Abu Bakr is calling you.
Abu Bakr then asked Qunfuz to go and tell Hazrat Ali (a.s.) that Abu Bakr is calling you.
Hazrat Ali (a.s.) on hearing the message of Qunfuz returned him saying that, “I am busy in the work which my friend, my brother entrusted me with. You go back to Abu Bakr and to the one who has collected oppression around him.”[1]
In another tradition it is narrated that Abu Bakr told Qunfuz to go back and say that people have paid allegiance to me. The Mohajir, Ansar and the Quraysh have done bay’at. You are a Muslim and those responsibilities, which are for all Muslims are also for you. Qunfuz took this message but returned in a short time and reported that Hazrat Ali (a.s.) has said that the Holy Prophet (s.a.w.) instructed me that after his shrouding, I should not come out of the house till the time I have collected the Quran. This was because at that time the Quran was on the date-skins and on the back of the camels.[2]
When Hazrat Ali (a.s.) sent the message that, “I have taken a promise that I will not step out of my house, except for namaz till the time I collect the Quran” the people remained silent for a few days. When Hazrat Ali (a.s.) completed the Quran on cloth and put his (a.s.) seal on it, he brought it to the congregation of people in the Masjid of the Holy Prophet (s.a.w.). He (a.s.) announced to them in a loud voice, “O people! Since the demise of the Holy Prophet (s.a.w.) till this day, I was busy in his shrouding and burial and in collecting the Quran. The Quran, which I have compiled, is in this cloth. There is no verse revealed by Allah to His Prophet (s.a.w.), except that I have collected it. There is no verse, which the Holy Prophet (s.a.w.) taught me its meaning or its interpretation, but it is in this Quran. I have completed this so that tomorrow you do not get an opportunity to say that we were unaware of it. On the day of Qiyamat, you should not get an opportunity to claim that I did not call you for my help, or remind you of the fulfillment of my rights over you, and that, I did not invite you to the first and the last from the Book of Allah.”
Umar rejected this by saying, “The Quran, which is with us, is better that what you are inviting us towards.” On hearing this, Hazrat Ali (a.s.) returned home.[3] Salim reports that for some days after this incident, the people maintained their silence.
