Role of Turkey in the Leadership of Muslim World

Abstract

After the demise of the Prophet (S) in 632, the Muslim community failed to reach consensus on who should succeed him as the caliph. A majority of Muhammad's (S) close followers supported the idea of an elected caliph, but a minority believed that leadership, or the imamate, should remain within the Prophet's family, passing first to Muhammad's (S) cousin, son-in-law, and principal deputy, Ali ibn Abu Talib (R), and subsequently to Ali's sons and their male descendants. The majority, who believed they were following the sunna of the Prophet, became known as Sunni Muslims. To them, the caliph was the symbolic religious head of the community, so he should be chosen by the scale of Takwa and competence of taking the responsibility of Muslim Ummah. It is not necessary that he must be a member of the Prophet’s family. To follow this criteria by the Muhammad's close followers, they select Hazrat AbuBakr (R) the first caliph of Islam and Muslim democracy has started in practice.The partisans of Ali--the Shiat Ali--evolved into a separate Islamic denomination that became known as the Shia. However, caliphs would also rule as the leaders of a major empire for six centuries. The first four caliphs-- Hazrat Abu Bakr (R), Hazrat Omar (R), Hazrat Osman (R), and Hazrat Ali (R)--were chosen by a consensus of Muslim leaders. Subsequently, however, the caliphate was converted by its holders into a hereditary office, the first two dynasties being the Umayyad, which ruled from Damascus, and the second being the Abbasid, which ruled from Baghdad. After the Mongols captured Baghdad and executed the Abbasid caliph in 1258, a period of more than 250 years followed when no one was recognized as caliph by all Sunni Muslims. During the sixteenth century, the Ottoman Dynasty resurrected the title, and gradually even Muslims outside the Ottoman Empire came to accept the Ottoman sultan as the symbolic leader--caliph--of Sunni Islam.