The Second Path

The second path is that the Prophet adopted a positive policyconcerning the future of Islam after his death and plannedtowards it by advocating the appointment of a shura (counsel) which would be responsible for the affairs of Islam and leadingthe Ummah. This shura would be composed of the firstgeneration of the faithful, the Muhajirun and the Ansar, whowould represent the Ummah, while formulating the foundationsfor the future government and for the leadership of Islam as itevolved further.It is obvious, however, that the nature of things and the actualevents which took place concerning the Prophet, the da'wah andthe faithful refute this hypothesis and disprove the claim that theProphet followed this method and sought to invest the leadershipof Islam immediately after his death to the Ummah as representedin a shura composed of the initial generation of the Muhajirunand the Ansar.We shall now examine some of the points which clarify this:( 1 ) .

Had the Prophet adopted a positive attitude towards thefuture of the da'wah and intended that a shura be set upimmediately after his death and that the leadership of the da'wahbe handed over to someone elected according to this principle,he would have found it absolutely necessary to educate theUmmah and the faithful concerning the principles of shura withits rules and details, and to give it a form which reflected thedivine and holy sanction, while also preparing the Islamicsociety both mentally and spiritually to accept this system. Thiswould have been vital because the Islamic society grew from aconfederacy of clans which had not functioned according to thepolitical principles of shura before Islam, but had in factgenerally functioned according to tribal leadership, in whichpower, wealth and the principles of inheritance had a large partto play.We can easily discover that the Prophet did not seek to educatehis followers concerning the principles, legal details andtheoretical concepts of shura, because such a policy, had it beencarried out, would surely have been reflected and embodied inthe ahadith transmitted from the Prophet, or in the mentality ofthe Ummah, at least as far as the earliest generation is concerned-- the Muhajirun and the Ansar -- who would have been obligedto implement the organization of the shura. We do not,however, find any clearly defined legal evidence from theorganization of a shura in the prophetical ahadith. As for thementality of the Ummah or of the earliest generation thereof wecan find no discernible reflection of any attempt to educate themto accept this.Indeed this generation subscribed to two different trends: thefirst is led by the Ahl al-Bayt (the People of the House of theProphet), while the other is exemplified by those present atas-Saqifa and the khalifah who only arose after the death of theProphet. The first trend was composed of those who believed inthe wisaya and imama, and there is no reflection of any belief inthe concept of shura amongst them. As for those who subscribedto the second trend, all the proofs and arguments whichoccurred during their lifetime and during their careers undoubtedly  indicate that they neither believed in shura norestablished their careers according to it, and the same is true ofthe rest of the groups who were alive at the time of the Prophet'sdeath.The following narrative proves this: when Abu Bakr's illnessbecame acute he appointed Umar ibn al-Khattab and orderedUthman to write down the pledge. So he wrote:'In the Name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate. This isthe pledge of Abu Bakr, the khalifah of the Messenger of Allah, to the believers and Muslims. Peace be upon you, and I extolAllah to you. I hereby appoint Umar ibn al-Khattab as yourliege. So hear and obey!' Then 'Abd ar-Rahman ibn Awf cameto him and said: 'How are you this morning, 0 khalifah of theProphet of Allah?' So he replied: 'I am dying, and you haveaggravated my condition because I appointed one of you andyou have all become upset, as you all aspire to this officeyourselves!' ( 6 )

It is clear from the appointment of this khalifah and from thedisapproval of the opposition that Abu Bakr did not considerthe establishment of a shura but believed that he had the right tostipulate the next khalifah and that this situation obligedobedience on the part of the Muslims. For this reason heordered them to hear and obey, and did not simply nominateUmar, but obliged them to accept his stipulation.We should also point out that Umar himself believed that hehad the right to appoint a khalifah to rule over the Muslims, andappointed a group of six people and charged them withchoosing his successor from amongst themselves, without anyreference to the rights of the rest of the Muslims in this election.Thus the rationale of the function of a shura was not exemplifiedin Umar's appointment of a khalifah to succeed him, just as ithad not been exemplified in the method employed by the firstkhalifah. Indeed, when the people asked Umar about theappointment of the next khalifah, he said: 'If one of two menwere still alive I would charge him with the khalifah, and theyare Salim the freed slave of Abu Hudhayfa, and Abu Ubaydaal-Jarrah. For if Salim was still alive I would not havedesignated a shura.' ( 7 )

