CHAPTER I: The Establishment of Contradictions between Islam and the Muhammadans during the Era of the Corrupt Four Pre-Umayyad Caliphs (11 – 40 A.H./ 632 – 661 A.D.)

The beliefs map of people between Muhammad's era and the era of the corrupt four pre-Umayyad caliphs: introduction:

1- After the death of Muhammad, the powerful leaders of Qorayish who bowed before the wind dominated over the scene once again. Their being defeated shortly before Muhammad's death made them fail to retrieve Mecca within their control and they pretended to convert to the new religion. Once Muhammad died, they allied themselves to other leaders of Qorayish who immigrated to Yathreb in order to restore the stature and dominance of the Qorayish tribe over Arabia but this time in the name of Islam. Such alliance caused the marginalization of the original dwellers of Yathreb. These Qorayish leaders engaged into the renegades' war against some desert-Arabs and Bedouins who revolted against the hegemony of Qorayish and rejected 'Islam'. After quelling this revolt and forcing the desert-Arabs and Bedouins to return to 'Islam', the Qorayish tribe directed and channeled the energy and bellicose nature of most Arabs toward the Arab conquests. Later on, the struggle for loot and power caused divisions and turmoil that resulted eventually to the first major Arab civil war (battles of Mu'aweiya vs. Ali), whose outcome was the establishment of the tyrannical Umayyad caliphate and dynasty, whose era witnessed the second major Arab civil war when Yazeed Ibn Mu'aweiya succeeded his father, the first Umayyad caliph Mu'aweiya Ibn Abou Sufyan, to the throne and he quelled more rebels and revolts.        

2- To revert to disbelief and polytheism after any prophet's death is NOT uncommon within the history of all prophets. For instance, during the ministry of Jesus, he faced the cruel and stubborn Jewish hierarchy of clergymen in Palestine who conspired to have him killed, but God has saved; see 4:157 (contrary to the Christians' false narrative of crucifixion). Thus, the penultimate prophet of all God's prophets who emerged before Muhammad (i.e., Jesus) faced cruel, stubborn opposition; Christian traditions contain stories of some disciples who betrayed Jesus and those who denied and disowned him; this has been followed by the deification of Jesus by Paul. The Jewish enemies of Jesus had no military power as they submitted to the Romans. On the contrary, fighting and military might was how Arabian tribes dealt with one another and Qorayish was the wealthiest, mightiest, most powerful tribe that controlled religious life in Arabia. Qorayish leaders persecuted the early believers and Muhammad and attempted to assassinate him, but he was saved by God. the Qorayish leaders kept waging incessant wars against the Yathreb city-state to annihilate the early believers, but this resulted only in more people knowing about the Quran and converted to Islam. This made more tribesmen convinced that it is absurd and silly to worship pagan idols/deities and to submit to Qorayish that was defeated by the Muslims of Yathreb; the idols did not save Qorayish, and its trade caravans of winter and summer journeys were in danger. This drove leaders of Qorayish to feign a conversion to Islam and to adhere to peaceful behavior. This thin veneer of peace hided inner trends that waited eagerly the death of Muhammad to come to the fore and disturb this peace. Such trends managed to crush any rebels within the renegades' war and to mobilize most Arabs within the Arab conquests led by Qorayish.   

3- This is the difference between the gradual change of faith without fighting once Jesus died (a natural death) and the radical, violent, immediate change of faith once Muhammad died: the Israelites lived in Palestine while submitting to the military power of the Romans, and the deification of Jesus spread within a relatively peaceful environment, and Christians later on submitted to Arab conquerors of the Levant among other regions, whereas the belligerent Arabs were used to raiding, looting, and enslaving before Islam, and they continued such crimes after Muhammad's death in the name of 'jihad'. The roots of such radical, immediate change emerged during the era of the corrupt four pre-Umayyad caliphs who are still (among other figures of the so-called companions who were contemporaries of Muhammad) deified and sanctified by most Muhammadans.  

A brief overview of the era of the corrupt four pre-Umayyad caliphs:

1- The society of Yathreb comprised its original dwellers (mainly tribesmen of the two main tribes: Al-Aws and Al-Khazraj) and immigrants from Mecca and other regions. When Muhammad led the Yathreb city-state, he made immigrants and the original dwellers as brethren. Once Muhammad died, the original dwellers of Yathreb gathered in the Thaqeefa council to discuss choosing a successor (or caliph in Arabic) to lead the Yathreb city-state. The main spokesman in such a council was Saad Ibn Eibada and the Yathreb dwellers supported him to lead the Yathreb city-state, but while Ali prepared the dead body of Muhammad for burial, Abou Bakr and Omar (among other Meccan immigrants of Qorayish in Yathreb) hurried to join the Thaqeefa council and they took advantage of the old rivalry between the two main tribes, Al-Aws and Al-Khazraj, to declare that Arabia would never submit unless to the Qorayish tribe. Eventually, the Thaqeefa council resulted in choosing Abou Bakr as caliph because he was the eldest of the companions of Muhammad and who was supposedly the nearest one to him.     

2- Within the caliphate of Abou Bakr (11-13 A.H./632-634 A.D.), the Qorayish troops managed to crush the rebellion of desert-Arabs and Bedouins who refused to submit to Qorayish that restored its hegemony and dominance and declared defiantly their rejection of 'Islam' and the caliph Abou Bakr. After quelling such rebellion (a.k.a. the renegades' war), the belligerent desert-Arabs and Bedouins were mobilized by Qorayish within the Arab conquests that invaded Iraq and the Levant and defied the two prominent powers at the time: the Persians and the Byzantines. Abou Bakr died suddenly and mysteriously during such military endeavors.     

3- Before his death in Yathreb, Abou Bakr is purportedly said to have chosen Omar Ibn Al-Khattab as his successor, and his caliphate lasted about ten years (634-644 A.D.), during which Arab conquests of the region that came to be known later on as the Middle East continued. Omar was allegedly firm and fair (with Arabs only), but he committed many injustices against peoples of the conquered countries as he confiscated their assets and money, enslaved their progeny and women, and imposed heavy taxes and tributes. The Persian soldier Piruz Nahavandi (or Abou Lo'lo'a Al-Majousi in Arabic) assassinated Omar, and while dying, he commanded six of the Qorayish immigrants to Yathreb (Othman, Ali, Talha, Al-Zubayr, Saad Ibn Abou Waqqas, and Abdul-Rahman Ibn Awf) to choose one among themselves to succeed him within the supervision of his son, Abdullah Ibn Omar. Most views and votes were divided between Othman and Ali, but the Umayyad influence and conspiracy led to the choice of Othman, who belonged to the Umayyad faction of Qorayish, instead of Ali who belonged to the Hashemite faction of Qorayish.    

4- The caliphate of Othman Ibn Affan lasted about twelve years (644-656 A.D.), and he continued Arab conquests in the East. Because of his weak personality, the Umayyads controlled him and confiscated wealth ad money that came from the conquered nations to the Treasury of the caliphate. Bedouins and desert-Arabs felt betrayed by Qorayish as they receive very little though such countries were conquered by their blood and swords; they revolted against Othman, and they sieged his house for a while till they managed to assassinate him. Those rebels appointed Ali as caliph without the agreement of Qorayish.     

5- The caliphate of Ali Ibn Abou Talib lasted about five years (565-661 A.D.) which was also the duration of the first major Arab civil war (when the Umayyad leader Mu'aweiya Ibn Abou Sufyan revolted against him). This civil war ended when some supporters of Ali deserted him and some others turned against him until one of them assassinated him.

6- The eldest son of Ali, Hassan, was chosen by many people as caliph after the assassination of his father, but he realized that he was too weak to face Mu'aweiya and he publicly ceded all power and authority to him. This paved the scene for Mu'aweiya to establish the Umayyad caliphate which was based on injustices and monarchy as the throne was inherited within one dynasty. 

