-
Chapter 3: The Birth of an Empire
- Augsburg Fortress Publishers
- Chapter
- Additional Information
59 him, saying, “You are dearer than my father and mother.You have tasted the death which God had decreed: a second death will never overtake you.” Then he replaced the mantle on the apostle’s face and went out. uUmar was still speaking and he said, “Gently, uUmar, be quiet.” But uUmar refused and went on talking, and when Abu Bakr saw that he would not be silent he went forward to the people who, when they heard his words, came to him and left uUmar. Giving thanks and praise to God he said:“O men, if anyone worships Muhammad, Muhammad is dead: if anyone worships God, God is alive, immortal.” (Ibn Ishaq, 682–83) When the apostle was dead uUmar got up and said,“Some of the disaffected will allege that the apostle is dead, but by God he is not dead: he has gone to his Lord as Moses . . . went and was hidden from his people for forty days, returning to them after it was said that he had died. By God, the apostle will return as Moses returned and will cut off the hands and feet of men who allege that the apostle is dead.” When Abu Bakr heard what was happening he came to the door of the mosque as uUmar was speaking to the people. He paid no attention but went in to u Aaisha’s house to the apostle, who was lying covered by a mantle of Yamani cloth. He went and uncovered his face and kissed Chapter 3 The Birth of an Empire v The Emergence of islam 60 The First Caliph and the First Imam The Prophet was dead and no new prophet was to be born. In the Bible (2 Kgs. 2), the prophet Elisha takes up the mantle of the prophet Elijah, but no one—according to Islamic belief—could take up Muhammad’s mantle. The Quraan describes Muhammad as the“seal of the prophets”(33:40). This phrase, according to Islamic tradition, means that Muhammad was the last prophet. Thus with the death of Muhammad, God ceased speaking to the world. According to standard Sunni Islamic belief, prophets are the only people to whom God speaks. There is no gift or charism of prophecy—or private revelations—that all people might share in; there are only prophets and nonprophets. God will not speak to humans again before the Day of Resurrection. Nevertheless, as Ibn Ishaq and other classical Sunni sources tell it, with the death of Muhammad the Muslim community still needed a political successor,a caliph—a leader to ensure that the religion of God would not disappear with the disappearance of God’s prophet. That leader was to be Abu Bakr. The Election of Abu Bakr The citation above,in which Abu Bakr is a picture of calm and prudence at a time of tragedy, encapsulates his role in the story of Islam’s emergence. Abu Bakr, the faithful friend of Muhammad who once had remained hidden with the Prophet in a cave for three days during the hijra, was now to be the one who kept the community faithful to the Prophet’s religion. But according to the classical sources, the process by which Abu Bakr became the first caliph was anything but smooth. Soon after the Prophet’s death, Ibn Ishaq and Tabari report, the Muslims of Medina (known as the ansar, or “helpers”) gathered together to discuss the future of their community. Among them was a man named Saud b. uUbada, one of the original twelve Medinans who had pledged allegiance to Muhammad even before the hijra. Saud, who had grown so sick that he could no longer speak in a loud voice, had the following statement read on his behalf. Company of the ansar! You have precedence in religion and merit in Islam that no [other] tribe of the Arabs can claim. Muhammad remained ten-odd years in his tribe, calling them to worship the Merciful and to cast off idols and graven images, but only a few men of his tribe believed in Him. . . . Then God bestowed upon you faith in Him and in His Apostle, and protection for him and his companions and strength for him and his faith, and battle [jihad] for his enemies. . . . [So] keep [control of] this matter to yourselves, to the exclusion of others, for it is yours and yours alone. (Tabari, 10:2) When the statement was read, most of the ansar shouted their approval...