This was the very serious stand taken by most of the sahaba at Banu Sa`ida's shed which clearly contradicted the Prophet's statements appointing Ali as the caliph and which they all witnessed on the Day of the Ghadeer following Hijjatul Wada`. Despite the differences of views among the Muhajirs (Meccan immigrants) and the Ansars (Medenite helpers) with regard to the issue of caliphate, they all impudently raced with one another to forsake the Prophet's binding statements by advancing Abu Bakr to the caliphate even if it cost them perdition, thus demonstrating their readiness to kill anyone who even remotely considered opposing them, and even if he were the closest person to the Prophet.[15]
This incident also underscored the fact that the vast majority of the sahaba assisted Abu Bakr and Umar in rejecting the Sunnah of their Prophet and replacing it with their own ijtihad, personal viewpoints, for they surely were in favor of ijtihad. It also distinguished from the rest of the community a Muslim minority that upheld the Prophet's statements and boycotted the allegiance to Abu Bakr, namely Ali and his Shi`as, supporters and followers.
Yes; the distinct identity of each of these two groups, or parties, became apparent in the Muslim society immediately following the incidents stated before. One party attempted to respect and implement the Prophet's Sunnah, whereas the other attempted to defeat it, obliterate it, and replace it with ijtihad, a concept which attracted the majority, tempting it to be hopeful of reaching the seat of government or at least participating in it. The first Sunni party was headed by Ali ibn Abu Talib and his Shi`as, whereas the other party which advocated ijtihad was headed by Abu Bakr and Umar and most of the sahaba. The second party, led by Abu Bakr and Umar, took upon itself to crush the first one, and many measures were planned to wipe out the other opposition party such as the following:
1) Isolation of the Opposition and its Economic Paralyzation
The first attempt undertaken by the ruling party was to exclude its opponents from having a free access to the sources of livelihood and finance. Abu Bakr and Umar dismissed the farmers who had been hired by Fatima to cultivate the land of Fadak[16], considering it a Muslim commonwealth rather than the sole property of Fatima as her father had stated. They also deprived her of all the rest of her father's inheritance, claiming that prophets left no inheritance. They terminated her share of the khums which the Messenger of Allah had assigned for himself and his family because they were prohibited from receiving charity.
Thus did Ali become paralyzed economically: the land tract of Fadak, which used to yield excellent profits for him, was confiscated from him; he was deprived of his cousin's inheritance which, at the same time, was also the legitimate right of his wife; moreover, his share of khums was also cut off. Ali and his wife and children suddenly found themselves in need of those who could feed and clothe them, and this is exactly what Abu Bakr meant when he said to Fatima al-Zahra once: "Yes; you have the right to receive the khums, but I will fare with it just as the Messenger of Allah had fared, so that I do not let you be without food or without clothes."
As we have already indicated, the companions who sided with Ali were mostly slaves who had no wealth; so, the ruling party did not fear them or their influence, for people incline to the rich and despise the poor.
2) Isolating the Opposition and Paralyzing it Socially
In order to discard the opposition party headed by Ali ibn Abu Talib, the ruling party also isolated it socially. The first thing which Abu Bakr and Umar did was the removal of the psychological and emotional barrier which obligated all Muslims to respect and revere the relatives of the Greatest Messenger of Allah.
Since Ali is the cousin of the Prophet and the master of the Purified Progeny, there were some among the sahaba who hated him and envied him for the favors which Allah had bestowed upon him, not to mention the hypocrites who were waiting in ambush for him. Fatima was the only offspring of the Prophet who survived him. She was, as the Messenger of Allah said, the leader of all the ladies of the world; therefore, all Muslims respected and revered her due to the status which she had earned with her father and because of the traditions which he stated about her virtues, honor, and purity. But Abu Bakr and Umar deliberately tried to remove such respect and regard from the hearts of the public. Umar ibn al-Khattab once approached Fatima's house bearing a torch of fire and threatened to burn the house and everyone inside it if its residents refused to come out to swear the oath of allegiance to Abu Bakr. In his Al-`Iqd al-Fareed, Ibn Abd Rabbih says,
Al-Bukhari indicates in his Sahih how Fatima demanded that Abu Bakr return what she had inherited from the Messenger of Allah, whatever Allah had allocated for him in Medina in addition to Fadak and the spoils of Khaybar, but Abu Bakr refused to give anything to her. Fatima, therefore, became very angry with Abu Bakr whom she boycotted and to whom she did not say a word after such unfair confiscation till she died only six months after the death of her father the Prophet. When she died, her husband Ali buried her at night. Abu Bakr did not perform the funeral prayers for her.
