Response Paper to Islam (World Religion)

Muhammad built the early Islam for around 23 years. Many scholars believe that his era is the best era, based on his hadith about the level of the best era in Muslim community’s history. I really curious about this term, is it religious term or anthropological term? As far as I know as Muslim, there is no debate about the truth of this hadith as the basic of theological justification. But how this hadith will be applied when we examine the problem in the early Islamic era, especially started at caliph era (the companions).

The succession of Muslim leader after Muhammad firstly became the hottest issue. This could separate muslim in Medina into two groups, Muhajirin and Anshor. Every group claimed that they are the one group who deserved being caliph. Fortunately, that conflict can be finished by Abu Bakar by saying that only Quraish group deserves being leader. For me, it is more political than theological because Muhammad never directly pointed his successor.

The second caliph, Umar bin khatab did not get any conflict when being chosen to be caliph. But, when Uthman changed Umar, the old friction about tribalism had arisen and it is more complicated then Abu Bakar era, because it carried the tribal and religious understanding about leader and truth. The chaos had escalated till Uthman dead by killed. Ali then continued the caliphate but he just got little support from his followers, especially people from Basra (now Iraq). Then Ali also had been killed after facing many wars with Aisha, Muhammad’s wife (Jamal War), some companions of prophet such as Talhah and Zubair ibn Awwam, and the last with Muawiyah.

Until this era, actually the problem is about political, not religious factor. Until this time also I try to relate those “political” incidents with the claim that the best umma is the early umma of Islam. It is still confusing then to describe what the real history of the early Islamic era, is it about political or purely religious thing? I do not. Surely we need a more contemplation and also research to know 1) what is the core thing in that era, 2) how the justification of Hadith is used, and 3) what is the implication of the Islamic development today.