Also Abu Bakr told 'Abd ar-Rahman ibn Awf, while conversingwith him on his deathbed: 'I wish I had asked the Prophet ofAllah about the appointment of a successor so that nobodycould have contested it.' ( 8 )

Furthermore one of those present when the Ansar assembled atas-Saqifa to appoint Sa'd ibn Ubada, said: 'If the Muhajirunfrom Quraysh disagree they Will say, "We are the Muhajirun andwe are his clan and his partisans." But some of the Ansar said,"So we shall say, "We shall have a khalifah and you shall have akhalifah. For we will never be content with anything other thanthis!"'When Abu Bakr spoke to them he said: 'We are the Muslimsand the Muahjirun who were the first to adopt Islam, and forthis reason the people must follow us, because we are the clan ofthe Prophet of Allah and of pure Arab lineage.'And when the Ansar suggested that the khalifah should alternatebetween the Muhajirun and the Ansar, Abu Bakr rejected it,saying: 'When the Prophet of Allah came to the Arabs theyfound it difficult to leave the religion of their forefathers anddiffered and disagreed with him, then Allah chose the firstMuhajirun to believe in him from his people, and they becamethe first to worship Allah in this world, and were his partisansand kinsfolk, who have the most right to rule after him, whichwould only be disputed by the unjust.'But Al-Habbab ibn al-Mundhir, who encouraged the people intheir determination, said: 'Stand firmly in support of your claim,for these people are under your care and protection, and if theyrefuse we shall have a khalifah and they shall have one!'So Umar replied and said: 'Impossible! Two swords cannot besheathed in one scabbard. So only the false claimant, thedeviant, or someone willing to risk his own destruction woulddispute with us concerning the rule of Muhammad and hislegacy, for we are his partisans and his clan.' ( 9 )

