The Prophet Muhammad A simple Guide to his Life
The Power of Peace
~ 251 ~
the Sassanid and Byzantine empires were
dismantled by divine succour during the period of
the rightly-guided caliphs. Consequently, the
coercive political system ended at the international
level, and thus began an age of intellectual freedom.
In this connection we find a very authentic tradition
recorded in Sahih al-Bukhari. When, after the
caliphate of Ali ibn Abi Talib, Abdullah ibn Zubayr
and the Umayyads engaged themselves in political
confrontation, Abdullah ibn Umar (son of the
second Caliph) and the senior-most surviving
companion of the Prophet kept himself aloof from
this battle. A group of people came to him and,
referring to the verse (2:193), which commanded the
believers to do battle in order to put an end to
persecution, asked him why he was not willing to
join the battle, Abdullah ibn Umar replied that
‘fitna’
did
not refer to their political confrontation,
but referred rather to religious persecution, which
they had already brought to an end. (
Fathul Bari,
8/160).
This makes it clear that the war putting an end to
persecution was a temporary war, of limited