7- We provide in the points below a brief explanation of how the Muhammadans ended up submitting to the rule of the Umayyads who were the arch-enemies of the early believers and haters of the Quran.

The beliefs map:

1- The era of the corrupt, sinful four pre-Umayyad caliphs has established the earliest contradiction between Islam and the Muhammadans in terms of faith/belief and sharia laws; soon enough, this has led to the emergence of the earthly, man-made religions whose authors claim that their books/narratives were divine revelation, though they are in fact devilish revelations. The false claim that such books of fiqh and hadiths are part of 'divine' revelation is a lame pretext to stop anyone from criticizing such books and from showing how they contradict Quranic verses in every respect. This entails a detailed explanation, using the Quran and history, to shed light on the so-called companions of Muhammad, who were the social and political powers around him in the Yathreb city-state that were even more active after he died. Of course, however deified, venerated, and sanctified they are now by Sunnites, those companions were never a group of angels; rather, they were mortal human beings who were liable to error. Muhammad was liable to make mistakes and he has been reproached and rebuked in the Quran; other non-prophets at the time in Arabia were mortal who erred and committed mistakes; those who deny this fact are Sunnite polytheists who deify historical figures as 'saints'/gods.        

2- The Quranic Chapter Nine contain the verses revealed shortly before Muhammad's death. Hence, it contains the beliefs map of the dwellers of the Yathreb city-state within the last year of Muhammad's life. The Quranic Chapter Nine begins with the divine announcement of disowning the Meccan aggressive polytheists of Qorayish who never respect neither kinship nor treaty with the early believers as they were addicted to aggression and violence. They have driven Muhammad and the early believers to get out of Mecca and to immigrate to Yathreb. Eventually, when Muhammad entered Mecca peacefully (i.e., without fighting) with his army, he pardoned the aggressors who promised never to repeat their aggression as per treaties made at this day when Muhammad entered Mecca. Yet, some of them violated and breached such peace treaties and went on with their aggression. God has given such aggressors the duration of the four sacred months as a chance to repent and to adhere to peace; if they continued aggression after this period of time, believers had the right to fight back and to prevent the aggressors from entering into the Sacred Kaaba Mosque. This is a very brief idea of the verses 9:1-28. The Quranic Chapter Nine is the only Quranic chapter that does not begin with the phrase (In the Name of God, the Dominant, the Compassionate), and it adopts a severe tone of denouncing the aggression of those violent polytheists and urging believers to fight back within self-defense if aggression would not stop. 

3- When we contemplate 9:1-28, we cannot help but notice that these verses tackle ONLY the descriptions of the Meccan leaders of Qorayish, as they were the imams/leaders of polytheism/disbelief (in terms of aggressive behavior and violence), and as they were the ones to initiate aggression for years while assuming to have the right to control pilgrimage as they took care of the Kaaba and pilgrims. They were also the only ones who have interests to keep by corrupting pilgrimage after Muhammad and early believers controlled Mecca as part of the rule of the Yathreb city-state. Those Qorayish polytheists fought pilgrims and peaceful early believers inside and around Mecca.     

4- What we assert here is conclusions drawn by methodically reading the content of the verses 9:1-28 while seeking to understand them within the context of other Quranic verses about the aggression committed by the Meccan polytheists of Qorayish. As some of the early believers were relatives of those polytheists, they allied themselves with them, whereas others among the early believers were too reluctant to engage into self-defense to make the aggression stop. Hence, we read severe rebuke from God addressed to such reluctant people, who were happy to restore good relations with their Qorayish tribesmen and relatives as feelings of tribalism overpowered them and made them forget their belonging to Islam. There are verses that reproach and threaten them that they are deemed as aggressive polytheists if they keep their alliance with aggressors who attacked early believers inside Mecca and the Sacred Kaaba Mosque after it was Muhammad's responsibility to protect and secure pilgrims and pilgrimage as well as the Kaaba.     

5- Middle-Ages historians (during the Abbasid Era and other eras) never cared to write in their books about these grave events in the Quranic Chapter Nine. The reason: the verses expose their ancestors as a corrupt group of people. Hence, tens of Quranic verses talking about hypocrites and polytheists among dwellers of Yathreb and Mecca were not tackled by Middle-Ages authors for centuries in their historical accounts of events that occurred during Muhammad's lifetime. Thus, we do not find Abbasid authors whose writings would tell us about the deeds and names of those imams/leaders of polytheism and disbelief, nor about those hypocrites who engaged into rumormongering, nor the reluctant ones, and nor about those who vacillated between belief and disbelief mentioned without names in many Quranic verses that tell us about companions of Muhammad. These verses mortify the narrators of the Abbasid Era who hated to expose their ancestors and this prevented their commenting on certain Quranic verses; eventually, this is understandably expected as it is human to err; after all, who would like to spread bad news and disgraceful details about one's ancestors? This is expected naturally within an Arab culture whose people bragged of ancestry and took pride in stature, tribe, and families. Their corrupt religiosity and their distortion of Abraham's religion strengthened such bragging, and within the Quran, they are severely rebuked a lot and curse by God. Yet, the Sunnite religion authors turned these ancestors (i.e., the so-called companions) and their progeny into infallible deities or demi-gods. Thus, no Sunnite historians wrote much details about hypocrites and disbelievers among the companions and their historical background. Of course, this means that Arab readers of this book that you read now are thoroughly shocked when we, Dr. A. S. Mansour, demonstrate Quranic facts derived from Quranic verses and their objective contexts, within the special Quranic terminology, that show that those mortal gods (i.e., companions) are fallible and include hypocrites, disbelievers, etc.             

6- The methodology of the Quranic stories is to focus on the moral lessons and never to care to mention details like names of persons, era, localities, etc. so that the stories aim at preaching, away from restraints of such details. Historians intentionally disregarded providing background (names, events, etc.) for Quranic verses tackling Muhammad's story and era. This is why there is no mentioning Meccan leaders' aggression against early believers after Meccans submitted to Muhammad shortly after his death, as per the Quranic Chapter Nine. Yet, we are to believe Quranic facts and stories whether historians and authors tackled their historical details or not. 

7- As per the Quran, the Meccan Qorayish leaders 'converted to Islam (i.e., adhered to peace) after most years of Muhammad's ministry; even after Muhammad entered into Mecca peacefully without fighting, they revolted against him and the early believers by breaching the peace treaty, as we have read in 9:1-28. This was done shortly before Muhammad's death; it is hardly expected that these Meccan Qorayish people were pacific group of 'pure angels' after Muhammad's death. They had not forgotten their old ways and they sought revenge against Islam and Muslims by first feigning to convert. 

8- We talk here specifically about the Umayyads, who were a prominent faction of Qorayish, as the arch-enemies of Islam who overtly converted after years of fighting it to manipulate it after Muhammad's death to form an Arab empire after unifying men Arabia under banners of Islam to conquer and invade other countries. Such Arab conquests contradict the Quran that clearly shows that fighting must be ONLY for the purpose of self-defense against aggression. The Arab conquests and invasion led to the emergence of an Arab empire led by Qorayish (i.e., ruled by caliphs of Qorayish: the Umayyads and then the Abbasids) from the borders between France and Spain to the borders of China.  

9- Within the second half of the Quranic Chapter 9 (and within certain verses of the Quranic Chapters 4, 5, 63, 59, 33, and 58 revealed before the Quranic Chapter 9), we find the focus is on hypocrites, who were disbelievers and feigned conversion to Islam, and their conspiracies. Those hypocrites had exposed themselves by their words and deeds and conspiracies. There was another type of hypocrites who were adamant in hypocrisy and concealed their stance and their disbelief very well indeed in order to deceive Muhammad and early believers. Muhammad was no mind-reader; he could not know what was inside their mind and hearts. Those who were adamant in hypocrisy are mentioned in the Quranic Chapter 9 without names of course, and God has promised two types of severe torment during worldly existence and then eternal torment in Hell in the Hereafter. This means they died without repentance. God has urged hypocrites (who exposed themselves by their deeds and words) to repent in 4:145-155 and 9:74. In 9:80 and 63:1-6, God predicts that those who were adamant in hypocrisy will never repent and will die as hypocrites, and they will never be pardoned by God even if Muhammad asked for pardon for their sake, because they refused to repent. These Quranic predictions indicate clearly that after Muhammad's death, those who were adamant in hypocrisy will spread corruption on earth while feeling safe regarding the fact that the Quran will no longer expose them as was the case during Muhammad's lifetime.

