Caliphate legitimacy through kinship and companionship

190. Amīr al-mu’minīn, peace be upon him, said: How strange? Could the caliphate be through the (Prophet’s) companionship but not through (his) companionship and (his) kinship?

As-Sayyid ar-Raḍī says: Verses have also been related from Amīr al-mu’minīn on the same matter. They are:- If you claim to have secured authority by consultation, how did it happen when those to be consulted were absent!…