Firstly: The Mysterious and Sudden Death of Abou Bakr:

1- All accounts concerning the death of Abou Bakr assert that he died by poison, and during his dying short days when Abou Bakr was attended and served by Othman, Omar used to be the imam in the congregational prayers instead of Abou Bakr, as a sign that he will be his successor. An unauthenticated account asserts that Abou Bakr died of fever he contracted from taking a bath in biting-cold weather, but we tend to disregard such claim.

2- We give here examples of such accounts. Ibn Saad: (…Abou Bakr received a plate of porridge as a gift to be eaten for supper, and he ate from it with his friend Al-Hareth who, while eating together, sensed that the food was poisoned, and quickly ordered Abou Bakr to stop eating. When both went ill, Al-Hareth told him that it was their fate to die in one day…). (…it was rumored that Abou Bakr was ill for about 15 days after eating a poisoned plate of rice or porridge, prepared by some Jewish people, and Al-Hareth his friend ate with him and died as well…). Ibn Al-Atheer: (… Abou Bakr and Al-Hareth his friend died on the same day, days after eating supper together that was a poisoned plate of porridge, prepared by some Jewry, and it was rumored by some that he suffered fever for 15 days as he took a bath in a cold day, and that fever prevented him to be imam in the congregational prayers, until his death, and Othman remained with him to serve him until he breathed his last…).

Secondly: The Assassination of Abou Bakr by Poisoning:

1- We tend NOT to believe that Abou Bakr died of fever because he took a bath in a cold day; rather, this fever was because of his being poisoned. This is asserted by his burial at night secretly and quickly without ceremony and funerary procedures. He was buried in silence that was suspicious; Omar ordered women in the city among Abou Bakr relatives not to cry and scream to lament his death. If Abou Bakr had died naturally, why such exceptions were made? He died suddenly within political unrest and turmoil; and this asserts that he was in fact assassinated for political reasons, and he did not die a natural death.

2- We tend to believe that Abou Bakr was poisoned, as narratives might be truthful while containing some lies; there were no Jews in Mecca and Yathreb at the time. No one was tracked down and punished for giving a ''gift'' of poisoned food to Abou Bakr, and we know for sure that Abou Bakr, in his efforts to defeat renegades in wars and to orchestrate Arab military forces to conquer other nations, was brimming with health, energy, and strength as well as ambition; h died suddenly indeed. The mention of Al-Hareth in such narratives is of course, a lie; other accounts mentioned that Al-Hareth, who was a medical doctor, died during the caliphate of Mu'aweiya, and was the personal doctor of this very first Umayyad caliph. It is written in history of medical doctors of the time that Mu'aweiya once asked Al-Hareth, his personal doctor, about the secret behind good health and treatment, and Al-Hareth told him that hunger is the remedy for most ailments of the human body. This means he did not die at the same time with Abou Bakr. 

Thirdly: Omar Was the Murderer of Abou Bakr:

1- We conclude that Omar was the one to assassinate Abou Bakr with poison, as he controlled Abou Bakr totally during his short caliphate; moreover, Omar was the primary beneficiary of his death to succeed him as caliph. Those who helped Omar to receive written order of succession from the dying fevered caliph, Abou Bakr, were Talha, Othman, and Abdel-Rahman Ibn Awf, who were present at the deathbed and the moment of dying of Abou Bakr and urged him to do so, and they witnessed his burial and people swearing fealty to Omar after him, such historical figures participated in several plots and intrigues later on, as we will mention this in this book in a coming chapter.

2- Abou Bakr died suddenly, despite his excellent health and energy as well as activities and ambitions, after his caliphate lasted for nearly 27 months, and he was survived by his senile father Abou Qohafa. Abou Bakr was assassinated suddenly during his following up of activities like conquering Iraq and the Levant, feeling proud of Khaled Ibn Al-Waleed and his military victories. He used to send many letters containing decrees and orders to all military leaders and governors. Abou Bakr died in a critical moment: during the Battle of Yarmouk and a threatening conflict between him and Omar. Omar begged him many times to dismiss Khaled from leading the Arab armies and troops, while Abou Bakr refused adamantly, despite the fact that Abou Bakr used before that to obey Omar blindly. The dismissal of Khaled was a matter of life and death to Abou Sufyan, and he urged Omar, in our opinion, to get rid of Abou Bakr as soon as possible. The very first order or decree of Omar as a caliph was to dismiss Khaled, to humiliate him, and to confiscate his wealth and possessions as he done with those belonged to Abou Bakr, especially the Treasury of the caliphate, as Abou Bakr used to control it alone without interference from Omar. 