10- Apart from exposed hypocrites and those who were adamant in hypocrisy and concealed their disbelief in Yathreb, there were companions there who betrayed and conspired against Muhammad; see 4:80-89 and 4:105-110, and they include those who harmed him with their tongues and deeds and those who were fear-mongers as their heart were diseased with doubt and hatred; see 33:18-25, 33:53, 33:57, 33:60, 9:61. Of course, among the Yathreb dwellers were those believers who mixed good deeds with bad ones and had fluctuating stances, and their fate in the Hereafter (in Hell or in Paradise) is decided by God on the Last Day. Another type of the Yathreb dwellers were those pious forerunners with their deep faith and good deeds, who never sought superiority or corruption on earth; see 28:83. This last category of people are never mentioned in history books; thus, we do not know their names, because historians never care except for tyrants and despots who committed massacres among leaders, sultans, and caliphs. 

11- Away from Yathreb, desert-Arabs and Bedouins are mentioned in the Quran as divided into two types: those adamant in disbelief and hypocrisy and those who were real believers; see 9:97-99. Some desert-Arabs and Bedouins were arch-enemies of the early believers and raided and attacked Yathreb many times after visiting it to know the weak points before attacking them by night while contacting hypocrites inside Yathreb of course. God has imposed on them to settle in Yathreb while enjoying political and religious freedom within peace (i.e., never to raise arms) like the rest of hypocrites; see 4:88-91. Shortly before Muhammad's death, desert-Arabs and Bedouins within borders of Yathreb were ready to seize any chance to raid the city, and God has commanded Muhammad and the early believers to face them firmly if raids occurred; see 9:123.   

12- Conspiracies and intrigues of hypocrites inside Yathreb were under control to a certain extent, as the Quranic sharia provided for them absolute freedom regarding their deeds and words as long as they were peaceful and never turn violent. Thus, hypocrites never committed military aggression against the Yathreb city-state, because hypocrites were a minority that would hate to create enmities among their tribes and relatives and that would retain their atmosphere of doubt, caution, and mistrust within their dealings with believers and outright polytheists. This is why their alliance with aggressive Meccan polytheists who attacked Yathreb was never loyal, overt, or steady; the Quran describes in many verses how hypocrites feared the believers and when conspiracies were foiled or exposed, they would swear to God they were not to blame and would offer excuses for being reluctant to participate in self-defense military endeavors  (see 63:2, 9:56-57, 9:62, 9:74, and 9:94-96).

13- The danger or threat posed by desert-Arabs and Bedouins at the time was because they were not under control; they entered Yathreb by day as if they were Muslims, but they were hypocrites and disbelievers who spied on Muhammad and the early believers for the sake of conveying information to their allies among the Meccan polytheistic aggressors. This is why God has commanded them to settle inside Yathreb if they were believers to enjoy safety and to ensure they would adhere to peace; see 9:73, 66:9, and 4:88-91. Hence, once Muhammad died, desert-Arabs and Bedouins were the first ones to declare their forsaking Islam and returned to their old ways of raiding and looting.

14- As per Sunnite terms, all such figures were 'companions' who were contemporaries of Muhammad and saw him and supposedly converted to the new faith, regardless of their real stances vis-à-vis Islam. Their stances varied (for or against Islam) as per the Quranic verses to which we referred in the above points. Thus, there were true believers and there were those who only sought spoils; see 48:10-25. Eventually, God has promised Paradise for those true, sincere, believers and worshippers who were around Muhammad at the time; see 48:29. This means that not all contemporaries of Muhammad or 'companions' will be among the Paradise dwellers.   

  This is the beliefs map of the so-called companions during Muhammad's lifetime during the revelation of the Quran.

The most dangerous types of the so-called companions:

(A) the Meccans of Qorayish "the freed ones" and their Umayyad leaders:

1- Each of them has spent most of his lifetime within enmity toward Islam and suddenly converted to it shortly before Muhammad's death just in time to protect their political and financial interests. This short duration of their peace with Muhammad, and getting to know what Islam is, is hardly expected to make them real Muslims who would forget their long years of animosity toward and fighting against Islam, especially after Muhammad's death. They in fact sought revenge against Muhammad and the Hashemites who killed many Umayyads within the battle of Badr and made them lose their stature and power, as their former slaves were free men and real Muslims, unlike their former masters who were defeated and crestfallen polytheists.   

2- Proof: the Meccans of Qorayish and their Umayyad leaders persecuted men like Ibn Masood and Ammar Ibn Yasser twice: when they were among weak believers in Mecca and during the caliphate of Othman (who was an Umayyad man) who was controlled by the Umayyads. When Ibn Masood and Ammar Ibn Yasser protested against the corruption of Othman instigated by the Umayyads, both men were persecuted, tortured, and humiliated by Othman, among other protestors including Abou Zar Al-Ghifary. This means that the Meccans of Qorayish and their Umayyad leaders felt like taking revenge and changing the new conditions to restore the old system as per their mentalities, until they engaged into civil war against Ali and managed to establish the Umayyad caliphate that made them kings ruling an Arab empire.    

(B) opportunist and hypocritical desert-Arabs and Bedouins: those could never live without raiding and looting, and they could not be made to submit to a central state unless with sheer, brutal military force, as they never heed any treaties.

(C) known groups of hypocrites among the Yathreb dwellers: the Quran has exposed them, and they sighed in relief once Muhammad died and the Quranic revelation stopped; they hated Islam and Muslims very much; see 3:118-21 and they used to feign to enter into a pledge with Muhammad and then lie to him, ridicule him, and conspire against him; see 4:81, 47:16, and 47:26-30.  

(D) groups of those with weak belief: God describes them as traitors and usurers and warned them against Hell torment in the Hereafter and worldly torment as their penalty inflicted on them by God. These groups include those who were reluctant to participate in self-defense military jihad, those who spread rumors, those who allied themselves to polytheistic aggressors and to hypocrites, those who molested and harassed women in Yathreb, and those believers who befriended hypocrites though they never knew the deep-seated hatred inside hypocrites toward Islam (see 2:278-284, 3:100, 3:118-112, 3:130, 30:176, 3:179-184, 4:77-85, 4:88, 4:95-97, 4:105-115, 4:140, 4:144, 8:20-27, 8:45-51, 9:13, 9:23, 9:38, 947, 33:18, 33:32, 33:53, 33:60, and 33:69, to name but few examples).

(F) the unknown groups of those adamant in hypocrisy: they were the most dangerous enemies of Islam and the early believers: they were secret groups who are not described as immigrants nor supporters, but merely as among the Yathreb dwellers; this means that those hypocrites included men from both groups (i.e., immigrants & supporters), and we would like readers to reflect deeply on this verse: "Among the Desert-Arabs around you there are some hypocrites, and among the inhabitants of Yathreb too. They have become adamant in hypocrisy. You do not know them, but We know them. We will punish them twice; then they will be returned to a severe torment." (9:101). This means that those hypocrites include some of the original dwellers of Yathreb and some of those who immigrated to it and settled there still even after Muhammad's death. They lived around Muhammad in the Yathreb city-state and he never knew that they were hypocrites. They remained in Yathreb after they sighed in relief that the Quran will no longer expose their hypocrisy and hatred after the death of Muhammad. Hence, it is expected that they would readily act against Islam and Muslims while feeling safe as their intrigues and conspiracies would not be exposed. Besides, they were somehow trusted by naïve Arabs because of the fact that they lived around Muhammad and close to him inside Yathreb for a while, and he never knew their hypocrisy, animosity, plots, and bad deeds. Hence, once Muhammad died, they developed their hypocrisy and conspiracies the more until the flagrant contradiction between the Quran and Arabs has been established by the crimes called Arab conquests led by Qorayish and whose fruits where harvested by the Umayyads eventually. We have nothing but Sunnite books to shed light on those who were adamant in hypocrisy and who were very close to Muhammad while deceiving him and they ruled Arabia as caliphs and conquered other countries while being controlled all the time by Abou Sufyan: the leader of the Umayyads.            

