This is where the theological divide begins between sunni and shi'a.

Therefore t
odays lecture is just historical, it is theological. Why? We believe Abu Bukr wa
s the most suitable person to be the khalifa. And this is a religious matter; no
t just a political matter. We will not delve very deeply into this as this is wo
rthy of a seperate discussion entirely.
The question arises: how was Abu Bukr RA chosen? There are three opinions.
1. The sahaba amongst themsleves chose Abu Bukr RA; some say this is the majorit
y opinion and ibn Tammiyah in some writings leans to this opinion.
2. Narrated from al Hasan-al basari and others is that the prophet PBUH indirect
ly indicated that Abu Bukr RA should be the khalifa. The first opinion says no d
oubt the prophet PBUH said Abu Bukr was the best in terms of his status, but the
first opinion would say the prophet PBUH did not indicate who should be the pol
itical leader after him. All of sunni Islam agrees Abu Bukr is the best sahabi.
This second opinion says the prophet PBUH subtely says Abu Bukr should the khali
fa: there is nothing explicit, but neither is it neutral (as in the first opinio
n).
3. The prophet PBUH clearly says Abu Bukr RA should be the khalifa. And this is
the opinion of the famous andalusi scholar ibn Hazam. Ibn Hazam says the prophet
PBUH explicitly commanded the sahaba that Abu Bukr should the khalifa. This is
in contradiction to the shi'a theology which is that the prophet PBUH commanded
Ali RA to be the khalifa. This is a minority opinion amongst the scholars.
The majority opinion is between one and two. And note, one and two are not mutua
lly exclusive. The first group say the hadith about Abu Bukr just mention how gr
eat he is as a person. But isn't that an inidication he should be the leader? Th
erefore one could argue the first and second opinion are similar; that is, the p
rophet PBUH did not explicitly say Abu Bukr RA should be the khalifa. But there
were enough indications to make the sahaba understand he should be the khalifa.
As time passed by, many scholars attempted to derive Qur'anic evidences for the
khilafah of Abu Bukr RA. So much so a scholar derived an advanced, convoluted ev
idence that surah fatihah indicates the khilafah of Abu Bukr RA.
Of course that is far fetched; we have more explicit verses about Abu Bukr in th
e Qur'an. Of them is the verse in the Qur'an where Allah talks about Abu Bukr in
the cave with the prophet PBUH:
"If you do not aid the Prophet - Allah has already aided him when those who disb
elieved had driven him out [of Makkah] as one of two, when they were in the cave
and he said to his companion, "Do not grieve; indeed Allah is with us." And All
ah sent down his tranquillity upon him and supported him with angels you did not
see and made the word of those who disbelieved the lowest, while the word of Al
lah - that is the highest. And Allah is Exalted in Might and Wise." [Quran 9:40]
So the scholars say, if Abu Bukr is the 'second of the two' - if the first one i
s missing, who is left? The second - and he should come and stand in his place.
So when Allah explicitly calls him 'one of the two', it means Abu Bukr RA should
be the second in command, and the leader when the prophet PBUH is not there. Li
nguistically what does khalifa mean? It means the 'one who has appointed'. And a
lso 'khalafa' means to 'take over when someone leaves'. So when Allah says Abu B
ukr is the 'second of the two', this makes him the sort of khalifa.
Another ayat is in surah Tawbah:
Allah is indicating the earliest converts are the best, and they are in order af
ter the prophet PBUH. Who do you have? The muhajiroon and then the ansar. And wh
o is the first adult convert of the muhajirs? Abu Bukr RA. So according to this

interpretation, Allah is indicating Abu Bukr should be in charge after the proph
et PBUH. There are the two verses which make some sense and have some substance
that indeed the Qur'an is praising Abu Bukr, and from this you can somewhat extr
act the theological point that Abu Bukr RA is the most qualified.
As for the ahadith, there are so many about the blessings of Abu Bukr RA. We wil
l give 3/4 which indicate the high status Abu Bukr RA has that the other sahaba
simply do not have. Especially when it comes to issues of standing in place of t
he prophet PBUH, because again this is what it means to be the khalifa. Of the m
ost authentic and explicit: the prophet PBUH is seeing a dream and he said "whil
e I was sleeping I saw in a dream I was standing next to a well, and I pulled fr
om this well as long as Allah willed. Then Abu Bukr came and pulled a bucket or
two, and in his pulling was some weakness. Then Umar RA came, and the bucket bec
ame a much larger bucket. And I have never seen an abkari 'supernatural' pulling
water so much so the people returned to their camels". Meaning, there was so mu
ch water being pulled the people got so much water to fill themselves and their
camels.
