Abstract
After the death of the Prophet Muhammad, Muslims were deprived of his leadership and authority in the political arena as in many other fields. For this reason, it was inevitable that disputes would arise about how to direct political life, as well as about the ways in which religion is understood. The political leadership represented in the person of the Prophet had the power to resolve many conflicts. However, after that, Muslims lost this opportunity. The caliphate system, which was founded to compensate for this deficiency, tried to hold the Islamic community together and to establish unity among Muslims. During the first two caliphs, this unity was largely achieved with some exceptions. Despite the relative domestic politics of the periods of Abu Bakr and Omar, for example, Sa'd b. Ubade has drawn an opposing line. Despite this, Sa'd b. Ubade's opposition remained in the theoretical plan. During the Omar period, Sa'd left Medina and settled in Hawran. However, as one might expect, there appeared different ideas and opinions in politics. From time to time, these differences also turned into conflict. In such cases, which are also called as the period of strife, the Companions exhibited different attitudes towards these conflicts. While some strongly opposed Osman's practices, others preferred to remain silent. During the period until Ali came to the caliphate, the Companions generally showed their political attitude. The most striking group among these are those who chose to stay out of the events without choosing a political side.
This study discusses the Companions, who preferred reconciliation rather than being in favour of the parties in power or opposition in the events of political disagreement and strife. These Companions withdrew from active politics seeing that the existing circumstances did not have the potential to produce a political solution. Because there were people who criticized the administration with purely political and administrative motives, and there were opponents with various tribal ideas, economic concerns or purely personal reasons. It was clear that the chaos and turmoil all this created would not show a way out politically.
As a matter of fact, the historical course of the events justified these Companions. Saʽd ibn ʽUbadah, one of the companions in question, settled in Hawran near Damascus in the first days of Umar's caliphate and remained there until he passed away. Abu Zer al-Gifari, who struggled with the Osman administration in a political sense for a long time, but withdrawn from the political life when he could not get any results, settled in the village of Al-Rabadha on the road to Medina and Iraq. He died there during the caliphate of Osman. Mohammed b. Maslama came to the fore as an effective statesman and politician of both the Prophet's and the caliphs. However, he left the political scene of his own will after attempting to solve the internal problems that started in the Ottoman period and continued during the Ali period. The last example of the article is Salamah ibn al-Akwa was one of the first Muslims from Medina who received the praise of the Prophet. He was found in many gazwa and sariyyas during the Prophet's period. He preferred to stay away from the political environment by settling in Rebeze during the strife events of the Osman period. These Companions did not take part in the state government or any opposition movement until their death. Although their number is less compared to the total number of Companions, it is extremely meaningful that they withdrew politically by choosing not to choose one of the parties present in the history of Islam.
This article draws attention to this small group of people who take a different approach to the political life of Islamic history, as viewed in terms of groups struggling with each other. Thus, as the first study focusing on this subject, we hope that the article will shed light on future studies. Because, there is no independent study on the Companions who resigned from political events. In the article in which the qualitative research method was used, literature review was applied because it is a history study.