ISLAM AFTER MUHAMMAD Muhammad was born in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, He was a merchant or an Arab businessman (Armstrong, 2002).

Because he was worried about his tribe, the Quraisy that instead of taking care of the weak, because of the their thriving business (Mecca at that time was a thriving merchantile city), the Quraisy intent on making money at the expense of some of the tribe's poorer family, while their usual code of conduct, when they were still nomadic, before they become merchants, that is to take care of the weak. Because worrying for the state of his city and tribe, Muhammad ibn Abdallah always taking time to rest, fast, and prayed and gave something to the poor during the month of Ramadhan (Islam not yet established when He fasted, prayed and giving something to the poor, before he got the elevation during the ramadhan month Year 603 AD). Muhammad always worried and worried, and for two years while he was meditating in the summit of Mount Hira, Muhammad (while worrying) had intense experience, when he felt great presence of being that's not from this world on the night of 17 Ramadhan Year 603 (the first time Muhammad receive revelation). For two years, Muhammad kept silent and only confide to his first wife, Khadija and his cousin, a Christian, Waraqa ibn Nawfal, until in the year of 612, his cousin and his wife convinced him that the revelation had came from God, and he should spread the words (that he heard when he got the revelation). In the year of 612, Muhammad got his first convert (Arab worship the pagans, and the God they callad al-Lah, that means God, but they did not have prophet and scripture (holy book) like Christian and judaism), his young other cousin, Ali ibn Abi Talib, his friend Abu Bakr, and a young merchant he knew, Uthman ibn Affan from the powerful Umayyad family. Muhammad believed he did not create a new religion, but he was "merely bringing the old faith believing in One God" to the Arabs, who had never had a prophet before (Armstrong, 2002). The preaching is simple, that is Allah create the world and there will be judgement on the last day (the same belief taught in Christianity and Judaism), and that we should share the goods that we have to other people that are poorer, so no wonder that most of his early converts are poorer people of the clans existed in Mecca, and a significant number of them are women (Armstrong, 2002). At first Muhammad only have a small number of follower, but then after awhile,

Muhammad got up to 70 folllowers and his/her family. Looking at the speed of the mounting number of Muhammad's followers, the powerful people of Quraish tribe started to resent Muhammad's teachings, as quoted that the powerful Quraisy, thought Muhammad :"reviled the faith of their father (old Arabs did not belief in one God), and was obviously a charlatan, who only pretended to be a prophet" (Armstong, 2002), Arabs people also did not belief in afterlife, and think the last judgement day as "fairy tales'. They started to do harmful action, like boycoting the followers of Muhammad, that would mean they could not buy food, forbidding Quraisy to marry muslims or trade with the muslims, the ban (boycott) lasted for two years, then made them unable to sell and trade with other Quraisy and to trade and buy food for two years, that made the clan of Muhammad running out of food supply, and and even according to Armstrong, 2002 in her book, Islam a Brief History, this might be the cause of death of Muhammad beloved wife, Khadija. And with the death of His uncle Abu Talib just the short while after the death of his beloved wife, forced Muhammad to flee Mecca and settled in Yathrib, almost 400 kilometers outside Mecca. This move marked in Islamic history as hijrah, and in Yathrib, Muhammad could fully implement al Quran ideals. Yathrib then would be known as al-Madinah (or the City) and it became "the perfect pattern of Muslim society (Armstrong, 2002)". From there, Muhammad conquer Mecca, send troops to other cities, and become a Chief. When Muhammad died in 632, almost all tribes in Arabia had joined the ummah (people of Islam, led by Muhammad) and converted to Islam. And since, it is forbidden to attack one another (as the tradition and culture in old Arabs, when tribes were attacking and pillating and exploiting one another), the ghastly cycle of tribal warfare, or vendetta, and counter-vendetta, had ended. So it means,Muhammad, singlehandedly had brought peace to war-torn Arabia (Armstrong, 2002). But of course, with the death of Muhammad, Islam and Arab lost its sole chief and leader. This then lead to ghastly war and death among Muslims itself. When Muhammad died, so many people had felt the lost, because not only Muhammad a chief and leader of a certain nation (Arab), but Muhammad also a spiritual advisor to his people, a prophet that create certain law to control the Arabs, and a person that have a very long vision to the future of his nation and country. His close friends and devout followers had not believed that Muhammad had died, but even that, did not prevent his