This hadith is in Bhukari and the symbolism is obvious, beautiful and profound.
The prophet PBUH is saying "after I went away, Abu Bukr took over and continued
for a year or two (or bucket or two) and there was some jerkiness - it wasn't sm
ooth". Why? Because indeed in his khilafa the ummah was about to collapse but Al
lah saved it through Abu Bukr. So the pulling of the bucket wasn't as smooth. Bu
t no matter what Abu Bukr still continued the flow and salvaged the ummah. And w
ere it not for Abu Bukr Islam would not be what it is today. And he was needed f
or Umar RA to come; if Umar had come at that time and he tried to do it fast, th
e rope would have broken and the ummah would have broken down. You needed Abu Bu
kr to continue the flow. Once the flow was back to normal, Umar RA comes in and
turns it into a river. Note the hadith says the small bucket becomes a massive b
ucket, and everyone drinks. Meaning what? The conquest of the ummah, and it is a
mazing in our 14 centuries of Islamic history, the conquest of Umar RA remains u
nparalleled. When technology and money was nothing in comparison, he managed to
do what others did not.
It is mind boggling if you understand the military status of the arabs vs the ro
mans. To completely decimate the sassanid persian empire; the roman empire could
not harm the persian empire for 350 years. Yet here comes a bunch of arabs with
no military training, no horses, no armoury, nothing is there - for them to com
e out of nowhere and completely wipe off the persians. Of course the histoirans
have their theory, but the reality is the persian emporer tore the letter up of
the prophet PBUH, and so Allah tore his kingdom up in the same way barely 10 yea
rs after the prophet PBUH said this. And Damascus which was the jewel of the rom
an empire; it was on the route of the trade circle. Starting in China all the wa
y to Damascus and then to other countries. It was one of the most important citi
es of the Roman empire. And of course as-Sham and more. All of this conquering w
as in the time of Umar RA. And just like the hadith said everyone is drinking fr
om this well; the power and honour is so much in the ummah it's coming everywher
e. So this dream of the prophet PBUH clearly indicates that when the prophet PBU
H leaves, Abu Bukr will take charge. When he leaves, Umar RA will take charge. E
ven though the hadith does not mention the khilafa, but it is understood.
Also in Bhukari, its narrated a women came to the prophet PBUH asking for some m
oney. The prophet PBUH said "I don't have anything now but come back later and y
ou will get it". The lady said "ya RasulAllah what if I come back and you are no
t here?" The prophet PBUH said "if you do not find me go to Abu Bukr". Of course
the context of the hadith is one thing, but the wording is much broader. Ibn Ha
jar says this is an evidence that the khilafa was to be given to Abu Bukr after
the death of the prophet PBUH. "If you do not find me, go to Abu Bukr". Of cours
e the context is that the prophet PBUH is just saying "if you need some money ju
st to go to Abu Bukr". But the wording is so broad the prophet PBUH is saying "i

n any case you do not find me, go to Abu Bukr". Also in Bhukari, the prophet PBU
H said "Follow those who will come after me, Abu Bukr and Umar". There is also t
he famous hadith in Muslim that Abu Hurairah was sitting in a garden with the pr
ophet PBUH, and there was a knock on the door. The prophet PBUH said "go see who
it is, and whoever it is tell them Allah gives them glad tidings in Jannah". An
d it is Abu Bukr, then Umar, then Uthman. So each one they are given glad tiding
s. But for Uthman the prophet PBUH said "go tell Uthman he will get Jannah after
some problems he will face in this world". Again you have this indication and p
rediction. It's also narrated that this is when the prophet PBUH was sitting his
feet inside the well, Abu Bukr came and sat in, Umar came and sat in and then t
he well was full. When Uthmaan came he could not join them. So this indicates th
e time of glory will be with Abu Bukr and Umar RA, Uthmaan will have issues and
indeed this is what happened.
