of the Prophet to elect Abu Bakr khalifat rasul Allah (‘successor to the Messenger of God’). He was elected on account of his leadership abilities, great insight into Islamic teachings and considerable experience of sociopolitical affairs. In other words, he was the most suitable person to lead the nascent Islamic State in the absence of the Prophet. 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. Of course truth is honesty and a lie is dishonesty. The weakest among you is powerful in my sight until I do not get him his due, God willing. The most powerful among you is the weakest in my sight until I do not make him pay his due rights to others, 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.’
This speech was a milestone in Islamic political history because it not only skilfully articulated the fundamental Islamic constitutional principles, but also underlined the core precepts which should bind the Government of the day to their populace. Caliph Abu Bakr’s reign, therefore, became the first fully-fledged democratic administration in Islamic history where the leader was not only elected by the people he was also fully accountable to them. 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 authorising or undertaking any issues of importance. Immediately after assuming the office of the Caliphate, he instigated action against those tribes which had reverted back to their pre-Islamic practices in the belief that Islam would disintegrate following the death of the Prophet. Caliph Abu Bakr’s uncompromising stance against political rebellion and social unrest helped put an end to all forms of political and social mischief in Arabia at the time.
After restoring peace and order across the land, Caliph Abu Bakr turned his attention to the external enemies of the Islamic State who were conspiring against the Muslims from the adjoining territories. In the year 633, he authorised 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. When Heraclius, the emperor of the Byzantine Empire, received news of the Muslim advance he sent a large army to crush the Muslims. Under Khalid’s inspirational leadership, forty-five thousand Muslims inflicted a crushing defeat on the approximately one hundred and fifty thousand-strong Byzantine contingent.
This decisive and unprecedented victory, achieved at a critical phase in Muslim history, has today found its way into Muslim folklore. Of course, Caliph Abu Bakr’s outstanding leadership played a pivotal role in this success. Indeed, he was an impressive leader who was both gentle and caring, but also tough and decisive when required. His unwavering commitment to Islam, political abilities and strategic brilliance enabled the Islamic State to become a strong and united entity, thus consolidating its position vis-à-vis the two leading powers of the time, namely the Persian and Holy Roman Empires. 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). He was therefore instrumental in preserving the Divine revelation in its original, pristine form for the benefit of posterity. Like the Prophet, Caliph Abu Bakr led his people by his example, and his main priority was the safety and welfare of the Muslim masses.
On a personal level, Abu Bakr led a very simple life; he ate most frugally and used to wake up in the middle of the night to cry before his Lord. Being very spiritually inclined, he had little time for the wealth and material possessions of this world. Once on seeing a bird in the garden, he remarked, “O bird! You are lucky indeed. You eat and drink as you like and fly, but do not have fear of reckoning on the Day of Judgement. I wish that I were just like you.” Given Abu Bakr’s mystical orientation, it is not surprising that a number of leading Sufi tariqah (or Islamic mystical Orders) such as the naqshbandiyyah trace their spiritual affiliation back to the Prophet through him. To Caliph Abu Bakr, the outstanding Muslim leader, great statesman and spiritual guide par excellence, the life of this world was no more than an illusion. It is here and will be gone soon. Only the love and pleasure of God, the Absolute Reality, mattered to him. This great servant of Islam breathed his last at the age of sixty-one and was buried in Madinah 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.’
BEFORE HIS DEATH, Caliph Umar appointed a six-man panel to nominate his successor. Just as the Prophet Muhammad did not nominate his sucessor, in the same way Umar decided not to nominate his own successor. Instead, he instructed the six-man panel (consisting of illustrious figures like Uthman, Ali, Sa’d ibn Abi Waqqas, Abd al-Rahman ibn Auf, Talha and Zubair), to select one person from among them as the next leader of the Islamic State. After careful consideration and intense discussion, it was eventually decided by the panel to appoint Uthman as the third Caliph of Islam. A son-in-law of the Prophet and a man of exceptional piety, Uthman was also one of the most generous and modest amongst the companions of the Prophet. He was loved and admired by everyone and is said to have personified angelic qualities. The Prophet had such respect and regard for Uthman that once, while he was sitting with a group of his companions, the robe covering the lower part of his leg fell. When he was told that Uthman was on his way, the Prophet quickly covered his leg saying, “Even the angels have regard for the modesty of Uthman.”
Uthman ibn Affan ibn Abi al-As was born into the noble Umayyah family of the Quraysh tribe of Makkah. As a child, he had a privileged upbringing. Like his other family members, he became a hugely prosperous cloth merchant. In addition to being one of only a handful of literate people in Makkah, Uthman was known to have been very soft-hearted and a cultured person who was in the habit of helping the poor and the needy even in his pre-Islamic days. His charitable and philanthropic activities earned him considerable reputation and standing in Makkah at the time. Uthman was one of the first people to embrace Islam, after hearing Caliph Abu Bakr preach. Despite the intense political rivalry between the family of the Prophet (banu hashim) and that of Uthman (banu umayyah), he pledged allegiance to the Prophet. Unlike the rest of his tribesmen (who opposed the Prophet on the grounds that he was a Hashimate), Uthman overlooked the intertribal rivalry between the two tribes in order to acknowledge the truth of Islam as promulgated by the Prophet.
Uthman’s decision to embrace Islam infuriated his tribesmen so much that they became hostile and antagonistic towards him. They accused him of treachery and hurled all sorts of verbal abuse and diatribes at him. When things eventually became unbearable, he approached the Prophet for his permission to seek refuge in Abyssinia (modern Ethiopia) along with a group of other persecuted Muslims. Uthman, therefore, became one of the first Muslim men to migrate to a foreign country with his family, for the sake of Islam. At the time, Uthman was married to the Prophet’s daughter, Ruqayyah. After a few months’ stay in Abyssinia, Uthman and his wife returned to Makkah where they stayed for another few years before joining the Prophet in Madinah, but his wife died soon after their return. The Prophet then married his third daughter, Umm Kulthum, to him. As a result, Uthman became known as dhun-nurain (or the ‘man with two lights’). He also acted as a scribe to the Prophet from time to time, and generously spent his money and wealth for the cause of Islam. For instance, on his arrival in Madinah he purchased a large well for twenty thousand dirhams, so all Muslims could have free access to water. He then purchased a plot of land adjacent to the Prophet’s mosque so that the