If we wish to scrutinize this point we must take into considerationthe method of appointment used by the first and secondkhulafah; the fact that this method was not rejected; theprevalent atmosphere which surrounded the opposing factionsof the leading personalities of the Muhajirun and the Ansar onthe day of as-Saqifa; the obvious inclinations of the Muhajirun indeciding that the authority should rest with them and not withthe Ansar; the emphasis which they placed upon the principle ofinheritance which gave the clan of the Prophet the most right tosuccession; the willingness of many of the Ansar to accept theidea of two khulafah - one of whom would be from the Ansar;who won the khilafan on that day; and that he regretted nothaving asked the Prophet about his successor.In fact all this proves, without a shade of doubt, that this firstgeneration of the Islamic Ummah, which also included thosewho came to power after the death of the Prophet, did not giveany thought to the concept of shura as regards the appointmentof the khilafah nor did they possess a clearly defined understandingof its principles; so how can we believe that the Prophethad instituted a policy of educating his followers concerning thelegal and theoretical concepts of shura, to prepare the Muhajirunand the Ansar to submit the leadership of Islam to one electedaccording to these principles, when we cannot find any actualimplementation of this method, or clear understanding thereof,amongst this generation!Similarly, we cannot believe that the Prophet set down thismethod and its details legally and theoretically, but did notattempt to familiarize and educate the Muslims in this respect.This in fact proves the aforementioned theory that the Prophetdid not present the principle of shura to the Ummah as analternative to more traditional methods, because it is improbablethat such a principle could have been presented and thendisappeared completely from the reports of all sections of thissociety.Other obvious points which further illustrate this are as follows:a)The principle of shura was a new one for this area, which hadnot experienced any sort of highly developed government beforethe time of the Prophet, and thus required extensive educationto acquaint its inhabitants as to its exact nature.b)The shura as a concept was unclear and could not bepresented or put into action without its details, rules, andguidelines for preference in the case of dispute being clarified.Moreover, should these guidelines be based upon numbers andquantities, or upon qualities and experience, or upon otherattributes which would facilitate the clarification of the conceptand render it immediately functional upon the death of theProphet?c)In fact shura was an expression of the Ummah's implementationof authority according to consultation and the determinationof the people concerning their government. The responsibilityfor this lay with all those who were involved in shura. Ifthis shura was legally acceptable and to be put into practiceimmediately after the death of the Prophet, the majority of thepeople should have been previously instructed concerning it, sothat each could adopt a positive attitude towards shura and bearhis share of the responsibility.All these points prove that the Prophet had he wished that ashura be set up to choose a successor after his death, would havehad to disseminate the concept of shura on a wide and profoundscale to prepare his followers psychologically and to fill any gapsin their understanding, while also explaining the details whichwould make it a workable concept. The presentation of thisconcept on this level and wide scale could not have been carriedout by the Prophet and then disappear totally from the minds ofall the Muslims who were alive at the time of the Prophet'sdeath.There is of course the possibility that the Prophet did in factpresent the concept of shura to its best advantage and on thescale which circumstances required so that the Muslims understoodits nature, but that political motivations led to itssuppression so that the Muslims felt forced to hide what theProphet had already taught them about the rules and details ofshura. This theory is, however, impracticable because whatevermay be claimed about them, these motives could not haveinfluenced the ordinary Muslims from among the sahaba whodid not participate in the political events which took placeimmediately after the death of the Prophet, or play an importantrole in the gathering at as-Saqifa, but were rather on-lookers; forsuch people represent a large percentage of every societyirrespective of the political forces therein.if the concept of shura had been presented by the Prophetaccording to the requirements of the society this would not havebeen strictly for the ears of those who had political motives,because many people would have heard about it and it wouldnaturally have been reflected in the actions of the ordinarymembers of the sahaba, just as the prophetical ahadith concerningthe merits of Imam Ali and his designations were actuallyreflected in the attitude of the sahaba themselves. Also why didthese political motives not prevent the ahadith concerning themerits of Imam Ali, his designation and his rights to theleadership from being handed down to us through the sahaba ofthe Prophet, in spite of the fact that these contradicted theprevalent attitudes of the time, when we possess no reportsconcerning the concept of shura? In fact even those whorepresented these prevalent attitudes often found themselves indisagreement concerning political affairs, and would have foundit advantageous to uphold the idea of a shura in opposition tothe other faction. Yet none of these factions used this idea as aprecept which they had heard from the Prophet.An example of this can be found in the position adopted byTalha concerning Abu Bakr's appointment of Umar, and in hisdenial of and obvious anger against this appointment, because,in spite of his rejection, he did not seek to countermand thisappointment by calling for a shura, or to condemn Abu Bakr fordeparting from the teachings of the Prophet concerning shuraand the election of a successor.2. It is also clear that had the Prophet decided to entrust the firstgeneration of Muslims, which included the Muhajirun and theAnsar who were his contemporaries, with the guarding of Islamafter his death and with the responsibility for the continuationof the task of transformation, he would have been obliged toprepare this generation with an extensive ideological andintellectual project so that they could grasp the concept firmlyand practice it according to their awareness thereof, and couldfind solutions to the problems with which Islam would becontinually confronted. This is specially true when we considerthat the Prophet, who foretold the fall of Khusrow and Caesar,knew that Islam was destined to win many victories, and thatthe Islamic Ummah would, in the near future, include newnations and cover a large area and would thus face theresponsibility of proselytizing Islam to these nations andprotecting the Ummah from the negative consequences of suchexpansion, while also applying the legal rules upon the conqueredlands and their inhabitants.In spite of the fact that the first generation of Muslims was thepurest ever to embrace Islam and the most prepared to sacrificefor it, we cannot detect any indication of the specializedpreparation required to assume the guardianship of the faith,nor of wide and profound instructions concerning its exactnature. In fact the factors which illustrate this point are sonumerous that it is impossible to study them in this particularwork.We can, however, point out in relation to this that the numberof texts which are reported from the Prophet by the sahaba inthe sphere of legislation only amounts to a few hundred ahadith,while there were about 12,000 sahaba according to the historybooks. Furthermore, the Prophet lived in a town with thousandsof them and prayed with them in the same masjid morning andevening, so why can we not find some indication of specializedpreparation amongst these people?It is well-known that the sahaba refrained from asking theProphet questions to the extent that all of them would wait untila bedouin came from outside Medina to ask a question and thenlisten to the Prophet's reply, because they considered a questionunnecessary if it concerned something that had not yet takenplace.For this reason Umar once announced from the minbar: 'ByAllah, man is forbidden to ask questions concerning what hasnever existed, for indeed the Prophet clarified what is inexistence.' ( 10 )