Fourthly: Omar Speedily Buried Abou Bakr at Night with No Funeral:

1- Because it was a plot of assassination, Omar buried the victim at night, without waiting for the next morning to prepare a funeral fit for a dead ruler which would have been attended by hundreds of men and women. Omar prevented women from crying and lamenting for him loudly. All historical accounts and narratives agree that Abou Bakr was buried at night in silence. We quote some of such historical narratives below.

2- About Burying Abou Bakr with no funeral, Ibn Saad writes: (… Different groups of narrators confirmed that Abou Bakr was buried at night in silence before the morning would rise and before everyone knew about his death…).

3- It was strange at the time to bury anyone at night in normal conditions, let alone the caliph of all Muslims. The astonishment of such night burial is shown in this quotation from the book of Ibn Saad: (…A man asked an imam about whether a dead person could be buried at night or not, and he was answered that it was permissible, as Abou Bakr was buried at night…).

4- It is certain that Omar was the one who buried Abou Bakr at night: (…Different groups of narrators confirmed that Abou Bakr was buried by Omar Ibn Al-Khattab at night in silence…).

5- It is certain that Omar performed funerary prayers service over the dead corpse of Abou Bakr in the Mosque of Prophet Muhammad in Yathreb, as Ibn Al-Atheer writes this in his history book titled ''Al-Kamel''.

6- It is certain that Omar was the one who descended the corpse of the dead caliph Abou Bakr into the grave himself; Ibn Saad writes: (…A series of narrators assert that the son of Omar, as an eye-witness said that Omar himself was the one who descended the corpse of the dead caliph Abou Bakr into the grave, with help from Othman, Talha, and Abdel-Rahman, the son of Abou Bakr…). The same narrative or historical account is repeated in the same manner in the book of history titled "Al-Kamel" by the historian Ibn Al-Atheer.

7- To make his burial occur in silence without drawing the attention of the people of Yathreb by disturbing their sleep at night, Omar ordered Aisha, the daughter of Abou Bakr and wife of Prophet Muhammad, not to scream and lament over his death, and he threatened her with severe beatings by him if she violated his orders! Ibn Saad the historian writes: (…A series of narrators confirm that when Abou Bakr died, Aisha and the women within the household of Abou Bakr started to lament loudly in grief, but Omar ordered them sternly to keep silent, and when they refused to obey Omar's orders, Omar threatened Aisha to beat her severely if she would not stop and make the other women stop, and all of the women stopped in fear of an angry Omar…). Ibn Al-Atheer mentions the same quote in his book ''Al-Kamel''. Another quote is as follows: (…Aisha was rumored to have said that when her father, Abou Bakr, died between sunset and deep night, women of his household started lamenting and crying loudly while the corpse was being washed and wrapped with white cloth, and Omar ordered them to keep silent and scattered them from one another…).

Fifthly: Omar Speedily Confiscated Treasury of Abou Bakr:

1- In an earlier article of ours, that was confined only to Abou Bakr, some false historical narratives and accounts have deceived us for sometimes, leading us to think that Abou Bakr was honest within financial dealings and deserved thus to be praised by us, and we criticized Mubarak, a previous president of Egypt (1981-2011), by comparing his thefts to the assumed honesty of Abou Bakr. This article was published in mid-1990s in the Egyptian opposition newspaper (Al-Dostour). Later on, we have been undeceived about this matter when we were preparing a series of research articles about preaching and sermonizing to sultans and rulers, and we have discovered that, to our surprise, that some preachers used to make up and fabricate stories to sing the praises of Abou Bakr and Omar due to their supposed 'just and fair' rule during their caliphates, in order to criticized indirectly the sultans and caliphs if their age and to sanctify Abou Bakr and Omar as saints or 'holy' men. We ourselves were deceived for some years by such narratives and accounts and used them to criticize Mubarak and others under him who used to rob and oppress Egyptians. We admit here that we have been mistaken to believe such narratives about Abou Bakr and the rest, and we have been undeceived solely by rereading meticulously all narratives about them to compare them with one another to verify the authenticity and veracity of each narrative.

