Re: Did Prophet(pbuh) chose someone as Caliph !
^ I never said ali's policies were identical to abu bakr /umar
what i said was he did not oppose the policies of first 2 caliphs politically [as he did in uthman's time] or militarily e.g his war against the pretenders in his caliphate]
ali's difference with umar's policies was distribution of stipend in which he followed Prophet and abu bakr's example
ali's difference with abu bakr was that he followed umar and prophet's principle of sabiqa or precedence in islam as degree of importance to early converts and reducing the status of the quraish aristocracy.
But ali's reign was not a radical break from the policies of first 2 caliphs as is evidenced by the fact that a huge part of his army were the khawarij who were wellpleased with first 2 caliphs and did consider them superior to ali.The discourses between khaawrij and ali's supporters even after their split does not indicate anywhere that they also differed in their opinion regarding the first 2 caliphs.
Furthermore even those of ali's loyalists who did consider him most worthy of succeccding the prophet , nowhere displayed any harshly critical views on abu bakr /umar
what united both groups was their condemnation of uthman and later ummayyads.
In light of this we can safely assume that while ali might have differences in administration with abu bakr/umar he did not consider these differences significant enough to openly oppose them as he did in times of uthman and later....For ali example of prophet alone was sufficent with no additions or subtractions, but if he felt that abu bakr/umar were grossly violating the norms of justice then he wud have protested like he did in uthman's time.As you wud agree there was a lot of freedom of speech in umar's time , far more than in uthmans.
bear in mind it was not only ali who might have differed with abu bakr /umar several other senior companions including talha , zubair and several ansar were also very vocal about their views when they differed with those of caliphs.Similarly sometime in ali's caliphate many of his advisors will differ with on several issues leading to strong words and harsh rebukes like case of abdullah b abbas] it does not neccesarily mean they were actively plotting against ali or his govt.This kind of difference of opinion was tolerable to muslims in those days and there was no unquestionable obedience required from the caliph.
and again may i remind all we are digressing from the main topic
which is evidence that Ali or Abu Bakr were apppointed by the Prophet .
I think Umar's quote is worthy of mention here ...when asked to choose a successor he said
"someone better than me [abu bakr] choose one but someone better than him i.e Prophet] did not so I will not choose one"