And he added: 'It is not permissible for one to askquestions about what has never existed, for Allah has given Hisjudgement upon all things that exist.' Also a man came toUmar's son one day and asked him about something andUmar 's son told him: 'Do not ask about what has never existedfor I have heard Umar cursing one who asks regarding what hasnever happened.' ( 11 )

There was also a man who asked Ubayy ibnKa'b about a problem and he said: '0 my son, does this affairwhich you asked me about exist?' He replied: 'No.' So theformer said: 'If that is the case, leave this question until it doesexist.' ( 12 )

One day Umar was reading the Qur'an and came to the ayah:'And We caused to grow therein seeds, vines, herbs, olive trees,palms and gardens (which were) profuse, fruitful and verdant(abban).' ( 13 )

So someone said: 'We know all of this, but what isabban?' Then Umar said: 'This, in the Name of Allah, is anirrelevant question, and it is not important whether you knowthe meaning of abban or not. Follow what is clear in the Bookand practise it, and leave what you do not know to Allah.'We can thus discern that the sahaba tended to desist fromquestions other than those concerning clearly defined andexistent problems. It was in fact this tendency that led to thescarcity of legislative texts reported on the authority of theProphet and later necessitated the consultation of sources otherthan the Qur'an and the Sunnah, such as legal discretion(istihsan) and analogy (qiyas), and the other features ofindependent judgement (ijtihad)  which combine to form thepersonal interpretation of the mujtahid, which can allow theman's personality, his tastes and his personal understanding toenter into the legislative act.Such a tendency is, of course, diametrically opposed to theprocess of personal and ideological preparation which wouldhave required the extensive education of this generation, whilealso requiring that they be acquainted with the legal stipulationsconcerning the problems which they would face when involvedin the leadership.Just as the sohaba refrained from asking questions to theProphet they also chose not to record his ahadith in writing, inspite of the fact that the ahadith constituted the second Islamicsource and that this was the only way to preserve it and preventdistortion. Indeed, Al-Hirawi expressed openly his disparagementof the oral tradition on the authority of Yahya ibn Sa'idfrom 'Abd Allah ibn ad-Dinar, saying that neither the sahabanor the next generation wrote down the ahadith but transmittedthem orally and learnt them by heart, except for the book aboutthe alms tax (kitab as-sadaqat). In fact, according to the Tabaqatof lbn Sa'd, the second khalifah thought regarding the bestposition to adopt concerning the Sunnah of the Prophet for awhole month, but finally announced his prohibition of  thedocumentation thereof. Thus the Sunnah of the Prophet, whichwas the most important Islamic source after Al-Qur'an al-Karim,was destined to suffer arbitrarily from forgetfulness, distortionand the death of those who had learnt the traditions by heart(huffaz) for nearly 150 years.The only exceptions to this were the Ahl al-Bayt who appliedthemselves to the documented recording of ahadith from theearliest period, and we know from the numerous ahadithreported on the authority of the Imams of the Ahl al-Bayt thatthey possess a weighty book which had been dictated by theProphet of Allah and written by the hand of Ali ibn Abi Talib,and which included all the Sunnah of the Prophet of Allah.Do you, by Allah, believe that this naive group of people -- ifthey were in fact naive -- who refrained from asking questionsabout matters which had not yet occurred and forbade thedocumentation of the Sunnah of the Prophet after he hadpronounced it were capable of guiding the new religion or ofleading it through the most important and difficult stages of itslong history? Or do you, by Allah, believe that the Prophet lefthis Sunnah to posterity without ensuring its organization anddocumentation, although he had commanded his followers topractice it? Furthermore, had he really arranged for the conceptof a shua, would it not have been necessary to delineate its rulesand to organize his Sunnah, so that the shura could progressaccording to a definite programme in which personal desireswould have no part to play? Or is it that the only rationalinterpretation of this is that the Prophet had prepared Imam Alito assume the leadership after his death and entrusted him withhis complete Sunnah and taught him 1,000 types of knowledge?In fact, the events which took place after the death of theProphet proved that the Muhajirun and the Ansar had notreceived any sort of instruction concerning many of themomentous problems which the da'wah had to face after thetime of the Prophet so that neither the khalifah nor the centralgovernment who supported him had a clear idea as to how thelands won by the Islamic conquests should be dealt withaccording to the Shari'ah, whether these lands should be dividedamongst the fighting forces or should be regarded as endowments(auqaf)  for the good of all Muslims. For it is surelyinconceivable that the Prophet assured the Muslims that theywould conquer the lands of Khusrow and Caesar and intendedthat the Muhajirun and the Ansar should lead the da'wah andhandle the problems arising from these victories when he didnot acquaint them with the legal premises which were necessaryto control the large proportion of the world which was to comeunder Islamic rule.Indeed we can go even further and illustrate that the generationwhich was contemporary to the Prophet did not even possess aclearly defined picture of the religious matters which theProphet had practised hundreds of times within the sight andhearing of the sahaba.A good example of this is the case of the prayers said over adead man (salat aI-mayyit), a practice which the Prophet hadcarried out publicly on hundreds of occasions, performing it asone of the funeral cortege with the funeral escort and those whooffered up prayers. Yet in spite of this, it appears that the sahabadid not consider it necessary to note the form of this ritecarefully as long as the Prophet led the prayer, while theyfollowed him step by step. Because of this they fell intodisagreement after the death of the Prophet as to the number oftakbir (to say Allahu Akbar) repeated in the salat al-mayyit.At-Tahawi reported from Isma'il saying:'When the Prophet of Allah died, the people differed as to howmany takbir should be said over the bier. One man would say, 'Iheard the Prophet of Allah say Allahu Akbar seven times.,,While another said, "I heard the Prophet of Allah say AllahuAkbar five times" and a third would say, "I heard the Prophet ofAllah say Allahu Akbar four times." So they differed openlyuntil the death of Abu Bakr and when Umar became khalifahand perceived their disagreement he became grieved and sent forone of the sahaba of the Prophet of Allah, and said, "You arethe sahaba of the Prophet of Allah! When you differ before thepeople they shall differ after you, and when you agree upon amatter the people shall agree upon it. So consider what you shallagree upon." And it was as if he had awakened them. So theyreplied, "It shall be as you wish, 0 Leader of the Faithful.' ( 14 )