This chapter is not meant to narrate history or detail the injustices inflicted upon Ali in as much as we would like to demonstrate the bitter and painful fact: The standard-bearer of the Prophet's Sunnah, and the gate of the Prophet's knowledge, became a pariah. Ironically, those who supported the concept of deriving their own personal religious views, from those who rejected the Prophet's Sunnah, became the rulers whom the vast majority of the sahaba supported.
3) Isolating the Opposition Politically
Despite enforcing a severe blockade, the confiscation of the monetary rights, and the isolation of Ali ibn Abu Talib from the society, which turned people's attention away from him as we have explained, the ruling party was not satisfied with all these measures, so it resorted to isolating Ali politically, excluding him from all apparatuses of the state and not permitting him to participate in any official position or any responsibility. Although they appointed permissive Umayyads who fought Islam during the life-time of the Prophet, such rulers kept Imam Ali away from the stage of political activity for one quarter of a century during the life-time of Abu Bakr, Umar, and Uthman. While some sahaba who were appointed governors were hoarding wealth and treasuring gold and silver at the Muslims' expense, Ali ibn Abu Talib was watering the palm trees owned by the Jews in order to earn his livelihood with the sweat of his brow.
Thus did the gate of knowledge, the nation's scholar, and the standard-bearer of the Sunnah remain confined inside his house not appreciated except by a handful of the downtrodden who remained loyal to him, receiving guidance from him, and upholding his rope.
During his own caliphate, Imam Ali tried in vain to bring people back to the Qur'an and the Prophetic Sunnah because they became fanatical in their support of the ijtihad which Umar ibn al-Khattab had invented, and some of them even publicly cried out: Waa Sunnata Umarah! ("O what a great Sunnah Umar has brought us!).
This is not an allegation but the fact agreed upon by the consensus of all Muslims and which they recorded in their Sahihbooks and with which every researcher and man of fairness is familiar. Imam Ali used to know the entire text of the Holy Qur'an by heart and was familiar with all its injunctions. He was the first person to compile it as al-Bukhari himself testifies, whereas neither Abu Bakr nor Umar nor Uthman knew it by heart, nor did they know its injunctions.[19] Historians went as far as counting as many as seventy instances when Umar said:Lawla Ali la halaka Umar (Had it not been for Ali, Umar would have surely perished), and his own telling Abu Bakr: "May I not live in any period of time without al-Hasan's father."
[15] The most glaring testimonial is Umar ibn al-Khattab's threat to burn the house of Fatima and everyone inside it. This incident is quite famous in history chronicles.
[16] Fadak's story is well known in history books and so is al-Zahra's dispute with Abu Bakr. She died angry with him. This is a famous incident recorded by both Bukhari and Muslim.
[17] This is stated in Volume Four of Al-`Iqd al-Fareed where the author discusses those who refused to swear the oath of allegiance to Abu Bakr.
[18] Al-Bukhari, Sahih (original Arabic text), Vol. 5, p. 82 in the discussion of the Battle of Khaybar, and it is also recorded in the "Book of Itjihad" in Muslim's Sahih.
[19] Umar's ignorance regarding the distribution of the legacy of a man who leaves neither parents nor offspring behind, and who has no will, is quite famous in the books of Sunnah. The same is true about his ignorance of the injunctions relevant to tayammum; these are all known to everyone as al-Bukhari indicates on p. 90, Vol. 1, of his Sahih.
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