It's ending... let's hope it's not the end...

Alhamdulillah. I hope most of my Muslim friends are able to spend their last days of Ramadhan fruitfully. I wouldn't say that I did that well for my last 10 days. However, to those who knew, thanks for the du'a. I am still on my road to recovery, still finding the signboard ;p

So for the closure of Ramadhan soon, I'd like to share a write up I did on caliphate or known as khilafah. I watched the tarawih prayers in Makkah last 2 days and was stirred by that aura. I realised, I miss the peacefulness and the tranquility I once had. Oh, and the ice cream too, ha..ha. So I remembered the sahabahs who faced challenges during their leadership.

A critical assessment on the successions in Khulafa’ Rasyidin and their legitimacy in the eyes of the Muslims

. April 2006 .

Khilafah was a natural outcome of the elementary concept of the unity of life, relating to Tauhid which does not allow a separation between religion and state, as it strives to attain a unity between belief and practice, between individual ethics and social ethics, between religion and life. The basic features of the caliphate were based on the Syura system by the Majlis Syura, bai’ah of the Muslim public and to follow the Qur’an and Sunnah. All the first three caliphs received bai’ah by the Syura members as well as the Muslim community although Hadrat Umar was nominated by Hadrat Abu Bakr before his death.

During Hadrat Abu Bakr’s succession, the only question upon his appointment was by Hadrat Ali. As-Siddiq then explained his presence in Saqifah Banu Sa’idah about the dispute between the Ansars and Muhajirin. He accepted the position due to the difficult situation as the people also took their oath of allegiance and showed complete unanimity in the matter. For Hadrat ‘Ali, Sayyidatina `A’isha consented the khilafah later on due her opposition on it because of the delay in taking avenge from the assassinators of Hadrat Uthman’s death.

Out of the four caliphs, the first half can be called the religious and spiritual rule of Islam where faith dominates materialism. In fact, the Muslims were united due to the just administration carried out by the caliphs. Hadrat Omar’s period was the “Golden Age” of Islamic history when Islam was practiced at its true form with good initiatives based on the Qur’an and Sunnah. The unity of the Muslims started to deteriorate in the second half of the Rightly-Guided Caliphate. People who wanted to create chaos among the Muslims took advantage on Hadrat ‘Uthman’s soft nature, unlike Hadrat Omar’s stern hand that kept away unwanted practices during his reign. Abdullah bin Saba’ who initiated the internal clashes within the Muslim community resulted in four divisions. As for the legitimacy of Hadrat ‘Uthman’s period, the Shiites thought that he was not fit for Khilafah.

According to Sunni historians, the assassins were amongst this group. As mentioned earlier, the assassination of Hadrat ‘Othman has divided the Muslims into four main groups. These groups had different beliefs towards the succession of the fourth caliphate. For the 'Uthmanis, they totally rejected Hadrat ‘Ali’s designation as caliph because of the failure to settle the assassins of Hadrat ‘Uthman. So, after the judgement of the arbitrators, they pledged their allegiance to Amir Mu’awiyah. The Shiites, in the beginning just declared themselves as Hadrat ‘Ali’s friends during the third caliphate. However, they later developed a belief that only Hadrat ‘Ali was the only fit person for the position and discarded the authority of Amir Mu’awiyah and the first three caliphs. Only that during the first two caliphate, they did not criticise openly. The Khawarij only accepted Hadrat Abu Bakr and ‘Umar and denounced the rest. Ahli Sunnah wal-Jam’aah were in favour of all four caliphs as these caliphs set examples according to the Qur’an and Sunnah and as discussed earlier, the basic features of caliphate was to be guided by these two sources.

The qualities of second half of the Rightly-Guided Caliphate appeared to be gradually receding thus ended the Righteous caliphate as the Muslim community became divided and creating their own agendas, most for their own benefits. After the prophet’s time, it was God’s will that the same legacy is carried on by deserving persons, who could take up the khilafah to continue the tradition started by the prophet. Ultimately, the four of them were the closest companions to the Prophet and they were eager to follow in his footsteps. None of them assumed the pretensions of the latter day “kings” and “sultans” of a decadent age.

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Will I meet you again?
I'll be missing you for a year...
Patiently waiting for you once more...

Have a well-spent last day of Ramadhan, everyone...