Q. & A. 711 to 1707 with solved Papers css 1971 to date

CHARACTER
Hazrat Abu Bakr (Rad.A) was the most distinguished figure of Islam after the Holy Prophet. He was mild and gentle but stern when necessary. He was the true embodiment of Islam. Being diligent, wise, full of wisdom and great statesman, he occupies a unique place in the history of Islam. His name would remain for ever in the minds of Muslims. Hazrat Abu Bakr (Rad.A) was the most pious companion of the Holy Prophet. He never took unlawful meal. Once one of his slaves brought for him some food to eat. He took a morse! out of it but afterwards he learnt that the slave got it as a result of sooth saying. He then remarked, ”Ah! You would have surely killed me.” He tried to disgorge it and when he did not succeed he drank water and then vomited the whole thing out. He never spoke any obscene language in any situation. Once he said a harsh word to Hazrat Umar (Rad.A) which he realized later and asked him to forgive him. Hazrat Umar (Rad.A) delayed in excusing him. He was so much perturbed that he went to the Holy Prophet who asked’Umar (Rad.A) to excuse him.14
Hazrat Abu Bakr (Rad.A) used to fear Allah most of all. Once he went to a garden where he saw a bird. He sighed deeply and said, ”O bird! you are lucky indeed! You eat and drink as you like and fly but do not have fear of reckoning on the Day of Judgement. I wish that I were just like you. Sometime he said, ”I wish I were a blade of grass whose life ended with the grazing of some beast: or a tree that would be cut and done a\va> with”.’5
He was a great worshipper. It is said that Hazrat Abu Bakr (Rad.A) used to perform Salat similar to that of the Holy Prophet. He was the one who spent all of his life belongings for the sake of Allah and His Prophet. The Holy Prophet gave him the glad tidings of Paradise in these words: ”Abu Bakr’s (Rad.A) name shall be called
Hazrat Abu Bakr (Rad. A.) 225
out from all the gates of Paradise and he will be the first p^.son of my Ummah (people) to enter it”.16
Von Kremer in his immortal work ”The Orient under the Caliphs” says, ”Abu Bakr the successor and representative of the Prophet in the highest affairs of the Muslim community was a simple man of the old Arabian fashion, and when summoned to the Caliphate, he was changed in no respect. Outside the town in a small village,, called Sunah, he lived with his wife Habibah under a tent of camel hide in a style as simple and unostentatious as that of a Bedouin Shaykh. Thus did he live for seven months after his election. In the morning he used to start for the town either on foot or on horse-back, reaching it just before sunrise to conduct the morning prayer. In a similar manner he returned home in the evening. He subsequently came to settle in town, but h’s household always remained as unpretentious as ever. He had oniy one slave who after finishing the domestic work, made himself useful by cleaning the swords of the faithful”.
H.G. Wells says, ”The true embodiment of the spirit of Islam was not Muhammad (PBUH) but his close friend and supporter Abu Bakr. There can be little doubt that if Muhammad (PBUH) was the mind and imagination of primitive Islam, Abu Bakr was its conscience and its will. Throughout their life together it was Muhammad (PBUH) who said the thing, but it was Abu Bakr who believed the thing”.
”And then Abu Bakr, with that faith which moves mountains, set himself simply and sanely to organise the subjugation of the whole world to Allah-with small armies of 3,000 or 4,000 Arabs-according to those letters the Prophe. had written from Medina in 628 A.D. to all tne monarchies ofJ.v won’J”.
H.G. Wells further says, ”And the fttempt came near to succeeding. Had there been in Islam a score o/men, younger men to carry on his work, it would certainly have succeeded. It came near to succeeding, because Arabi; was now a centre of faith and will, and because nowhere else in tht tvorld until Chi^a was reached, unless it was upon the steppes of Russia or Turkestan, was there another community of free-spirited men with any power of belief in their rulers and leaders”.
14 A A/iz. Abu Bakr (Rad A). P 104
15 Muhammad Ah, Early Caliphate. P.58
1 William Muir, Rise and Fall of Caliphate, P. 160

226 Political and Cultural History of {slant
According to Encyclopedia of Islam, ”His was a gentle character. During the reading of Quran, he shed tears, a thing that made a great impression on many, but especially on the women; and as his daughter related, he wept with joy at the news that he might accompany (Muhammad) in his emigration”. ”No sacrifice was too great in his eyes for u,? sake of the new faith. Thus it came about that °f h’s considerable fortune estimated at 40,000 dirhrnSj he brought to Medina the small sum of 5,000 d’h’hms”.
Sir William Muir says, ”Abu Bakr had no thought of personal aggrandisement Endowed with sovereign and the irresponsible power, he used it simply for the interests of Islam and the people’s good. But the grand secret of his strength was faith in Muhammad”. Lane Poole on the charactei of Abu Bakr, ”Abu Bakr’s calf*1 judgment and quick sagacity joined to a gentle and compassionate heart, were of incalculable service to the faith of
Islam”.
Edward Gibbon says, ”From tne rapid conquests of the Saf^cens a presumption will naturally arise that the first Caliphs coitunandfcd in person the armies of the faithful, and sought the crown of Martyrdom in the foremost ranks of the battle. The courage of Abu Bakr, Umar and Usman had indeed been tried in the persecution and wars of the Prophet; and the personal assurance of paradise must have lairght them to despise the pleasure and dangers of the present world. But they ascended the throne in a venerable or mature age, and esteemed the domestic cares of religion and justice the most important duties of a sovereign. Except the presence of Ujnar at the siege of Jerusalem, their longest expeditions were the frequent pilgrimage from Medina to Makkah; and they calmly received the tidings of victory as they prayed or preached before the sepulcher of the Prophet. The austere and the pride of their simplicity insulted the vain magnificence of the kings of the earth. When Abu Bakr assumed the office of caFph, he enjoined on his daughter A’isha to take a strict account of his patrimony, that it might be evident whether he were enriched or impoverished by the service of the State. He thought himself entitled to a stipend of three pieces of gold, with the sufficient maintenance of a single camel and a black slave; but on the Friday of each week, he distributed the residue of his own aad the public money, first to the most worthy and then to the most indigent of the Muslims. The remains of his wealth, a coarse garment and five pieces of gold, were delivered to his successor, who lamented with a modest sigh his own inability to equal such an admirable model”.