الخلفاء الراشدون
Travel with the caravan from Madinah to Jerusalem and on to Kufah. Read each stop, answer two questions and collect six stamps for your passport.
The route
Stops open one at a time. Choose the glowing pin, read the lesson, answer both questions and collect the stamp. The camel walks on to the next stop.
This journey is interactive: with JavaScript turned on you can follow the camel across the map, answer the questions and collect stamps. Every lesson is below to read in the meantime.
Open now Stamp collected Locked The caravan’s route
Six stops · 632–661 CE
When the Prophet ﷺ passed away in Madinah in 632 CE (11 AH), the Muslims gathered at the Saqifah, the covered meeting place of the Banu Sa’idah, to agree on who would lead them. They gave their pledge to Abu Bakr, his closest companion and his companion on the Hijrah. He became the first caliph (khalifah), a word that means “successor”.
Soon after the Prophet ﷺ passed away, several Arab tribes turned away: some refused to pay zakah and others followed men who falsely claimed prophethood. Abu Bakr sent out armies to restore the unity of Arabia, in what are called the Ridda Wars.
At the Battle of Yamamah many companions who knew the Quran by heart were martyred. Umar urged Abu Bakr to gather the Quran into one collection, and Zayd ibn Thabit was given the task.
Before he passed away in 634 CE (13 AH), Abu Bakr named Umar ibn al-Khattab to lead after him. In Umar’s ten years as caliph, Muslim armies reached Syria, Iraq, Egypt and Persia, and new garrison cities such as Kufah, Basra and Fustat were founded.
Umar also organised the growing state: he set up a public register (diwan) and introduced the Hijri calendar.
After a siege by the Muslim army, the leaders of Jerusalem agreed to hand over the city, but asked that the caliph come to receive it himself. Umar travelled from Madinah and gave its people a guarantee of safety for their lives, their property and their churches.
After Umar was martyred in 644 CE (23 AH), a council (shura) of six senior companions named by Umar chose Uthman ibn Affan as the third caliph. As Islam spread to new lands, people began to recite the Quran in different ways, so Uthman had standard copies made from the collection kept by Hafsah and sent them to the major cities.
His caliphate ended with his martyrdom in Madinah in 656 CE (35 AH).
Ali ibn Abi Talib, cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet ﷺ, became the fourth caliph in 656 CE (35 AH), at a time of deep division. He moved the capital from Madinah to Kufah in Iraq, and his years as caliph were marked by painful conflict among the Muslims.
In 661 CE (40 AH) Ali was martyred in Kufah, and the era of the Rightly Guided Caliphs came to a close.
Keep travelling
Rihla lessons are short on purpose. The era page gathers the Rightly Guided Caliphs in one place as it is written.