We also have the hadith in sunan-abu Dawud, the prophet PBUH asked the sahaba af
ter Fajr "have any of you seen a dream?" One said "I saw a dream" - note its a d
ream of the sahabi. But the fact that it was said to the prophet PBUH in his pre
sence, and he was silent indicates its a dream from Allah. For indeed whatever i
s said to the prophet PBUH in his presence and he is silent it automatically bec
omes a hadith. So the sahabi said "I saw a dream the scale came down from the he
avans. And you were weighed against and you were heavier. Then Abu Bukr was weig
hed against Umar, and Abu Bukr was heavier. Then Umar against Uthmaan, and Umar
was heavier. Then the mizaan was lifted up". Once again this hadith indicates th
e specific order of Abu Bukr, Umar and Uthmaan. So this is also a predicton and
all of these are evidences.
For sunni Islam the strongest indication of the khalifa is in fact the salah tha
t the prophet PBUH commanded Abu Bukr to lead when he was sick. For 3 days and n
ights when the prophet PBUH was alive on his deathbed, Abu Bukr RA was commanded
to lead the salah and so much so when Umar RA for the first time came to lead,
on his deathbed the prophet PBUH in pain, suffering, sweating became irritated w
ith A'isha and others and said "stop him and get Abu Bukr, for Allah and His mes
senger will not allow anybody other than Abu Bukr". This is not just about who s
hould be the imam. It's much more than that. THe prophet PBUH wants to demonstra
te who will be in charge after him. The hadith is extremely explicit, so Umar RA
as we know had to break the salah and Abu Bukr was called. And in his last khut
bah which he gave sitting on the mimbar the prophet PBUH said "close all the doo
rs to the masjid other than the door of Abu Bukr". So we have so many evidences
therefore Abu Bukr RA was the one whom the prophet PBUH chose to be the next in
charge.
The question arises, why didn't the prophet PBUH just say 'when I die I want Abu
Bukr to be the khalifa?'. There are many responses, the strongest is he did not
want to do open the door that every khalifa must decide the next. If the prophe
t PBUH had decided it would be waajib that from then on, each khalifa must decid
e. If you look at the next khulafa, Abu Bukr specified it will be Umar. Umar spe
cified a group of 6 people to choose amongst. Uthmaan RA nothing happened. He di
dn't specify anyone, the people chose Ali RA. So each one had a different methad
ology and the shariah allows for all of this. The one that is least encouraged i
s to specify your son. It is not ideal and definately not the best; Muawiya RA f
or a reason he saw thought it was best to nominate his son. So the last of the s
ahaba who was a khalifa was Muawayia who opened this door. But his blessing and
ijithad is of course not that of Abu Bukr RA. But to summarise the prophet PBUH
did not want to open a door of specifying the next khalifa explicitly. Therefore
he indicated as much as possible with saying explicitly it should be Abu Bukr R
A.
Returning back to the story, what exactly happened? The prophet PBUH passed away
on Monday morning 12th Rabbi al-Awwal. On the morning of the 12th, within a few
hours the same day the Ansar began to gather at their usual gathering place whi

ch was a type of shack/shed. This shed was in a garden which belonged to the mos
t famous of the khazraj tribe, the Banu Sa'ada, which was what Sa'ad ibn Ubada b
elonged to. And this was the usual gathering place from the days of jaheleya, th
is was their culture. So within a few hours of the death of the prophet PBUH, ev
eryone gathers at the usual place and the conversation gets to "what will happen
now?" It is very important to know: the ansar never sent an announcement 'come
let us discuss the khilafa'. Rather it is human nature at times of joint calamit
y you want to go and meet. In times of individual calamity you go and meet the p
erson yourself, but in joint calamity you go and talk to discuss what is happeni
ng. And especially in that culture this is what happened. So the Ansar all began
to trickle in to the taqeefah of Banu Sa'ada, and it is well known in Madinah,
it is at the back of the masjid. It is still there to this day and it's an actua
l garden that you can see.
Again there is no maliciousness that 'let us talk about the khilafa'. But what i
s going to happen when all of the men are gathered and the prophet PBUH has pass
ed away? Eventually the conversation will get to 'what is going to happen now? W
ho will take charge?' Because everyone understands there needs to be a leader in
charge. So eventually the conversation ensues and the main person they looked u
p to was their senior most figure at the time: Sa'ad ibn Ubada. He was the most
senior leader of the khazraj. Of course the Khazraj was the larger tribe between
Khazraj and Aws. The richer was the Aws. Another blessing the Khazraj had was t
hat they embraced Islam first - so the first bayatul akabah; the very first grou
p of 6-7 people whom the prophet PBUH met were all from the Khazraj. So the Khaz
raj began talking amongst themselves and everyone understood Sa'ad was to be the
ir leader. If anyone is going to be the khalifa from the Ansar, it will be Sa'ad
.