close friend, his close advisors, before Muhammad had been laid to rest, people had been talking who will be the next chief and leader. This might have been not would become of problem, if Muhammad have had a son, but even with so many wives (most of them are because of political reason), only Khadija bore him children, all of them daughters, and only four out of six had survived. Or it would be really helpful, if before Muhammad died, there had been another leader chosen, but with the sudden death people are gripping with the fear and the curiosity on who will be chosen to be the leader after Muhammad, if the Arab nation was a kingdom, such as Persia and Rome, it might not be a problem choosing the replacement, but such as Arabs are not kingdom, and there in Islam, there was no believe in handing down the leadership to first born son or such, people were buzzing and talking who would be the next leader. People were not just talking, according to riwayah by Abu Ya'li, that said that:"Umar had been in Muhammad's house, when suddenly, a person said to him and said "oh Umar, you have to get out from the house, and go to saqifa banu saida, because if not people are fighting and if you do not go there immediately, there will be war." And because Umar and Abu Bakr are preparing for Muhammad funeral, Abu Bakr, were sent to saqifa to settle the disagreement who will be chosen to be the next leader. It was obvious that even before the funeral had finished, people were clamoring to be the leader and chief that subtitude Muhammad. Shii (Shi'ah) or the true heir or what they believed they are the true heir of Muhammad leadership, had adamantly insisted that Ali ibn Abu Thalib that should be the leader after the death of Muhammad, but this believe were not shared by others, because in Islam, there is not true heir, and even according to the tribe tradition in choosing a leader, every chief of a head of a tribe in Arab will do a musyawara or discussion who would deemed worthy to be the next leader. Shiis (Shi'ah) believed that Ali was the successor, maybe because Muhammad often or once said that Ali was a man with a very enviably good character, have courage and brave, very smart and he might become a man that people of Islam or Muslims could count on, but because in Islam there is no heir and because Arab, his nation are from

different tribes and clans that had their own leaders and chief, with their own power, Muhammad never voiced verbally who were going to his successor (maybe he did not want to alienate the other clan and tribal leaders and chiefs). Even according to this book, or maybe riwayah, before he passed away, Muhammad had once asked for writing material, but then prevented by Umar who insisted that Muhammad had to be strong and preserve his strenght and he should not worried who will be the next successor because everything could be decided by consulting the holy Quran. From the description above, it is obvious that a lot of people wanted to be the next leader after Muhammad Death, not only because Muhammad is the leader of a country (Arab) but also the political power behind it. Because the many ambission of people, people were distorting the fact on who might Muhammad chosen as his successor during before he passed away, because they afraid, what Muhammad said on before he died, might prevent some people who was ambitious to be next leader. Not only they were arguing among themselves who was most worthy to be the successor, but there was also mounting tensions between tribes, because different tribes prefer different person to be the successor. Banu Hasyim choose Ali ibn Thalib to be the next leader, Quraisy poeple who left Mecca to go to Madina (Yathrib) with Muhammad, chose Abu Bakr as the successor while Anshar people choose Sa'ad bin Abada, because Sa'ad had been their leader. Quraisy who lived in Medina were head to head with Anshar, and Banu Hasyim were left alone, because they had no power. The fight and the disagreement who would be the next leader happened in a place called Saqifa banu Sa'ida, a place where they conggregated after hearing that Muhammad had passed away. When no agreement have been declared, people then even suggested that they shared the responsibility of Arab leader, to success Muhammad, but of course this plan were thwarted because there should only be one leader to whole the power or else, there would be bitter feud and prolong agreement because of the existence of two leader that shared the same power. This then started a deadly feud, because even Muhammad's closest friends, who were before are so close together, started to tear apart because of their own ambission to be the next leader. Al Shahrestani, a well known Muslim historian even said that " the

most bloody feud in Islam history, is the feud between Muhammad's closest friends and head of clans and tribal chiefs during the time for the successor to be chosen to replace Muhammad after his death."

Bibliography 1. Armstrong, Karen. Islam: a Short History. Modern Library, New York, 2002. 2. ____. Islam after Muhammad. -