The following two hadeeth are quoted in Bukhari, and are often used by shia to allege that the Companions (R) hid the fact that the Prophet (S) was going to appoint Ali.

Narrated Ibn 'Abbas:

When the time of the death of the Prophet approached while there were some men in the house, and among them was 'Umar bin Al-Khatttab, the Prophet said, "Come near let me write for you a writing after which you will never go astray." 'Umar said, "The Prophet is seriously ill, and you have the Quran, so Allah's Book is sufficient for us." The people in the house differed and disputed. Some of them said, "Come near so that Allah's Apostle may write for you a writing after which you will not go astray, "while some of them said what 'Umar said. When they made much noise and differed greatly before the Prophet, he said to them, "Go away and leave me." Ibn 'Abbas used to say, "It was a great disaster that their difference and noise prevented Allah's
Apostle from writing that writing for them.

Narrated Said bin Jubair:
that he heard Ibn 'Abbas saying, "Thursday! And you know not what Thursday is? After that Ibn 'Abbas wept till the stones on the ground were soaked with his tears. On that I asked Ibn 'Abbas, "What is (about) Thursday?" He said, "When the condition (i.e. health) of Allah's Apostle deteriorated, he said, 'Bring me a bone of scapula, so that I may write something for you after which you will never go astray.'The people differed in their opinions although it was improper to differ in front of a prophet, They said, 'What is wrong with him? Do you think he is delirious? Ask him (to understand). The Prophet replied, 'Leave me as I am in a better state than what you are asking me to do.' Then the Prophet ordered them to do three things saying, 'Turn out all the pagans from the Arabian Peninsula, show respect to all foreign delegates by giving them gifts as I used to do.' " The sub-narrator added, "The third order was something beneficial which either Ibn 'Abbas did not mention or he
mentioned but I forgot.'

Here we have two narrations that come from the books of Bukhari. Now`it is common among sunnis to accept everything that comes from Bukhari or Muslim as absolutely sound, even though this was not the precedent of the greatest Muslim scholars. It is well-worth to note that some of the greatest scholars have criticized narrations from amongst thes
books, among them Daraqtuni. The reason I have brought this out is to make people realize that one cannot make the Books of Bukhari and Muslim as infallible and this will be deomstrated very clearly through these hadeeth.

1. The Quran has given the Companions a very special place in the ummah. In fact, the Quran has spoken quite clealry that they are to be "witnesses unto mankind, and the Prophet was witness to them."
They serve as the 'middle nation' in which the truth is transmitted to the world. During the period of Riaalah, the truth becomes manifest to those that witness it. The good are separated from the false. Just as God destroyed the people of falsehood in the past, God had
destroyed the people of falsehood during the time of Muhammad (S). Whether God destroys the nations through a natural disaster such as in the case of Pharoah and His People, or the hands of the Messenger and
His Followers, the point becomes very clear: the truth is separated from the false. This is precsiely why the Battle of Badr was called the Day of FURQAN in the Quran. It was here that the 70 leaders of Quraysh were killed one by one, and the only one that was not was Abu Lahab. Even he did not escape, because upon hearing of the news that the Quraysh had lost at Badr, he contracted a disease which ended up killing him a few days later. Further, this disease was so bad that his sons refused to even touch his body to bury it.

2. In the case of Muhammad (S), God decided in His wisdom to destroy the nations through Muhammad and His Companions (R). "It was not you who threw, it was Me" and "We will punish them through your hands" are
clear evidence to this fact. What further needs mentioning is that the situation of the Prophet and His Companions was different from other nations of the past, because they migrated to Medina, a place
where hypocrites hid themselves under the guise of Islam. God, in order to prove the true from the false and separate the good from the ugly, and to further cleanse the good from their sins, put the Companions through a series of trials and tribulations from the Battle
of Badr to the Battle of Tabuk. One will find numerous illustrations of the Quran of this very basic fact. The reason for this is that because the Companions were tasked with delivering the message of Truth to mankind. That is why the Sahabah, when they went for jihad
in the various lands, they proclaimed their purpose to the Kings of each country and their God-given right to transmit the message.