2- After months of verifying narratives, we found out the following results that we briefly mention here: Abou Bakr and the rest of the so-called companions of the Arab conquests were surprised by the huge wealth that fell into their hands after looting conquered countries, especially Iraqi cities. One-fifth of the looted wealth was sent to Abou Bakr in Yathreb. Such amounts of precious possessions and money stirred the heads of all Arabs in general, as this was unprecedented. Hence, Abou Bakr who used to obey Omar blindly gave himself the right to distribute such sums without seeking Omar's advice and consultation, and taking a large part to himself. Khaled Ibn Al-Waleed was an issue to quarrel and argue about between Abou Bakr who wanted to keep him on one hand and Omar and Abou Sufyan who wanted his dismissal from heading the troops on the other hand.  Most spoils came to Yathreb because of the military victories achieved by Khaled, and conquered nations paid him huge tributes as they feared him. Abou Sufyan and Omar demanded his dismissal from heading the army and troops because his ambitions and victories as well as ever-rising popularity among tribesmen threatened to thwart the plans and plots of Abou Sufyan. Hence, the power and strength of Khaled posed a threat to Abou Sufyan and Omar, especially that Abou Bakr began to be fed up with the hegemony and control of Abou Sufyan and Omar over him; with such treasures, Abou Bakr thought that it was high time to liberate himself from the control of both Abou Sufyan and Omar using the influence and power of Khaled. Thus, Abou Bakr thought that be making a pact with Khaled and with such unimaginable huge wealth, he could stop the control of both Abou Sufyan and Omar over caliphate affairs. That was why Abou Bakr adamantly refused both men's request to dismiss Khaled; of course, Abou Bakr was right in such a stance: why on earth dismiss an excellent victorious military leader? At that time, Khaled was in the midst of a decisive battle: the Battle of Yarmouk. Thus, because of the dominant motto "anything for money", all endeavors and steps and maneuvers were accessible and available by evil men: Omar readily poisoned Abou Bakr to get rid of him. Once Omar was made caliph, the very first decree/order he made was to dismiss Khaled to obey Abou Sufyan and to keep the threat of Khaled at bay. The second thing readily done by Omar was to confiscate all money in the Treasury, and he claimed to the rest of Yathreb dwellers that the caliphate Treasury was found empty, as Abou Bakr distribute all to the poor and to the military endeavors! Omar wept for Abou Bakr before the gathered men, claiming that honesty of Abou Bakr was an example that would put to shame all caliphs after him when they would be compared to him! Omar was such an inveterate liar!

3- Countless false narratives and fabricated, made-up accounts sing the praises of Abou Bakr; we quote some of them briefly here from various sources and references: Ibrahim Al-Nakhey who lived in the times of Al-Hajaj the Umayyad terrible vizier and who never saw Abou Bakr writes this lie: (…Abou Bakr was named 'the clement one' because of his mercy and charitable nature…). Another narrative written by Ibn Saad and ascribed to an unknown man from the city of Basra, Iraq, assumes that Muhammad was rumored to have said that both Abou Bakr and Omar are the masters of the sheikhs of Eternal Paradise, when Abou Bakr and Omar were made friends to each other by Muhammad! This narrative is false for many reasons: 1) Basra was not yet established at the time when Abou Bakr conquered Iraq, 2) no one at the time would believe a narrative of an unknown man, and 3) as per the Quran, this narrative is false; Muhammad never knew the future and has been ordered by God to declare this fact: "Say, "I am not different from the other messengers; and I do not know what will be done with me, or with you. I only follow what is inspired in me, and I am only a clear warner."" (46:9). Yet, the falsehood of Abou Bakr and Omar as masters of sheikhs of Paradise is repeated in countless Sunnite books, tomes, and volumes of hadiths and history!

4- Ibn Saad mentions in his book of history contradictory accounts concerning the wealth and possessions of Abou Bakr that were left by him to his inheritors. A narrative purportedly ascribed to Aisha is that Abou Bakr never left a dirham or a dinar to his household to inherit. Another narrative ascribed to a series of narrators ending in Abou Qohafa, the father of Abou Bakr, asserts that this father inherited the sixth of his dead son's wealth, and other shares were given to Abou Bakr's sons and daughters and wives.

