Elaborate on five challenges faced by Sayyidna Uthman Ibn Affan during his caliphate.

KCSE IRE Paper 2 2012 Question 4(b) with Answers.

(b) Elaborate on five challenges faced by Sayyidna Uthman Ibn Affan during his caliphate. (10 marks)

Challenges faced by Sayyidna Uthman Ibn Affan during his caliphate.

1. Accusations of administrative malpractices, most of these accusations were trivial and based on misunderstandings e.g. he was accused of nepotism, misappropriation of funds, disregarding the Quran and Hadith etc.
2. Discontent in provinces against some governors and officials Khalifa Uthman Tbn Affan had to deal with problems that came up as a result of dissatisfaction with some governors, and it was not easy to satisfy all the people.
3. The soft nature of Uthman coupled with his old age made people take advantage of him because he was not used to taking strong action against offenders hence overlooked the witnesses and faults of others.
4. Vastness of the caliphate/empire which required extra effort to monitor and supervise. It was not easy to supervise all the governors in the provinces and also get to know the problems facing the people.
5. External threats/danger posed by the Roman and Persians who were in constant wars with Muslims. Uthman had a challenge of looking for a way of quelling these wars.
6. The internal threat posed by hypocrites who were fighting Islam from within e.g. Abdullah Ibn Sabah who created fitna among the Muslims which eventually led to the assassination of Khalifa Uthman.
7. Dealing with pre-Islamic tribal rivalries which threatened to create disunity among the Muslims e.g. the rivalry between banu Hashim and banu Ummayad.
8. Eliminating differences and disputes in the prunciation of Quran which emerged as result of territorial expansion of Islam.

(5x2 =10 marks)

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