Political history turned the message into legitimization of kingship and authority

The unifying idea

This axis brings together a reading of the conflict after the Prophet’s death as a political conflict, and a warning against turning politics into religion. From here comes the critique of the legitimization that became attached to power.

The theses included in the axis

• The conflict after the Prophet’s death was political

The axis’s support from the atoms

• Dressing political conflict in religious garb
• The Umayyads used obedience to those in authority

Reading method

This page is read as an exposure of the shift of conflict from politics to religious discourse. What is meant here is not to retell history, but to keep the line clear between the message and kingship.