لطفا منتظر باشید ...
The Struggle for Power IV
When Abu Bakr was acknowledged khalifa in Saqifa,
he, Umar bin al-Khattab and Abu Obaida bin al-Jarrah returned to the Mosque of the
Prophet. In the Mosque there were many people, among them, members of the clan of Umayya;
Saad bin Abi Waqqas; Abdur Rahman bin Auf; and some other Muhajireen. Seeing them huddled in little clusters, Umar
shouted: "Abu Bakr has been elected khalifa of the Muslims. Now all of you here give
him your pledge of loyalty. The Ansar, Abu Obaida and I have already done so." The Umayyads present in the Mosque were the first to
respond to Umar's call, and to take the oath of allegiance to Abu Bakr. Saad bin Abi
Waqqas, Abdur Rahman bin Auf and others followed them, and took the oath of allegiance to
Abu Bakr. Almost all the "patricians" took the oath
of allegiance to Abu Bakr on Monday. The "commoners" didn't know about Abu
Bakr's election yet. They came to the Mosque on Tuesday. All day long they were coming and
going in and out of the Mosque, and Abu Bakr was occupied in accepting their assurances of
loyalty to him. It was only on Wednesday that he was at last free to give his attention to
other matters. In the meantime, during the entire furious scramble
for power in Saqifa, and later, Ali ibn Abi Talib and the members of Banu Hashim, had been
busy with the obsequies of Muhammad, the Messenger of God. When the latter had been given
a burial, Ali and the Banu Hashim retired to their homes. Many people in Medina had taken the oath of loyalty
to Abu Bakr but there were some who had not. Most important among them all was Ali ibn Abi
Talib, the new head of the clan of Banu Hashim. The new khalifa and his advisers believed
that it was absolutely essential that Ali should also take the oath of loyalty same as
other people. They, therefore, sent for him from his home but he refused to come. His
refusal infuriated Umar. A little earlier, he was the king-maker but now he had become the
Chief Executioner of the new government of Saqifa. He, therefore, went with an armed
escort to enforce the orders of the government, and threatened to burn down the house of
the daughter of Muhammad, the Messenger of God, if Ali did not come to the court to take
the oath of loyalty to Abu Bakr. Someone pointed out that the house belonged to the
daughter of the Prophet, so how could Umar burn it. But Umar said it did not matter if the
house belonged to the daughter of the Prophet. What really mattered, he asserted, was the
oath of allegiance that Ali had to take. Edward Gibbon The Hashemites alone declined the oath of fidelity
(to Abu Bakr); and their chief (Ali), in his own house, maintained above six months (sic),
a sullen and independent reserve, without listening to the threats of Omar, who attempted
to consume with fire the habitation of the daughter of the Apostle. (The Decline and Fall
of the Roman Empire) Even a man like Shibli, the biographer of Umar, and
one of his greatest admirers, has been compelled to admit that "Umar was a most
violent-tempered man, and it is not improbable at all if he made an attempt to set fire to
the house of the daughter of the Prophet." (Al-Farooq) How utterly charming, how utterly sweet, and how
utterly heroic of Umar to try to burn down the house of Fatima Zahra! Three days after the
death of Muhammad, the Last Messenger of God to mankind, Umar arrived at the door of the
house of Fatima Zahra. A gang of other incendiaries was with him, and he demanded Ali's
allegiance to Abu Bakr. This demonstration of "heroism" must have
"pleased" God very much, especially, when one remembers that besides Ali and
Fatima, there were also present in their house, their four little children – the
grandchildren of Muhammad Mustafa. They ranged in ages from two to eight years. The
children must have been "thrilled" to hear the voice of Umar. To them, he must
have seemed to be a kind of "Santa Claus," the Santa Claus of the desert,
standing at the door of their house with the "gift" of fire for them. His
"gift," he might have told them, had the power to change the drab grey walls of
their little house into leaping and crackling flames of many hues. What else could he do for them to
"comfort" them and to "cheer them up" after the death of their
grandfather, Muhammad, who had loved them so much? Did they ever see a spectacle of
"fireworks" so flamboyant as the one he could show them just then if their
father, Ali ibn Abi Talib, did not take the oath of allegiance to Abu Bakr? At this time, Zubayr bin al-Awwam was also with Ali.
