First Caliph: Abu Bakr (r)
After prophet Muhammad (s)’s funeral, the next day, the first caliph or the leader of
the Muslim ummah, Abu Bakr as-Siddiq (r) gave his speech to the Muslims and promised to
follow Allah (SWT)’s law and order as a good Muslim leader.
He told them that if he did anything wrong, they should put him on the right path.
On that day 33,000 Muslims accepted Abu Bakr (r) as the first caliph of Islam and they
promised to help him as long as he followed the path of Allah.
And this was the beginning of the Rashidun caliphate or the rightly-guided caliphate.
As we said before, the Muslims chose Abu Bakr (r) as their leader very fast.
So, some very important sahabas like Zubair, Talha, and Ali (r) were not in that very important
meeting.
They loved Abu Bakr (r) as their next leader but they wanted to be in that meeting and
didn’t understand why they weren’t invited.
At the beginning of Islam, both Zubair and Talha (r) became Muslims after hearing about
Islam from Abu Bakr (r).
Ali (r) knew that Muhammad (s) was not a king, he was a prophet which is why the people elected
Abu Bakr.
And he knew that Abu Bakr (r) was a very good person to be the leader for the Muslims.
So, one day Ali (r) asked him why such an important decision was taken without some
of the very close Sahabas of the Prophet.
Ali (r) explained that if he was there at that moment, he would be the first one to
take the oath.
Then Abu Bakr (r) told him that he respected Ali (r) more than his own relatives, and then
explained the whole situation to Ali (r).
He told him that he didn’t go to be the leader for the Muslims, he went to stop a
big fight that would have divided the Muslim ummah, and then all of the sudden, it was
the people who decided to choose him.
Hearing that Ali (r) understood the situation.
The next day in front of a lot of people in the Prophet’s Mosque, Ali (r) accepted Caliph
Abu Bakr (r) as his leader and promised to help and stay loyal to him.
And throughout Abu Bakr (r)’s rule, Ali (r) was a very close and helpful advisor when
ruling over the Muslim Ummah.
It was important especially during that moment to have a strong leader with good advisors
to help the Muslim Ummah.
This is because after our prophet Muhammad (s) passed away, many of the neighboring tribes
thought the Muslims became powerless.
They thought it would be impossible for Islam to exist without a prophet.
So, Shaytan tried to break the Muslims’ unity in many different ways.
Some of the evil people decided not to follow Islam anymore, others broke their peace agreements,
and some thought it would be a perfect time to attack and destroy the Muslims and become
a powerful leader themselves.
Almost everywhere in Arabia, they were planning to destroy Islam.
But in that difficult moment, only the people of Medina, Makkah, and Ta’if were good.
They were true Muslims and tried to protect Islam.
During the last month of prophet Muhammad (s)’s life, a small area near the Arab-Roman
border, some of the Romans were planning to attack Medina and destroy Islam.
So, the prophet ordered Usamah (r) and his army to stop them.
But at that moment the prophet got really sick, so they did not go at that time and
decided to wait.
When the prophet had passed away, the Romans were planning to attack Medina.
The new Caliph of Islam, Abu Bakr (r) decided that the best thing to do in that situation
was to fulfill the prophet’s last order.
So, he decided to send the Muslim army to protect themselves from the big Roman army.
Hearing that order, many Muslims got scared to fight with the strong Roman army during
that time.
They were scared if the Muslim army left to go fight with the Romans in Syria, the evil
neighbors might attack Medina.
Because at that time Medina was the main center of Islam.
The brave Caliph Abu Bakr (r) was very strict about his decision.
He told the people, that this was a direct order from the prophet Muhammad (s) before
he passed away.
After hearing that the Muslims then understood the importance of this order.
The Muslim army was getting ready just outside of Medina to go on their mission.
Unfortunately, many of the soldiers did not like their army commander, Usamah (r) for
two reasons.
The first reason was, Usamah (r)’s father Zayd (r) was a slave and the second reason
was because he was only 17 years old.
Some Muslims thought that he did not have enough experience, and was too young to lead
an entire army of 3,000 sahabahs.
When Caliph Abu Bakr (r) got the message, he became very upset at the Muslim army.
Because that choice wasn’t even his, it was the prophet’s choice.
Then he gave the 17-year-old general, Usamah (r), the highest level of respect in front
of the entire army.
The army realized their mistake.
Without wasting any time, Caliph Abu Bakr (r) started to walk beside Usamah (r) horse
and explained the ‘10 Rules of War,’ and that he has to strictly follow those rules
as a Muslim at all times.
Do not steal Do not lie
Do not break other people’s trust Do not hurt any children, women, or old people
Do not cut down fruit trees Do not destroy camels, cows, or goat for no
reason unless it’s for eating Tell the people about Islam
Give respect to anyone you meet Start eating by saying Bismillah
Do not fight with the Jews and Christians if they are in their temples or churches.
Umar (r) was in that Muslim army.
To protect Medina, Caliph Abu Bakr (r) requested the young Usamah (r) if Umar (r) could stay
back in Medina.
This was surprising to many people because even though Caliph Abu Bakr (r) was the elected
leader for the Muslim people, he still asked permission from the very young 17-year-old
army general.
Soon the Muslim army of 3,000 soldiers reached Syria in a valley between Jardon and Balqa.
The strong Roman army was ready to fight the Muslims and thought it would be easy to destroy
the Muslim small army.
But the brave Muslim soldiers put all of their faith in Allah (SWT) and fought against their
biggest enemy at that time.
These were the same Roman enemies who destroyed many of the Muslims in the Battle of Mutah
including Usamah (r)’s father, Zayd (r), who was also the prophet’s adopted son.
Finally, with the help of Allah (SWT), Usamah (r) and his army won the battle against the
big Roman army and came back home after 40 days.
This was the first battle of the Rashidun Caliphate where the Muslims protected themselves
from the strong Roman army.
This event was extremely important because it showed everyone that even if the prophet
died, Islam was not weak, especially when all the Muslims comes together peacefully
by putting their faith in Allah (SWT).