By Cyril Anderson

Part 2/3

This is why Muhammad (saws) recommended/appointed Ali (as) as the spiritual, military, and political leader of the community after his death; because Ali (as) was the only companion who possessed the mixture of knowledge and spiritual enlightenment necessary to lead without stumbling where others would fall.  Many of he companions were good men; and in this list of good men, the first three caliphs may be named.  But the problem was, that in the trying circumstances after the Prophet’s death, good was simply not good enough; truly great men were needed in positions of leadership.  And the greatest of these men was Ali ibn Abu Talib (as).

So when Abu Bakr, Umar, and Uthman stepped in instead to leadership, regardless of their zeal for Muhammad, regardless of their sincerity, regardless of any good intentions, in the difficult times after the death of Muhammad, they stumbled, and the consequences of this stumbling snowballed into a situation that Uthman could not handle, thus leading to the crisis of his assassination, an earthquake of an event that shook the early Muslim community to its very foundations.  

 To be fair, they likely tried to do right, as is evident from the clear differences in quality of leadership between Abu Bakr, Umar, and Uthman and the Ummayyad scoundrels that came afterwards.  And to be fair, they were conscious of their shortcomings, and sought, continuously and actively the advice of Ali (as) on important decisions.  As Umar once candidly expressed, “without Ali, Umar would have been lost.”  True, objective mistakes were made in their leadership, but great acts for Islam were also accomplished under their leadership. 

Those who go to the extremes of cursing these figures do so out of the belief that the first three caliphs were hypocrites who worked to undermine Islam.  But their record of leadership defies such extreme interpretations.  Those who curse seem to work under the assumption that these men could see the future and anticipate the consequences of their actions in the future.  But the unseen is only from God, shared only in part with those who God chooses for their purity and ability to handle such knowledge.  But we Shias do not believe that these men had that special light within them that qualified them for the gift of such insight to the future.  They were ordinary men in this regard, fallible in their foresight.  Without looking into their minds and hearts, it is hard to say what led them to go against the prophet’s instructions at Ghadir Khumm.  Perhaps they mistook the appointment as an appointment to mere spiritual leadership or advisor status rather than direct political power.  Perhaps they simply got caught up in a “hasty error” in the developments at the gathering of Saqifah, a gathering which in all fairness, they did not start.  True, in Islam, it is believed that full justice judges us by the consequences of our actions, even after our death, and it is true that the mistakes of these men led to grave consequences later for the ummah.   But we are also judged primarily by our intentions, by what we sincerely tried to accomplish.  The record seems to show that, from their works for Islam, their intention was good, but that they went astray in error in attempting to implement their intentions.  The record of history also indicates that these men later in life realized the consequences of their mistakes, and showed regret toward such mistakes.

These men are with God and His judgment now; there is nothing to be gained in cursing or hatred.  There is no need to push these men down to show the greatness of Ali (as) and the ahlilbait; this greatness shines forth of its own accord.  The focus of the period of history when Ali (as) was denied his rightful position is more properly to learn the lessons of how to make a difference from behind the scenes even if lacking direct power, and how to show patience in difficult circumstances.  This should be the real focus; not to belittle or insult others, but merely to share the heritage and teachings of the imams and let this greatness speak for itself. 

 Some Sunnis wonder why many Shias are so concerned about this history that happened 1400 years ago.  They see it as a waste of time.  This position is not well-founded, as it is always valuable to dig into history so as to try to gain lessons from it.  Ignoring history or refusing to look at it is no better, perhaps even worse than being obsessed with dwelling inordinately on the past.  One must remember the famous adage that those who fail to learn from the past will be doomed to repeat it.  But there is something valid in these critiques.

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