Islam Guidance

4. The Three Caliphs

4. The Three Caliphs

 On the day of the death of the Prophet, ‘AlÄ« was thirty-three years old. Although he was foremost in religious virtues and the most outstanding among the companions of the Prophet, he was pushed aside from the caliphate on the claim that he was too young and that he had many enemies among the people because of the blood of the polytheists he had spilled in the wars fought alongside the Prophet.

 Therefore ‘AlÄ« was almost completely cut off from public affairs. He retreated to his house where he began to train competent individuals in the Divine sciences. It should also be mentioned that he never let an opportunity pass by in which he expressed his opinion about his right to the caliphate. On the other hand, his concern for the wellbeing of the Muslim ummah did not allow him to deprive the caliphs of his guidance whenever the opportunity arose. For example, there are countless judicial cases which were solved by Imam ‘AlÄ« during the caliphate of ‘Umar bin Khattāb—many were cases in which ‘Umar said, “If it hadn’t been for ‘AlÄ«, ‘Umar would have perished.”

 In this way ‘AlÄ« passed the twentyfour years of the caliphate of Abu Bakr (d. 13 A.H.), ‘Umar (d. 23 A.H.) and ‘Uthmān (d. 35) who came to power after the Prophet. When the third caliph was killed in a public revolt because of his unjust policies, people gave their allegiance to ‘AlÄ« and he was chosen as caliph.

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