The influence of the struggle between Qorayish and desert-Arabs on establishing the contradictions between Islam and the Muhammadans during the era of the corrupt four pre-Umayyad caliphs: introduction:

The secret role of the hidden, lurking forces in formulating the policies of the corrupt four pre-Umayyad caliphs and its influence in paving the way for establishing the earthly, man-made religions of the Muhammadans that contradict Islam:

1- We have concluded that once Muhammad died and the Quranic revelation stopped, opposition powers that were latent came to the fore in Arabia, especially by the hypocrites and the Umayyads; God has commanded that such enemies be fought; see 9:73 and 66:9. Hence, after tackling the beliefs map of the so-called companions as per the Quranic verses, we expect that conditions in Arabia worsened once Muhammad died and hypocrites were safe from being exposed by the Quranic revelation.  

2- It is noteworthy that the Quranic attack against hypocrites is stronger within the last verses revealed shortly before Muhammad's death. This is a clear warning from God, indicating that hypocrisy will never end, as Satan never tenders his resignation and Arabs were never turned into 'infallible pure angels' once Muhammad died. Hence, Arab military conquests and civil wars indicate clearly that the latent opposition powers came to the fore suddenly and channeled Arabs into a path that contradicts the Quran; i.e., the same path they used to follow: raiding, looting, enslaving, etc. but this time outside Arabia. This path they were forced to leave because of Islam made them hate the Quranic verses of God, as we have read in the Quran.    

3- The latent opposition powers came to the fore suddenly during the era of the four pre-Umayyad caliphs who initiated military conquests at the time when the Persian empire and the Byzantines witnessed weakness, decadence, and affluence. Arab conquerors managed to put an end to the Persian empire and to invade many countries controlled previously by the Byzantines (including our beloved Egypt) in record time by means of Arab troops consisting mainly of desert-Arabs and Bedouins. This has been a radical change in world history that still has its influence until now. This means that the latent opposition powers inside Arabia led Arabs and controlled the four pre-Umayyad caliphs in relation to foreign policy that shook the Ancient World by Arab conquests that took people by surprise as an Arab empire emerged while ascribing crimes of conquests to Islam and disregarding Quranic facts, teachings, and tenets, especially, peace, justice, and never to practice compulsion in religion; see 47:9, 47:16, and 47:26-32.

4- Qorayish led desert-Arabs and Bedouins as early as the caliphate of Abou Bakr by imposing on them the obligation of paying zakat/alms money to the State Treasury, unlike the case with the Yathreb city-state that made this as a voluntary good deed as per Quranic teachings in the Quranic Chapters 2.57, 47, 64, and 73; for instance: "Who is he who will offer God a generous loan, so He will multiply it for him manifold?..." (2:245); "Here you are, being called to spend in the cause of God. Among you are those who withhold; but whoever withholds is withholding against his own soul. God is the Rich, while you are the needy. And if you turn away, He will replace you with another people, and they will not be like you." (47:38). Hence, this is a voluntary deed between man and God; hypocrites who never believed in the Last Day were reluctant to pay some money for the self-defense jihad (and never participated in such endeavors) and were punished by God Who commanded Muhammad never to take money from them and never to allow them to participate in fighting for the sake of Allah later on, as being deprived from such honor has been their penalty: "What prevents the acceptance of their contributions is nothing but the fact that they disbelieved in God and His Messenger, and that they do not approach the prayer except lazily, and that they do not spend except grudgingly." (9:54); "If God brings you back to a party of them, and they ask your permission to go out, say, "You will not go out with me, ever, nor will you ever fight enemies with me. You were content to sit back the first time, so sit back with those who stay behind." You are never to pray over anyone of them who dies, nor are you to stand at his graveside. They rejected God and His Messenger, and died while they were sinners. Do not let their possessions and their children impress you. God desires to torment them through them in this world, and their souls expire while they are disbelievers." (9:83-85).

5- Yathreb was the target for disbelievers among the aggressive Bedouins and desert-Arabs who roamed and lived in the desert and specialized in raids, and this drove Muhammad to send reconnoiters and troops to prevent raids and sieges, and hypocrites were reluctant to join such self-defense endeavors: "It is not advisable for the believers to march out altogether. Of every division that marches out, let a group remain behind, to gain understanding of the religion, and to notify their people when they have returned to them, that they may beware. O you who believe! Fight those of the disbelievers who attack you, and let them find severity in you, and know that God is with the righteous." (9:122-123).  

6- Arabia witnessed fragile, temporary truce shortly before Muhammad's death when Arabs (Bedouins, dwellers of cities, Meccans, and other tribes and the People of the Book) entered into peace in multitudes (see 110:1-3). This truce ended by Qorayish abruptly when its leaders provoked the belligerent Bedouins and desert-Arabs by imposing payment of Zakat as an obligatory duty regulated by the State. This coercion and embezzlement naturally caused the renegades' war, planned by the Umayyad leaders. Bedouins and desert-Arabs announced they forsook Islam as a reaction to the hegemony of Qorayish that returned with a vengeance, and many hypocrites among them attacked Yathreb; the renegades' war included several tribes all over Arabia, within the conspiracies and intrigues of the Umayyads.      

7- The leaders among the Meccan Umayyad faction of Qorayish were the biggest beneficiaries of such renegades'' war of rebels they instigated and initiated so as to allow the latent Qorayish power to move and lead Arabs once again; it is noteworthy that Arab leaders who led the troops to quell rebels were those who 'converted' recently to Islam shortly before Muhammad's death.   

8- Thus, the Qorayish tribe managed to make Arabs submit totally to it gradually, especially after the Qorayish leaders made pacts with defeated rebels and renegades who declared their 'return' to Islam to make them engage into military endeavors of Arab conquests under the pretext of propagating Islam outside Arabia.  

9- Even if we suppose that the four pre-Umayyad caliphs (Abou Bakr, Omar, Othman, and Ali) had good intentions (this is doubted very much by us, of course), they were minorities who could not have stopped the ambitions to Qorayish that aimed to form an Arab empire and mobilized desert-Arabs who were very eager to return to looting and raiding; directing their belligerence outside Arabia seemed the best solution to stop their troublemaking and raids that threatened the newly formed unity of Arabia under Qorayish, as they might have rebelled more often than not and their defeat was costly. Hence, within such circumstances, the four men who were the pre-Umayyad caliphs (who were men of Qorayish, by the way) and other hypocrites readily agreed to initiate the Arab conquests.   

10- Using the Quran as a criterion, we maintain that the Arab conquests are the deeds indicating rejection of Islam (i.e., the Quran itself) and manipulating its name to unify murders and thieves under one banner to occupy and invade other countries. This has tarnished and distorted the Quranic sharia laws and the meaning of jihad (military self-defense endeavors for God's sake to stop religious persecution and any aggression). Conflicts about distribution of spoils led to rebellions and the first major Arab civil war, resulting in the division of Muhammadans into Shiites and Sunnites until this very moment, within the emerged earthly religions of Shiites, Sunnites, Sufi Sunnites, and Sufi Shiites, and their subsumed  doctrines and trends.      

