In his documentation of the early history of Islam, Justice Abu Bakr ibn Al-Arabi, a scholar of the highest standing in Andalusia, refers very briefly to the succession to the post of Caliph in the immediate period after the Prophet. We looked at what he said about Abu Bakr’s appointment. Now, after refuting all allegations made in the false report about the attitudes adopted by the Prophet’s companions immediately after his death, he has the following to say: “Abu Bakr appointed Umar as his successor and the blessings of Islam were manifest. God’s true promise came to be realized during the reign of the two Caliphs. In his turn, Umar made consultative arrangements for the community to choose his successor. Abd Al-Rahman ibn Awf relinquished his own claim so that he could consider the matter more objectively. He then proposed Uthman who proved to be true to expectations: he never breached a pledge or went back on a commitment. He neither committed what is reprehensible, nor disobeyed a Sunnah.”
Ibn Al-Arabi refers here to God’s promise that came true with the two first Caliphs, Abu Bakr and Umar. This is a reference to the Qur’anic verse that says: “God has promised those of you who believe and do righteous deeds that, of a certainty, He will cause them to accede to power on Earth, as He caused those who lived before them to accede to it; and that, of a certainty, He will firmly establish for the them the religion which He has been pleased to give them; and that, of a certainty, He will cause their erstwhile state of fear to be replaced by a sense of security.” (24: 55)
The fact is that the period of these two Caliphs’ rule, Abu Bakr and Umar, was the happiest period in human history, for any community not ruled by a Prophet. Each one of them had a keen insight into the Islamic message and had the strongest commitment to follow the Prophet’s example.
Both realized that serving the interests of the Muslim community is a primary aim of Islam, and that all Islamic teachings are geared to that purpose. Hence, human interests are best served by the implementation of Islam. Hence, they were keen to ensure that nothing of Islamic teachings is neglected. Both realized that the position of a ruler is more of a responsibility than a privilege, and that they would be accountable to God for the fulfillment of their heavy responsibility. Hence, their reign is characterized by a unique feature of self-denial in the interest of the community.
In his annotation of Ibn Al-Arabi’s book, Muhibb Al-Deen Al-Khateeb mentions briefly the main features of the Islamic society under these two Caliphs. “Self-denial was characteristic of both rulers and ruled. Each one was satisfied with what met his essential needs, putting his best efforts to serve the Islamic cause, establish the truth and spread every good thing. A good man might meet someone who could be still leaning toward some forbidden things, and he would counsel him and exhort him to refrain from what is forbidden.
He would continue with his effort until the other person is happy to confine his conduct to what is lawful. Yet there are numerous false reports about Abu Bakr and Umar, originally fabricated by people who hated them both and hated their assistants, and Islam as a whole. These false reports continued to be circulated among people who repeated them in order to persuade themselves that when they hated these two Caliphs, they were right to do so. But this is all false and we certainly need to purge our history books of such false reports.”
Ibn Al-Arabi does not give any details about Umar’s reign because he did not intend to write a history book. He was only concerned with explaining the succession in order to refute false reports that circulate about this particular issue. Therefore, he immediately moves on to refer to the method chosen by Umar for the selection of his successor.
Umar appointed six people who came to be known as the “consultation group”. His choice was six of the remaining seven people of the ten the Prophet mentioned by name in public as the ones he was most pleased with. He gave them the happiest news of all, namely, admission into heaven.
The six were Uthman, Ali, Talhah, Al-Zubayr, Saad ibn Abi Waqqas and Abd Al-Rahman ibn Awf. The seventh was Saeed ibn Zayd, and historians claim that Umar excluded him because he was his brother-in-law, and Umar wanted not to put anyone from his own family in a favorable position. But this is questionable, because when Umar appointed this group, he had no influence on its working, because it could only meet after his own death. The fact is that Umar recognized that Saeed, a great servant of Islam no doubt, lacked the qualities of leadership that would make of him a likely successor.
The terms of reference of this group, or committee, were to choose from among themselves a successor to Umar. He appointed his son, Abdullah, as a convener but he was not to be a candidate. His role was to ensure that the choice of successor would not be delayed for more than three days. Suhaib, another of the Prophet’s companions who was a former slave, was to lead the congregational prayer during those three days. The choice was to be decided by majority vote, but if the committee was evenly split, with three votes each for two candidates, the choice of the side that included Abd Al-Rahman ibn Awf was to be taken. This means in our modern terminology that Abd Al-Rahman was given a casting vote. Umar recognized that of all six Abd Al-Rahman was the least aspirant to the post.
Umar’s view was soon to be confirmed. Abd Al-Rahman soon relinquished any personal claim to the post, so that he would be able to help the committee to make the right choice. He started a public sounding mission to ascertain the feelings of the people in Madinah, quickly discovering that the real choice was between Uthman and Ali. Eventually, he proposed Uthman who was duly chosen as Caliph and the whole community pledged its loyalty to him.
Arab News Islam 7 July 2003
