The first of the "rightly guided caliphs" was Abū Bakr, who had been one of Muhammad's earliest followers. Like his three successors in the caliphate, he was considered one of the "Companions of the Prophet." His rule lasted only two years (632-634). But his two years were very important in establishing the instituiton of the caliphate and in holding the Arab tribes together while expanding the power of the Muslims with new conquests.
Abū Bakr's daughter ‛Ā'iša was one of Muhammad's wives, making Abū Bakr the Prophet's father-in-law. Though the partisans of Άli, the fourth caliph, would later claim that Muhammad had designated Άli as his successor, there was no clear process or public declaration of a mode of succession. Muhammad had selected Abū Bakr to be in charge of his final pilgrimage to Mecca and had designated him an "imām," or leader of prayer, shortly before he died. He was also from the Quyrash tribe and was one of the "emigrants" who had followed Muhammad to Mecca in the hiğra.
Whatever Muhammad's intention, Abū Bakr took on the leadership role, which he evidently assumed peacefully with no major opposition.
Hans Küng in Der Islam (2004) calls atention to a couple of distinctive aspects of the caliphate at this stage:
(1) The caliph was seen as the deputy of the Prophet, not as a leader by virtue of any direct divine revelation. "There was no longer any self-renewing legitimation by new divine revelations."
(2) The establishment of the caliphate represented the substitution of a leadership office for the charismatic leadership the Prophet had exercised.
The caliph became the political leader, but the Prophet himself was still seen as the religious leader. Abū Bakr declared that he sought to emulate the "sunna," the exemplary standard set by Muhammad. The "sunna" also referred to the Prophet's relatives, who initially carried on an important religious function in the community. As Küng says, the Qur'ān, the collection of Muhammad's divine revelations, became "in the long run the ultimate religious (but indirectly also the political) authority."
Hans Küng takes the conventional Sunni viewof the meaning of the caliphal title. But Patricia Crone in God's Caliph (1986) argues that the title used by the rightly guided caliphs and the Umayyads was khalifāt Allāh, or deputy of God. She says that during the Άbbasid caliphate, the title khalifāt rasūl Allāh, or successor of the messenger of God, also came to be used. In traditional Sunni historiography, the rightly guided caliphs were said to have used khalifāt rasūl Allāh, and that it was the first Umayyad caliph Mu'āwiya I who first adopted khalifāt Allāh. But she discounts this, arguing that the evidence indicates that the rightly guided caliphs used it, as well. This title would imply a greater authority to speak on religious matters than the khalifāt rasūl Allāh title.
Abū Bakr continued to unite the Arab tribes, including Beduins who began to fall away from the Muslim umma (community) after the Prophet's death. And he led them in successful military drives against neighboring tribes. Most of Arabia was thus brought into the Islamic camp. And Abū Bakr led the first Muslim war against the Byzantine Empire, which ended in Muslim victory at the battle of Ağnādain in 634.
Tags: abu bakr, a'isa, islam, hans küng's der islam, rightly guided caliphs, patricia crone
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