Now, who is Sa'ad ibn Ubada? Recall there are two famous Sa'ads. Sa'ad ibn Mu'ad
, and Sa'ad ibn Ubada. Of the two, the former is much higher is rank and blessin
gs. Sa'ad ibn Mu'ad is much higher; not only did he convert first, he was the on
e who spoke at the battle of Badr which was one of the greatest blessings of any
ansari. He was the ansari who upgraded the pledge from mere protection to offen
sive. Recall at Badr the prophet PBUH kept on saying "what do you think? what do
you think?" And Abu Bukr stood up, then Umar etc. Until finally Sa'ad ibn Mu'ad
stood up and said "perhaps you want to know our answer that is why you keep on
asking?" The prophet PBUH said "yes". Then Sa'ad gave that beautiful speech wher
e he concluded with "go charge in the water and we will charge behind you and we
will never say to you like the Bani Israel said to Musa". And this Sa'ad died a
fter the battle of Khandak, and when he passed away the prophet PBUH said "the t
hrone of Allah shook at the death of Sa'ad ibn Mu'ad". And that "70,000 angels c
ame to take the soul of Sa'ad ibn Mu'ad." And the prophet PBUH himself prayed ja
nazah for him, and expressed alot of dismay and greif at his death.
Sa'ad ibn Ubada is the second Sa'ad we are discussing now. He also has a long li
st of great deeds (but obviously not like Sa'ad ibn Mu'ad). Sa'ad ibn Ubada was
of those who participated in the second treaty of akabah which had 72 people. An
d he was chosen to represent his subtribe. So he is one of the elite of akabah,
and he participated in every single battle including Badr. Thus he is a badari a
nd because of this alone he has a huge upgrade in rank. He was also of the wealt
hy of the ansar because of his father and grandfather who had cheifton status'.
So Sa'ad inherited money, and also geneoristy. Both his father and grandfather w
ere known for their generosity which he had inherited from this. It is said he w
ould regularly feed most of the people of the Suffat. Ibn Hajar mentions on days
when someone would take one or two, Sa'ad would take 80 of the people of the Su
ffat to his house to feed him. So he was very generous always feeding the poor.
Many are the things narrated when the prophet PBUH went to the house of the Sa'a
d. From outside he says "As-salaam...". So Sa'ad is so happy to hear the dua, he
whispers back "Walaykum-salaam...". The prophet PBUH dosen't hear the reply, so
for the second time he says "As-salaam..." in a loud voice. But Sa'ad whispers

again. For the third time the prophet PBUH raises his voice even more, and Sa'ad
whispers back. And so after the third time the prophet PBUH leaves; when Sa'ad
hears the footsteps he rushes outside and says "ya RasulAllah I heard you all th
ree times and I responded but I wanted to hear your duas more and more".
This is Sa'ad ibn Ubada. We also have in a number of hadith ibn Abbass mentions,
whenever the prophet PBUH gave the flag in any army, he would always choose Sa'
ad ibn Ubada to carry the flag for the Ansar. Thus even in the conquest of Mecca
he was representing the Ansar in front of the prophet PBUH. So the flag of the
Ansar was given to him by the hands of the prophet PBUH. We have other ahadtith
the prophet PBUH specifically mentions by name "may Allah bless the Ansar and es
pecially may Allah bless Sa'ad ibn Ubada from the Ansar". So Sa'ad ibn Ubada def
inately has a long resume of blessings and the Ansar understood this.
