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The first conceptual differences among Muslims emerged after the passing away of the Prophet. When Prophet Muhammad passed away, the question that occupied Muslims' minds was: Who was to assume his position? The Prophet was neither a king nor a president. He was a messenger who had made people aware of God. With the help of God, he had completed his duty and reunited with God, Whom he loved very much and by Whom he was loved very much. How would the person to replace him fill the gap? Since Prophet Muhammad was the last of the prophets, the person to replace him was simply going to be the leader of the Muslims, like a religious president. Who was going to assume his position? While some of the notable Companions of the Prophet suggested that the person to replace him should be distinguished by his virtue and service to Islam, and loved by the Prophet and his Companions, others argued that Ali, who belonged to the family of the Prophet and who was Prophet's son-in-law as well as his cousin should succeed him.
The Companions of the Prophet selected Abu Bakr as the first caliph, or successor following the caliphate of Abu Bakr, 'Umar, 'Uthman, and Ali were selected as caliphs, all within approximately thirty years after the death of the Prophet. Although Ali was appointed by the majority and was a member of the Hashimi dynasty, Mu'awiyah, the governor of Dcmascus, did not recognize the caliphate of Ali. He dared to fight Ali's supporters for the sultanate of this world, causing the shedding of many innocent Muslims' blood on both sides. During these wars a third fraction appeared among Muslims, the Kharijites, literally those who remain outside the main groups. The Kharijites were opposed to one individual holding the position of both caliph and head of state, a disagreement that caused chaos and bloodshed. They were fond of neither Ali nor Mu'awiyah. Like the terrorists of our day, they were a separatist group with destructive ideas who refused to recognize the authority of the government. As Islam spread, the former beliefs and philosophical views of the nations that had embraced Islam intermingled with the pure Islamic beliefs. Accordingly, different beliefs and different groups formed under the influence of the pre-Islamic traditions.
The ancient Greek, Indian, and Iranian books that were translated into Arabic during the time of Caliph Ma'mun, around the beginning of the ninth century, and those translations under his successors increased the philosophical current. When the ancient Greek, Iranian, Indian, Christian, and Jewish philosophical views spread throughout the Islamic world, the Mu'tazilah used these foreign views and theories more efficiently to defend their own views. The influence of ancient Greek philosophy can be seen clearly during Ma'mun's era in such grand masters of the Mu'tazilah movement as Ibrahim al-Nazzam (d. 835 AD) and Abu al-Huzayl (d. 840 AD),
In the face of the Mu'tazilah's efforts regarding these issues, the Sunni scholars did not remain idle. A new field of knowledge that the Sunnis called kalamwas born out of the efforts of great scholars like Abu al-Hasan el-Ash'ari (d. 935 AD), a former Mu'tazilah scholar who returned to the Sunni path. However, while the Sunni kalamshowed some inclination toward Mu'tazilah thought in a number of areas, the Mu'tazilah view had become removed further from its origins and now was saturated with Greek philosophical thought. At this stage, a new day dawned for Sunni kalam with the great scholar Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (d. 1111 AD).
The attention paid to the philosophical works translated into Arabic during the Abbasid Caliphate is due only to Islam's strong advocacy of knowledge. According to the holy order of the Prophet, "Wisdom is the lost property of the believer. He takes it wherever he may find it." Thus Islamic scholars carefully read those works and interpreted and refuted what contradicted Islamic precepts. They reflected on what was in accor-dance with Islam and wrote commentaries on these works. A Muslim must acquire knowledge even if it were in China. A Muslim must read Aristotle, Plato, and Confucius. If there had not been the commentaries written by Islamic scholars, the Greek works would not have been so well known by the Europeans. Those books are the reason behind the Enlightenment of Europe after the Renaissance.
