ABSTRACT
From the available sources, one prime question emerges which seems to have been of major concern and may well have provided the stimulus toward developed theological writing. is was the issue of determining who was and who was not a Muslim. e later Muslim sources, which provide us with additional data on the origins of this dispute,
picture it as fi rst arising within the context of the history of the early Muslim community, in common with the general trend in the sources to put the origins of Islam back as far as possible. Disputes over succession within the Arab ruling groups appear to have been read and understood by later generations of Muslims in theological terms as well as political ones. At stake was whether Aʿlī, the fourth leader of the Arabs after Muh. ammad, had the responsibility for avenging the death of his assassinated predecessor ʿUthmān; the clan of ʿUthmān, led by Muʿ āwiya, championed the claims of its kinsman, suggesting that Aʿlī had lost rightful claim to rule because of his failure to follow up on this obligation. Civil war erupted and Muʿ āwiya and the Umayyad dynasty eventually took over. From today’s perspective, there seems to be little reason to dispute the basic historico-political events. Muslim theological sources, however, see far more in these events and view them as paradigms for the discussion of issues of religious self-defi nition; they use these earlier events for discussion of the theological disputes which were, in fact, taking place at least a century after the fact. From a historical perspective, it is worth noting that the use of military force in trying to decide the issues concerning ʿUthmān and Aʿlī indicates immediately that there certainly was a great deal at stake at this time, and the issue really was far more involved than the question concerning the death of ʿUthmān. In the later reading of these historical events, the notions of piety and the “rightful” (i.e. moral) assassination of an “unjust” ruler become the operative elements.
