Abu Bakr stepped back out of respect. It happened again in his last illness, when he said, "Tell Abu Bakr to lead the people in prayer." ^{5 6 7} He compares this with the Companions putting Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf forward for the dawn prayer on the Tabuk expedition when the Prophet was delayed. ⁶ See Abu Bakr leads the prayers.

Ibn Abi Asim's Kitab al-Sunna has a chapter "On the caliphate of Abu Bakr and what points to it", with al-Albani's grading of its chains. ⁸ The chapter opens with a report from Anas that the Prophet told him to give Abu Bakr the good news of Paradise and of the caliphate after him; al-Albani judges it fabricated, its weak point being the transmitter al-Safar ibn Abd al-Rahman, whom the critics called a liar. ⁸ Among the chapter's reports whose chains al-Albani accepts are the hadith of Jubayr ibn Mut'im about the woman to whom the Prophet said "If you do not find me, go to Abu Bakr" (chain good and sound), ⁹ and the hadith of Aisha that the Prophet said in his illness, "Shall I not send for the son of Abu Quhafa and his son, so that no one may covet this matter?" (sound). ^{10 11} Just before the chapter stands the hadith of Hudhayfa, "Follow the two after me", pointing to Abu Bakr and Umar, which al-Albani holds sound with its supporting reports. ¹²

Other Sunni views, which hold that Abu Bakr's caliphate rested on election alone or on an implicit text, have not yet been added. Nor have Imami texts from their own books or academic readings. See also who led the Muslims after the Prophet and the Saqifa.