Back to the story: when the news spreads that people are gathering together, som
eone comes to Abu Bukr and Umar who are still in the masjid. This is most likely
before Zuhr time; the prophet PBUH passes away at a very early time so this is
roughly 7-8am. So someone comes and tells them "do you know the Ansar are talkin
g together and they are discussing who will take charge". Umar RA said "let us g
o and discuss this matter with them". Here is where we don't have any eyewitness
report other than one, that is from Umar RA himself. Thus there are many other
details which we don't know. It is not at all unlikely Abu Bukr went and chose a
number of people to accompany him; we don't know who, just a 'group of the muha
jiroon'. How did that group come about? The sheikh theorises Abu Bukr chooses th
e people; it is not a coincidence Umar ibn al-Khattab and Abu Ubaidah Amar ibn a
l-Jarrah just 'happen' to sitting there. And three of the chosen 10 are right th
ere in the gathering. Rather Abu Bukr must have chosen a delegation, and the sen
ior most members are of course Umar RA himself and Abu Ubaidah. From our perspec
tive, the prophet PBUH has just passed away and clearly someone has to take char
ge of the inner household matters. And of consoling the family, and of ghusl etc
. There is no doubt that Ali RA is the most closest to the prophet PBUH in terms
of blood and lineage from the mens side, therefore there is nothing about that
we hide. Of course he will take care of the inner matters of the prophet PBUH. A
nd so Abbass and Ali RA took charge of the inner matters. Zubair ibn al-Awwam as
well is of the cousin of the prophet PBUH so he must have been there.
Now, the contraversies between the Sunni and Shi'a have existed for 13.5 centuri
es. Nothing we will discuss today will add or decrease from these facts. There a
re hundreds of books in many languages; the evidences for the sunni and shi'a, b
ack and forth, on and on and on. Therefore there is not much benefit discussing
this. However, from our perspective, Ali RA is now barely 30. Abu Bukr, Umar and
Uthmaan even are almost double his age. It really does not make sense to take s
omebody with some experiance, at the expense of someone with 3 to 4 decades of e
xperiance. In other words, from out perspective, Ali RA became the khalifa when
he deserved to. That is, when he came to the right age, maturity etc. And this s
tage and age of his life, it was not even on their radar that somebody so young
could be the khalifa. Remember Abu Bukr and Umar have known Ali from a baby grow
ing up. He won't be on the radar of being the next khalifa at this stage. It's j
ust common sense. On top of that, there is the death of the prophet PBUH which A
li RA is completely busy with. So there is no intentional conspiracy to leave Al
i RA out. It is ludicrous to assume this. Ali RA became the khalifa when he dese
rved to.
In any case, we said Abu Bukr RA most likely chose the right people for the dele
gation. On the way to the taqeefah they met two of the Ansar, and when the ansar
is found out where they were going they expressed some concern and said "maybe y
ou shouldn't go etc". They are worried it will be a shouting match but Umar RA s
aid "No inshaAllah there will be benefit in our going". Recall this is the only
narration we have from Umar RA in the first person. Unfortunately we don't have
any other narrations. We begin his narration directly: "when we got there we fou

nd the Ansar had gathered and between them was a man wrapped up in a shawl. We s
aid 'who is this?' They said 'this is Sa'ad ibn Ubada, he is sick with fever'."
So it just so happened he was sick. "Then one of the Ansar stood up, and said af
ter praising Allah: 'we are the helpers of Allah. And we are the vanguards of Is
lam. And you oh group of muhajiroon are a group amongst us. And you came to us o
ne by one, bit by bit and joined us.'" So the Ansar are saying 'in terms of shee
r quantity we are greater'. The muhajiroon are probably 1/10th of the Ansar. So
from the Ansar perspective they are saying 'you guys came one after the other, t
herefore we should be the leader and you are like one tribe from amongst us'.
Umar says "as he is speaking I thought to myself 'what shall I say?' When he fel
t silent, I am happy I had all my points listed. And I was going to say somethin
g and I knew it would be a little bit harsh. When I was about to stand up, Abu B
ukr pulled me down and said 'Stay put oh Umar' and I listened to him for I did n
ot want to make him angry. Then Abu Bukr stood up, praised Allah and gave a lect
ure. By Allah he was wiser and more gentle than I would have been. And there was
not a single point I had thought except Abu Bukr said it, or better than it". N
otice here Umar RAs humility: he is narrating this in his own khilafah. Rumours
began to spread in the time of Umar that Abu Bukrs khilafah was simply a coincid
ence; it wasn't thought out. And if we thought it out someone else should have b
een the khilifa. When Umar heard this he became angry and called a meeting of al
l of the sahaba and then he told the story we are narrating now. So Umar RA is p
raising Abu Bukr in this manner.
