`Umar, in turn, found it within his right to impose a successor upon the Muslims.

`Umar, in turn, found it within his right to impose a successor upon the Muslims. He did it through a circle of six persons, to whom he assigned the task of designation, leaving the rest of the Muslims no role whatsoever in the selection.[^9] But this meant that his method of succession did not express the spirit of consultation, any more than did that of the first Caliph.

Upon being asked by the populace to appoint a successor, `Umar declared, “If one of two men - Salim Mawla Abi Hudhayfah and Abu `Ubaydah b. al-Jarrah - had come to me, I would have done that with him, as I trust him; had Sahm been living, I would not have set it up as a consultation.”[^10] On his deathbed, Abu Bakr told `Abd al-Rahman b. `Awf in confidence, “I wish I had asked the Messenger of God to whom is the right.

No one then would have challenged it.”[^11] When the Ansar had gathered at Saqifah in order to make Sa`d b. `Ibadah the Amir, someone from their midst called out: “When the Qurayshi Muhajirs refuse, they or some group in their midst say, `We are Muhajirun.

We are [the Prophet's] clan and the first to have embraced Islam.' To which we retort, `One Amir from us, one from you'; less than this we shall never accept.”' But in his address, Abu Bakr answered them: “We are the Muhajir clans of the Muslims and the first to embrace Islam. In this respect, the populace comes after us.

We axe the clan of the Messenger of God and, of all the Arabs, foremost in kinship [to him].”[^12] When the Ansar , proposed that the Caliphate alternate between the Muhajirin and the Ansar, Abu Bakr answered: When the Messenger of God was sent the Arabs were too self-important to abandon the religion of their forefathers, so they opposed and distressed him. But God has marked off those of His people who migrated as being the first [ al-Muhajirin al-awwalin ] to have faith in him.

In all the earth, they were the first to worship God; they are his [i.e. the Prophet's] friends and his kin, the mostt deserving to rule after him. None but the unjust would contest this... [^13] Encouraging the Ansars rigidity was al-Habbab b. al-Mundhir, who contended, `.`Stay your course! People are under your sway, and should anyone insist, then let there be one Amir from us and another from them...”[^14] 'Umar responded by saying: “As likely as two swords sheathed together!