11- Sadly, Arabs disregarded the Quranic warning against division in religion as such division is an indicator of polytheism and disbelief (see 30:31-32, 3:19, 3:103, 3:105, 6:153, and 6:159). Hence, this division caused the emergence of the man-made, fabricated, earthly religions of the Muhammadans that hijack the name of Islam and tarnish its reputation while contradicting its Quranic sharia.

12- Divisions within sects and doctrines inside the man-made, fabricated, earthly religions of the Muhammadans are signs of disbelief and polytheism as each one has its own mortal deities or imams/saints whose writings are deemed as 'holy' books. Of course, polytheism in the sense of committing violence and aggression is manifested as the Muhammadans fought one another after fighting and invading lands of other peaceful nations (while committing crimes of looting, enslaving, raping, sabotage, etc.) for the sake of material possessions. Such divisions in politics led to religious rifts and divisions that increased the gap (or abyss) between the Quran and the Muhammadans within basic contradictions that cannot be reconciled with Islam at all. Such abyss has begun as early as the period of reign of the four pre-Umayyads caliphs manipulated and controlled by Qorayish.     

13- The four pre-Umayyads caliphs (Abou Bakr, Omar, Othman, and Ali) were sinners and corrupt men, but they were relatively less evil in comparison to Umayyads and Abbasid caliphs. Historians among the Sunnites deem these four men as 'wise caliphs' (and deified saints) because they did not establish hereditary monarchy of dynasties of tyrants who ruled for centuries later on. Sunnite historians assume that the Umayyad caliph Omar Ibn Abdul-Aziz as the fifth 'wise' caliph as he was a just ruler (his caliphate lasted two years and some months as he was killed by poison, and he was an exception to the otherwise tyrannical Umayyad caliphs), despite the fact that he emerged 50 years after the assassination of Ali.    

14- Hence, three major events within overt and secret political trends shaped the features of the era of the four pre-Umayyads caliphs: renegades' war, Arab conquests, and the first major civil war (Mu'aweiya vs. Ali). Such turmoil within turbulent times led to unprecedented divisions in politics and religion that caused the emergence of the earthly religions of the Muhammadans. 

 We re-emphasize the following points.

1- Before the advent of Islam (i.e., the Quran), Arabs in Arabia for centuries lived on incessant raids on other tribes and caravans, while leaving winter and summer trade caravans of Qorayish pass deserts of Arabia in peace in return for placing their pagan idols inside the Sacred Kaaba Mosque in Mecca, where Qorayish fully controls pilgrimage and gain lots of money part from stature, power, and authority all over Arabia. Thus, they enjoyed security and prosperity while other Arabian tribes and Bedouins lived in hunger and fear  (see 106:1-4, 29:67, and 28:57).

2- Qorayish Umayyad leaders fought Islam from the very start of the ministry of Muhammad, and within the margin of such struggle, some desert-Arabs and Bedouins converted to Islam. This led believing and disbelieving Arabs to realize the futility of the worship of pagan idols that never protected Qorayish against Muhammad and the Yathreb dwellers and how the Qorayish tribesmen deceived them by these myths for their financial interests assured by their manipulated and control of pilgrimage. Hence, Arabs outside Qorayish realized that how beneficial it was to liberate themselves from the hegemony of Qorayish. For sure, clergymen of all eras make money and live off the ignorance of people; this is why they hate enlightenment and putting inherited rigid dogmas to question.       

3- The emergence of Islam and its spread peacefully within Arabia led inevitably to exposing Qorayish and to undermining its authority and stature; desert-Arabs and Bedouins dared to raid its trade caravans, and this made leaders of Qorayish realize that their financial interests entails 'converting' to Islam so that they pave their route step by step later on to restore their hegemony over Arabia. This is part of the reasons they left Muhammad enter peacefully into Mecca with his troops after a period of truce.     

4- As per the Quranic Chapter 9, the Qorayish imams/leaders of disbelief/polytheism inside Mecca rebelled against Muhammad but they were forced to adhere to peace shortly before Muhammad's death; Arabs enjoyed temporary peace and autonomous rule within each tribe without interference from Qorayish. Zakat money was collected from those who can afford and distributed among the poor, without coercion or compulsion, but voluntarily; zakat sharia laws never include taking alms money by force and even those hypocrites who paid reluctantly were punished by not receiving their donations; see 9:54. Hence, Arabs for the first time but temporarily felt the good, unprecedented change of conditions because of values like equality among all human beings (see 49:13), justice, charity, and peace. The superiority of Qorayish turned out to be fake: this is a new idea that Arabs learned at the time during the ministry of Muhammad. Sadly, such Quranic values, morals, and teachings were disregarded by Qorayish leaders, especially the Umayyads, who plotted and masterminded the renegades' war, the Arab conquests, and then the civil war to overthrow Ali to establish the Umayyads caliphate.      

5- The latent opposition power active under the surface was the Qorayish faction of the Umayyads, among others, who controlled and masterminded everything while placing Abou Bakr, Omar, Othman, and Ali on the top as façade. The devilish Umayyad plot took years and many steps to yield the result of establishing an Umayyad dynasty ruling an Arab empire. The Umayyads prevented any of the four pre-Umayyad caliphs from leaving their thrones to their progeny. The Umayyads planned the institution of Ali as caliph using the power of desert-Arabs and Bedouins despite the old enemy between them and the Umayyads. The Umayyads' plan included to drive those belligerent desert-Arabs and Bedouins to rebel against Ali as he purportedly desired to leave the throne to his eldest son after his death, and this was hardly acceptable at the time. Hence, this made the Umayyads succeed in the last phase of their plan by initiating civil war against Ali (after the phases of renegades' war and the Arab conquests), and all such phases and steps led to the emergence of the Umayyad dynasty.      

A brief overview of the stages of renegades' war, Arab conquests, and civil war: the movement of the renegades:

   Muhammad died after a brief period of illness, and once Abou Bakr was chosen as caliph, the Qorayish hegemony was restored gradually as immigrants in Yathreb from Qorayish allied themselves to Meccans who converted recently, and this caused other non-Qorayish Arabs to feel resentful as this ushered new circumstances and new changes. Rebellious Arabs who forsook Islam for political reasons assumed that prophethood was seen to be confined to Qorayish and this led Musaylimah the Liar to claim himself as a new prophet from valley called Hanifa (the same place in Najd from which the Wahabi call was initiated!). Musaylimah even sent a letter to Muhammad in his death bed to inform him that he was a new prophet! (see history of Al-Tabari, part 3, p. 146). other renegades' movements emerged from the tribes of Assad and Tayy led by a man named Talha; the desert-Arabs around Yathreb readily revolted and attacked Yathreb and this led Abou Bakr to organize troops to defend it (see history of Ibn Katheer, the Beirut edition, part 6, p. 311-312). The Umayyads understood that such rebellions were a reaction against the restoration of the Qorayish hegemony and domination over Arabia, and they led Meccan and Yathreb troops that crushed and quelled rebels. This led to internal developments within Yathreb as the new capital of Arabs, and the idea of unifying all Arabs under the banner of Islam to be mobilized into the Arab conquests was initiated by the Umayyads.         