"And he said every hadith that we have learnt about the praise of the Ansar. Abu
Bukr said 'I know for a fact the prophet PBUH said if all of mankind took one p
ath and the Ansar took the other, I would follow the path of the Ansar'". So Abu
Bukr is going on and on about the blessings of the Ansar. This is the wisdom of
Abu Bukr, that he understands he must show the Ansar respect before trying to c
hange their mind. Umar RA himself said he knew Abu Bukr would find his speech ha
rsh. So Abu Bukr narrates every hadith he can think off. Then he moves on, point
s at Sa'ad and says "And oh Sa'ad, I know you were sitting right in front of the
prophet PBUH when he himself said 'it is the Quraysh who shall lead this matter
of ours. The righteous amongst them shall lead the righteous of mankind. And th
e impious should lead the impious of mankind'. So he points to Sa'ad while sayin
g, the one contender people might choose as a khalifa. So he is saying to Sa'ad
"you remember this hadith; we were both there that day". This is very wise from
Abu Bukr because now how can anyone go against this hadith. So Abu Bukr mentions
a hadith that solves the matter that it cannot be from the Ansar. Then he bring
s logic: "And you know oh Ansar the arabs will not follow anybody other than fro
m the Quraysh. Nor will you be accepted from the rest of the arabs. Whereas a Qu
rayshi will be accepted as they are the best in terms of lineage and house (mean
ing Mecca). Therefore the leader should be from the Quraysh". At this Sa'ad said
"you have spoken the truth, you are the leaders and we are the helpers". And su
bhanAllah this shows the imaan of Sa'ad.
Then Abu Bukr RA held onto the hands of Umar and Abu Ubaidah, and this is where
we see that most likely Abu Bukr was planning this out to nominate these two. It
wasn't a coincidence these two people were sitting next to him. Rather Abu Bukr
brought them both with him to the taqeefah to nominate them. In his modesty he
would never nominate himself - this isn't the appropiate way. But he has in mind
the next two best people, of the 10 who has been promised Jannah. And Abu Bukr
RA says "I have nominated these two, whichever you like choose them". This is al
so wisdom and hikmah: when you give someone an option it makes it easier for him
to choose. Even though before you gave him the option he would not have chosen
either. Rather Abu Bukr says "you guys choose between these two". And again we f
ind here true psychology of leadership. How to control a tension between humans
in this matter. There is no battle here but humans are humans, and power is powe
r. Yes indeed some of them might have desired this for halal reasons i.e. you th
ink you will do good for the ummah. But who is the one who really should be chos

en? The one Allah chose and that is Abu Bukr RA.
And so when he said this, Umar RA is narrating this story and he said "I swear b
y Allah this is the only paragraph of Abu Bukrs speech I hated; that he nominate
d me and Abu Ubaidah. It would be more beloved to me to be executed than to lead
a group in which Abu Bukr was present." SubhanAllah. This is Umar RA speaking i
n his khilafah to a group of people who said 'maybe Abu Bukr wasn't the best cho
ice'. Umar RA is saying he would rather have his head chopped off than be the kh
alifa over Abu Bukr. So when Abu Bukr said this statement "choose one of these t
wo" one of the Ansar then said "I have another solution. Why don't we have two a
meers? One from us and one from you." But of course you can never have this. Whe
n he suggested this alot of people began to raise their voices and some commotio
n ensued. At this Umar RA said "So I raised my voice". And he says "Oh Abu Bukr
stretch forth your hand for we shall give the bay'a to you." And so Umar RA was
the first to nominate Abu Bukr and give the bay'ah. And then the muhajiroon and
Ansar followed and this is how the election of Abu Bukr happened.
There are plenty of narrations in various books that Sa'ad ibn Ubadah was not sa
tisfied with this matter. According to some reports he said he was forced to acc
ept this. And the response was given to him "it is better you are forced to rema
in with the jama'at then we let you go and you cause fitnah". If this report is
authentic there is nothing wrong with that. Because it is not haraam to desire c
ertain things and have these emotions. If Sa'ad wanted to be the khalifa he want
ed it for good reasons. He thought he would do a good and better job, that's his
opinion. Others say all of these reports are baseless fabrications. There are h
owever clear cut fabrications which we find in pro-shi'i sources such as al-bala
zhuri and abu miqnaf lut ibn-yahya. This ibn-yahya is the first shi'i scholar to
write about karbala and that book is the basis of all of the shi'i narratives a
bout what happened in karbala. This guy, as a sunni muslim, from our perspective
is a khazaab, a liar, he is nothing but a person who fabricates. According to h
im, Sa'ad ibn Ubadah refused to pray in the jama'at behind Abu Bukr, refused to
go for Hajj and refused to go with anything. In our sunni sources we find minor
refusal i.e. Sa'ad saying "you guys forced me" and then the response is given as
before "to force you is better...". There are other references when Abu Bukr pa
ssed away Umar RA became the khalifa, and Sa'ad again felt he was wronged so he
decided to leave Madinah and live a seperate life. This is one of interpretation
; the other is he went for jihad and died outside Madinah. In any case after thi
s incident Sa'ad ibn Ubadah does not have much mention. There are also legands o
f Sa'ad which are bizzare that the jinn killed him. Because he was discovered in
his house with an arrow and its said voices were heard which said 'we killed Sa
'ad'. In any case Sa'ad passed away in 14H/15H.
