Quite the opposite was true.

Quite the opposite was true. The people were completely excluded from the process, including 'Alī, his Family and the closest of the Prophet.[^8]The shūrah [a fundamental organism of the pre-Islāmic constitutional system] that was convoked in the saqīfah was limited to the council of tribal chiefs exclusively composed of the dominant classes who were open and organized enemies of 'Alī.[^9] As a result of these events, the Islāmic Caliphate, the first de facto Islāmic government, the highest and most important religious and political institution in the Sunnī world, begins when Abū Bakr decides to take personal power.

As Caliph, Abū Bakr assumes the role of leading and governing the rest of Muslims in accord with a sovereign authority and jurisdiction which, until the time of the Prophet's death, was expressed in his culmination of the Prophethood. While the Prophet lived, the Caliphate was, in the person of Muhammad, a holy and indivisible entity. After his death, though, ambitions became impatient.

The result was the rupture of what, by divine design, was inseparable, the Prophethood and the wilāyah , the Caliphate and the Imāmate, which were meant to go hand in hand, since there can never be one without the other.[^10]It was for this reason that the Prophet said in the Tradition of Ghadīr, “to whomsoever I was the lord and master 'Alī is your lord and master.”[^11] The initiatory role and function of the Caliphate and the Imāmate are the same.

They are characteristic of the spiritual authority and the temporal power of the Imām. They are non-transferable and cannot be subjected to the ballot box. When we say that the functions of the Imām are “non-transferable” we specifically mean that these powers and functions are not at the reach of unqualified individuals. Spiritual and political leadership is not available to all. They cannot be seized by force or by consensus. The powers in question are exclusive.

They are superior by their very nature. They are divine by origin and not by artifice. The Imāmate requires an individual with exceptional perfection and cannot be shared with all individuals. Abū Bakr's attitude and actions forever destroyed the esoteric foundation of the succession of the Prophet. Concerned more with justifying his own personal superiority, he constantly stressed that consensus was indispensable when it came to continuing the exoteric work of the Prophet.