Abu Bakar As Siddiq RA before Islam

(Just recalling some things I learned from a tazkirah.)

Before Islam came to the Hijaz, it was a land of lawlessness. Tribes fought each other over major and trivial matters and blood was sometimes spilled like dishwater. There was no power to prevent or to intervene all this. According to historical scholars in Islam, the Arabs of Hijaz lived such a barbaric existence that the superpowers of the era, Romans and Persians, felt that there was nothing to be gained from conquering them.

But it is only human to seek justice and what is right. Although there were no legal framework, regulations or an institutionalised government in Hijaz then, disputes were at times referred to a few respectable figures in society. One of them was Saidina Abu Bakar As Siddiq RA.

These figures were considered as honourable and trustworthy. Their words were considered as acceptable and must be honoured by all. In a way, they were like publicly appointed judges.

Abu Bakar RA was a man of integrity and character. He respected for his background as well as a pragmatic resolver of conflicts. In such a chaotic society, being perceived as like a judge definitely says a lot about a person's stature.

However when word of Abu Bakar RA embracing Islam spread out, the people of Mekkah including those respected him previously, sought him out and sprang on a brutal attack. Narrators mentioned that the injuries he sustained left his face unrecognisable. A man once considered as a pillar of society, now reduced to the likes of a despised criminal. All for bearing witness to Allah SWT and His Prophet SAW.

He laid unconscious for some time surrounded by closed ones and other early Muslims. But immediately after gaining consciousness, he asked for Rasulullah SAW. He did not even asked for how long he was out or anything else. It was clear that Rasulullah SAW was on his mind all the time. Such is the the man that Allah chose to accompany his Beloved and lead the ummah as the first Amirul Mukminin.