Page:William Muir, Thomas Hunter Weir - The Caliphate; Its Rise, Decline, and Fall (1915).djvu/110

 634] the moment be at hand. In the choice of agents for high office or command, he was altogether free from partiality, wise and discerning in his estimate of character.

But he had not ʿOmar's strength and decision; nor was his sense of justice so keen and stern. This is illustrated in the matter of the two Khālids. Upon the one, though warned by ʿOmar and ʿAlī, he was prevailed upon, according to Seif, to confer a command; the disaster in Syria was the consequence. Again, by refusing to condemn the other Khālid for injustice, cruelty, and the scandal of marrying Ibn Nuweira's widow, he became responsible for his evil deeds. Yet to this unscrupulous agent—well named The Sword of God—was due, more than to any other, the survival and the triumph of Islām. But Abu Bekr was not wanting in firmness when stern occasion called; for example, the despatch of Uṣāma's army when Medīna lay defenceless and all around was dark, showed a boldness and steadfastness of purpose that, more than anything else, helped to roll back the tide of rebellion and apostasy.

Abu Bekr had no thought of personal aggrandisement. Endowed with sovereign and irresponsible power, he used it simply for the interests of Islām and the people's good. But the grand secret of his strength was faith in Moḥammad. "Call me not the Caliph of the Lord," he would say, "I am but the Caliph of the Prophet of the Lord." The question with him ever was, What did Moḥammad command? or, What now would he have done? From this he never swerved a hair's-breadth. And so it was that he crushed Apostasy and laid secure the foundations of Islām. His reign was short, but, after Moḥammad himself, there is no one to whom the Faith is more beholden.

For this reason, and because his belief in the Prophet is itself a strong evidence of the sincerity of Moḥammad himself, I have dwelt at some length upon his life and character. Had Moḥammad begun his career a conscious impostor, he never could have won the faith and friendship of a man who was not only sagacious and wise, but throughout his life simple, consistent, and sincere.