All posts filed under: baya

The Beginning of Hereditary Rule in the Caliphate

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Hereditary Rule started from the time of Mu’awiyah ibn Abi Sufyan (41H/661CE – 60H/680CE) when he was Khaleefah, so we will discuss some key events concerning his rule in order to fully understand why he embarked on this course of action. This is an extract from the article Part 2: Bay’a in Islamic History – The Umayyad Khilafah The Civil War between Mu’awiyah and Ali Disputes broke out many times throughout the Khilafah’s 1300-year history over who should govern the state. One thing remained constant however and that was the bay’a. No Khaleefah ever came to power without the bay’a, and this method of appointing the ruler continued until 1924. During the civil war between Mu’awiya and Ali, Mu’awiya never claimed the Khilafah for himself or took the bay’a for himself. Rather he made his bay’a conditional on Ali handing over Uthman’s assassins which Ali was unable to fulfil at that time. Abu Muslim Al-Khawlani and a group of people said to Mu’awiyah: “Do you disagree with Ali or are you like him?” So Mu’awiyah said: …

Was Yazid a Legitimate Caliph?

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This is an extract from the article Part 2: Bay’a in Islamic History – The Umayyad Khilafah There is ikhtilaaf (difference of opinion) among the ulema on Yazid’s legitimacy. Many scholars accept he was a legitimate Khaleefah such as Al-Dhahabi, but that he was sinful and blameworthy for the oppression and persecution he committed against the sahaba, and the murder of al-Hussain and his family. Others such as ibn al-Jawzi reject his legitimacy and call him a usurper, because he never had a legally convened bay’a that was given through free choice and consent by the majority of the Ahlul hali wal-aqd (political representatives of the ummah). Al-Dhahabi says, “(Yazid) he was the commander of that army during the campaign against Constantinople, among which were people such as Abu Ayyoob al-Ansaari. Yazid was appointed by his father as his heir, so he took power after his father died in Rajab 60 AH at the age of thirty-three, but his reign lasted for less than four years. Yazid is one of those whom we neither curse …