Senin, 29 Agustus 2011

Islam at Muhammad’s Death












Muhammad’s continuing success gradually impinged on the Quraysh in Mecca. Some defected and
joined his
community. His
marriage to a Quraysh woman provided
him with a useful go-between. In 628
he and his followers
tried to make an Islamized hajj but were forestalled by the Meccans. At
Al-Hudaybiyah, outside Mecca, Muhammad
granted a 10-year truce on the
condition that the Meccans
would allow a Muslim pilgrimage the
next year. Even at
this point, however, Muhammad’s control over his
followers
had its limits;
his more zealous followers agreed to the
pact only after much persuasion. As
in all instances of
charismatic leadership, persisting loyalty was
correlated
with continuing
success. In the next year the Meccans
allowed a Muslim hajj; and in the
next year, 630, the
Muslims occupied Mecca without a struggle. Muhammad began to receive
deputations from many parts of Arabia.
By his death in 632 he was ruler of
virtually all of it.





The Meccan Quraysh were allowed to
become Muslims
without shame.
In fact, they quickly became assimilated
to the actual muhajirun, even though
they had not emigrated
to Medina themselves. Ironically, in defeat they had accomplished
much more than they would have had they
achieved victory: the centralization
of all of Arabia around
their polity and their shrine, the Ka‘bah, which had
been
emptied of its
idols to be filled with an infinitely greater
invisible power.





Because intergroup conflict was
banned to all members
of the ummah on the basis of their shared loyalty to the emissary of a
single higher authority, the limitations of
the Meccan
concept of
haram, according to
which the city
quarterly became
a safe haven, could be overcome. The
broader solidarity that Muhammad had
begun to build
was stabilized
only after his death, and this was achieved,
paradoxically,
by some of the same people who had initially
opposed him. In
the next two years one of his most significant
legacies became
apparent: the willingness and ability
of his closest supporters to sustain
the ideal and the reality
of one Muslim community under one
leader, even in the
face of significant opposition. When Muhammad died,
two
vital sources of
his authority ended—ongoing revelation
and his unique ability to exemplify
his messages on a daily
basis. A leader capable of keeping revelation alive
might
have had the
best chance of inheriting his movement, but
no Muslim
claimed messengership, nor had Muhammad
unequivocally designated any other
type of successor. The
ansar, his early supporters in Medina, moved to elect their own leader,
leaving the
muhajirun to choose
theirs, but a
small number of muhajirun managed to
impose one of
their own over
the whole. That man was Abu Bakr, one
of Muhammad’s earliest followers and
the father of his
favourite wife,
‘A’ishah. The title Abu Bakr took,
khalifah (caliph), meaning deputy or
successor, echoed revealed
references to those who assist major
leaders and even God
himself. To khalifah he appended rasul Allah, so that his authority was based on his assistance
to Muhammad as
messenger of
God.







Islamic history / edited by Laura S.
Etheredge
. Britannica Educational Publishing


(a
trademark of Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.)
: New York.



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