Now, we mentioned Abu Bukr quoted a hadith that the khalifa will be from the Qur
aysh; this command from the prophet PBUH is in fact muttawatir i.e. dozens of re
ports have been found in every single book. So much so ibn Hajar says he found 4
0 different hadiths with various wordings all of which mention "the leaders of m
y ummah must be from the Quraysh". This hadith and these commands always raise a
lot of eyebrows from muslims who say 'why? Why from the Quraysh?' The response
is frankly: maybe we can't answer 'why'. The prophet PBUH said it and thats it.
Some scholars have tried to answer why, but in any case the sheer quantity of th
e hadith is so much that sunni and shi'a Islam agrees the khalifa must be a Qura
yshi. The only people who oppose this were the khawarij and the mu'tazilah. This
is something all of those who wrote in Islamic political sciences, ibn Hajar et
c - they mention our leaders should be from the Quraysh. And of course from the
bulk of the ummah this was the case. It was only from the times of the Ottomans
this was taken away. If the khalifa is not from Quraysh does it negate his khali
fahood? The response is no, but its better to have the leader from the Quraysh w
ith a noble lineage.
We conclude with what happened on the next day: on the Monday within hours of th

e death of the prophet PBUH, Abu Bukr has been decided amongst the senior muhaji
roon and Ansar. This shows us the severity of the matter that barely a few hours
after the death of the prophet PBUH a khalifa is chosen. The news spreads and t
he people are told to give their bay'ah to Abu Bukr the next day, Tuesday 13th.
So after the morning prayer on Tuesday, the sahaba gathered in the masjid, and t
he prophet PBUHs body is still in the house of A'isha RA. Abu Bukr sits on the m
imbar and Umar stands up, introduces Abu Bukr and basically says "Oh people what
I said yesterday was something from me. Neither was it in the book of Allah nor
did the prophet PBUH tell me about it (about the prophet PBUH being not dead).
I thought the prophet PBUH would not leave us until everything was over and we w
ould all be gone before him. But Allah has left you with his book and in it is t
he sunnah, so hold onto it and you shall be guided. And Allah has gathered your
affairs and chosen the best of you, the companion of rasulAllah, so stand up and
give bay'ah to Abu Bukr". And everyone stood in line and gave the oath of allei
gance.
It is here when Abu Bukr RA gave his three line khutbah which is the most powerf
ul khutbahs ever given by any political leader after the prophet PBUH. It's just
3 lines which he said:
1. Oh people I have been put in charge of you even though I am not the best of y
ou
2. So if I do good, then help me. And if I do bad, then correct me. Being truthf
ul is the essence of trustworthyness. And lying is trechary. And the weak amongs
t you is strong in my eyes until I return to him his rights. And the strongest a
mongst you is the weakest in my eye.
3. And never does a group leave striving for the sake of Allah except that Allah
strikes them with humiliation. And never does evil spread except that Allah env
elopes them with punishment. Obey me as long as I obey Allah and His messenger.
But if I disobey Allah and His messenger, then I have no right on you that you s
hould obey me.
Stand up and pray, may Allah have mercy on you.
After he gave this khutbah, that is when the prophet PBUH was washed and prepare
d for burial. The discussion began as to where he should be buried which we disc
ussed already. So all of the khilafa issues have all been done within a day. And
the people continued to pray on the prophet PBUHs body. The sheer quantity of p
eople kept on kept on kept on coming until they were forced to bury him late nig
ht Tuesday. And of course the prophet PBUH is buried in his house and with this
we conclude the election of Abu Bukr RA.