This is a sub-article to the Succession to Muhammad

Succession to Muhammad

The Succession to Muhammad concerns the various aspects of successorship of Muhammad after his death, comprising who might be considered as his successor to lead the Muslims, how that person should be elected, the conditions of legitimacy, and the role of successor...

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The Hadith of the pen and paper is a famous Hadith

Hadith

The term Hadīth is used to denote a saying or an act or tacit approval or criticism ascribed either validly or invalidly to the Islamic prophet Muhammad....

 in Islam

Islam

Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

 about an event when the Islamic prophet Muhammad

Muhammad

Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...

 was prevented from writing out his will. The hadith is referenced in both Shi'a and Sunni traditions.

Shi'as also refer to it as "The Calamity of Thursday" (Arabic Raziyat Yawm al-Khamis)

Narration

Muhammad became ill in the year 632 and his health took a serious turn on a Thursday. It is reported that Muhammad asked for writing materials to write a statement that would prevent the Muslim nation from going astray forever. The first person to reply was Umar, answering that there was no need for the statement, arguing that Muhammad was ill and that the Muslims had Alkitaab "Hasabuna Kitaab ALLAh (Book of ALLAH is sufficient for us)".

Views

The first level narrator of this narrative is ibn Abbas, and at that time he was ten to fifteen years old.

Sunni view

Sunni Muslims refer to this episode as the "Event of Thursday". It is generally seen as a minor event and a test by Muhammad of his "Companions". The Companions are considered to have chosen to do the right thing and passed the test, having remained free from criticism by Muhammad for the rest of the days he remained with them. This period (from Thursday to Monday) during which Muhammad remained with the Companions after this incident was also not utilized to make a will - which, Sunnis argue, confirms that it was not an important document to be written but rather a simple test to know whether the Ummah

Ummah

Ummah is an Arabic word meaning "community" or "nation." It is commonly used to mean either the collective nation of states, or the whole Arab world...

 is aware of the message of the Qur'an. The following passage is cited as evidence: "This day have I perfected your religion for you, completed My favour upon you, and have chosen for you Islam as your religion." (5:3).

Some other arguments the Sunni’s use to support their view include:

• If Muhammad had been ordered by God to write down something, then no one could have prevented him from this- not even Umar. This goes by the Muslim reasoning that God’s message cannot be silenced or withheld by the antagonism of anyone. However, the fact that Muhammad did not end up writing something down (neither then nor during the future days) only proves that the thing which was supposed to be written was already known to the Sahaba
  Sahaba
  In Islam, the ' were the companions, disciples, scribes and family of the Islamic prophet...
  
   and Muhammad was aware of this, so he did not take the matter any further.

• The accusation that Umar prevented Muhammad from writing down what he willed due to Umar’s fear that it would contain orders of obedience to Ali, is nothing more than an unproven assumption and conjecture driven by ones predetermined feelings towards Umar.

• The obvious, visible and immediate interpretation of Umar’s behavior is that he acted solely out of concern for the health and condition of Muhammad (as he saw most fit) due to his love and concern for Muhammad, by not having Muhammad burden himself during his present predicament of ill health. Likewise, other Sahaba who were present followed the same opinion as Umar.

• The Sahaba differed even among themselves in their reaction to the request of Muhammad for a pen and paper i.e. they were not united in their opposition to Muhammad writing something down during his illness. Some Sahaba opposed Muhammad’s request, while others agreed with it. Therefore, there was no conspiracy (on behalf of the Sahaba) to “deny” Ali his “right” to succeed Muhammad. Instead, the Sahaba were acting upon their own sincere assessments of the situation of Muhammad.

• Muhammad's condition improved for a time after this incidence and had it been important he would have had it written down then.

Shi'a view

This event is the source of much controversy between Shi'as and Sunnis. Shi'as believe that Umar prevented Muhammad from confirming in writing that Ali was the chosen successor. They further speculate that Muhammad refrained from a public written will, seeing the extent of contempt Umar allegedly showed while he was still alive; future rulers might discredit the written will by repeating Umar's words, causing enormous damage to people's ability to take Muhammad seriously on other matters. This event is referred to by the Shia as the "Calamity of Thursday"

External links

Shi'a:

• http://www.answering-ansar.org/answers/pen_and_paper/en/index.php
• http://www.al-islam.org/guided/16.html - from Then i was Guided, chapter "The Calamity of Thursday"
• http://www.shianews.com/hi/articles/islam/0000111.php

Sunni:

• http://www.ansar.org/English/faq14.htm