Al-Siddiqa bint Al-Siddiq





Afternotes​

Excerpt from “”, (Shariati, Ali. "", Amir-Kabir Publishers, 1979)"...when rebuking these clerics and their “Islam of mourning", their rigidity and close-mindedness dressed as taqwa, the most instructive example we have available to us is Sayyidna Ayesha, may Allah be pleased with her. Not only was she to become the closest thing to an authoritative master of Islamic theology following the death of the Prophet, peace be upon him, but her bold leadership in the turbulent times of the first Caliphs would help weld the Ummah together when it seemed most in danger of rupturing. Part of this was due to her status as the favorite wife of the Messenger and daughter of his closest companion, but her skill at guiding the believers was mostly a result of her own iron will as well as the remarkable group of confidants she gathered around herself.The first of these almost-disasters that the Rashidun Caliphate successfully dodged thanks to Ayesha's intervention was the selection of the first successor, but to grasp the fragility of Prophet Muhammad’s community at this time, it is best to consider the period immediately preceding the negotiations around the caliphate. When the Prophet had been confirmed to be dead, moving into the Akhirah as his head rested in Ayesha's lap, many of his companions were in various states of shock and depression: Zaid ibn Haritha was said to have initially been in something of a catatonic state after receiving the news, Ali read Qur’an to himself and paced back and forth in the Masjid nonstop for hours, the stern and trustworthy Umar was completely beside himself and screamed to the crowds that Muhammad had not died but ascended into heaven.When Abu Bakr had arrived from his trip to As-Sunah and heard about Muhammad’s death himself, he went to see the body. After making his own farewell, Abu Bakr tried to calm his old friend and make Umar see reason, but the man went on yelling that he’d punish anyone who said Muhammad had died. Moving a distance away from him before ascending a date palm stump, Abu Bakr began to shout over Umar, famously stating ‘Indeed, whoever worshipped Muhammad, then Muhammad is dead, but whoever worshipped Allah, then Allah is Alive and shall never die.’ After getting the crowd’s attention with this bold statement, he went on to recite a verse from the Qur’an: ‘.’ At this, Umar stopped his yelling, quietly sat down, and cried. The Ummah was one in mourning, but even before the Prophet’s body was lowered into the earth, argument broke out again.Implicit in the conflict over who should lead the Ummah was the unanimous conviction among all Muslims that some kind of popular sanction was required to approve the candidate. A similarly universal sentiment was the fact that a shura council of prominent companions representing the various groups of Muslims - the Qurayshi tribes, the Banu Bakr tribes, the tribes of Ta’if, the Maadani tribes, the non-Arab converts and others - was the correct method by which to gauge the popular support for each candidate. How truly representative the council would be was the question of the day, with Umar and Abu Bakr stating that the political situation was incredibly precarious and too much time had been lost already to delay the shura until all the possible candidates had been summoned. They moved to hold a shura with the other Makkan delegates and the Khazraj from Madinah without collecting the other two most obvious contenders: Ali ibn Abi Talib, the Prophet’s son-in-law/cousin and Zaid ibn Haritha, the man who had been raised by the Prophet Muhammad himself.Although Ayesha and Ali had a chilly relationship at best, she was fond of Zaid ibn Haritha, who she saw as an uncle and took as a close confidant after Zaid and his son Usama were one of the few Companions to publicly swear that they believed Ayesha over her accusers during the earliest days of the infidelity scandal. Besides her regard for Zaid as a person, Ayesha also didn't think that it was prudent to alienate not only one, but two popular men closely associated with the Prophet at one stroke. While Zaid and Ali washed the body of the Messenger in preparation for his burial, Ayesha called on her friend Usama ibn Zaid. She asked him about his father’s stance on the election and where Zaid currently was. When Usama replied that Zaid was not particularly interested in the mantle of the Caliph, but would almost certainly be incensed if he was cut out of the decision-making process, Ayesha dispatched him to collect Zaid (who had only just finished washing the body) and bring him to the shura as quickly as possible. When the ex-slave turned community leader arrived at the shura, he was welcomed by Umar and Abu Bakr, but instead of returning their salams, Zaid loudly commanded the proceedings to halt. Enraged by the fact that he had been summoned to the Shura but his beloved friend and foster brother Ali was not yet there. To avoid open opposition to the ruling of the shura on the part of both Zaid and Ali, the council was forced to wait until Ali had completed the rest of the pre-burial rituals and joined them to begin.Preferred by many of the companions for his status as Muhammad’s best friend (including Zaid himself) and aided by the fact that those Muslims who felt that someone more familially connected to the Prophet should be picked split their vote between the former foster son Zaid and the son-in-law/cousin Ali, Abu Bakr came out as the Caliph when the shura adjourned. Satisfied that justice had been done and the Ummah’s voice had been heard, both Zaid and Ali immediately pledged their allegiance to Abu Bakr, thus ensuring that a non-controversial succession would take place."Hey, y'all! Hope you're enjoying the TL so far. The ascension of Abu Bakr was covered relatively rapidly, but that's mostly because the plot would be better served dealing with updates in a more sweeping fashion until the Ridda Wars arrive. As far as butterflies, there's a few already flapping, ones that are going to have someweighty consequences. In OTL, the shura council happens early like Umar and Abu Bakr planned, but Ayesha doesn't interfere since she wasn't about to go to bat for the man who advised Prophet Muhammad to divorce her during the false charges of infidelity scandal. This leads Ali, angry that he'd been left out of the shura's decision, to refuse to acknowledge the legitimacy of Abu Bakr's caliphate for about six months, after which Umar's declared intention to war with Ali if he didn't stop fracturing the Ummah and Abu Bakr's impassioned pleas to rejoin the community convinced him to accept Abu Bakr. However, this still left a lot of resentment over the whole episode within Ali's family, resentment that has been butterflied away TTL by Ayesha's timely intervention and Zaid's firm insistence on having Ali (who he saw as a little brother of sorts) present at the shura.