The movement of the renegades led to the Arab conquests:

 The threat of renegades posed to all Arabs while Muhammad was in his death bed and immediately after his death gave to Qorayish ta sort of 'green-light' to 'declare marshal laws'; we mean the so-called Thaqeefa council to choose Abou Bakr hastily as a leader/ruler/caliph within exceptional circumstances while making Arabs swear allegiance to him as they did with Muhammad under a tree. Within such council held in Yathreb but prepared by the Qorayish leaders (especially the Umayyads), the representatives of Qorayish (including immigrants) were hostile toward the original Yathreb dwellers who were called the supporters whose leader Saad Ibn Eibada was banished and assassinated later on (see Al-Tabakat Al-Kobra by Ibn Saad who died in 222 A.H., part 3, p. 145, the 1968 Cairo edition). The Umayyads planned that Abou Bakr be appointed caliph and NOT Ali who was Muhammad's paternal uncle's son and close friend and the husband of Muhammad's daughter Fatima. The Umayyads deliberately disregarded Ali in the Thaqeefa council despite their shared ancestry with him (the great founding grandfather: Abd-Manaf). The reason: the Umayyads in particular and the Qorayish tribesmen in general hated Ali because he killed their chieftains and leaders in the battle of Badr. Another reason was that Qorayish chiefs aimed to install caliphs/leaders fully controlled by them; they saved Ali to the last (after three caliphs enabling Qorayish to restore its hegemony and domination and to initiate the Arab conquests) so that they would plan civil war led by Mu'aweiya against him and to prevent his leaving the throne to his sons, grandsons of Muhammad, as this would prevent Umayyads from achieving their dreams of ruling and Arab empire within a dynasty carrying the name of their household. Abou Bakr felt the urge to compliment his new allies, the Umayyads, by appointing the Umayyad young man Yazeed Ibn Abou Sufyan as the military leader of the troops to crush rebels within renegades' war. Omar made the two brothers Yazeed Ibn Abou Sufyan and Mu'aweiya Ibn Abou Sufyan governors of the Levant region after it was conquered. When Yazeed Ibn Abou Sufyan died, Omar made Mu'aweiya the governor of the whole of the Levant region. Omar was an agent of the Umayyads and this applies to Abou Bakr and Othman as well. Omar dismissed and appointed several governors in many regions but he kept Mu'aweiya all the time as the governor of the Levant. This gave Mu'aweiya the chance to pave his way for 20 years to establish the Umayyad state first in the Levant, making Damascus its capital. In fact, the Levant was loved and coveted very much by Mu'aweiya and the rest of the Umayyads who led the Qorayish winter and summer trade caravans between the Levant and Yemen and who made a pact with the Kalb tribe (originally from Yemen) that controlled trade routes within the southern area of the Levant. This made the Umayyads initiate the Arab conquests by annexing the Levant and then Iraq to guarantee the Qorayish domination over the trade routes. This means that when desert-Arabs raided the Qorayish trade caravans, this drove the Qorayish leaders to feign a conversion to Islam to ensure the safety and security of its caravans. Yet, once Muhammad died, Qorayish mobilized the same desert-Arabs to initiate the Arab conquests of Iraq and the Levant to control eastern trade within the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean Sea Levantine coast. Within the caliphate of Abou Bakr, the Qorayish tribe managed in Mecca and Yathreb to quell the rebels of the renegades' war and channeled the belligerence of desert-Arabs and Bedouins, who love looting and raids, into the Arab conquests outside Arabia to divert them from any possible revolts within such lucrative alliance. This means that the greed for loot made desert-Arabs and Bedouins readily agree to be led by the Qorayish military leaders, especially the Umayyads, and to forget the past enmity only temporarily. Within such exceptional circumstances of military conquests, Abou Bakr died mysteriously (possibly by being poisoned); this means that his reign was a mere phase among many phases of the Umayyad long-term plan. Within the Umayyad supervision, Omar was chosen hastily as caliph/ruler within the same conditions and swearing allegiance done with him in the same way when Abou Bakr was chosen before him. the Arab conquests went on, and Omar was assassinated and his Persian assassin committed suicide. Within the same conditions and swearing allegiance hastily, the Umayyad Othman was chosen by the Umayyads to succeed Omar; this helped the Umayyads to control the rule affairs the more, as Othman had a weak personality and was dominated by them. Othman was chosen hastily though most Arabs desired that Ali would be Omar's successor. But this was prevented so as not to spoil the grand scheme of the Umayyads who hated Ali; besides, Ali was hated by most hypocrites. The shrewd Umayyads and hypocrites, when the right moment came, let the rebels who sieged the house of the corrupt and weak Othman assassinate him and allowed Ali to be chosen as caliph/successor to begin the last phase of the long-term plan; i.e., to initiate civil war against Ali so that Mu'aweiya would step in and establish the Umayyad caliphate.                                       

Four dangerous escalations resulting from the renegades' war and the conquests:

 These new powers made the Muhammadans enter into four dangerous escalations that contradict Islam; we detail them as follows.

A) The appointment of a ruler for the rest of his lifetime, while he would be surrounded with a circle of consultants, contradicts the Islamic direct democracy of Shura consultation in the Quran which does not include appointing a ruler for a lifetime. Swearing allegiance to a military leader to engage into self-defense fighting for God's sake was distorted by making allegiance turn into swearing fealty/allegiance to a tyrannical ruler.

B) Self-defense military endeavors (i.e., jihad for God's sake, as per the Quran, to stop aggression and religious persecution) was turned into military aggression to annex lands and invade and occupy countries to form an empire, after forcing people to choose among three options: conversion, paying tributes/taxes, or being fought to death! Hence, Arabs disregarded intentionally the Quranic basic rules in the Quranic Chapter Two: "And fight in the cause of God those who fight you, but do not commit aggression; God does not love the aggressors." (2:190); "There shall be no compulsion in religion..." (2:256). The Umayyads easily managed to convince most Arabs of the erroneous idea to propagate and spread religion with the sword and they named this crime as jihad. Desert-Arabs and Bedouins welcomed this faulty idea as they used to raid and loot as a way to earn their living before Islam; it was easy for them to re-engage into the same lifestyle under a false religious pretext to justify their crimes and to use Islam as a façade to cover their greed and their scramble for loot. This made them follow their whims of belligerence and getting spoils while easing their conscience with the myth that they will enter Paradise however bad their deeds would be. This type of devotion helped Arabs to defeat the two most powerful entities in the Ancient World at the time: the Persians and the Byzantines. The swords of Arab fighters under the Qorayish  leadership opened for them the riches, treasures, and treasuries of many countries: Persia, Egypt, North Africa, the Levant, Iraq, etc.

C) Renegades' war was the first step to reject the essence of Quran/Islam, which is peaceful dealing with others, and this metamorphosed soon enough to the two types of polytheism/disbelief combined together: in terms of violent, aggressive behavior of the Arab conquests and in terms of faith/belief by rejecting Quranic sharia laws and replacing them with man-made fiqh laws and hadiths, among other similarly false narratives and faulty notions to justify the crimes of conquests by the lame pretext that non-Muslims who never fought Arabian tribes were 'infidels' who deserve to be invaded, enslaved, and forced to pay taxes/tributes.  

D) civil wars that followed the establishment of the Arab empire indicates clearly that money (or Mammon) is the real deity for such Arabs who participated in the Arab conquests that aimed at nothing but wealth. This led soon enough into divisions among the Muhammadans, and each warring party invented and fabricated oral hadiths ascribed falsely to Muhammad after his death. This false Satanist revelations began early as mere oral traditions that have become the foundations of the earthly religions of the Muhammadans later on. Hence, Arab conquests wronged and oppressed millions of people within conquered nations by severe and many injustices and wronged Islam and tarnished its name, as its banners were used to mobilize Arabs into the military endeavors for loot and invasions.     

The major immigrant companions and the possibility of their being spies and agents working for the Umayyads:

1- As per the Quran, Muhammad never committed military aggression against peaceful people; he only engaged into military self-defense jihad with the early believers against aggressors who fought against the Yathreb city-state. History asserts that Muhammad might have sent epistles to rulers around Arabia to urge them to let their nations know about Islam; he never thought about conquering other nations at all nor about waging wars of aggression. Thus, the companions who surrounded Muhammad (e.g., Abou Bakr, Omar, Othman, Ali, Al-Zubayr, Talha, and Abdul-Rahman Ibn Awf) disregarded intentionally the Quranic teachings (see 2:190 and 2:256) when they participated in Arab conquests.

