Rashidun Caliphate, 4 Caliphate of Islam

History Of Rashidun Caliphates

Hazrat Abu Bakr R.A.’s Reign (573 – 634):

Hazrat Abu Bakr R.A. was widely regarded as a ruler and Caliph by all Muslims. During his 27-month rule, he subdued the uprising of Arab tribes across the Arabian Peninsula in the victorious Ridda Wars. Toward the end of his reign, he conquests against the Sassanid Empire in Mesopotamia and the Byzantine Empire in Syria.

Riddah Wars

Considering the Bedouins’ historic opposition to any limiting centralized power, Muhammad S.A.W was capable of obtaining at least an apparent commitment to Islam, payment of the zakat.  In what Muslim scholars subsequently termed the first apostate or Riddah. A Yemeni clan evicted two of Muhammad S.A.W’s emissaries and gained possession of Yemen in March 632. Three months later, Muhammad S.A.W. died, and dissident tribes rose in rebellion, seeking to reclaim their independence and cease paying the zakat. They refused to respect Abu Bakr’s leadership, perceiving Muhammad S.A.W.’s death as a breach of their pact, and would instead unite behind at least four competing prophets.

The majority of Abu Bakr R.A.’s rule was therefore consumed with Riddah conflicts, which, led by Khalid ibn al-Waleed, not only drove the secession again to Islam but also gained over thousands who had not yet been converted. The main effort was aimed against Abu Bakr R.A.’s main rival, the prophet Musaylimah and his supporters in Al-Yammah. It ended in the infamously terrible battle of Aqrab in eastern Najd (May 633), which became famous as the Garden of Death. The incident cost the Muslims numerous Ansar. Musaylimah was assassinated, the centre of the riddah resistance was removed, and the Medinan government’s power was established. Arabia was eventually unified underneath the caliph somewhere between 633 and 634, and the energy of its tribes was channeled to the invasion of Iraq, Syria, and Egypt.

Persia and Syria Expedition

Now that Arabia is a solitary, centralized government with a strong army, it could be seen as a potential danger to the nearby Byzantine and Sasanian empires. It’s possible that Abu Bakr R.A. thought that any of these powers would eventually launch a surprise attack against the young caliphate, so he thought it would be best to do it himself. A more key benefit, though, was that the Muslim warriors were good at what they did and were very passionate, and that was partly because they were sure that their reason was right. Also, most Muslims believed that Muslims must be safeguarded at all costs.

Although Hazrat Abu Bakr R.A. initiated the first fights that led to Islam taking over Persia and the Levant, he did not survive to see it happen. Rather, he left it to his successors to finish the duty.

Hazrat Umar R.A.’s Reign (634 – 644):

Despite the fact that practically all Muslims had pledged their allegiance to Hazrat Umar R.A, he was feared rather than liked. Umar R.A. was indeed a good speaker, and he utilised his talent to promote his public image. Hazrat Umar R.A. gave his unsettled holdings in Khayber to enhance his prestige and relationship with the Banu Hashim, Hazrat Ali R.A.’s tribe. With the requisite popular backing, Umar R.A. made the audacious decision to withdraw Khalid ibn Waleed from the overall command of the Roman front.

Political

Umar R.A. was the first to create a separate agency to investigate complaints against state personnel. This agency served as an administrative court. He was the first to establish the public ministry system, which maintained records of authorities and soldiers. He also kept track of communications he sent to rulers and leaders of the state. He became the first to establish police services to maintain public order. Whenever the people got disorganised, he was the first to discipline them.

Military

Caliph Umar R.A. established the army as a branch of the State Department. This change was implemented in 637 A.D. The system began with the Quraish and the Ansars and was eventually expanded to the rest of Arabia and Muslims from conquered regions. A list of all adults who may be summoned to war was compiled, and a pay scale was established. All males who enrolled were required to serve in the military.

Social

Under Umar R.A. caliphate, in the 7th century, the notions of welfare and pension were established in early Islamic legislation as types of Zakat, one among Islam’s Five Pillars. The taxes collected in an Islamic state’s treasury were utilized to provide a livelihood for the poor, aged, orphans, widows, and weakened.

Religious

Muhammad S.A.W. first recited the tarawih in assembly, a particular Muslim prayer during the months of Ramadan, but eventually halted this practice for concern that Muslims would begin to feel the prayers were necessary rather than sunnah. Umar R.A. revived the practice of reciting tarawih in assembly under his Caliphate since there was no longer any concern of people mistaking it for something obligatory

Hazrat Usman R.A.’s Reign (644–656):

Hazrat Usman R.A. ruled as caliph for 12 years. Throughout the first quarter of his rule, he became the most famous caliph among the entire Rashiduns, but in the second part of his reign, he faced rising resistance, headed by the Egyptians and centered on Hazrat Ali R.A.’s supporters.

Ignoring internal conflict, Hazrat Usman R.A. resumed Hazrat Umar R.A.’s conquering campaigns. The Rashidun military took North Africa from the Byzantines and even stormed Spain, seizing the Iberian Peninsula’s coastal districts as well as the territories of Rhodes and Cyprus. The ultimate compiling of the Qur’an was Hazrat Usman R.A.’s most enduring undertaking. Under his supervision, diacritics were inscribed with Arabic letters so that non-native Speakers could understand the Qur’an properly.

