The Khulafa Rasyidin Period

The Prophet Muhammad's successor as head of state and leader of the Muslims called Caliph. As Caliph of God in this earth, human must translate all God's characters in reality life and set the earth according to the guidelines which has ruled by God.

Abu al-Hasan al-Mawardi in his book al-akham as-sultaniyah said that the main task of a Caliph is to maintain the unity of people and the defense of country. 

The rights of a Caliph:

1. Make war and build armies to maintain security and border of country
2. Uphold justice and righteousness
3. Strive to make al state agencies separate between the good with the bad, deplorable thing according to the provisions of Quran
4. Supervise the government and withdraw taxes as a source of financial
5. Become a judge who adjudicate legal dispute, punish those who break the law and prohibit all kinds of oppression
6. Confirm about Aqidah and laws which already agreed by scholars
7. Not entitled to interfere legislative power
8. Do centralization to keep the unity of people

Appointment of a caliph can be done with:

a.       Agreement of the society

b.      Appointment of the previous caliph

To change Prophet Muhammad’s position as a leader of the people and the head of the country, the people chose a substitute which is called as Caliph from among the Prophet’s companion.

Prophet’s companion is alive people in the Prophet’s time, become a friend of Prophet Muhammad in propagate Islamic teaching. From among the circle of Prophet’s companion, Abu Bakar Siddiq was chosen as the first Caliph. After he died the second, third and forth caliphs were Umar bin Khattab, Usman bin Affan, and Ali bin Abi Thalib. The governance of this four caliph occurred for 30 years, from 632M to 662M. In the history, these four caliphs are known as al-khulafa rasyidin, which means, the caliph who led the Islamic people to the right road.

The governance of khulafa rasyidin is important if you look at the development of Islamic law because it is become the model or example of the next generations, especially for the generation of Islamic experts in the modern era, about their way to find and apply Islamic law at that time.

(1) Abu Bakar Shiddiq (632M-634 AD)

He is the highest quality of law experts. He was the right choice as the first caliph because he was an honest and respected people, he also developed and propagated Islamic teaching actively and because of his relationship with Prophet Muhammad, he had a deep understanding about the soul of Islam more than anyone.

There are many actions that Abu Bakar Shiddiq had done that were written in the Islamic history:

·         His speech when he was inaugurated, which said about the relationship between the people and the authority which basically said that if he did the right thing then the people should follow and help him, if he did something wrong then the people can be compliant to him.

·         The way to solve the problem among the citizen. At first, to solve the problem, you should look at God’s revelation. If it wasn’t written there, you could search it in Sunnah of the Prophet. If there wasn’t in there, then Abu Bakar would ask to Prophet’s companions that were gathered to one assembly then they will do itjihad together or collective itjihad and then, the decision or consensus that was called as ijmak about certain problem. In the Abu Bakar governance, often achieved what was called in documents as ijmak’s companion.

(2) Umar bin Khattab (634-644 AD)

Caliph Umar is well-known as a person who courage and wisdom in establishing the legal provisions contained in the Quran to solve problems that arise in the community based welfare.

There are some examples of Umar’s action in the field of law:

1)      Enacting three divorces, the divorce is considered reconciliation impossible (again) as husband and wife, unless one party (in this case ex-wife) first mating with others, based on the considerations to protect women from abuse of the right of divorce was in the hands of men.

2)      Stop giving alms to convert, based on the consideration that Islam has a strong Converts: new people in Islam who is protected because it is still weak in the faith, and because they converted to Islam, their relationship with their family are disconnected.

3)      Do not carry the threat of punishment against thieves severed hand, based on consideration of the circumstances (emergency) and welfare (soul) community

4)      Prohibit intermarriage that allows Muslim men to marry women Ahl-ul-book (Jewish and Christian women), based on consideration of the status of women in order to protect Islam and security (secret) state.

(3) Usman bin Affan (644-656 AD)

When selected, Usman was old (70 years old) with weak personality. This weakness was exploited by people around him to pursue personal profit, luxuries and wealth.

During his reign:

Ø  Incurred nepotism which tendency to privilege or benefit relatives (his family).

Ø  The expansion of Islam continued to areas west to Morocco, to the east towards India and to move towards the north of Constantinople.

Ø  Copying the Quran into five manuscripts (set of written sheets) to overcome differences and greeting phrases about verses of Quran that spread through rote.

(4) Ali bin Abi Talib (656-662 AD)

After the death of Usman , the expert choose Ali bin Abi Thalib to become the forth caliph. He reigned from 656 until 625 M. His relationship with Muhammad is so close, for instance Muhammad often appoints him to replace him to solve some important problems. Not only that, he’s also nephew and son in law nephew and son in law of Muhammad because he’s married to Siti Fatimah binti Muhammad.

During his governance, there’ are so many problems everywhere and finally the climax is civil war because the state is not stable which is brings two dominant groups as the impact:

1.      Ahlus sunnah wal jama’ah : a group which is belief in the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad

2.      Syi’ah : Ali bin Ali Tahib followers.

Many differences of opinions about politic case between these two groups contain about who is the most competent to be a caliph. From that problem, some new problems develop again such as misunderstanding about aqidah , implementation of worship, law system and solidarity.

The source of Islamic law in this era (Khulafa Rasyidin) is Al-Quran, al sunnah, Ijma’ of friends and qiyas.        

#Summary from book entitled Hukum Islam. The author of this book is Prof. H. Mohammad Daud Ali, S.H.