Election of Abu Bakr to Caliphate
Main articles: Succession to Muhammad, Hadith of the pond of Khumm, and List of Sahaba not giving bay'ah to Abu Bakr
After Muhammad's death, previously dormant tensions between the Meccan immigrants, the Muhajirun, and the Medinan converts, the Ansar, threatened to break out and split the Ummah. Other Arabic tribes also wished to revert to local leadership and split from Medina's control. In some places, people claiming prophethood started to establish leaderships to oppose Medina, e.g. Al-Aswad Al-Ansi and Musaylimah. All of which are events that lead to splitting the Muslim community.[45] The Ansar, the leaders of the tribes of Medina, met in a hall or house called saqifah, to discuss whom they would support as their new leader. When Abu Bakr was informed of the meeting, he, Umar, Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah and a few others rushed to prevent the Ansar from making a premature decision. Accounts of this meeting vary greatly. All agree that during the meeting Umar declared that Abu Bakr should be the new leader, and declared his allegiance to Abu Bakr, followed by Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah, and thus Abu Bakr became the first Muslim caliph, who was given the title, Khalifa-tul-Rasool (Successor of messenger of Allah), a title only accepted by Sunni Muslims. Shias criticise Abu Bakr for forsaking the funeral of Muhammad to attend the political gathering, and believe that Muhammad had already appointed Ali in his lifetime as his successor. This view portrays Abu Bakr and Umar as plotters in a political coup against the Alids. The Ismaili Shia Institute researcher Wilfred Madelung[46] portrays Abu Bakr as a political opportunist whose character as the founder of Sunni Islam has been extensively embellished by subsequent kings and emperors (caliphs) making it difficult to openly criticise him. Some sects of Islam like Shia strongly believe that Abu Bakr deceived Ali, keeping Ali from his right as khilafat since he was true successor to Muhammad.[47]
