Thats where your’e misinformed. The Prophets (saw) did appoint a successor and many sunni hadith acknlowedge that, its another story that those hadith are misinterpreted inorder to align with existing views. Any neutral observer would see it as clear as daylight.
You know to accuse the Prophet of not having the forsightness/intelligence to see that the ummah needs a leader after him, whereas the sahabas understood all this, is insulting to say the least. How can you demean the Prophet (saw) as such? Not only his is successor sidelined/rejected, but now his intelligence is in question..what gives?
Secondly it is interesting you admit Imam Ali (as) as ashara mubasahara, aas during caliphs muwaiya times and onwards, it was the norm to curse Imam ALi during the friday khutbas from the mimber of the Prophet (saw), the propaganda was so strong at that time, people were surprised to hear he used to pray/fast.
When his Imam Hassan became the caliph, he was physcially attacked because people thought he(as) would betray them. That was the mental state of the ummah, so you can understand how easy it was for the likes of yazid to isolate, demonise and order the killing of Imam Hussain (as). His work had been done for him way before became king/caliph.
And who was Abul rehman bin auf in comaprison to Imam Ali (As)? Do you know caliph Umar often used to say ‘if it wasnt for ALi, Umar would have persihed?’ and he regularly sought Imam ALi (As) advise on things, and oftenImam (As) correct him many wrong rulings he had made. SO on what basis was Abdul rahman making these remarks?
In the Prophet (saw) eyes, noone was more able than Imam Ali (As), if you see his letters and sermons in Nahjulabalagha advising on how to rule, so will see the true esense of Islam. The rebellion were the turmoil he inherited from the earlier caliphs. Read up history to find out the details.
If you read up, history always protray Hazrat mauwiyah as one of the biggest sources of the divison in muslim ummah. In case you forgot he waged a war against Imam Ali (As), the caliph of the time!! What it is your excuse for that? would you justify it if anyone waged war on Hazrat Abu BAkr, Umar, Uthman? No, i didnt think so.
And fgs, ofcourse things settled down when mauwiyah got what he wanted ie. khilafa. How twisted you’re version of history is!
That is an example, you’re supposed to apply it. Prophet (saw) is part of the AHlulbayt, he was under that cloak when the ayah tathir was revealed.
We never said sahih bukhari is wholly authentic, we prove our arguments through you’re books. If you read our books, you would see no arguemnt on who the ahlulbayt/successor are, its all pretty clear from our end.
Our definitions of shabas vary, but that obviously requires a seperate thread.