3. The Consensus of Companions are as close to prophethood as one can get. Whatever they have said as a collectivity is religion is religion. It is noteworthy that in the prophecies of the Old Testament, God himself refers to His descent from Paran being accompanied by TEN THOUSAND SAINTS establishing his fiery law. The
Dead Sea Scrolls refers top the Battles of the sons of Light versus the Sons of Darkness, and despite the tampering of the scriptures of old, it becomes quite evident that the Prophet and His Companions are
the ones predicted that would topple the Mighty Godless Empires.

4. It is also noteworthy that the first loss the Muslims suffered in France, halting their progression into Europe, coincided in the same year as the death of the Last Companion (R). Because of this loss, the Muslims expansion was halted. Even though this period cannot be considered the reign of the Companions, which ended with the death of Muawiya (R), it is quite interesting.

5. As far as the ranking of the Sahabah, God himself has given them specific rank. That is why He says that among the Sahabah, the best are those who migrated and the first among the Ansar. After these, the Quran ranked those that followed as of a lesser rank but still
highly rewarded. What is further significant to note is that the Quran marks the believers as one who prays for forgiveness of those that precded them in faith. We know that the Sahabah committed mistakes, but we pray for their forgiveness and we very well know that
their good far outweighs their bad. It is further significant to note that this command took precdence even in public policy during the reigns of the 5 rightly guided khaleephs. Because of their services
to Islam, Sahabah themselves were given portions out of the spoils of war whether they participated in certian battles or not. Those that participated in Badr were given more than those who did not.

Now on to these hadeeth:

There are two narrations of this hadeeth, the one that is considered generally reliable, i.e. the one going through ibn Abbass and all the others going through Zuhri. Here are some points worth mentioning:

1. In both narrations, there are either Basris or Kufis at the ends of each chain. As everyone very well notes, this was the place of political turmoil. How these Basris and Kufans came to know of an event that was exclusive to a few people in Medina, one will never know.

2. The Prophet (S) was ordered to make the truth known to all the People. It becomes clear that by the time the Prophet (S) had died, the truth had becmoe manifest to those around them. "Truth has come
and falsehood has perished, lo falsehood was ever bound to perish." The revelation of the Quran had ended, and the shareeah was already made manifest. "This day I have perfected my religion for you, and
have chosen Islam as your religion." the point is the religion was made complete and that is why the Prophet (S) took witness from the people on hajj, "Have I not delivered thy message?" After the people proclaimed yes in throngs, the Prophet (S) looked to the heavens and asked God to bear witness. The Prophet (S) had fulfilled his obligations with respect to the deliverance of the message and to claim that the Prophet (S) had sent the people out and did not tell the Companions about this 'special thing' that would let the Muslims 'never go astray' is nothing but a direct contradiction to the Quran.

2. In the narration of ibn abbass (R) it says two things, with ibn Abbass forgetting the third. The two things mentioned had nothing to do with shareeah but certain policies of the Prophet (S) and how to handle certain affairs with respect to the foreign policy, including
treating foreign dignitaries with respect. What is significant to note is that among the two mentioned, one was already completed and "That was turning the polytheists out of the Arabian peninsula." This
in itself contradicts established history.

3. During the last 3 days of the Prophets (S) life, i.e. after the event, He urged the Comapnions to have faith in the leadership entrusted to Usama bin Zayd (R), and warned the ummah not to follow the ways of the ahl-kitab who took their leaders as people of worship.
He repeated on his deathbead the words of "prayer" to remind the ummah of their obligation to it, and he ordered Abu Bakr (R) to lead the prayers. In these last 3 days, the Prophet (S) was in good health and he even witnessed His Sahabah's (R) praying through the window of his house and smiled. He had 3 days to remind His Sahabah of this 'last thing' but nowhere do we find it.

4. The only one to narrate this event was ibn Abbass (R). What is very interesting to note is that many things are attributed to him, including the famous tafseer ibn Abbass, which is not his. What are the reasons behind this? He falls under the House of the Prophet (S),
and he witnesses the turmoil that raged during the ummah. By the end of Uthman (R), the majority of the elder Companions (R) had died.

