ABSTRACT
The particular case of Muhammad's charismatic authority, and the variety of ways in which it was sought to be institutionalized, makes the very use of this term—routinization–problematic. The massive attempt of the majority of Muslims, later to be called the Sunnites, towards a stable life was a direct response to the tumultuous experience of the Muhammadan prophetic period. Abu Bakr's most influential constituency consisted of the Meccan merchant establishment, a group most anxious to resume a routine economic life. The charismatic authority of the Prophet Muhammad and the traditional Arab mode of patriarchal authority against which it was expressed were the two major contending forces. The charismatic authority of Muhammad was asserted and established against the traditional order of Arab society. The Kharijites advocated the preservation and continuation of Islam as the universal expression of the Muhammadan charismatic legacy.
