First Caliph in Islam:

First Caliph in Islam:

After the death of the Messenger of Allah (S.A.W.), Abu Bakr (R.A.) was unanimously accepted caliph. However, he had faced many crises after becoming caliph.

Imam Al-Dhahabi said:

“When the news of the death of the Prophet (S.A.W.) spread, many groups of people among the Arabs apostatized from Islam. They objected to pay the almsgiving (Zakat). Abu Bakr Siddiq (R.A.) decided to fight them. Umar and others impressed upon him to refrain from fighting them, but Abu Bakr said: 'By Allah, if they refuse to pay a rope which they used to pay at the time of the Messenger of Allah (S.A.W.), I will fight them for withholding it."

Umar (R.A.) insisted:

“How can you fight with these people although the Prophet (S.A.W.) said: "I have been ordered by Allah to fight the people till they say: None has the right to be worshiped but Allah, and whoever said it then he will save his life and property from me except on trespass the law, and his accounts will be with Allah."

Abu Bakr (R.A.), reiterated:

“By Allah! I will fight those who differentiate between the prayer and almsgiving (Zakat), for almsgiving (Zakat) is a compulsory right to be taken from the property (according to Allah's orders).”

Then Umar (R.A.) said:

“By Allah, it was nothing, but Allah brought relief to Abu Bakr toward the decision (to fight) and I came to know that this decision was right.”

Abu Bakr (R.A.) raised the banner of war on all fronts. The desert never witnessed, even in the lifetime of the Prophet (S.A.W.) himself, such grinding battles as those that occurred. But the men that were trained by Mohammad (S.A.W.) upon the recognition of the truth and total submission to it were sincere to Allah in their deeds. They dealt idolatry a blow that broke its spine and squeezed its soul until it faded into oblivion. They equally drove away the Romans from the boarders. They broke the spine of the apostates. Some of them came back into the fold of Islam and others perished far estranged from it. In no more than a few years, Islam triumphed and was seen and heard (far and wide) while other religions were on the brink of extinction.

Compilation of the Holy Quran:

One of the greatest achievements Abu Bakr Siddiq (R.A.) rendered to Islam was the compilation of the Holy Quran. At that time, there were hundreds of memorizers who had memorized the entire Quran among the Companions during the life time of the Prophet (S.A.W.), but the Holy Quran had never been complied in a book-form, although its memorization continued after the death of the Prophet (S.A.W.). However, numbers of those memorizers had been martyred in the various battles that had ensued after the Prophet's (S.A.W.) passing. Consequently, it occurred to Umar (R.A.) that steps should be taken to preserve the Quran intact in its original form, against any kind of risk, and he saw that it was not prudent to depend exclusively upon those who had committed its memory to heart. Therefore, he urged Abu Bakr (R.A.) to have it written down in the form of a book. Abu Bakr (R.A.) at first hesitated because this had not been done by the Prophet (S.A.W.) himself. However, after some debate on the subject, he agreed and appointed Zaid ibn Thabit (R.A.) for this work, Zaid (R.A.) hesitated at the thought of undertaking such a momentous task, but he later took heart and began the work. Zaid (R.A.) was the most capable person to be charged with this because he had acted as an amanuensis to the Prophet (S.A.W.), and one of the Companions, who had learnt the Quran directly from him.

After Zaid (R.A.) accomplished the tedious task and had organized the Quran into one book, he submitted the precious collection to Abu Bakr (R.A.), who kept it in his possession until the end of his life. During Umar's (R.A.) caliphate, it was placed in the custody of Umar's daughter, Hafsah (R.A.), who was also the Prophet's (S.A.W.) wife. Finally, in Uthman's (R.A.) days when different readers began to recite it differently, the caliph had several copies of it made and distributed them to the various countries which comprised the Islamic world. The modern edition of the Quran is the Uthman copy, which is considered the standard to which every other copy should conform.

Zaid ibn Thabit (R.A.), said:

“By Allah, If Abu Bakr (R.A.) had ordered to shift one of the mountains from its place it would not have been harder for me than what he had ordered me concerning the collection of the Quran.”

He continued,

“I started locating Quranic material and collecting it from parchments, scapula, leaf-stalks of date palms and from the memories of men.”

It is reported from Ali bin Abi Talib (R.A.), who said:

“The one who has the greatest reward amongst the people is Abu Bakr because he was unique in compiling the Quran.”