It is true that Umar, Uthman and Ali (may Allah be pleased with them all) were all assassinated and honoured with shahada (martyrdom). Only Abu Bakr died a natural death.

However, Umar was in power 10 years and Uthman was in power for 12 years. We cannot judge their entire rule by the last few months or weeks. This is focusing on a specific incident and generalizing as discussed in detail in the article, After the Rightly Guided Caliphs, were the Caliphs generally corrupt? Ali was in power for 4 years fighting a civil war.

The west doesn’t judge America based on Kennedy’s assassination or by Nixon’s Watergate scandal. On the contrary, they speak highly of Kennedy’s presidency and his support for the civil rights movement and during Nixon’s presidency is when Armstrong allegedly set foot on the moon. Similarly, we judge the Caliphate’s success by its implementation and propagation of Islam which is unparalled during the first 30 years of the Rightly Guided Caliphs.

It should also be noted that Islam was revealed on human beings not angels. To err is human. The Caliphate’s job is to solve human being’s problems through implementing sharia upon them. The problems that occurred during the reign of the Rightly Guided Caliphs such as the Ridda wars actually resulted in strengthening Islam and laying the foundations for future conquests.

The Caliphs were public figures whose doors were always open, leading the prayer in the mosque and mingling openly with the citizens. None of the Rightly Guided Caliphs ever had body guards unlike the Kings of the time in the Byzantine and Persian Empires who were hated by their people and constantly feared attack.

Therefore this is a spurious claim against the early Caliphate which surmounted these challenges and lasted for 1300 years.