112 No god but God
consensus as to who that leader should be. The Ansar in Medina had
already taken the initiative of choosing a leader from among them-
selves: a pious early Medinan convert named Sa‘d ibn Ubayda, the
Shaykh of the Khazraj. But while the Medinans may have thought
their sheltering of the Prophet had given them a preeminent position
within the Ummah, the Meccans, and especially the former Qurayshi
aristocracy who still held sway in Mecca, would never submit to being
ruled by a Medinan. Some members of the Ansar tried to offer a com-
promise by choosing co-leaders, one from Mecca and one from Me-
dina, but that too was unacceptable to the Quraysh.
It quickly became clear that the only way to maintain both a sense
of unity and some measure of historical continuity in the Ummah was
to choose a member of the Quraysh to succeed Muhammad, specifi-
cally one of the Companions who had made the original Hijra to
Medina in 622 (the Muhajirun). Muhammad’s clan, the Banu Hashim—
now dubbed the ahl al-bayt, or the “the People of the House [of the
Prophet]”—agreed that only a member of the Quraysh could lead the
Ummah, though they believed the Prophet would have wanted one of
them to succeed him. Indeed, quite a large number of Muslims were
convinced that during his final pilgrimage to Mecca, Muhammad had
publicly designated his cousin and son-in-law, Ali, to be his successor.
According to traditions, on his way back to Medina, Muhammad had
stopped at an oasis called Ghadir al-Khumm and declared, “Whoever
has me as his patron, has Ali as his patron (mawla).” Yet there were per-
haps an equal number of Muslims who not only denied the events at
Ghadir al-Khumm but who also vehemently rejected the privileged
status of the Banu Hashim as the ahl al-bayt.
To settle matters once and for all, Abu Bakr, Umar, and a promi-
nent Companion named Abu Ubayda met with a group of Ansar lead-
ers for a traditional shura, or tribal consultation (actually, the three
men “crashed” a shura that was already taking place among the
Ansar). And while an enormous amount of ink has been spilled over
this historic meeting, it is still not clear exactly who was present or
what took place. The only thing about which scholars can be certain is
that at its conclusion, Abu Bakr, spurred on by Umar and Abu
Ubayda, was selected to be the next leader of the Muslim community