His wife was one of the daughters of Abu Bakr but his mother was Safiya bint Abdul
Muttalib, the aunt of Muhammad and Ali. He, therefore, claimed that he was also a member
of the clan of Banu Hashim. Umar ordered him to take the oath of loyalty to Abu Bakr. But
he refused and threatened to use his sword if pestered too much. Umar shouted to his
myrmidons to snatch his sword. They succeeded in overpowering him. He was disarmed, and
was taken to the court of his father-in-law. It was in this state that he gave his pledge
of loyalty to him. Umar tried to achieve domination with threats,
bluster, and bluff. In the past, one could call his bluff but now it was not possible to
do so. With Zubayr thus disposed of, Umar turned his attention to Ali, and he was taken to
the court. In the court, Umar repeated his demand for oath but Ali said: "I am the slave of God and I am the brother of
Muhammad, His Messenger. A slave of God cannot become the slave of anyone else. If you
have succeeded in capturing the government of Muhammad because you are, as you said,
closer to him than the Ansar, then I am his brother, and who among you can claim to be
closer to him than myself? All Muslims should give me their allegiance, and not to anyone
else. You are robbing the family of your late master of their right. You convinced the
Ansar with the argument that the Messenger of God was one of you, and he was not one of
them, and they surrendered the khilafat to you. Now I use the same argument - your
argument - which you used against the Ansar. We are the heirs of the Messenger of God in
his lifetime and after his death. If you believe in his mission, and if you have accepted
Islam sincerely, then do not usurp our rights." Umar replied to him thus: "You are a slave of God but you are not a
brother of His Messenger. In any case, you will have to take the oath of allegiance to Abu
Bakr, and we will not release you until you do so." Ali said: "O Umar, if you are advocating Abu Bakr's case
with such zeal, it is understandable. Today you are making him a king so that tomorrow he
would make you a king. I will not do what you are asking me to do, and I will not give him
my pledge." Abu Obaida bin al-Jarrah was a member of the
"troika," and was, therefore, an ardent advocate of the government of Saqifa. He
too made an attempt to persuade Ali to recognize the new government, and to take the oath
of loyalty to its head. He said: "O cousin of the Prophet! you are younger than
these men. They are much older than you and they have much more experience than you have.
You should take the oath of loyalty to Abu Bakr now, and then, someday, your turn may also
come. You deserve to be the chief of the Muslims because of your precedence in Islam, your
courage, your intelligence, your knowledge, and your services to Islam. And then you are
the son-in-law of our Prophet." Ali answered him as follows: "O Muhajireen! do not take the power and the
authority of the Messenger of God out of his house into your own houses. By God,
succession of Muhammad is our right. He himself made this declaration, and not once but
many times. Is there anyone among you who has a better knowledge and understanding of
Qur’an than I have? Is there anyone among you who has better knowledge of the
practices and sayings of the Messenger of God than I have? Is there anyone among you who
can run his government better than I can? If there is, name him, and I will defer to him.
But there is not. I alone can give true peace, prosperity and real justice to all Muslims.
