The Caliphate of Islam Hazrat Ali (ra) – The Mortal Choice
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The 4th Caliphate of Islam Hazrat Ali (ra) – The Mortal Choice
A time to reflect on the differences which have grown in Ahlus Sunnah today
13th Rajab was the day when Sayyiduna Ali bin Abi Talib (ra) was born - a sacred personality whose status & excellence in this world and the next come to us via multiple Sahih Hadiths, and there cannot be a denial of the same. However, in this article, we'll take a look at the challenges that the Lion of Allah Sayyiduna Ali (ra) had to face during his reign as Ameer ul Mu'mineen (the Commander of believers).
If anyone thinks that Caliphate was a pleasant position to operate, it is incorrect, especially for all the Rashidoon Caliphs. After the martyrdom of Hazrat Uthman bin Affan (ra), the third caliph, by the rebels, the Muslim Ummah thought who will lead them next.
When Sayyiduna Ali bin Abi Talib (ra) was offered Caliphate, he refused. He was very disturbed with what had happened – the martyrdom of Sayyiduna Uthman (ra). He had placed his beloved sons: Sayyiduna Hasan (ra) and Sayyiduna Husain (ra) on the doors of Sayyiduna Uthman’s (ra) house to guard the Caliph, apart from being the first to strongly denounce the killing of the Caliph. Against the demands, Sayyiduna Ali (ra) rather wanted to be the advisor to the newly elected Caliph then – a position that he held during the reign of the first three Caliphs. Other great Sahaba like Sayyiduna Talha (ra), and Sayyiduna Zubair (ra) were also offered the position of the caliph, but they too refused.
The rebels had taken control of all the streets of Madinah – most of them were from Egypt and Basra, and they gave Sahaba a day’s time to decide on the Caliph’s election, else they wanted to take the matter in their own hands.
Sayyiduna Ali (ra) as we all know was an epitome of Islamic doctrines. And in Islam a prospective leader doesn’t seek authority – and none of the four Rashidoon Caliphs sought it. This concept comes from a hadith; the Holy Prophet ﷺ said: ” لا تطلبوا الامارة” (Do not seek political authority). Anyway, all the then remaining sahaba gathered in Masjid an-Nabawi Shareef and the most favorite candidate for the Caliphate was Sayyiduna Ali (ra).
He finally agreed & accepted the post when even the surviving Badri sahaba wanted him to be the Caliph – but obviously he was not happy with what was going on then, in the Islamic lands, especially in Madinah. He went to the Masjid, took to the pulpit and rendered a speech, glorified Allah the Almighty, and said: “O Muslims! Are you all pleased with me being the commander over you?” They gave a positive response, and the first to pledge among all was Sayyiduna Talha bin Ubaidullah (ra), then Sayyiduna Zubair bin al-Awwam (ra), and then the rest of the companions and Tabaeen followed in this sacred act.
When Sayyiduna Ali (ra) descended from the pulpit, most of the people were discussing the martyrdom of Sayyiduna Uthman (ra) – few of them were justifying it, others said that it was an unjust action. When Sayyiduna Ali (ra) saw that they were disagreeing on the killing of Sayyiduna Uthman (ra), he once again took to the pulpit and said: “O people! Come to me, use your ears and eyes and listen attentively to what I say. Allah’s creation is of five kinds, and there is no sixth kind. There are angels flying with their wings, or there were prophets who were led by Allah, or somebody is working hard in obedience to Allah (a mujtahid), or somebody who is just hoping for Allah’s forgiveness, or somebody is falling short and is going to hell. There must be somebody who disciplines this Ummah in two ways: with a sword or with a whip. And a leader has to exercise both. So accept Allah’s concealment of your sins.” With this speech, Sayyiduna Ali (ra) was trying to firstly bring the Ummah together and unite them. Everyone who listened to him were quiet as they listened to this unexpected speech, which made them think and categorize themselves as per the aforementioned five parameters.
Additionally, remember that this was all going on 1400 years ago; there was no internet, and it used to take weeks and months for news to reach other places; there were rumors all over too. Moreover, people in Egypt, Iraq and some other places were not accepting Sayyiduna Ali’s (ra) authority. So the first challenge for Sayyiduna Ali (ra) after becoming a caliph was to unite the Ummah and figure out those who martyred Sayyiduna Uthman (ra). So he sent letters to the then governors of different Islamic lands, including Sayyiduna Sa’ad bin Abi Waqas (ra), Sayyiduna Muhammad bin Maslamah (ra), Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Umar (ra), Sayyiduna Uthamah bin Zayd (ra) – all of them accepted Sayyiduna Ali (ra) as the caliph, but reasoned from the basis of their personal discussions with Sayyiduna Muhammad ﷺ that they will not participate in internal struggles with Muslims, though they were happy to participate and give their unconditional support to expand the Islamic abodes.
*A very important point:* A lot of non-Muslim historians have their own hidden agendas, but these differences amongst the Sahaba were not the differences of egos and taking sides.