5. ibn Abbass (R) was at a maximum of 13 years old by the time the Prophet (S)had died. This is not just a minor, who would not be allowed to participate in the Battles such as Badr or Uhud at the age, and yet he
is the only one reporting it. No elder Comapniosn report this. What is further is that this narration is ahad for the first three generations only being reported from ibn Abbass (R) through Said ibn Jubayr. He himself, was young, by the death of ibn Abbass (R) and by
the time any narrations would have been reported to him, it would be during the time of all the fitnas. So a narration such as this only found route during the period of the fitn and it is ghareeb. An event of such magnitude would not have been reported through one narartor
and that narrator being a mere 13 year old child. as stated before, none of the narrations are without Iraqis and this is especially significant when the hypocrites were attempting to raise dissension among the people with respect to the Sahabah's (R). Even in Nahjul
Balagah, Ali (R) is reported to have said:

"In the beginning of our matter, the people of Sham and us met. It is obvious that our God is one, our Prophet is one, and our call in Islam is one. We do not see ourselves more in faith in Allah or more in
believing His messenger than them, nor they do. Our matter is one, except for our disagreement in Uthman's blood, and we are innocent from his murder."

So we find that the differences between the Sahabah (R) was the death of Uthman (R). When the two parties arbitrated, i.e. Ali (R) and Muawiya (R), it was the Khawarij who split from Ali (R) further sending the ummah down the road to division leading to bloodshed. The fitna mongeres took well advantage of this situation, and they could never forget the fact that Islam had totally laid havoc to their system of hero worship and class system which in the past allowed them
to exploit the poor.

5. The narrations of ibn Abbass (R) single out NONE of the Companions(R), whether Ali (R) or Umar (R).

6. The narrations which single out Umar (R), go through Zuhri. Zuhri has been considered a follower of the tabeein, but has been accused of mudraj and mudallis. He has been accused of this by Shafii, Dara
Qutni, and Imam Malik left reporting from him. He inserts into hadeeth his own words, and it is very significant to note that Zuhri singles out Umar (R) exposing his shia leanings. Some of his hadeeth
put questionable marks on the Companions (R) including the Mother of the Faithful, Abu Bakr (R), and Umar (R).

Imam Abu Da'ud says:

Out of the twenty two hundred Ahadith narrated by Zuhri only half are Musnad . (Dhahabi, Tadhkiratu'l-Huffaz, vol. 1,`p. 109]

Mursal are hadeeth that are disconnected, i.e. Zuhri does not report whom he heard the hadeeth from. His mursal are given the strongest of criticisms.

Yahya Ibn Said Qattan is of the opinion that the Mursalat of Zuhri are baseless. (Ibn Hajar, Tahdhibu'l-Tahdhib, 1st ed., vol. 5, 269)

Imam Dhahabi has reported the following words of Yahya Ibn Said`Qattan The Mursalat of Zuhri are the worst of all since he is a Hafiz. Whenever, he wants he can disclose the name of a person, and whenever
he wants he can conceal his name. (Dhahabi, Sayar Alam al-Nubala, 8th ed., vol. 5, , p. 338)

Imam Shafi says:

The Mursalat of Zuhri are baseless since he even narrates from Sulayman Ibn Arqam. (Dhahabi, Sayar Alam al-Nubala, 8th ed., vol. 5, , p.
339)

So we find that such a hadeeth attributed to ibn Abbass (R) falls flat on the ground, despite it being from the books of Bukhari and Muslim, and it proves to fact that such fabrications have penetrated the best of books and Muslims must not accept such things uncritically. Zuhri
is reporting a fabricated hadeeth and one can only wonder how it escaped the eyes of Bukhari (R). But we ourselves know that Bukahri (R) never finished his work and died before even completing it. Others took to task to compile it but that is a different story.

If one opens the Quran he finds nothing but praise for the Comapnions, and nobody can find them worthy of blame from the words of God himself because "He has written faith on their hearts" and the Quran is the MIZAN AND FURQAN. Further, Jesus (AS) came to prepare the way for the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth... this very Kingdom was the reign of the Prophet and His Companions. It is precisely why in surah Saff, after mentioning the Prophecy of Ahmed, God ALmighty says He has sent the Messenger with the guidance and deen to MAKE IT PREVAIL OVER ALL OTHER RELIGIONS.
And God's promise was fulfilled.