Therefore do not yield to your temptations, and do not put your own ambitions and desires
ahead of the commandments of God and His Messenger. If you do, you will deviate from
Truth, and you will fall into Error." Bashir bin Saad, the same who was the first Ansari
to take the oath of allegiance to Abu Bakr in Saqifa, interrupted Ali's speech, and said: "O Ali! if you had told us all this before, we
would not have given our pledge of loyalty to anyone other than you." Ali said to him: "Didn't you know all this? What you are
suggesting is that just as all of you abandoned the Messenger of God as soon as he died, I
too should have abandoned him, and I too should have entered the Saqifa to contest the
khailafat with you. This I could not do. Doing so would have been most unworthy of me. I
could not forsake the Messenger of God in his death as I did not forsake him in his
life." After these remarks, Ali left the court of Abu Bakr
which was held in the Mosque of the Prophet. Such were the mechanics of the election of
Abu Bakr as the khalifa of the Muslims – a series of desperate, often convulsive
improvisations. When both the private oath-taking in the outhouse of
Saqifa, and the public oath-taking in the Mosque of the Prophet, were over, Abu Bakr, the
new khalifa, delivered his inaugural speech. After thanking God and praising Him, he said:
"O Muslims! those of you who worshipped
Mohammed, let them know that he is dead; but those of you who worshipped God, let them
know that He is Alive, and will never die. O Muslims! though you have made me your chief, I am
not the best among you. If someone else among you had taken charge of this burden which
you have put upon me, it would have been better for me. If you expect that I should rule
you just as the Apostle of God did, then I must tell you that it is not possible. The
Apostle received Wahi (Revelation) from Heaven, and he was infallible whereas I am an
ordinary man. I am not better than you. Therefore, if you see me walking on the straight
road, follow me; but if you see me deviate from it, reprove me. If I do right, support me;
if I do wrong, correct me. Obey me as long as I obey God and His Apostle. But if you see
that I am disobeying them, you too disobey me. You have the Qur’an with you, and it is
complete. God's Apostle has shown you both by precept and example how to conduct
yourselves in this life. The strongest among you all is he who fears God. The weakest
among you in my sight is he who is sinful. A people that gives up jihad, loses its honor.
Be punctual in saying your prayers, and do not miss them. May God have mercy on you, and
may He forgive you all." The new khalifa's speech was little more than some
self-deprecating platitudes, a themeless pudding, devoid of uplift or insight. The opening
remark, however, was significant. He told Arabs that if they worshipped Muhammad, he was
dead! Did any Arabs worship Muhammad? For 23 years, Muhammad, the blessed Messenger of
God, was hammering the lesson of Tauheed (Oneness of God) into the heads of the Arabs. If
after all that tremendous effort, they started worshipping him instead of worshipping God,
then his whole mission as a prophet, must be adjudged a fiasco. But Muhammad's mission was not a fiasco. The Muslims
worshipped God and they did not worship Muhammad. They, in fact, repeated many times every
day that Muhammad was a slave and a messenger of God, and Abu Bakr knew it. So why did he
find it necessary to tell them that if they worshipped Muhammad, he was dead? Abu Bakr's remark was a clever ploy. Muhammad
Mustafa had just died, and it was natural for Muslims to feel sympathy for the members of
his family in their great loss. But Abu Bakr was apprehensive of this sympathy. He
considered it dangerous for his own security on the throne. A period of official mourning
could also be dangerous for him. He, therefore, equated mourning for the death of Muhammad
with "worshipping" Muhammad, and what can be so reprehensible in Islam as
"worshipping" Muhammad – a mortal – instead of worshipping God! Abu Bakr, in this manner, turned the attention of
the Muslim umma away from any sympathy it might have felt for the sorrowing family of
Muhammad. The Arabs did not worship anything better than
pieces of rock or wood; Muhammad made them worshippers of Allah – the One Creator and
Lord of the Universe. The Arabs were little better than shepherds or bandits; Muhammad
made them kings and conquerors. The Arabs were barbarous and ignorant; Muhammad made them
the most civilized nation on earth. He was the greatest benefactor not only of the Arabs
of his own time but of all mankind for all time. When such a man died, the Arabs, the
Muslims, who were the beneficiaries of his work for them, ought to have been pulverized by
sorrow. But astoundingly, shockingly and incredibly, they were not! Though they had lost
the greatest blessing that God had ever sent to them – in the person of His Own
Beloved, Muhammad – they didn't register any sense of loss at all. It didn't occur to the Muslim umma that Muhammad who
was its guide, and leader not only in life but also in death, ought to have a state
funeral, and that there ought to be a period of official mourning for him. The Muslim umma apparently figured that mourning for
the death of Muhammad, and giving him a burial, were duties that could best be left to the
members of his own family. The members of his family mourned for him, and gave him a
burial.
