A Reading in the Life of Abu Musa al-Ash‘ari During the Time of the Prophet and the Rightly-Guided Caliphs

Abstract

This article examines the life of Abu Musa al-Ash‘ari during the time of the Prophet and the Rightly-Guided caliphs. Nothing is known about his life before then, and the Islamic sources report a great deal about his life from the time of his allegience to the Prophet until his time as governor of Kufa in the time of ‘Ali. Abu Musa al-Ash‘ari’s career was distinguished by the Prophet’s confidence in him, and that continued during the time of Abu Bakr and enabled him in the time of ‘Umar to become governor, judge, and teacher of the Qur’an in Basra. After having been removed from Basra, Abu Musa regained the confidence of ‘Uthman, which enabled him to become the governor of Kufa. While there is a gap in information about Abu Musa for the period between 13 and 17 H /634-638 – the end of his time as governor of Yemen and the start of his time as governor of Basra, Abu Musa had the confidence of the Prophet, Abu Bakr, ‘Umar, and ‘Uthman, while stories differ about the confidence that ‘Ali had in him.