5- In addition, there are historical made-up accounts and fabricated narratives that aim to defend the assumed honesty of Abou Bakr in terms of financial dealings; among them was the claim that when he was dying, he ordered all his money to be given to the caliph who would succeed him (i.e., Omar) who wept as he received such money and said to others around him that felt the enormity of his responsibility as the new caliph!: (… a series of narrators ending in Aisha claim that she said that when her father, Abou Bakr, was dying of fever, he ordered his men to give all his money within the treasury to Omar who will succeed him, and when her grandfather carried all money to Omar, the latter wept as he received such money and said to others around him that felt the enormity of his responsibility as the new caliph of Muslims…). Another account shows that Abou Bakr, upon dying, gave one-fifth of his wealth to his family and ordered the rest to be given to charity and alms to the poor, and Aisha saw him suffering the throes of dying and she recited a verse of poetry about the futility of wealth to the dying souls, and he felt angry with her, and she recited a Quranic verse, and shortly before his death, he ordered her to return an orchard he gave her to the Treasury of caliphate: this was an implied confession that this orchard was not really his, but was part of ill-gotten wealth. This last account ascribed to Aisha is a falsehood of course; it shows her as accusing her dying father of being a thief whose ill-gotten money would be of no avail to him.  The narrative goes on by Abou Bakr praising himself to be able to get rid of ill-gotten money before his death; and this is contradictory, as he used to eat and wear and live in luxury with such money gathered by force from conquered nations in the Levant and Iraq. Why on earth would he order Aisha to return all money to the Treasury to be confiscated by Omar?! This account contradicts with another that asserts that Yathreb dwellers forbade Abou Bakr to engage in trade, and to take only a monthly salary agreed upon by them, and he later asked them to raise the salary to face high prices of goods and they agreed. Eventually, when Omar wept at the end of this strange narrative, Adel-Rahman Ibn Awf told him to return some of the money to the penniless household of Abou Bakr, if he really felt sorry for their being impecunious, but Omar adamantly refused this and said this would happen upon his dead body!

6- This coming account is the only one, in our opinion, that goes with the logical sequence of events, despite some illogical details in it that we will pinpoint to it. Ibn Saad mentions beforehand that some details narrated by the series of narrators of this account seemed contradictory: (…Abou Bakr the caliph used to lock the Treasury of the caliphate with a huge lock unguarded by any man, claiming he feared no one who might have thought of stealing it…). Hence, we discern that Abou Bakr kept the key of this lock about him; no one knew the expenditure and the incoming money into the Treasury of the caliphate except the caliph! (…Abou Bakr used to empty the Treasury regularly by distributing its money to the poor…): this contradicts the previous quotation: how the narrator knew of this since Abou Bakr was the only one to keep the key?! It is more logical that the caliph never wanted anyone to know anything about the Treasury of the caliphate. (…Abou Bakr made the Treasury of the caliphate to be located in a wing of his new house…). This means that he kept the money for himself, and we can imagine the huge amount of war spoils that came to him from Arab conquests. (…even charity money of zakat and alms used to be collected to the treasury from all tribesmen, and Abou Bakr alone undertook the mission to distribute them among the poor and to buy military victuals, horses, etc.…). We conclude here that Omar was kept at bay; he knew nothing of the Treasury at that point, and that was why Omar confiscated the Treasury once Abou Bakr died. Another contradictory account says the following: (…Once the corpse of Abou Bakr was buried, Omar went along with Othman and Abdel-Rahman Ibn Awf, among others into the Treasury room, finding nothing at all; no dirhams and no dinars, and they wondered about this…). We see here that none of them, who plotted the assassination of Abou Bakr, believed that the Treasury to be empty; the huge wealth was somewhere else. They sought the man who used to weigh and balance the silver and gold of the Treasury, who asserted that it contained more than 200.000 pieces!  We notice here that such contradictory accounts never mention the huge amount of spoils that came to Abou Bakr from the battles of Khaled and conquering Iraq and the Levant, which was one of the reasons that Omar and Abou Sufyan insisted on dismissing Khaled; they had none of the shares of the spoils and Khaled grew too powerful. When Abou Bakr refused to dismiss Khaled from his post as the leader of the troops, Omar had to kill Abou Bakr to take his place as caliph. More details about Khaled, Omar, Abou Bakr, and Abou Sufyan within the coming chapters, so please read on.