2- This means that it is most likely that such names (among so many other names of 'companions') were among hypocrites who were adamant in hypocrisy and they deceived and betrayed Muhammad who never knew their true stances against Islam despite their being so close to him in Yathreb. They were similar to dormant cells or secret agents planted by the Qorayish leaders inside the Yathreb city-state who would move and act in the right time take advantage of Islam to serve their interests and harvest the ripe fruits once Muhammad is dead.

3- The above hypothesis is never excluded in light of this Quranic description of Qorayish tribesmen and chieftains in this verse that was revealed in Mecca: "They planned their cunning plans, but their plans are known to God, even if their plans can eliminate mountains." (14:46). Hence, our hypothesis is never excluded in light of critical reading of events of history: we know that the Umayyads had won all cards of the game eventually, after long years of showing animosity and hostility to the Quran and Muhammad and fighting Islam. The Qorayish leaders would not have dared to assassinate Muhammad when he resided in Mecca so as not to lose the alliance between Abbas and Abou Sufyan, the two leaders of the progeny/factions of Abd-Manaf (i.e., the Umayyads and the Hashemites). The solution chosen by the shrewd Umayyads in their cunning plans that can eliminate mountains was to drive Muhammad and the early believers to immigrate and settle elsewhere; once they settled in Yathreb, the Umayyads sent their spies and agents to surround Muhammad there. the Umayyads waited to see of the 'movement' of Muhammad would succeed or not, and if proven successful, they would take advantage of it later on to form an Arab empire. This is what occurred; we make conclusions based on the historical fact that the Umayyads were the winners in all steps/phases within the period of the four appointed caliphs (about 40 years) that culminated in the establishment of the Umayyad caliphate and empire.       

The conflict over spoils and the outbreak of the civil war among the companions planned by the Umayyads:

  We trace in the points below the Umayyad scheme that resulted eventually in the collapse of the system of choosing a caliph by people (within the period of the four pre-Umayyad caliphs) in order to establish the hereditary kingdom/monarchy of the Umayyad caliphate 

1- Once Muhammad died, the Umayyads began very early to prevent the supporters (i.e., the name given to the original Yathreb dwellers who supported and welcomed immigrants and Muhammad) from influencing the political circle. The Umayyads kept close relations with the three caliphs Abou Bakr, Omar, and Othman (the latter was an Umayyad man) and they took great care to save Ali (the youngest among the four caliphs) for the last phase in their plan (to cause a civil war to break out to their advantage). Hence. The Umayyad scheme had phases chronologically ordered as follows: provoking the renegades' war, mobilizing Arabs for the Arab conquests, and igniting the civil war on purpose against Ali shortly after appointing him as caliph. Such scheme aimed at establishing the Umayyad dynasty ruling over an Umayyad empire.     

2- The conquest of the Levant was made easy through the Umayyads and their close ties with the Kalb tribe that controlled trade route leading to the Levant and through the experience of the Umayyads in the winter and summer journeys of the Qorayish trade caravans. Even Abou Sufyan (the father of Mu'aweiya) despite his old age participated in the decisive battle of Yarmouk that ended in the Arab victory over the Byzantines who ruled the Levant before the Arab conquests and Mu'aweiya was appointed as the governor of the Levant for 20 years; he focused on consolidating his rule there by marrying Maysoon, the daughter of the chieftain of the Kalb tribe, and she bore him a son, whose name was Yazeed. Thus, Mu'aweiya guaranteed for himself that swords of the Kalb tribe would support him when he proclaim himself a caliph and rebel against Ali later on. The same applies to the Levantine people who loved and blindly obeyed Mu'aweiya and he taught them 'Islam' in a distorted way that would serve the Umayyad purposes.   

3- After the assassination of Omar, people saw that Ali deserved to be chosen as caliph, but the Umayyads forced their man, Othman, as caliph. This lead to a division among the companions, as some supported Othman and some supported Ali. Thus, the Umayyads ruled the Muhammadans behind curtains during the caliphate of Othman.   

4- Othman was 70 years old when he was chosen as caliph; his weak character and his leniency allowed his paternal uncle's son, the Umayyad leader Marwan Ibn Al-Hakam, to control him totally. Marwan was the scribe of Othman and holder of his seal; he controlled all affairs of the caliphate to serve the Umayyads. The other Umayyad leaders controlled the conquered countries and their governors, and they bribed some senior companions with assets and money to win them to the side of the Umayyads. When some other companions (e.g., Ibn Masood, Ammar Ibn Yasser, and Abou Zar Al-Ghifary) protested outspoken against this corruption, they were punished and persecuted.      

5- Othman was the penultimate step in the ladder that led his relatives, the Umayyads, to monopolizing authority (the ultimate step was igniting an Arab civil war against the Hashemite man, Ali, when he was chosen as caliph). Thus, the Umayyads ignited a revolt against Othman by persecuting some men and favoring others with wealth, so that rebels would assassinate Othman. This was easily done as the Umayyads relied on the belligerence and violent nature of armed desert-Arabs and Bedouins.  

6- The Umayyads controlled fully the Treasury of the State during the reign of Othman as well as all treasures and spoils yielded by the Arab conquests. Desert-Arabs and Bedouins at first controlled the fertile lands in the area between the region of Najd and Iraq conquered by their swords, while leaving the Umayyads control the Levant, Egypt, North Africa, Iraq, and Persia. Yet, the Umayyads coveted control of these fertile lands and called it (the orchard of Qorayish) and insisted on this not for the sake of hegemony and money but to incite Arabs to revolt against Othman as part of the grand Umayyad scheme to create an Umayyad dynasty later on. The dispute and revolt increased by two leaders: (1) Abdullah Ibn Saba (one of the founders of the Shiite religion and a Yemenite former Jew who overtly 'converted' to Islam) who raised the motto of allying oneself to Ali Ibn Abou Talib and supported the rebels, and (2) Kaab Al-Ahbar (a Yemenite former Jewish rabbi who overtly 'converted' to Islam) who allied himself to Othman and the Umayyads during this revolt (see history of Al-Tabari, 4^th edition, Cairo, Egypt, reviewed by Abou Jaffer M. Ibn Jarir (224-310 A.H.) and edited by M. Abou Al-Fadl Ibrahim, part 4, p. 191, 202, 255, 283, 317, 326, 330, 340, 349, 493, and 500). The revolt ended by rebels sieging the house of Othman in Yathreb for days before they assassinated him and appointed Ali as the new caliph.          

7- When Othman was sieged, Ali tried to interfere as a mediator to restore peace within any agreement that might be reached, and his endeavors were about to bear fruits if it had not been for the scheme of Marwan Ibn Al-Hakam. When this scheme was exposed, Othman refused to dismiss him and adamantly refused to leave his position as caliph, as if he insisted on getting killed by the rebels who sieged his house. Shortly before Othman was assassinated, Marwan fled from the house, leaving the old Othman facing his fate. It is said that rebels murdered him when he was lone, reading from a copy of the Quran. During this sieged and before the assassination, Mu'aweiya who governed the Levant refused to help the caliph Othman in his ordeal, though he could have helped him. This means he let him die so that events would lead to the final phase of the Umayyad scheme: rebellion and civil war against Ali, resulting in an Umayyad caliphate. Mu'aweiya waited till Othman was assassinated by the rebels and cared only to retrieve the blood-soaked garment of Othman to raise it like a flag in the Damascus mosque, calling for revenge against the new caliph, Ali, accused by Mu'aweiya as the one to incite the murder of Othman to replace him as caliph.     

8- The new caliph, Ali, had to be prepared to fight the rebellious Mu'aweiya and his troops. The Umayyads had prepared a cruel surprise for Ali; i.e., Ali's closest friends and senior companions (and among the earliest men to 'convert' to Islam) Talha and Al-Zubayr forsook him suddenly and they joined Aisha, widow of Prophet Muhammad, and her troops that fought against Ali. Marwan Ibn Al-Hakam helped incite this major Arab civil war with all his endeavors, causing Ali and his troops to fight that of Aisha and others in the battle of the Camel. Marwan himself fought in the troops against Ali. The Umayyads revenged themselves at last by killing Talha and Al-Zubayr during this battle. The senior companions left to be annihilated by the Umayyads at that point after this battle was Ali and his supporters. Ali's supporters included many desert-Arabs and Bedouins.  