Thus we can see that the sahaba depended on the Prophetduring his lifetime and did not feel that it was immediatelynecessary to study the rules and concepts closely as long as theywere under his protection.You may think that the picture which has been painted of thesahaba and of the points which illustrate their inability to rulecontradict our belief that the prophetical programme ofinstruction achieved a high level of success and produced anawesome and religious generation. In reply to this we mustpoint out that in studying the actual nature of the medialgeneration who were the Prophet's contemporaries we have notmentioned anything which would clash violently with thepositive appraisal of the prophetical instructions which heapplied during his noble life. Because, while we believe that theprophetical instructions were a unique and divine example andan outstanding religious revelation in the history of propheticalacts, we have found that the belief in this and the attainment ofa fair appraisal of the outcome of these instructions does notdepend upon the observation of results without reference to thecircumstances which surrounded these instructions, nor uponobservations of quantity separated from those of quality. Inorder to clarify this we shall cite the following example.We shall assume that there is a teacher who is teaching anumber of students the English language and literature, and thatwe want to assess his teaching potential. It is not sufficientsimply to scrutinize the students' standard of cultural knowledgeor their familiarity with the English language and its literature.We must also take into consideration the time for which theteacher has been teaching these students, their previousexperience, their proximity to or distance from the atmosphereof the English language and literature, the size of the difficultiesand exceptional problems which confront the teaching processand hinder its natural course, the targets which the teacheraspired to when teaching the literature of this language to hisstudents, and the final outcome of the teaching process whencompared to many other types of instruction.

And when assessing the prophetical instructions we must takeinto consideration the following points: ( 1 )

The short length of time in which the Prophet was actuallycarrying out this plan of instruction, which did not exceed twodecades, as far as his earliest sahaba, who accompanied him atthe beginning of his mission were concerned, and did not exceeda single decade for the vast majority of the Ansar, or three orfour years for the large number of converts to Islam from thetime of the Truce of al-Hudaybiyya until the Conquest ofMakkah. ( 2 )