Compilation Of The Quran

As Islam spread beyond the Arabian Peninsula into Persia, the Levant, and North Africa, Hazrat Usman R.A. started to notice that the pronunciation and accent of the Quran varied somewhat from region to region. This occurred about the year 650 AD. In order to maintain the sanctity and purity of the text, he gave the task of creating a standardized copy of the Qur’an to a committee that Zayd ibn Thabit R.A. was to lead. The committee was to utilise the copy held by the caliph Hazrat Abu Bakr R.A. As a result, the Quran was dedicated to writing less than a quarter of a century after Hazrat Muhammad S.A.W.’s passing. This book served as the template from which copies were created and spread across the urban centres of the Muslim world; it is assumed that other versions of the text were lost or destroyed.

Economic and social administration

Hazrat Usman R.A. was a smart merchant and skilled dealer from his infancy, and he made significant contributions to the Rashidun Empire. Hazrat Umar R.A. had created a public stipend, which Hazrat Usman R.A. boosted by around 25% upon becoming a power. He prohibited the selling and acquisition of farming land in captured countries and lifted the limitations since the market could not thrive without them. He also allowed citizens to borrow money from the national treasury. It was Hazrat Umar R.A.’s policy that properties in captured countries were not to be dispersed among the warriors, but rather to retain the property of the former proprietors. The army was upset with all of these choices, but Hazrat Umar R.A. silenced the rebellions with force.

Hazrat Umar R.A. had been exceedingly careful in his utilisation of public treasury financing fact, except for the little stipend that had been authorized in his favor, He never took any funds from the treasury or any presents, and he didn’t let any of his family and friends accept any favors from anybody. These prohibitions were removed under the reign of Hazrat Usman R.A. Although Hazrat Usman  R.A. still received no entitlement from the treasury and no salary since he was a rich man with substantial assets of his own, unlike Hazrat Umar R.A., Hazrat Usman R.A. received presents and permitted his family members to do the same. He said openly that he had the freedom to use public funds in accordance with his best judgement, and no one reprimanded him for doing so. Hazrat Usman R.A.’s reforms had far-reaching results; Muslims and non-Muslims in the Rashidun Empire experienced an economically successful existence throughout his reign.

Military expansion

During the Arab-Byzantine Battles, he subsequently established a fleet staffed by Monophysitic Christians, Copts, and Jacobite Syrian Christian sailors and Muslim warriors, who beat the Byzantine navy, reopening the Mediterranean. Hazrat Usman R.A. also reclaimed the Maghreb and northern Africa, and his army marched on to Spain. They purportedly gained control of Al-Andalus’ coastal districts. During his caliphate, Muslims did capture a region of Spain, likely building settlements on its coast. To the east, he began a series of further military expansions, eventually defeating a military alliance of Sassanid loyalists and the Hephthalite Empire and leading a variety of successful campaigns tend to range from suppressing revolts in Fars, Kerman, Sistan, and Khorasan to establishing new fronts for conquering in Transoxiana and Afghanistan.

Balochistan was re-conquered the next year, in AD 652, during the battle against the Kermn uprising led by Majasha ibn Mas’ud. For the first time when western Balochistan was accurate to Caliphate authority, and it paid an agrarian contribution.

Hazrat Usman R.A.’s military approach was more centralized throughout his reign since he entrusted substantial military responsibility to trustworthy kinsmen. Except for a few exceptions in the kingdom of Nubia on the lower Nile, Hazrat Usman R.A.’s military actions were highly effective.

Hazrat Ali R.A.’s Reign (656–661):

Hazrat Ali R.A instituted significant reforms upon his succession, and his rigorous equality policies won him the favor of impoverished groups while upsetting the powerful Quraysh tribe, many of whom rose against Hazrat Ali R.A. in response to Hazrat Usman R.A.’s death. Hazrat Ali R.A.’s caliphate was distinguished by his honesty, unwavering loyalty to Islam, equal treatment of allies, and nobleness towards rivals.

The Man of Justice

Hazrat Ali R.A.’s short reign was thus distinguished by the rigour with which he administered justice and equality. After the assassination of Hazrat Usman R.A. Muslims were divided into two sects and Hazrat Ali found himself busy settling the dispute throughout his reign. Hazrat Ali R.A. was called Muhammad S.A.W.’s Shair-e- Khuda was cleaned from every sin and dishonesty.

He instructed Muslims for departing from the right path after Muhammad S.A.W and added that their ranks needed to be turned around just to bring forward the righteous and send back the unrighteous. His wise words have remained with Muslims ever since he made the vow while he was there to reclaim the public estates that Usman R.A. had given away during his reign as caliph. He also shared the cash from the treasury evenly among Muslims, which was a procedure that Muhammad S.A.W. had established. It is believed that he had no tolerance for dishonesty or corrupt behavior.

Fiscal policies

Hazrat Ali R.A. rejected centralised control over regional earnings. In addition to this, he divided the taxes and spoils fairly throughout the Muslim community, modelling his actions after those of Muhammad S.A.W and Abu Bakr R.A. Ali R.A.’s separation from the established order on the allocation of revenues was particularly appealing to the early immigrants to Iraq. Among these early immigrants. Ali R.A. embraced a humanist perspective of Islam that provided them with equality. In a broader sense, his equitable policies garnered him the support of practically all poor groups, especially the Ansar.

Welfare

Hazrat Ali R.A. initiated the first steps toward the formation of a welfare state by taking a few early initiatives. The commander was instructed to give priority to those who were in need, those who were afflicted, and those who were incapacitated, to appoint a deputy to manage the requirements of these groups and to respond to the needs of these individuals personally.

Though having outperformed by immediate descendants in terms of political and military accomplishments, the Rashidun Caliphs are nevertheless regarded as the finest of the caliphs by modern Muslims for their devotion. Despite their unsteady administration, they established the groundwork for the Islamic Caliphates, which would last for decades

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