Documents of the Right Word

twenty people to follow him. Later he argeed to Abû Bekr’s
caliphate, though unwillingly.”
The truth, in contrast, is this: When the Messenger of Allah
‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wa sallam’ passed away, all the Sahâba were so
deeply grieved that they were at a loss as to what to do. The
disastrous affliction descended so heavily, so painfully on them
that some of them became tongue-tied while some others felt so
weak that they could not even stand up to go out. The fire of
bereavement burned hadrat Alî, too, so he did not know what to
do. Hadrat ’Umar was so confused that he took his sword and
walked about in the streets, saying, “I shall behead anyone who
says that the Messenger of Allah is dead.” Malevolent munâfiqs,
on the other hand, attempted to exploit this perturbation. Seeing
this tumult, Abû Bekr as-Siddîq entered the mosque, mounted the
minbar, and made the following speech: “O Sahâba of the
Messenger of Allah! We worship Allâhu ta’âlâ. He is always alive.
He will never die. He will never cease to exist. The thirtieth âyat
of Zumer sûra purports, ‘O my beloved Prophet! One day you
shall certainly die. And certainly they, too, shall die.’ As is
declared by Allâhu ta’âlâ, our master, Rasûlullah ‘sall-Allâhu
alaihi wa sallam’, has passed away.” Making effective statements
of this sort, he admonished them. This speech eliminated the
confused state among the As-hâb-i-kirâm and made them to come
to themselves. In fact, hadrat ’Umar, who was among the
audience, said upon hearing the above-mentioned âyat-i-kerîma
from Abû Bekr as-Siddîq, “I had thoroughly forgotten this âyat-ikerîma,
so much so that I thought it was a new revelation.” Hadrat
Abû Bekr as-Siddîq ‘radiy-Allâhu ta’âlâ anh’ was wise to the
hypocrites’ plan to stir up a tumult and thus to elect the Khalîfa
from among themselves and, leaving the job of making
preparations for the funeral, he made for the place where the Ashâb-i-kirâm
were discussing the problem of caliphate election. At
the end of the discussion all the people present voted for hadrat
Abû Bekr’s caliphate. On the second Tuesday after Rasûlullah’s
passing away hadrat Alî went to the mosque and paid homage to
hadrat Abû Bekr. Thus hadrat Abû Bekr was made Khalîfa by a
unanimous vote.
Allâhu ta’âlâ disapproves and prohibits vanity and arrogance
in all the heavenly books He has sent to His slaves. For instance,
the twenty-third âyat of Nahl sûra of Qur’ân al-kerîm purports,
“Allâhu ta’âlâ will absolutely not like the conceited!” According
to a Biblical verse, on the other hand, the Apostles asked Îsâ
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