9- After weakening and sapping the military energy of Ali and his troops in the battle of the Camel, Mu'aweiya who claimed himself as caliph prepared his troops for a decisive battle under the pretext to avenge the murdered Othman who was an Umayyad man. This battle of Siffein would have resulted in the victory of Ali if it had not been for the scheme of the shrewd leader Amr Ibn Al-As, the chief ally of Mu'aweiya, who advised Mu'aweiya to make his soldiers raise copies of the Quran on their spears to demand the arbitration using the Quran instead of incessant fighting. At first, Ali refused such suggestion because he knew it was a ploy for deception because the Umayyad troops were about to be defeated. Yet, Ali's soldiers among the desert-Arabs and Bedouins forced Ali to accept the proposed arbitration and to stop fighting; they threatened him that if he did not agree to their demand, they would capture him and sent him as prisoner to Mu'aweiya his enemy! The desert-Arabs and Bedouins in Ali's troops forced him to choose Abou Moussa Al-Ashaary as his representative in arbitration, and this weak, simple man was not as shrewd and cunning as Ibn Al-As, the representative of Mu'aweiya in this arbitration. Thus, the arbitration failed as Ibn Al-As deceived Al-Ashaary. The desert-Arabs and Bedouins among the troops of Ali realized that Ali was right to refuse arbitration in the first place, and they felt deceived, but instead of obeying Ali, they rebelled against him and called themselves as (Al-Khawarij) [i.e., literally, ''rebels'' or those who turned against someone after supporting him earlier]. Al-Khawarij mobilized their own troops and fought Ali until they assassinated him, and they continued their rebellions against the Umayyads caliphate for decades.       

Those cursed Bedouins and desert-Arabs!

1- Reading history of Ali in authoritative historical sources, we cannot help but feel astonished by the adamant stubbornness of Bedouins and desert-Arabs within the troops of Ali, during the civil war, who refused to support him when he needed them and who readily disobeyed him and rebelled against him when he commanded them. They were the cause of his failure in general and of turning the victory which was about to be achieved during the battle of Siffein into defeat.

2- The only reason behind this strange stance of Bedouins and desert-Arabs (who vacillated and fluctuated between supporting Ali and disobeying him) is that they hated the Qorayish tribe very much and Ali belonged to this tribe after all. They saw that they were pawns under Qorayish in the struggle between the two wings/factions of Qorayish: the Umayyads led by Mu'aweiya and the Hashemites led by Ali. This is why they had chosen to get rid of the dominance of Qorayish altogether by joining Al-Khawarij. In order to make themselves as peers of Qorayish, Al-Khawarij increased their religiosity and ostentatious 'pious' behavior as they increased their prayers and Quran recited daily, etc., and yet, they massacred great numbers of the Muhammadans for decades to come. Thus, Al-Khawarij invented an earthly religion based on superficial religiosity and extremism leading to terrorism, bloodbaths, and massacres, driven by their deep-seated hatred and envy toward Qorayish. Not all Bedouins and desert-Arabs joined Al-Khawarij group, as some of them and their tribes decided to be subordinates of the Umayyads; for instance, the Qahtanite, Yemenite Kalb tribe located near the Levant supported the Umayyads. Most of Al-Khawarij group of rebels were from the Adnanite tribes and also some of the tribes that originally came from Yemen that lived in the Najd region.      

3- Within this struggle against Qorayish, Bedouins and desert-Arabs were at first disbelievers who fought against island, and then, they embraced Islam/peace shortly before the death of Muhammad. They were renegades who forsook Islam (during the reign of Abou Bakr), but they were defeated and quelled in the renegades' war to return to 'Islam' and to the subordination under Qorayish so that they participate in Arab conquests led by Qorayish (especially the Umayyads, during the reign of Omar). During the reign of Othman, they rebelled against him and they joined forces of Ali during his reign before they turned against him eventually. Hence, the fickle Bedouins and desert-Arabs changed their stances several times within the duration of less than 30 years: from Muhammad's death (c. 11 A.H./632 A.D.) to the assassination of Ali by Al-Khawarij in (40 A.H./661 A.D.). Thus, they changed their stances within becoming disbelievers, new converts, renegades, Arab conquests soldiers, rebels against Othman, supporters of Ali, Al-Khawarij rebels against Ali, and then rebels for decades against the Umayyads.     

4- The rebels named Al-Khawarij organized their movement within extreme violence using a fake religious façade; this is why they pretended to accept Islam/peace enthusiastically at first shortly before the death of Muhammad, and then joined the renegades and the Arab conquests later on under the banner of 'jihad' for victory, spoils, and martyrdom/Paradise under the pretext of 'serving' and propagating Islam. They joined the rebels against Othman under the banner of justice, but they intimidated and forced Ali to accept arbitration, and when they felt deceived by this ploy, they rebelled against Ali for his accepting the arbitration, calling him an 'infidel', and they assassinated him eventually.     

Those cursed Umayyads!

   Within the same duration of time, the Umayyads changed their stances many times to serve their purposes and interests as they sought to retain wealth, authority, and power. They were the arch-enemies of Islam in Mecca, and felt they must 'convert', and rebelled against Muhammad before they were forced to adhere to peace until he died, and they became military leaders for Arabs and consultants for caliphs About Bakr and Omar, because the Umayyads had their military experience and prowess and good relations and pacts formed during the trade caravans journeys of summer and winter with the tribe of Kalb that controlled trade routes leading to the Levant. Thus, the Umayyads led Arabs to the crime called the Arab conquests, and they became rulers/governors of the conquered countries before the Umayyad caliphate (i.e., during the reign of caliphs Omar and Othman). When Othman, an Umayyad man, became caliph, the Umayyads controlled and manipulated him fully until he was assassinated, and they masterminded revolts against the caliph Ali and spent five years in the first major Arab civil war until the Umayyad caliphate/dynasty was established. Those were the ''companions'' who are now deified and sanctified as infallible saints/gods in the earthly Sunnite religion of Satan!

Conclusion: 

1- Islam has not ended despite the above points; it remains until the end of days preserved by God in the Quran: God's Word and the only source of Islam.

2- We have asserted that Muhammad's application of the Quran (i.e., Islam) was the best possible human application within the Yathreb city-state and it managed to spread peace among belligerent and bellicose Arabs until Muhammad death. Yet, most people in Arabia, especially Bedouins and desert-Arabs at the time did not believe in the Quran in terms of their minds/hearts; otherwise, they would not have submitted to Qorayish and its evil scheme of Arab conquests that included crimes like looting, raiding, massacring, raping, sabotage, etc. 

3- Thus, Muhammad's application of Islam within the Yathreb city-state was like a parentheses in the context of the locality and era of his life. At the time, Arabia and the Ancient World knew nothing but the dominant culture of tyranny, corruption, enslavement, invasions, and worship of Mammon (i.e., money); this applies at the time to Qorayish, the Persians, Byzantines, the Chinese, etc. The best achievement by Muhammad is that he managed  temporarily (until his death) to get Arabs of Arabia out of the quagmire of typical violence and belligerence. This dominant culture resurfaced with a vengeance once Muhammad died, as Arabia was led and ruled by the criminal leaders of Qorayish who are now deified and sanctified as infallible saints/gods in the earthly Sunnite religion of Satan!

4- Hence, hatching plots and conspiracies has been the only currency within the dominant culture of corruption and tyranny in the seventh century Arabia, where there were two types of men after Muhammad's death: desert-Arabs or Bedouins easily manipulated and controlled and shred, evil merchants and leaders of Qorayish who were masters and manipulators by nature. Between both types of men, events of the history of the four pre-Umayyad caliphs and the Umayyad caliphs took place.