The previous intellectual spiritual, religious and behaviouralenvironment in which these people lived before the Prophetstarted his mission, and the empty simplicity and aimlessnesswhich confronted them in various spheres of their lives. I do notthink it necessary to illustrate this point further because it isself-evident. Islam was not a superficial, reformatory process insociety, but was rather a radical and revolutionary processaimed at the building of a new society, which implied a totalconceptual change in attitudes between the previous and newenvironment, to which the Prophet directed all his efforts. ( 3 )

The events and political and military confrontations whichbedevilled that era on various different fronts and made therelationship between the Prophet and his sahaba distinct fromthat of a person like Prophet 'Isa (Jesus) and his disciples, forthis relationship was not one of a teacher or instructor whocould devote his time totally to his students, but was in fact thatof a Prophet who was an instructor while also the militaryleader and head of State.( 4 ) The social and religious conflict which arose from closecontact with the Ahl al-Kitab (the People of the Book), and withvarious different religious cultures, for this contact and theopposition raised by those who opposed the new faith and wereeducated according to older religious culture proved a source ofunrest and continual provocation. Indeed every one of us knowsthat this resulted in the Jewish intellectual trend which wasinfiltrated accidentally or purposely into the sphere of speculation,and a close scrutiny of Al- Qur'an al-Karim is enough toillustrate the extent of the danger posed by the counterrevolutionand the extensive involvement of revelation in observing it anddisputing its concepts. ( 5 )

The fact that the target which the Great Teacher was tryingto attain generally was, at this stage, the creation of a sound,popular framework which would make it possible for theleadership of the new message to interact with the Ummah andbe closely involved in its experiences, both during and after thelifetime of the Prophet. But the target was not, at this stage,theelevation of the Ummah to the level of leadership itself, as thisrequired complete understanding of Islam, comprehensiveknowledge of its rules and total awareness of its concepts. Thelimitation of his target at this stage to the level which we havementioned was logical, because the nature of the process ofchange dictated it. For it would have been illogical to conceivethis target other than within the bounds of possibility or withinthe limitations which we have mentioned, considering thecircumstances faced by Islam at this time, and the ideological,spiritual, intellectual and social differences between the newreligion and the prevalent corrupt reality of the era, whichwould have made it impossible for the people to raise themselvesto the leadership of this religion after only one or two decades.This point shall be examined further in the next paragraph, inwhich we shall give proofs of the continued responsibilityinvolved as regards the new revolutionary experiment, whichwas illustrated in the leadership of the Ahl al-Bayt, so that thekhilafah of Imam Ali was actually dictated by the logical processof change throughout the history of Islam. ( 6 )

