Destiny Disrupted

BIRTH OF THE KHALIFATE 35

has survived. We have only the story of the story of the story, a sifting

process that has drawn the mythological significance of the raw events to

the surface. Here, then, is that story of the succession.

THE FIRST KHALIFA (I I-I 3 AH)

The moment Mohammed died, the community faced an overwhelming
problem. It wasn't just "Who is our next leader?" but "What is our next
leader?" When a saint dies, people can't simply name some other saint in his
place, because such figures aren't created by election or appointment, they
just emerge; and if they don't, oh well; people may be disappointed, but life
goes on. When a king dies, by contrast, no one says, "Wouldn't it be nice if
someday we had another king?" The gap must be plugged at once.
When Prophet Mohammed died, it was like a saint dying but it was
also like a king dying. He was irreplaceable, yet someone had to take his
place. Without a leader, the Umma could not hold together.
The new leader had to be more than a king, however, because this was
not a community like any other. It was, its members believed, the embod-
iment of the revelations, existing to express Allah's will and thereby trans-
form the world. The leader of this community could not get by on brains,
bravery, strength, and such traits. He had to have some special religious
grace or power. Yet Mohammed's successor would not be a God-guided
messenger, because Mohammed himself had said there would be no more
of those. So if the leader wouldn't be a king or a God-guided messenger,
what would he be?
Curiously enough, the nascent Muslim community had given no con-
sideration to this question before the Prophet died; and it gave no consid-
eration to it in the hours immediately after his death either, for this was
not a time for grand philosophical discussions. With the Prophet's body
scarcely cold, Abu Bakr heard a disturbing report: the native Muslims of
Medina were meeting to elect a leader of their own, as if they and the im-
migrants from Mecca were separate groups: here, quite possibly, was the
beginning of the end of the Umma!
Abu Bakr gathered some of Mohammed's closest companions, crashed
the meeting, and begged the Medinans to reconsider. Muslims should elect
a single leader for the whole community. He pleaded, not a prophet, not a