A Caliphate in a Storm

In the days after 'Uthman's murder, Madinah was in shock and the rebels were still in the city. The Companions turned to 'Ali, the most senior of those who remained of the six named by 'Umar. He was reluctant, but at their insistence he accepted, and the pledge was given to him in the Prophet's Mosque ﷺ. Mainstream Sunni scholarship holds that he was the rightful caliph from that day.

At once he faced an impossible question. Many — among them Talhah, al-Zubayr and 'A'ishah, and Mu'awiyah, the governor of Syria — demanded that 'Uthman's killers be punished immediately. 'Ali shared their grief and their goal, but judged that the killers were many, mixed among the tribes and the army, and that justice could only be done once the state was secure and the families of the slain brought their case before him.

Both positions were attempts to do right. Sunni scholars describe the disagreement that followed as ijtihad — sincere reasoning by Companions who all wanted justice for 'Uthman, and who differed on how and when. 'Ali soon moved his seat to Kufah in Iraq, nearer the heart of the trouble.