Muslims faced leadership challenges after the Prophet Muhammad’s passing in the seventh century, leading to Abu Bakr’s selection as the first caliph despite support for Ali and sparked the Sunni-Shia divide
When the Prophet Muhammad passed in 632, Muslims grappled with questions about effective leadership. His successor had big shoes to fill and maintain the hard-earned unity and peace the Prophet achieved in Arabia by striking a balance between idealism and pragmatism. The Prophet ended a cycle of warfare and ushered unity, order, peace, and justice by uniting warring tribes and giving them a sense of community.
The Prophet’s son-in-law Ali ibn Abi Talib, known for valour and military leadership, was among the main contenders to succeed him as his closest relative. A Muslim group insisted Ali, who championed social justice and is once believed to have risked his life by sleeping in the Prophet’s bed to deceive his potential assassins, was more qualified for the job.
The Consensus
Ali’s supporters insisted the Prophet wished Ali to succeed him. But Ali was still in his 30s and relatively younger, prompting an elders’ council to pick Abu Bakar as the Prophet’s successor as per tradition despite dissent. Consensus eventually prevailed. Dissenters including Ali accepted Abu Bakr’s leadership. Abu Bakr was chosen taking a cue from the Prophet’s declaration that his community ‘will never agree in error.’
The elders arrived at a consensus that the Prophet’s successor had to lead by example and guide the community in religious and political matters without necessarily extraordinary spiritual qualities. The elders agreed on a single leader as the Prophet’s successor making Abu Bakar the first of the four Khulafa Rashidun (rightly-guided caliphs).
Abu Bakar (632-634) spent his brief reign in consolidation. Umar, Uthman, and Ali followed as caliphs over the next three decades until 661. The caliphs enjoyed a special status as the Prophet’s close companions and for their religious knowledge. They are revered as embodiments of Islam’s early purity and success.
Khulafa Rashidun provided the budding community with leadership and rapid advancement. Umar and Uthman extended the Muslim realm to Iraq, Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Iraq, Persia, and the North African coast. Ali, the last of the four who some believed should have succeeded the Prophet in the first place, eventually took over in 656. He was soon bogged down by the first fitnah, or civil war, in 657.
The Fitnah
The fitnah sparked a chain of events that ultimately cost Ali his life. It was triggered after the revolt of Muawiya, who rose meteorically to become Syria’s governor. Muawiya, a Prophet’s enemy who embraced Islam after Muslims overcame years of persecution and took over Mecca, used Ali’s failure in apprehending his cousin Uthman’s assassins as an excuse to rebel.
Muawiya proved no match to Ali’s might and was forced to seek arbitration during the battle of Siffin near Raqqa in modern-day Syria. Muawiya signalled his intent by charging onto the battlefield with Quran’s pages on their spears when Ali’s army began to have the upper hand. Ali honoured the gesture and this proved to be his undoing. A section of his army revolted over the arbitration and came to be known as Kharijites (seceders).
A Kharijite assassinated Ali in 661. Shias believe, beginning with Ali, Ahl al-Bayt (People of the Prophet’s household), were the true leaders of the community after the Prophet. They argue Ali and his descendants inherited the charisma and spiritual qualities God vested in the Prophet. The Shias insist the Prophet chose Ali as his successor at Ghadir Khumm (the Pool of Khumm) as they stopped for the night at the spring-fed watering hole en route from Mecca after Haj.
The Mawla
The Prophet, who is believed to have ordered a temporary pulpit made of camel saddles placed on top of stacked palm branches, and called Ali to join him there after evening prayers. He is said to have raised Ali’s hand in his own and said: ‘He of whom I am the master [mawla], of him Ali is also the master. God be the friend of he who is his friend, and the enemy of he who is his enemy.’ Shias believed this meant Ali was designated as his khalifa (caliph) or successor and his bloodline would thus be the line of succession.
Sunnis (derived from Sunna or the practice of Muhammad), who opposed the bloodline succession saying it violated the fundamental Islamic principle of equality before God, argued the Prophet’s comments at Ghadir Khumm demonstrated his affection for Ali. They argued it underlined their closeness and Ali’s worthiness.
Shias celebrate the Ghadir Khumm festival to mark Ali’s anointed as the Prophet’s successor rejecting the legitimacy of Abu Bakar, Uthman, and Umar. They see the other three caliphs as ordinary mortals and believe the Prophet’s successor was to have a special relationship with God that Ali, the first male convert to Islam, and his descendants were endowed with.
Shias believe Ahl al-Bayt were divinely favoured to help people strengthen their bond with God and live as per the inner truths of religion. Ali and his descendants were believed to have the ability to understand the deeper meaning of religious teachings as opposed to their outward manifestations as the inheritors of the Prophet’s spiritual qualities.
Ahl al-Bayt are known as the bearers of the Prophet’s light (nur-e-Muhammadi), and as his trustees ‘privy to his esoteric and religious knowledge.’ The Shias revere Ali, known for his chivalry and heroism, as the first of the infallible imams, or leaders, and the Prophet’s successor. They believe that God inspired imams to interpret the Quran error-free.
Ali’s sons, Hasan and Hussain, and Hussain’s descendants over the nine generations became 11 imams as part of the sanctified Chahardah Masum (14 immaculate from sin) group that includes the Prophet and his daughter, Fatima. Muhammad al-Mahdi, the 12th and the last divinely-guided redeemer, is believed to have disappeared in 872 from Askari Mosque in Iraq’s Samarra. He is expected to return to ensure justice and equality before the Judgment Day.