But what were Sayyiduna Ali (ra) to do, when the situations seemed to be so impossible when there were rebels – and then there was Muslims’ passion of finding out the of the killers of Sayyiduna Uthman (ra). This demand grew to a great deal until people joined under the banner of Sayyida Ayesha (ra) – she was not against Sayyiduna Ali (ra), but she clearly hated those ruffians who killed Sayyiduna Uthman (ra), and were now supporting Sayyidun Ali (ra). Sayyida Ayesha (ra) performed Umrah, and during the time, a lot of people supported her stand.
Sayyiduna Muawiyah (ra), another companion of Prophet Muhammed ﷺ was the then governor of Syria. There are several hadiths in Musnad of Ahmad bin Hambal (rh) which denote Prophet Muhammed ﷺ praying for him as: “O Allah! Teach him the book and calculation, and protect him from the evil of Your punishment”. Sayyiduna Muawiyah’s (ra) concern was also to ensure the tracing of Sayyiduna Uthman’s (ra) killers. If you read even the early historians, it shows that Sayyiduna Muawiyah (ra) was not trying to replace Sayyiduna Ali (ra) as the Caliph, and the Taba’ee Abu Muslim al-Khawlani’s (rh) conversations with Sayyiduna Muawiyah (ra) say so, wherein Sayyiduna Muawiyah (ra) admitted that he is not equal to Sayyiduna Ali (ra) but that he needs the killers of Sayyiduna Uthman (ra) to be brought to trial. In due course of events, there were clashes between the forces of Sayyiduna Ali (ra) and Sayyiduna Muawiyah (ra), but seeing nothing moving further, Sayyiduna Muawiyah (ra) proposed an arbitration which led to the uprising of the Khawarij – 12,000 men – mostly central Arabians from Sayyiduna Ali’s (ra) army opposed their leader and said that it was not permissible for Sayyiduna Ali (ra) to accept such an arbitration – paving the way for another problem for Sayyiduna Ali (ra) to tackle. This battalion marched out to a place called Haroorah (so they were also called as the Harooriyyah), and their first leader was Abdullah bin Wahab ar-Rasibi. These men were absolutists, extremists, literalists – they opposed both Sayyiduna Ali (ra) and Sayyiduna Muawiyah (ra), and one of these people made a mortal attack on Sayyidun Ali (ra).
Ibn Muljam, one of the Kharijites, was in love with a Kharijite woman called Khuttaam, reported to be very attractive. He proposed marriage to her but she says: “I will marry you in exchange for these things: I want three thousand silver coins, I want a male and a female slave, and I want you to kill Ali bin Abi Talib (ra).”
In order to win her confidence, Ibn Muljam poisoned his sword, entered the Masjid of Kufa (Sayiduna Ali [ra] had made Kufa his capital during the later times of his Caliphate), attacked Sayyiduna Ali (ra) with an enormous blow; the Lion of Allah Sayyiduna Ali (ra) passed away shortly after from this mortal world. Ibn Muljam was put on trial and executed. Sayyiduna Ali (ra) was martyred and alhamdulillah none from the Muslims did so, not from any of the mainstream Muslims; it was one of the wild, materialistic Kharijite – his action was as if it was an al-Qaeda or an ISIS assassin’s suicide bombing mission– but definitely it was a traumatic event and a catastrophe for the entire Muslim Ummah.
But another point to note. The mill of Islam goes round and round and continues and things do not fall apart. Ultimately, the Ummah did hold on to the mainstream Islam alhamdulillah.
The life and caliphate of Imam Ali (ra) tells us that things often do not work the way we might want it to. Sometimes there are tragedies which take place, relationships don’t work etc. This is the nature of dunia. This is apart from the great spiritual and chivalrous mastery which Sayyiduna Ali (ra) bore in his sacred personality – his closeness to Rasoolullah ﷺ, his secretiveness and close proximity to the first three Caliphs cannot ever be forgotten.
Some of the beautiful poetries on Sayyiduna Ali (ra) are in West African languages like Wolof and Mandinka, and in Urdu, Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Chinese, Uzbek (eg: Ali Sheer Nabaaee), which show his nobility, flawlessness, the difficulties he was placed in his caliphate and his tragic end.
To fanatically hate Sayyiduna Ali (ra) is wrong, and to madly love him and consider him divine is equally so. Both of these extremes take people away from the truth. And that’s what he says in Nahj ul Balaghah: “Two groups of people should be destroyed (alienated). He who loves me in excess so much that this love takes him away from what is correct. And he who hates me so much so that the hatred also takes him away from the truth. The best person with regards to me is the one who follows the middle course, so be with him, and be with the great majority of the Muslims, as Allah’s protection is with the maintenance of unity. You should beware of division, because the one who gets isolated from the group (of majority) is a prey to the Shaytan, just like a sheep is a prey to a wolf.”
May Allah the Almighty fill our hearts with the unconditional love of Sayyiduna Ali (ra), aameen!
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