The fact that a great many of the Ummah which was left bythe Prophet were Muslimat al-Fath, that is Muslims whoconverted to Islam after the Conquest of Makkah and after thenew religion had become the most powerful political andmilitary force in the Arabian Peninsula. Naturally, the Prophetwas only destined to limited contact with them in the short timeleft to him after the Conquest, and most of this contact was inhis capacity as ruler. Because of the stage through which theIslamic State was passing the concept of Mu'allifa Qulubuhumappeared, and in order to win over the hearts of people theywere given the right to receive zakat and other measures. Clearlythis section of the Ummah was not separated from the other, butwas an integral part thereof, influencing and being influenced atthe same time.Thus, in the study of these six points, we have discovered thatthe prophetical instructions were actually extremely successfuland brought about a singular transformation within the society,while also producing a virtuous generation who were capable ofrealizing the Prophet's aim as regards the creation of a sound,popular foundation who could rally around the guiding leadershipof the new experience and support it. Because of this wealso find that this generation was capable of performing its roleas the sound, popular foundation as long as mature and guidingleadership was present in the person of the Prophet. Had thisleadership been allowed to take its divine course, this foundationwould have continued to play its correct part, although this doesnot mean that it was actually ready to assume this leadershipitself, or to guide the new experience, because this would haverequired greater spiritual and believing cohesion with Islam, anda stronger and more extensive identification with its rules andconcepts and with the various aspects of its attitudes toward life,while also necessitating a more intense elimination of the ranksof the Ummah which included the munafiqun, the mundisun(infiltrators) and the Mu'allifa Qulubuhum, who were still anumerically and historically important part of this generation,whose negative influences are indicated by the number of versesin Al-Qur'an al-Karim in which especially the munafiqun, theirmachinations and their position are mentioned. There were, ofcourse, some individuals from this generation whose highreligious attainments were formed by this instruction, as theirpersonalities fused in its melting pot, like Salman Farsi, AbuDharr, Ammar and many others.But I would like to point out that the existence of theseindividuals as part of this large generation does not prove thatthis generation had, as whole, attained the level at which thecontrol of this momentous experience could be handed over tothem, according to the principle of shura. Indeed, even themajority of these individual elites did not possess the religiousqualifications which would have made them capable of leadingthe experience as regards its intellectual and cultural features,inspite of their staunch loyalty and profound devotion, becauseIslam is not an ideology made by man whose ideas could bedefined as a result of practical experience, or whose conceptscould be clarified as a result of devoted experimentation. It israther the message of Allah, whose rules and concepts had beenordained and divinely increased with every piece of legislationnecessitated by experience, so the leadership needed to fullycomprehend its statutes and details, and study assiduously itsrules and concepts, otherwise it would be forced to rely uponprevious intellectual ideas and tribal connections, which wouldlead to a break in the continuity of the experience, especiallywhen we remember that Islam was the last of the religions of theheavens and must continue and surpass all temporal, regionaland national laws. It was thus impermissible that the leadership,which would mould the foundations of this eternal religion,should practise a series of mistakes and correct actions, in whichthe mistakes would be accumulated over a period of time untilthey formed a fatal flaw which could threaten the Islamicexperience with decline and destruction.Everything that has gone before proves that the instructionsgiven by the Prophet to the Muhajirun and the Ansar did notreach the level which would have been necessitated by theconscious, intellectual and political preparation required toguide the future path of the da'wah and the process of changewhich had been instigated by the Prophet. It was, in fact,restricted to that required for a conscious, popular foundationwhich could rally to the leadership of the da'wah, both in thepresent and the future.Each assumption which points to the belief that the Prophetintended that the support of the future experience and guardianshipof the da'wah immediately after his death should be vestedin the Muhajirun and the Ansar implicitly involves an idictmentagainst the greatest and most discerning religious leader in thehistory of reformatory movements, because there was no cleardistinction between the understanding necessary for the popularfoundation of the da'wah and that necessary for the guidance ofthe da'wah or its intellectual and political leadership.3. The da'wah was, of course, a reformatory process and aframework for a new way of life, charged with the task ofbuilding a new community and with uprooting all jahiliprinciples and all their foundations.The Islamic Ummah did not, as a whole, live in the shadow ofthis reformatory process for more than a single decade at themost, which is not usually long enough, according to the logic ofideological religions and reformatory beliefs, to raise a generationto the level of awareness and objectivity and freedom from theresidue of past ideas, at which they can grasp the ideas of thenew da'wah, and be capable of assuming the guardianship of themessage, and handling the problems of this da'wah, while alsocontinuing its reformatory process without a leader. In fact thelogic of ideological religions makes it inevitable that the Ummahshould continue under ideological trusteeship for a longerperiod of time, in which it could be raised to the level ofguardianship itselfThis is not something which we have simply inferred, as it wasalso a fact substantiated by the events which took place after thedeath of the Prophet and became clear after half a century orless in the attempts of the Muhajirun and the Ansar to lead andguard the da'wah. For, after less than a quarter of a century ofthis 'guardianship,' the khilafah of this generation and thereligious experience resulting from its leadership were destroyedunder the force of the heavy attacks made upon it by the formerenemies of Islam, but this time from within rather than fromwithout the Islamic experience. These enemies were able toinfiltrate by degrees the weak points of this experience and takeadvantage of the inattentive leadership. Then they usurped thisleadership insolently and violently and forced the Ummah andits original, pioneering generation to renounce its identity andits leadership, while the leadership itself turned into a line ofhereditary kings, infatuated with prestige, who murdered theinnocent, squandered wealth, neglected the rules of Islam,caused its laws to ossify, and fraudulently used the resources ofthe people. Thus the lands conquered by the Muslims becamethe gardens of Quraysh and the khilafah a toy of Banu Umayya.So the true facts of the experience after the death of the Prophetand the results of this quarter century support the previousinference, which emphasized the support for guidance, and theintellectual and political leadership of the Muhajirun and Ansarimmediately after the death of the Prophet was a premature stepwhich was taken before its natural time. It is, however, illogicalthat the Prophet should have taken a step of this kind.