truthful’ one.
After the Prophet’s migration to Medina in 622, Abu Bakr purchased a plot of land where the foundations of Masjid al-Nabi (or the ‘Prophet’s mosque’) were laid in 623; he also led the first hajj (pilgrimage) to Mecca on behalf of the Prophet. Although the Prophet did not directly nominate a successor before he died, by nominating Abu Bakr to lead the daily prayers he had implicitly pointed the way forward, but the Prophet was keen to give the people a say in the election or selection of their rulers.
After the Prophet passed away in 632, the news of his death spread across Arabia like wildfire; they thought that Islam would fizzle out after the Prophet’s death. After considerable discussion and debate, it was unanimously agreed by the companions of the Prophet to elect Abu Bakr khalifat Rasoul Allah (‘successor to the Messenger of God’). After being elected the first Caliph of Islam, Abu Bakr went straight to the Prophet’s mosque where he delivered his first address to the people. He declared:
‘O people! I have been selected as your trustee although I am no better than anyone of you. If I am right, obey me. If I happen to be wrong, set me right, God willing. I ask you to obey me as long as I obey God and His messenger. If I disobey God and His messenger, you are free to disobey me.’
Caliph Abu Bakr did not decide anything unilaterally. He formed an advisory council consisting of the leading companions of the Prophet and he regularly consulted them before authorizing or undertaking any issues of importance.
In the year 633, Abu Bakr authorized Khalid ibn al-Walid, the great Muslim military commander, to take action against the subversive activities of the Persians. The Muslim army defeated the Persians and brought peace and order to that area. In the following year, elements of the Byzantine army began to instigate military raids and other provocative actions against the Muslim territories. After consulting his advisory council, the Caliph took decisive action against the Byzantines.
In just over two years, Caliph Abu Bakr helped transform the fortunes of Islam. More importantly, encouraged and supported by Umar, he brought together all the parchments (Suhuf) on which the Qur’an was written during the Prophet’s lifetime and compiled them in the form of one book (Mushaf).
Only the love and pleasure of God, the Absolute Reality, mattered to Abu Bakr. This great servant of Islam breathed his last at the age of sixty-one and was buried in Medina next to the Prophet, his mentor and guide. Such was the greatness of Caliph Abu Bakr that the Prophet once stated, ‘Abu Bakr’s name shall be called out from all the gates of Paradise, and he will be the first person of my community to enter it.’
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Abu Dhabi city: capital of United Arab Emirates and Abu Dhabi emirate Pop 520,000. Located on the offshore island of the same name, Abu Dhabi was founded by members of the Aal bu Falah clan of the Bani Yas Tribe in 1761. A quarter of a century later they transferred their base from the al Jiwa oasis to Abu Dhabi. With the formation of a confederation of seven emirates, called the United Arab Emirates in 1971, Abu Dhabi was selected as its interim capital, later confirmed as the capital city.
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Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (1058-1111): Under Abul Hasan al-Ash’ari’s guidance, speculative theology (Ilm al-kalam) became a powerful force within the Islamic intellectual firmament. Prior to that, under Hasan al-Basri’s tutelage, Sufism (or Islamic mysticism) had become a potent force in the Muslim world. These rationalistic, philosophical, theological and mystical trends continued to compete for the hearts and minds of Muslims until the indomitable personality of al-Ghazali emerged in the eleventh century to champion and reassert traditional Islamic thought and practices as never before.
Abu Hamid Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Tusi al-Ghazali, known in the Latin West as Algazel, was born in the historic town of Tus in Khurasan (in present-day Mashhad in Iran). Al-Ghazali attended the class of a local Sufi tutor and attained proficiency in Arabic language, grammar, Qur’an, Hadith, jurisprudence (Fiqh) and aspects of Sufi thought and poetry before he was fifteen.
Al-Ghazali was barely twenty years old when he traveled to Nishapur to pursue advanced instruction in Islamic sciences. It was during this period that he composed his al-Mankhul min Ilm al-Usul (A Summary of the Science of Fundamentals), wherein he elucidated the fundamental principles of Islamic law and legal methodology.
In 1085 al-Juwayni died and al-Ghazali was asked to become professor of Islamic thought at the Nizamiyyah College in Baghdad by none other than Nizam al-Mulk himself, the great Seljuk Prime Minister and founder of the Nizamiyyah College. At the age of thirty-four, he became the youngest professor at Nizamiyyah. This was an extraordinary honor for young al-Ghazali since the Nizamiyyah College of Baghdad was the Oxford or Harvard of its time.
Al-Ghazali was profoundly disturbed by the apparent conflict between the views of the rationalists, who argued that human reason (Aql) was superior to revelation (Wahy), and the traditionalists who considered Divine revelation to be infallible and, therefore, more authoritative in comparison with fallible human reason. The more al-Ghazali questioned the more he doubted the very foundation of knowledge. Thus, for a period, he became a fully-fledged sceptic, living in a state of doubt and depression.
Al-Ghazali began studying and analyzing the works of the philosophers and theologians. He found no common ground on which all theologians could agree. He argued, therefore, that scholastic theology would be of no value to anyone unless they believed in the indispensability of human reason. Astonishingly, al-Ghazali was only thirty-six when he authored his hugely influential Tahafut.
After this, al-Ghazali immersed himself in the ocean of Sufi thought and practices. Following a thorough study of the works of prominent Sufis like Abu Talib Amr al-Makki, Harith al-Muhasibi, Abul Qasim al-Junayd al-Baghdadi, Abu Bakr al-Shibli and Abu Yazid al-Bistami, al-Ghazali realized that ‘empirical’ – as opposed to ‘theoretical’ – knowledge was the foundation of Sufism. He devoted all his time and energy to seeking experiential knowledge in order to move closer to Divine proximity like the Sufis. He found peace of mind and intellectual reassurance in the message of Sufism.
Al-Ghazali’s philosophical and theological views also exerted considerable influence on renowned Jewish and Christian thinkers like St Thomas Aquinas, Ramon Lull, Blaise Pascal and Musa bin Maimon (Moses Maimonides) among others. Al-Ghazali eventually returned to his native Tus in 1110 and, a year later, he died at the age of fifty-three. He was buried in the cemetery close to Sanabad.
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Abu Hanifah (700-767): The principles of Shari’ah (Islamic law) are derived from the Qur’an and the normative practice (sunnah) of the Prophet Muhammad. After the death of the Prophet, his leading companions, such as Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, Umar ibn al-Khattab, Uthman ibn Affan and Ali ibn Abi Talib, assumed the leadership of the Muslim community. The Shari’ah was not codified in a systematic way at the time. At such a critical time in Islamic history, Abu Hanifah emerged to develop one of Islamic history’s most influential legal syntheses.
Numan ibn Thabit ibn Zuta ibn Mah, better known by his patronymic Abu Hanifah, was born in Kufah (in modern Iraq) during the reign of the great Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan. Of Persian origin, Abu Hanifah was brought up in a relatively wealthy Muslim family. He was very fortunate to have met a number of prominent companions, including Anas ibn Malik, Sahl ibn Sa’d, Abu al-Tufayl Amir ibn Watihilah and Jabir ibn Abdullah.
Caliph Sulaiman, al-Walid’s successor, was a relatively benevolent ruler who promoted learning and scholarship. By all accounts, Abu Hanifah was a late starter and most of his peers were way ahead of him when he began his studies, but after he started he was determined to reach the very summit of Islamic learning and scholarship.
